Guardians of Ga'Hoole 07 - The Hatchling

leg!
    The dire wolf, the text stated, is far more robust than its cousin the ordinary wolf, Canis lupus.
    “I would say so!” Otulissa softly exclaimed.
    Although similar in many ways to a large modern gray wolf, the dire wolf had a larger, broader head. The most obvious differences to its modern-day relative were its massively sturdy legs. Despite being shorter than a gray wolf’s legs and perhaps not as good for running, they were excellent for pouncing and bringing down prey. This characteristic, coupled with enormous teeth capable of crushing bones, made the dire wolf of ancient times a formidable predator. It has furthermore been speculated that because of its larger and broader head, it possessed a great brain as well.
    Although no expeditions have been sent into the territory known as Beyond the Beyond at this date, some scholars maintain that large migrations of wolves went there eons ago at about the same time sheets of the last great ice covered much of the earth. It was this ice age that was accountable for the extinction of many large carnivores. Most scholars agree it is doubtful that any dire wolves could have survived.
    “Well, dead is dead,” Otulissa said, “and extinct is even more dead than dead.”
    “So they say,” a voice croaked from behind a high stack of books.
    Otulissa was so startled that she rose up in a sudden hover from where she had been perched reading.
    “Ezylryb!” she exclaimed. The ancient ryb of the great tree had been concealed behind his stack of books.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked.
    “I might ask the same of you,” he replied.
    “Oh, I’m just reading up on dire wolves. They’re extinct, you know.”
    “So they say,” he repeated.
    “No, they really are!” Otulissa said forcefully.
    “Extinct perhaps in books of science but, of course, poetry, literature, and legends are timeless. Is it not the purpose of legends to transcend the humdrum rhythms of our lives, the ordinary, crude borders that confine us to the present, that we may live instead in the ever-gleaming light of knowledge? I direct you to the third canto of the second book of the Fire Cycle, lines 47–99.” The old ryb, now almost as white with age as a Snowy, raised his foot topoint, the same foot with only three talons that had so intimidated Otulissa when she had been a youngster.
    “Yes, sir, I have a copy of the Fire Cycle in my hollow. I think I’ll read it there.”
    The words Ezylryb had spoken had deeply agitated Otulissa. Ezylryb was known for his devotion to science, but here he was saying that she should go read the Cycles—as if this would provide evidence of dire wolves. She could not shake the feeling that Ezylryb was aware of the deeper disturbance in her—which had something to do with the dreams that had been robbing her of sleep. Well, if she was going to read these legends she would prefer to do so in the privacy of her own hollow. So she returned there. The sun was still well above the horizon. There was ample time until tweener and night flight.
    When she entered the hollow, it seemed chilly although it was the middle of summer. She poked at the almost dead coals in the grate of her fireplace. As a full-fledged Guardian and ryb, she was allowed a hollow with a coal grate, which was quite nice for chilly days. Then she noticed that she had stirred up some dust. She hated any kind of untidiness. She supposed she could call for a nest-maid snake but it would be easy to clean up herself. Otulissa found one task after another to do. But she finally realized that she could no longer avoid the real task awaiting her. The pursuit ofknowledge was a noble one, yes, almost sacred. Only cowards and fools shunned it. So she went directly to her bookshelf and reached for her old tattered copy of the Fire Cycle and picked through it gently with her talons. She found the canto and the verses that Ezylryb had told her about and began reading.
    And in the whisper of moon’s last light
    The dire wolf, Fengo, traversed the night.
    And then another and still another followed him,
    Until a pack across the earth did roam
    Ever onward to seek a warmer home.
    Bereft of hope and gnawed by hunger,
    They sought a better place to dwell.
    Far from the ice-locked country whence they came,
    Far from the coldness that was their hell.
    And each time a wolf did ask, “Where will this journey end?”
    Fengo, their leader, did reply, “Just beyond the yonder. There!
    See those fires that