Guardians of Ga'Hoole 07 - The Hatchling

it and nothing seems to stir, and the air is thick with warmth and quiet. Except for the lazy hum of a bee or the occasional splash of a fish leaping in a silvery arc from a pond, a perfect silence descends upon the forest from midmorning until later afternoon.
    At night, however, the forest comes alive in the coolness and the shadows. The owls come out to hunt along with the bobcat, the fox, and the raccoon. In the pond, the muskrat and the beaver leave their lodges to plow their watery paths. The grasses that grow thickly at the pond’s edge shimmer with the glow of fireflies. It was a different world, a tantalizing one, which Nyroc longed to join—but he did not dare.
    There was a riddle in these nights that Nyroc could not solve. Each night, almost as if to tempt him out of hishollow in the fallen tree trunk, a plump rabbit would appear just as the sun slipped beneath the horizon. The rabbit would crouch in front of a nearby shrub or small tree and not move for the longest time, staying well into the darkness and often until the moon rose high in the sky. Nyroc did not understand how this rabbit had survived. Rabbits were a favorite owl food. It seemed almost impossible that a plump one like this, standing absolutely still in a forest thick with owls, had never been preyed upon. But night after night, Nyroc watched the odd creature—hungrily, his gizzard seeming to grind in anticipation and his first stomach burbling at the thought of the rabbit’s succulent flesh. Even stranger, sometimes the rabbit stood on its hind legs as if in some sort of trance.
    Then one morning, after the last goodlight lullaby had been sung in a nearby fir tree, and an owl chick of a Great Gray in an oak begged for “just one more story, Da,” Nyroc peered out of his hollow and blinked. There was the rabbit, standing on his hind legs almost near enough to reach out and grab. He seemed to be studying something very intently on a short branch of the fallen tree trunk. Ever so quietly, Nyroc moved out of his hollow. The rabbit was a talon’s reach away. He pounced and grabbed it. Then a most shocking thing occurred. The rabbit turned its headand, looking at its would-be killer, said in a fierce voice, “Don’t! Remember the vole!”
    “What?” Nyroc said. He had never had a prey argue with him. Usually, if his talons had not mortally punctured it, the creature went yeep from fright and simply froze. They rarely screeched or moaned in pain. But talking? Never!
    “The vole—the one you let go.”
    Nyroc was so astonished that he dropped the rabbit on the ground. How did this rabbit know about that vole he had left back in the fox’s den in the deep canyon when the posse had shown up?
    The rabbit then gave himself a little shake. “Don’t worry, you didn’t hurt me. Barely a scratch.”
    Nyroc was too stunned to speak. He felt dizzy and began to sway a bit. “Take it easy there, fellow.” The rabbit extended a paw toward Nyroc’s wing as if to steady him. “I don’t want you crashing into my web. It’s a good one. Lots of information.”
    Nyroc blinked several times and stared at the rabbit. It was a soft brownish-gray color, but his feet were snowy white and on his forehead there was a small white crescent of fur. Nyroc stared at him.
    “That’s it, fella. Take me in slowly. I am a real rabbit. But not simply dinner or tweener or breaklight, whatever youowls call your meals. There is nothing simple about me, actually. See, I can do all those rabbity things. Wanna see a cute nose twitch?” Suddenly, the velvety pink skin of his nose began to wriggle about. “Tail twitch, as well. And I can flick my ears, too. Hopping? Want me to demonstrate a hop?” He paused and looked hard at Nyroc. “Well, for Lapin’s sake, say something!”
    But Nyroc was speechless. Finally, he managed to say, “Who’s Lapin?”
    “The Big Rabbit.” And he rolled his pink-rimmed eyes toward the sky. “You’ve got Glaux; we’ve got Lapin.”
    “Oh,” Nyroc said. “But how did you know about the vole?”
    “Aha! Now that’s a question!” He moved closer to Nyroc. “Feeling a little steadier now?”
    “Yeah, I guess so.”
    “Well, come over here, then.” The rabbit began waddling toward the spiderweb hung between the trunk of the tree and the branch. It was a huge glittering affair, strung with jewels of morning dew.
    “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
    “Yes,” Nyroc said, although he had never thought much about spiderwebs