Capture (14 page)

It had seemed that after being locked in the still air of the windless canyons and ravines of St. Aegolius, the two owls were encountering every kind of wind and draft imaginable. Soren had not known how long they had flown when he heard Gylfie call out, "Hey, Soren, any idea how we land?"

Land? Landing had been the furthest thing from Soren's mind. He felt as if he could fly forever. But he supposed that the little Elf Owl might be getting tired. For every one stroke of Soren's wings, Gylfie had to make three. "No idea, Gylfie. But maybe we should look for a nice treetop and then ..." He paused.

"Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out."

And they did. Tipping slightly downward at a gentle angle, they began a long glide toward a cluster of trees. Once more, instinct took over as both owls in their descent began to inscribe tighter and tighter circles around the trees below. Each owl angled its wings slightly to increase the drag and then, as they approached the tree, they extended their talons.

"I did it!" Soren gasped as he lighted down on a branch.

"Aiyee!" squeaked Gylfie.

"Gylfie, where are you? What's wrong?"

"Well, except for being upside down, I think I am fine."

"Great Glaux!" Soren exclaimed as he saw the little Elf Owl hanging by her talons with her head pointing toward the ground. "How did that happen?"

"Well, if I knew how, it wouldn't have happened," Gylfie replied testily.

"Oh, dear! What are you going to do?

"Well, I'm going to think about it.

"Can you do that hanging upside down?

"Of course I can. What do you think? My brains are going to fall out of my head? Really, Soren!"

Gylfie looked a bit ridiculous hanging upside down, but Soren certainly wasn't going to say anything. He wished he could be of more help.

"If I were you, gal..." A voice came from another branch higher up in the tree.

"Who's that?" Soren was suddenly frightened.

"What does it matter who I am? Been in the same spot as your friend there once or twice myself." Soren felt the branch he was perched on shake. The most enormous owl he had ever seen alighted, then swaggered out toward the end. The owl, a silvery gray color, seemed to simply melt out of the moonlight, but he towered over Soren. His head alone, with his enormous facial disk, was almost twice the size of Gylfie. It was very difficult for Soren to imagine that this huge owl had ever been in the same situation as Gylfie.

"Here's what you have to do," he called down to Gylfie in a deep voice. "You have to let go, just let go!

Then quickly flap your wings up, an upstroke, hold it for a count of three. You'll come out right side up and then just glide down. Let me demonstrate."

"But you're so big and Gylfie's so small," Soren said.

"I am big -- right you are! But I am delicate and beautiful. I can float! I can skim." The enormous owl had lifted off the branch and was flying through the air, performing every imaginable flourish of flight --

plunges, twists, swoops, and loops.

He began a hooting song:

"Flutter like a hummingbird,

Dive like an eagle,

Ain't no bird that's my equal!'

"Good Glaux!" Soren muttered. "What a show-off."

"Hey, when you got it you show it. When you don't, you usually don't know it." The huge owl lit down, obviously pleased with his wit and flying.

"All right," Gylfie said.

"Letting go is the hardest part, but you got to believe it will work."

Belief again, thought Soren. That seemed to be the word that struck Gylfie as well, because in just that instant Gylfie let go. There was a little blur in the night -- like a small leaf caught in a sudden gust -- and then Gylfie was flying right side up.

"Beautiful!" exclaimed Soren. In another second, Gylfie had alighted on the branch next to Soren.

"See? Nothing to it," said the huge silvery owl." 'Course I didn't have anyone to coach me. Had to figure it out on my own."

Soren studied the big owl. He seemed young despite his size. He didn't want to be rude but he was genuinely curious about this owl. "Are you from these parts?" Soren asked. "Here, there, everywhere,"

the owl replied. "You name it, I've been there." He had a rough manner of speaking that was slightly intimidating.

Gylfie hopped out toward the end of the branch. "I want to thank you for your kindness in advising me on my predicament." Soren blinked. He had never heard Gylfie speak this way. She sounded so much older than she was, and extremely courteous. "We don't mean to be rude but we have never seen an owl of your size. May we be so bold as to inquire as to your species?"

Species! Soren thought. Where in the name of Glaux did Gylfie come up with these words?

"Species? What the Glaux is that? Very fancy word for a Great Gray Owl like myself"

"Oh, so you are a Great Gray. I've heard of them, though there were none in Kuneer," Gylfie said.

'Ah, Kuneer! Been there. No, not a good place for Great Grays. As a matter of fact, I can't really tell you where I'm from. See, I was orphaned at a very young age. Plucked up by a St. Aggie's patrol but managed to drop right into an abandoned nest."

"You escaped from a St. Aggie's patrol?"

"You bet. There was no way those idiots were going to take me. Not alive. I bided my time, then bit my snatcher's second talon clean off He dropped me like a hot coal. They never messed with me again.

Word went out, I s'pose." He swaggered a bit, then strutted toward the end of the branch.

Now even Gylfie was speechless. Finally, Soren spoke. "We were snatched as well and only now escaped. I, myself, am from the Kingdom of Tyto, and both Gylfie and I want to find our families again.

But we have no idea where we are right now. I mean, that is why I asked who you were. I've never seen your kind in Tyto, but here we are, perched in a Ga'Hoole tree, which are Tyto trees."

"Not necessarily. Ga'Hoole trees follow the River Hoole and the River Hoole runs through many kingdoms."

"Not Kuneer," Gylfie said.

"No, there's not a drop of water in Kuneer, let alone a river."

"Oh, there's water if you know where to look," Gylfie said.

"Hmm." The owl blinked.

Soren could tell right away that this owl was not pleased when someone knew something that he might not.

"So are we in Tyto or not?" Soren asked.

"You're on a border here between Tyto and the Kingdom of Ambala."

'Ambala!" Soren and Gylfie both gasped. Hortense!

"To my way of thinking, it's a second-rate kingdom."

"Second rate!" Soren and Gylfie both said at once.

"Not if you knew Hortense." Soren said.

"Who in the name of Glaux is Hortense?"

"Was," said Gylfie softly.

"A very fine owl," Soren spoke in a tight voice. "A very fine owl indeed."

The huge owl blinked in wonder at these young owls. They seemed to know nothing. And yet... He let the thought trail off Certainly their survival skills must be pretty good if they got out of St. Aggie's. Still, there was no education like the one he had received. The education of an orphan. The orphan school of tough learning. He had to learn it all himself How to fly, where to hunt, what creatures to stalk and which to avoid at all costs. No, nothing could compare to figuring out on one's own the hard rules and schemes of a forest world -- a world with uncountable riches and endless perils. It took a tough owl to figure it all out. And that was exactly how Twilight thought of himself. Tough.

Gylfie seemed to have recovered. "Well, permit us to introduce ourselves. I am Gylfie, Elf Owl, more formally know as Micrathene whitneyi, common to desert regions, migratory, cavity nester."

"I know, I know. Spent some time in a hollowed-out cactus with some of you fellows. Hunting skills ...

uh, how should I put it? Well, if all you eat is snake, let's just say desert smarts are different from forest smarts."

"We eat more than snake. My goodness. We eat voles and mice, but not rats -- they're a bit large for us."

"Well, never mind." The big owl turned and blinked at Soren. "So what's your story, kid?" Soren had the feeling he should be briefer than Gylfie and not go into so much detail.

"Soren of Tyto, Barn Owl." Soren sensed that going into the rareness of their breed, Tyto alba, would not interest this owl. As a matter of fact, not much impressed this owl. "Lived in an old fir tree with my parents until..." His voice dwindled off.

"Until that horrible day." The big owl blinked and tapped Soren lightly with his beak in a gentle preening gesture. This small movement more than anything surprised Soren and Gylfie. The two owls had not seen nor felt the soothing preening gestures since they had fallen from their nests. But preening had been a large part of their lives. Gently prinking with their beaks, the parents would pick out bits and plump up the feathers of their mates and their children as well, or whatever patchy down a baby owl might have sprouted. It was so soothing and lovely. Preening and being preened by one's family and closest of kin and friends was the essence of being a true owl. Soren was overcome by the kindness of the gesture. The big owl turned to Gylfie and spoke. "You, too, little one with the big words, come over here. Bet it's been a while since anyone prinked your down." And so Gylfie hopped over closer to the owl, and while he preened one and then the other in turn, the Great Gray began to tell some of his story.

"My name is Twilight. I don't know how I got the name. It's just my name."

"It fits you," Soren said softly. "Because you are all silvery and gray"

"Yes, not black or white. It fits, and blast my gizzard if I didn't hatch on the edges of time, for that is one of my first memories. Twilight! That silvery border of time between day and night. Most owls have pride in their night vision. We see things that other birds cannot see from high up in the pitch of the night -- a mouse, a vole, a tiny squirrel scuttling through the forest. I can see all that, too, but I can also see at a harder time -- twilight -- when the boundaries become dim and the shapes begin to melt away. I live on the edges and I like it."

"What are you doing here near the edge of Tyto?"

"I have heard that there is a place and that the best way to find it is by following the River Hoole. This stream that flows beneath this Ga'Hoole tree I figure must flow into the River Hoole, or else why would a Ga'Hoole tree grow here?"

Soren and Gylfie both nodded. This seemed to them to be a sensible conclusion. "Is this place," Gylfie asked, "on the edge of something?"

"Actually, it is, I think, more like the middle of something. But I am interested."

"Middle of what?" Soren asked.

"The River Hoole flows into a huge lake. Some call it a sea, Hoolemere, and in the middle of it there is an island. And on the island is a tree. A great tree. It is called the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. It is the greatest of all the Ga'Hoole trees. The most enormous tree that ever grew, some say, and it is the center of a Kingdom called Ga'Hoole."

Soren felt his breath catch in his throat. His eyes widened. He felt Gylfie grow still.

"You mean it's real?" Soren asked.

"It's not just a legend?" Gylfie said, her voice soft with wonder.

"Well, I believe in legends," Twilight said simply. And for the first time all the boastfulness left his voice.

"And what is there, in this great tree that grows on an island in the middle of a sea called Hoolemere?"

asked Soren.

"A band of owls, very strong, very brave." Twilight seemed to swell up even bigger before their very eyes as he spoke.

"And," Soren continued, "do these owls rise each night into the blackness and perform noble deeds?"

The words of his father flowed through him. "And speak no words but true ones, and their purpose is to right all wrongs, to make strong the weak, mend the broken, vanquish the proud, and make powerless those who abuse the frail? And with

hearts sublime, they do take flight Is this the place of

which you speak?"

"Indeed it is," Twilight replied. "All these owls work and fight together, for the good of all kingdoms."

"Do you really believe this place exists?" Soren asked "Do you believe you can fly?" Twilight shot back Soren and Gylfie both blinked. What a strange answer It was not an answer at all. It was a question. How far they had come from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls.

Empty Hollows

You two are going to have to learn how to hunt. Whatever did they feed you in that place?" Twilight asked. Soren's and Gylfie's beaks were bloody from tearing at the tender flesh of a vole that Twilight had brought. They had never tasted anything so good. There was an acorn fragrance to this vole, mixed with the withered berries that had dropped from the Ga'Hoole tree in which they still perched. Finally, Gylfie answered, "Mostly crickets, unless you worked in the hatchery." "That's all?"

"Crickets -- day in, day out, every meal." "Great Glaux, how can an owl live on that -- no meat?" Soren and Gylfie shook their heads, not wanting to miss a bite.

Twilight realized that it would be useless to talk to these two half-starved owls until they were well fed.

So when Soren and Gylfie had finished with the vole, he fixed them in the hard glare of his yellow eyes.

"So, I want to know -- are you two interested in finding the Great Ga'Hoole Tree?"

Soren and Gylfie exchanged nervous glances.

"Well, yes ..." said Soren.

'And no," said Gylfie.

"Well, which is it? Yes or no?"

"Both," Gylfie said. "Soren and I talked about it when you were off hunting. We would like to go there, of course, but first..." Gylfie hesitated.

"But first you want to see if your families are still there."

"Yes," both owls answered meekly. They knew that for Twilight, who had been an orphan almost from the moment he had hatched, it must be hard to understand. He had no memories of nest or family. He had flitted from one place to another, one kingdom to another. He had even lived with creatures not of his own kind -- there was a family of woodpeckers in Ambala that had taken him in, an elderly eagle in Tyto, and, most extraordinary of all, a family of desert foxes in Kuneer, which was why Twilight never, ever hunted fox. To eat a fox was unthinkable to Twilight.