Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering

the shelf that Otulissa loved, the one that had the books on higher magnetics and flecks. Great Glaux, she remembered the fuss about these books last winter when Dewlap had wanted them declared spronk, or forbidden, which of course was absolutely opposed to everything the Guardians of Ga’Hoole stood for. They believed that no knowledge should ever be forbidden.
    And how right they were, Eglantine suddenly thought. All of this should be shared! It’s my duty! My mission!
    And so she plucked a book from the shelf with the title of Higher Magnetics: The Destructive Powers and began to read. Great Glaux, this is fascinating! She wondered why she had ever wasted her time on game books. She was worried she might not remember it all, so she went and fetched a paper, quill, and ink so she could make a few notes. She had been working several hours before she realized that the harsh light of noon had begun to leak out of thelibrary hollow from its opening and a softer light began to slip in. Although she did not feel at all tired, for some reason she did not want to be discovered in the library even though it was approaching a more normal hour for such study. She rolled up her papers and decided to go back to her own hollow and catch a nap. It would be at least another hour until Madame Plonk sang “Day Is Done, Night Has Come” to rouse them. There was one other thing she had wanted to do. What was it? Oh, yes. Primrose. She had wanted to go see Primrose in the infirmary. Oh, well, there would be time for that later.
    When she returned to her hollow, Eglantine saw that Ginger was still sleeping. She tucked her papers into a small niche and settled down. It seemed as if she had only been asleep five minutes when the first chords from the grass harp threaded through the twilight and Madame Plonk’s voice shimmered with the “Day Is Done” song and woke her up.
    Now twilight came, and Ginger roused herself. Eglantine simply had to ask her if the trip to The Beaks had really happened and how they had gotten back.
    “Ginger,” she said slowly. “We were there, weren’t we?”
    “Where?”
    “You know where. At my mum’s in The Beaks.”
    “Yes. We flew there,” Ginger assured her. “Don’t you remember?”
    “Sort of, but I have no memory of coming back.”
    “Well, you did. Here you are.”
    “But where were you?”
    “Where was I when?” Ginger asked.
    “You seemed to disappear when I went into the hollow with Mum.”
    “Eglantine, I was there the whole time. Maybe you were just so excited about seeing your mum you didn’t notice. But I was there. I heard your mum sing that cute little centipede song.”
    “You did?” Eglantine asked, genuinely excited. That means it really happened. Mum is alive.
    “I did. Your mum was so nice to me.”
    “She was?”
    “She certainly was,” Ginger answered.
    “Oh, I can’t wait to go back. Do you think we can slip away again tonight?”
    “I don’t see why not.”
    “I wonder if I should tell Soren.”
    “Oh, I wouldn’t rush that,” Ginger said. “Don’t you want to have your mum all to yourself for a while?”
    “Well,” Eglantine hesitated.
    “Look. You’ve been left out so much,” Ginger said soothingly, “you should have something that’s just for you.”
    “Yes, yes, I suppose you’re right.” For a sliver of a second Eglantine felt a tiny bit greedy, but she quickly forgot about the feeling and basked in the anticipation of her mum’s love and attention.
    So night after summer night, Eglantine and Ginger managed to slip away. Certain odd things happened to Eglantine’s mind and her memory on these visits. She could never, for instance, quite recall how she got back from The Beaks, and it seemed odd to her that Ginger was rarely in her mum’s hollow. And her father never appeared. But none of this bothered her much, just as her mum’s occasional slips of calling her darling stopped bothering her. She quickly forgot about anything disturbing, just as she had forgotten to tell Soren about having found their mother, and just as she had forgotten about visiting Primrose in the infirmary. No, once she flew over The Beaks and neared the hollow, all her concerns and worries simply melted away.
    And her mum was always so proud of her, especially her reading and her writing skills. Her mum saved every little paper Eglantine brought her and praised her finepenmanship. She always showed such interest in the books that Eglantine was