Guardians of Ga'Hoole 03 - The Rescue

any owl—walk.
    It was Otulissa’s hunch that by either being very small or, indeed, walking like Digger, these two owls might be able to pass under the destructive flecks’ magnetic field, if the flecks were placed high in trees. The plan was that if they found the bags of flecks they would burn them, thus destroying what Otulissa called the “magnetic alignment.” It was definitely higher magnetics, and Soren was awfully glad that Otulissa had done the reading. But then again, they could do all of this and still not find any signs of Ezyl-ryb, who might be dead for all they knew. But Soren could not even think of that, and he could not allow the other owls to think of it, either. They were on a rescue mission. Rescue was to save living creatures. And Soren had a very strong sense that somehow Ezylryb’s disappearance was linked to Metal Beak. Gizzuition, Ezylryb had once called this sense. It was a way of knowing, a kind of thinking. Ezylryb’s words came back to him: a kind of thinking beyond the normal reasoning processes by which one immediately apprehends the truth, perceives and understands reality. And he had said that Soren had it, that Soren possessed this strange way of knowing. How it had thrilled Soren when Ezylryb had said this, said in essence that he was special—a special owl.
    “Mu shield!” Otulissa banked sharply and flew back. “I felt it. I definitely felt it.”
    Soren quickly commanded Gylfie and Digger, who flew and walked beneath them to proceed slowly and with great caution. Now it was Twilight who flew in the point position, holding the sheet of mu metal by his talons like a shield. The other owls flew in behind him. Every few seconds, Otulissa would tip her head out and expose herself directly to the magnetic force. If she peeked her head out to the port side of the shield, and came back blinking and looking confused, they knew they were heading in the direction of one of the bags of flecks, and they would destroy it! It seemed to them now that before they could find Ezylryb they must commit themselves to destroying the three bags of flecks that could threaten all owls’ and other birds’ flight and navigation abilities. If Otulissa peeked out to the starboard side and felt no change, they knew they were off course from the flecks. Gylfie and Digger flew or walked below completely undisturbed as Otulissa had thought they would.
    It took them a while to navigate toward the first bag, and it was actually Digger who spotted it from the ground and called up, “Alder tree ahead. Object wedged between limb and trunk.”
    Protecting themselves with the shield, they flew to thetree. Their timing was precise. Twilight passed the shield to Soren who had given the coal bucket to Eglantine. He then reached out with one talon and gave a quick push to the bag, which fell to the ground. Immediately, the effect could be seen on Gylfie and Digger. Digger began to stagger, and Gylfie simply lighted down. Her wings, in a yeep state, hung at her sides as both owls felt the strange buzz in their heads. Soren dipped his beak into the bucket and dropped the coals on the bag with perfect accuracy. There was a flare as the bag caught fire. After several minutes, Otulissa peeked out from behind the shield. “It’s a miracle!” Otulissa said and stepped out from behind the shield. The magnetic force at this point had been completely destroyed. Digger and Gylfie, looking fully alert once more, picked themselves up. Digger began to walk straight again, and immediately headed toward the burning clump. He kicked up some dirt with his talons to put out the fire.
    “Don’t put it all out. We might need some more coals,” Soren said. He retrieved some of the brightest coals from the fire, and Otulissa scooped up some cinders. The other owls watched amazed.
    “How do they do it?” Digger whispered.
    When the owls had the coals and were sure that the remains of the fire were safely smothered, they lifted off into flight.
    They had destroyed one bag, but that was only one point of the triangle. The second point would be the hardest to discover, for it could be anywhere radiating out from this first point. They didn’t know if this particular triangle was pointing east, west, north, or south. They flew almost an hour in various directions before Otulissa began to sense a disturbance. Then everything happened quickly.
    “Oak!” Gylfie called up. From her low-flying position, she sensed that the