Guardians of Ga'Hoole 04 - The Siege

of the bloodshed these words have caused.
    “We know that one breed or species of owl is not better or more pure than another. We are all of us sisters and brothers in owlkind. I mean to turn that word around and speak of the pureness of spirit of our dear friend, our fierce warrior Strix Struma, who died protecting those very values.
    “Last night an owl perished, but on this night, a new constellation rises. Fly out now, young’uns, and find her in the stars that she so loved.”
    The night was crisp and clear as the owls flew out of the great hollow. Soren remembered his first navigation class with Strix Struma when they had traced the Golden Talons. Otulissa flew off by herself. Ruby, with whom she had grown so close during their time together in the Strikers, began to follow her.
    “No, let her be, Ruby,” Soren said, gliding up to her and touching her wing tip with his own.
    “Come, young’uns!” Bubo suddenly appeared. “I hear there is a grand old forest fire blazing on the Broken Talon Point. Ezylryb says we should go have a look. Come along, Twilight, Digger, and the rest of you. We’ll let you all fly with the colliering chaw tonight. Might learn a thing or two, eh?” He winked at Twilight.
    They were halfway to the point when they caught sight of a young Spotted Owl. She was directly overhead.
    “It’s Otulissa!” Eglantine said.
    “What is she doing out here? I didn’t think she wanted to come,” Soren said, flipping his head backward and straight up. Above was a group of stars he had never seen before. Thickly scattered, the stars spread out into two mirror image spirals—just like the smallest dots on a Spotted Owl’s head.
    “What is that?” Soren asked Bubo.
    “Oh, maybe you have never flown this far north and east. There are different constellations here.”
    “What do they call it?” Soren asked.
    “Oh, I forget right now. I think it’s named after one of the snow flowers that grows up north at the edge of the glaciers. But I’ve never seen so many stars in it as tonight.”
    Some might have called it a flower, Soren thought. But tonight it has changed forever. He watched as Otulissa began to trace with the tip of one wing the spotted head that rose in the night.
    Dawn had broken and a rosy pink flooded into the hollow. Soren stirred in his sleep. He had been dreaming terrible gizzard-shattering nightmares. The owl who held the moon in her face blinded him. It was like being moon blinked within his own dreams. He felt himself freeze and go yeep. He could not escape the dream.
    A cold wind blew in through the hollow opening and brushed his face feathers. He blinked his eyes open. In an instant, he knew what he must do. Quietly, he rose and slipped out of the hollow and flew down to the entrance of Otulissa’s hollow.
    Otulissa was at her desk, writing. Her hollowmates were sound asleep. She looked up.
    “It was the moon-faced owl who killed her wasn’t it, Otulissa?”
    She nodded. “They call her Nyra. She is your brother’s mate.”
    “I know,” Soren said.
    Otulissa blinked. “How do you know?”
    “I dreamed it.”
    “Then you have what they call the starsight,” she said. “You dream about things and sometimes they happen. I’ve read about it. The stars, for you, are like little holes in the cloth of a dream.”
    Soren nodded. The way Otulissa had described it seemed right. “That blood across Nyra’s face, you did that, Otulissa?”
    “Yes, but it was just a little wound. Hardly mortal. Nyra attacked you after she killed Strix Struma, then she and your brother both got away.” She paused. “They aren’t finished with us, Soren. We can’t wait for them.”
    “What do you mean?” A tremor passed through his gizzard.
    “I mean that we can’t fight defensively. We have to go after them.”
    Soren blinked. There was a fierceness in Otulissa’s eyes. “What are you writing?”
    “A plan—an invasion plan. I’m different now, Soren.” Her words came in a hot whisper. One of her hollowmates stirred. “I’ve changed,” she said softly, but her voice was deadly. Soren turned to leave.
    Otulissa called after him. “Dream, Soren, dream. Dream your starsight dreams. Dream for your life, dream for our lives. Dream for the Guardians of Ga’Hoole.”

OWLS
and others from
Guardians of Ga’Hoole
The Siege
    The Band
    SOREN: Barn Owl, Tyto alba, from the Forest Kingdom of Tyto; escaped from St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls; training to be a