Guardians of Ga'Hoole 02 - The Journey

always trying to impress the rybs. “And it’s such an honor to be flying windward flank, Strix Struma, in the grand tradition of your noble family.”
    Soren blinked and winced. If Twilight had been here he would have yarped a pellet mid-flight right in her face. Soren saw Glyfie spin her head back and blink as she moved her beak silently. But Soren could understand perfectly what she was saying: “Do you believe her?”
    Primrose spoke up. “Do you have a cold, Otulissa? You sound clogged up.”
    Oh, great Glaux. Soren thought he might die laughing. Leave it to Primrose! And the best part of it was that she was sincere. Primrose never suspected anyone of anything. “Guileless,” Gylfie called her. “Charmingly guileless.” Often Soren didn’t understand the words that Gylfie used, but in this case he began to. He knew what Gylfie meant. Primrose didn’t have a fake hollow bone in her body. She was utterly truthful and always believed that owls were motivated by the best of reasons. She had, needless to say, never spent any time at St. Aggie’s.
    The navigation class flew on. It was not long after the first star in the Talons rose that several more broke out ofthe blackness, and it did seem as if four great golden talons clawed at the night.
    “We shall trace each talon from its toe base to its sharp tip,” hooted Strix Struma.
    Soren was now flying directly behind Primrose, and he was becoming slightly confused as she constantly swiveled her head. An oddity about Pygmy Owls was that they had two dark spots on the back of the head that indeed looked like eyes. Soren was finding this disorienting.
    “Confusing, isn’t it, dear?” Strix Struma had dropped back. “You’re in a difficult position behind Primrose, but it’s good training.”
    “Oh, Soren.” Primrose swiveled her head. “It’s my darned spots, isn’t it? I’m so embarrassed.”
    “Nonsense, child!” Strix Struma hooted. “Don’t you ever belittle those spots. You’ll see, they’ll come in handy someday. We must learn to use our Glaux-given gifts and in that way they truly become not just gifts but treasures. Now you fly on. You’re doing a nice job and I shall teach Soren some tricks to reduce his disorientation.
    “I had to fly behind a Pygmy for years. Made me a terrific navigator. Now, what you do, Soren, is you focus just below the spots. That will help you.”
    And it did. In no time the spots seemed to entirely vanish.
    They flew on through the night, practicing mostly by tracing the Golden Talons. But now, one by one, the stars of the constellations slipped away over some distant horizon and into another world, and Strix Struma led her class home to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree in the middle of the Sea of Hoolemere, which, in its own way, was another world as well.

CHAPTER TWELVE
Hukla, Hukla and Hope
    T here was the noisy chattering of young owls, which was known as gazooling. Soren remembered it from his brief few weeks with his own family in the old fir tree. His sister, Eglantine, his brother, Kludd, and he all would try out their unformed voices in a range of hoots and shreeings. Barn Owls were more screamers than hooters. It was a raucous time of the day before getting ready to rest. Here at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree it was even rowdier. But for Soren, as the black of night thinned to gray and the gray became a cool purple that eventually warmed to rose, it could be a melancholy time.
    Soren could not figure out why he felt so sad. He had a lot to gazool about, as much as anyone else. Of course, Twilight came up to him first, and Soren could barely squeeze in a word. “I did a fantastic power dive tonight. A tight spiral and I was down on the ground before you could flick a blink. Soren, I think Barran was really impressed.So you think there’s a chance that she might recommend me for search-and-rescue?”
    “But, Twilight, if you were in the advanced navigation class with Barran why were you practicing search-and-rescue moves?”
    “Because Barran also teaches search-and-rescue. She is the one who taps for the search-and-rescue chaw.”
    That was all anyone ever talked about—being tapped for the various chaws. Next, Otulissa came up. “Oh, I don’t know, Twilight, about you getting tapped for search-and-rescue chaw. Don’t get your hopes up. They tend to take owls with very old family lines. Those ranks are almost always reserved for Strix, just like navigation.”
    “Oh, racdrops!” boomed Bubo.