Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering

the fragment of the page they had found.
    In the coolness of the breaking day, the owls nestled into their hollow and, after a few sleepy words, were sound asleep—except for Soren. His mind continued to speculate almost playfully on how that fragment of paper got to where it was between those rocks. He supposed it could have gotten caught in the sub-Lobelian current. He tried to recall what those current charts looked like and imagine the course that little piece of paper had traveled. He wondered if there were possibly more pieces of paper caught in rocks. Naw, not a chance, this was a one-in-a-million thing. He yawned again and was asleep.
    The sea seemed to float with pieces of paper, and oddly enough, the writing on the bits of paper was perfectly legible. But every time Soren swooped down to pick one up, the fog rolled in and he couldn’t see. He wished that Twilight were here. Twilight was the master of seeing in conditions like these.
    Aaah, finally the fog is lifting. But suddenly, Soren realized that he was no longer over the sea. Racdrops! He looked down and saw the regularly undulating hills. The Beaks! His gizzard twitched with dread. Mrs. Plithiver’s raspyvoice scratched in his ear: “No owl, especially a young impressionable one, has any business in The Beaks. It’s a bad, bad place.”
    And then below him were the tantalizing Mirror Lakes that had transfixed the band in a kind of deadly stupor on their first journey to Ga’Hoole. Great Glaux. He blinked at the dazzling sparkle of the lakes beneath him, but those lakes abruptly shattered into thousands of pieces.
    “I’m sorry, Mrs. Plithiver,” he heard himself say. Without even banking, he did a steep dive toward the lakes. He blinked. A dazzling white brightness nearly blinded him. Dread crept around the edges of his gizzard. The radiant brilliance of the shards reminded him of something. Something terrible. What was it? No time to wonder. The fog was drifting back over the lake. Only it wasn’t fog. It was smoke—but there was one small clear space above the lake. He would dive for it now. “I’ll take these lakes—piece by piece. Yes, Mrs. Plithiver, piece by piece by piece.”
    Soren woke up suddenly and clamped his beak tight. Great Glaux! It was a dream! I was talking in my sleep! He looked across at his hollowmates and hoped his babbling hadn’t woken them up. But they all seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Soren went back to sleep and would not remember this dream for a long, long time—until it was almost too late!

CHAPTER SIX
So Close!
    A nd in another hollow, another Barn Owl dreamed another dream.
    Yes, just like the old fir tree , Eglantine thought. Just like home. And look, there’s moss draped across the opening, the same way Mum did it, to keep out the cold wind, or the sunlight if it was too strong. She crept closer on the branch. Did she dare peek through? Why, Great Glaux! Even this branch I am standing on is the same. Then she heard a soft hiss and a slithering sound. Why, that’s exactly the sound Mrs. Plithiver makes when she’s tongue-vacuuming and sucking up all the vermin. I’d know that sound anywhere! Eglantine’s gizzard was about to burst with excitement. This is more than a dream, she thought. Oh, Glaux, don’t let it end! If I peek in, will I see Mum and Da and Mrs. P.? Will everything be like before? Eglantine edged in close to the moss curtain. Behind it, she saw a shape bustling about. The whiteness of a Barn Owl’s face shone through the green strands of moss. Is it really you, Mum? She was about to poke her beak through the curtain and ask.Then a breeze stirred the moss. It riffled through her pinfeathers, a cool current of air. This was no dream about a breeze. She really felt it.
    “Wind shift,” a voice outside her hollow said. It was Ezylryb.
    “Oh, no!” moaned Eglantine, and woke up. “I was so close! So close, this time.”
    “So close?” said Primrose, coming into their hollow. “So close to what? Eglantine, don’t tell me you’ve been sleeping all this time? Glaux, it’s not even near morning. How will you ever sleep during the day when we are supposed to?”
    Eglantine blinked. “Oh, I will.” I have to, she thought. She was absolutely desperate to get back to her dream hollow.
    “ Verrry interesting!” Otulissa pored over the fragment that the band had brought back from the island off the Broken Talon peninsula.
    “Is it from the book?” Soren