Guardians of Ga'Hoole 02 - The Journey

blinked as he saw a pink streak pass through the strings of the harp and a beautiful sound drifted into the air. It was Mrs. P. Then, in a flash, she was back in her original position, weaving bass notes. It was lovely to watch. Not only was the music magnificent but the snakes themselves, in their varying hues of rosy pinks, wove a continually shifting pattern as they shuttled through the strings of the harp.
    They were now playing an old forest cantata. And Madame Plonk’s voice blended perfectly with the sounds of the harp.
    Soren looked at Eglantine. She had a relaxed, dreamy look in her eyes. All of the rescued owlets seemed different now. There was not one clack of a babbling beak. The owls were silent and happy.
    Boron had been watching them all from a higher perch. He was deeply perplexed. Happy, of course, that all the owls they had rescued had stopped their babbling. But mystified as to how it had happened. Beyond Hoole, hesensed that there was a danger lurking that was worse than the owls of St. Aggie’s. And why had Ezylryb not returned yet? Barran had come back during the harp practice, but she was surprised that Ezylryb was not yet back. She thought he had a head start on her. “Don’t worry, dear. He’ll show up.”
    Soren looked at Boron and Barran. Despite their words, they did seem worried. And Soren himself had a funny feeling in his gizzard. Gylfie suddenly turned to him.
    “I think they’re worried about Ezylryb.”
    Soren blinked. “Maybe tomorrow we should go out and take a look.”
    Twilight and Digger alighted at that moment next to them on the branch.
    “Take a look?” Digger asked. “A look for what?”
    “Ezylryb,” Twilight said. “I heard them talking, too.”
    There was a sudden pulsing of light in the sky and then a gasp from all the owls as a radiance swept the black night.
    “What is it? What is it?”
    “Oh, great Glaux, we are blessed!” hooted Barran.
    “It is the Aurora Glaucora,” Boron sang out.
    Soren, Gylfie, Digger, Twilight, and Eglantine all looked at one another. They had no idea what Barran andBoron were talking about. But the sky seemed rinsed with colors, colors that streamed like banners through the night. Suddenly, Madame Plonk abandoned her perch by the harp and flew out into the brilliance of the night. Still singing, she swept through the long lances of light, her white body reflecting the colors. It was irresistible. Soren remembered that morning months ago when he and Madame Plonk had flown through the rainbow. But the rainbow was pale next to these pulsing banners of light that draped the sky. His worries about Ezylryb grew dimmer as the colors grew brighter. The sky beckoned, the shimmering light drew them. But there was a strangeness to it all. He felt a shudder deep in his gizzard. Behind those banners of throbbing light he knew there was blackness. Ezylryb was still missing, St. Aggie’s was still a threat, and now there was the almost unthinkable, the nearly unspeakable “you only wish.” Yes, Eglantine was back, but was she really back? Was it the same dear Eglantine? Soren felt as if he could no longer trust. For the world on this night had suddenly become too strange. It was as if everything had been turned inside out and the thing that owls called heaven, glaumora, had come down to Earth and swallowed the night. But this was not quite right, Soren thought. Just at that moment Eglantine swept in beside her brother.
    “Isn’t it beautiful, Soren? Isn’t it just beautiful?”
    “Just beautiful,” Soren said absently.
    But even as he spoke, he felt a strange dread in his gizzard. Well, he finally thought, Eglantine and I are together at last, and we need no colors, for just flying with her at my side is as good as glaumora on Earth. Tomorrow, yes tomorrow, I shall search for Ezylryb. Soren recalled the amber squint of the old Whiskered Screech’s injured eye that indeed sparkled with the glint of deepest knowledge. But tonight…Soren and Eglantine tipped their white faces to the tinted sky and flew off into the painted night just as the GoldenTalons began to rise.
    And yet the talons were no longer golden, just as the sky was no longer black.

THE OWLS and others from
GUARDIANS of GA’HOOLE
The Journey
    SOREN: Barn Owl, Tyto alba , from the kingdom of the Forest of Tyto; snatched when he was three weeks old by St. Aegolius patrols; escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphan Owls

His family:
    KLUDD: Barn Owl, Tyto alba ,