Guardians of Ga'Hoole 03 - The Rescue

gasped.
    “You saw your parents’ scrooms?” Gylfie asked and there seemed to be an ache embedded deep in her voice. For although she knew that Soren had returned much saddened by his encounter with his parents’ scrooms, there was something in Gylfie, just as there had been in Eglantine, that longed for one last glimpse.
    “Yes,” replied Primrose. “I saw them that night as we were flying through the colors of the Aurora Glaucora.”
    “Did they have unfinished business here on earth?” Soren asked, wondering to himself just how much unfinished scroom business they could manage on one mission.
    “Not really.” She paused. “Well, I suppose you could say that I was their last piece of unfinished business. They wanted me to know that during the forest fire, they knew that I had tried my best to save the eggs. They just said that there was nothing to forgive. They were proud of me. That was their unfinished business—to let me know that they were proud of me.” There was a deep silence in the night as Primrose started to explain. “You see, Soren, my encounter was not at all like yours. I didn’t really get to talk with my parents in that strange wordless way that you described to Eglantine.”
    Soren looked sharply at his sister. Why had she gone and told Primrose all this?
    “It was much different.”
    “How?” Soren said, genuinely perplexed.
    “You see, my parents were in glaumora.”
    “What?” Soren said in disbelief. “How do you know that?”
    “I saw them there. They saw me. They were happy. They knew I had done my best for the eggs that never hatched. They weren’t angry. They knew that I was in agood place. A place they had never quite believed in, but they now know is real. And I suddenly became so happy. It was like a river of happiness and peace flowing between us out there, in the Aurora Glaucora.” Primrose’s voice was barely a whisper now.
    “A river of happiness,” Soren said softly. No words about Metal Beak—no words at all, just happiness. He tried to imagine his parents and a river of happiness flowing between them and himself and Eglantine. Then he jerked himself back from such reveries. What he had to say next was going to be very difficult. He was going to have to refuse to have Primrose and Eglantine on this mission.
    “Primrose, there will be a time when we will need you and Eglantine.” He paused.
    “What?” Eglantine was stunned. “You’re not taking me? You promised,” she whined.
    “Eglantine, you are not ready. You proved this tonight by blabbing to Primrose.” He then spun his head toward Primrose. “Primrose, you are certainly ready but it was our decision that the fewer the better on this mission. The less chance that we’ll be missed if it is just us.”
    “I understand, Soren. Don’t apologize.”
    “But what about me?” Eglantine whined again. “I’m your sister.”
    “Yes, and someday you will be stronger, stronger in wing and stronger in gizzard. And we shall need you, and you shall be included.”
    Eglantine’s wings drooped by her side. Her black eyes seemed to swim with the reflected light of stars.
    “We must prepare to go now,” Soren said.
    “Good luck,” Primrose said in a full strong voice. “Be careful.”
    “Yes, be careful, Soren,” Eglantine said softly.
    “Eglantine, don’t be mad. A promise is a promise. When you’re ready we’ll both know it.”
    “I could never be mad at you, Soren. Never.”
    “I know,” he replied softly.
    Soren now looked to the south. The wake of the comet was still visible. But it made for a strange light in the sky, a light that could be deceiving. He would have Twilight, whose vision for marginal conditions like these was renowned, fly in the point position. “Ready for takeoff! Twilight, fly point, Gylfie, port side. I’ll fly starboard, Digger, fly tail.”
    They lifted off into the strangely colored night. Why was the night stained red? When he had first seen the comet a few weeks before, it had appeared red because it was dawn and the sun was just rising, but now it was night and there was no rising sun. It gave Soren the shivers tothink about it and the more he did, the more the sky looked not simply rusty, but like blood. And there was another curious phenomenon. The wind was a light head wind and should have slowed them down. But, indeed, it was the reverse. It seemed as if the comet had cleared a path, created a vacuum through which they passed easily. It was as if