Tate looked at the owl on his shoulder. "Well, now what?"
But the owl just hooted in return. Tate grabbed his forehead and rubbed it. "What am I doing? Talking to an animal?" He shook his head and looked around at where he was. As impossible as it seemed, he was outside on the Martian surface without a spacesuit.
The owl hooted again.
"Yeah, yeah. Hoot, hoot."
The owl hooted once more, then headbutted Tate.
"Ow!" What's wrong with this thing? he thought.
It hooted again and looked straight at Tate. It was weird, but the way it looked at him, it was almost as if there was intelligence there.
Then Tate thought that maybe there was. The goddess did say that the owl was supposed to be wise, and that Tate should listen to it. But the owl was just an owl. It couldn't talk.
It hooted again, then looked away to the horizon. Then looked back at Tate.
"You want me to go that way?" he asked it. Then it nodded. It actually nodded.
Thinking that he didn't have a better plan, Tate decided to follow the owl's lead.
