Guardians of Ga'Hoole 08 - The Outcast

really no choice.
    The cloud cover had blown off. There was no place tohide now in the sky. He could only hope that he would not meet any of the Pure Ones. Perhaps he should have kept the rags of moss. It had certainly worked as a hagsfiend disguise. But flying against this wind with the moss would not have been easy. He could feel now the swish of the liquid in the egg and hear the murmurs of the young heart. How precious these feelings and sounds were. How precious this life was. To think that it could have been destroyed by the Pure Ones. Surely, it would have been as good as destroyed even if it had hatched, because to be born into such a despicable world and nurtured by such vile creatures was the same as death.
    He pumped his wings harder against the wind. It was amazing how quickly he had come to love this egg and, with that wonder, Coryn realized something else: To love something can often mean to give it up, to release it to where it truly belongs. Was life always going to be this way for him? Coryn wondered. He had loved Phillip and he had loved Mist and Zan and Streak and the lovely green snakes and yet he was forced to part with them all.
    The sky was beginning to lighten. He could see the mound of rocks beneath which the Burrowing Owls had dug their burrow. There was nobody out of the burrow at this hour. They were probably sleeping below. He was not quite sure how he should go about giving them back theegg. He didn’t want to scare them again. But he certainly couldn’t just leave the egg outside to be found. The wrong owls might find it. Not to mention snakes, which loved to eat any kind of bird’s eggs.
    As Coryn began to descend, he heard a soft weeping sound coming from the burrow. It was the mother. Then there were the murmurs of the father trying his best to soothe her.
    Now how should I do this? Coryn thought. He lighted down and gently placed the egg just to the side of the entrance. The sunrise behind the egg was creeping over the dawn horizon, making the egg cast a lovely cool shadow over the entrance to the burrow. Below in the burrow, Harry blinked as he patted his wife and looked up, noticing this change in the light.
    “Just a minute, dear, I want to check something outside.”
    Coryn turned away from the burrow’s entrance. He could not face this owl. His gizzard was shivering so hard it seemed to shake his entire body. He heard a gasp.
    “What? What is this? Myrtle, come here. It’s a miracle. Our egg, our egg is back!”
    There was a racket as the rest of the family clambered from the burrow.
    “How? How did this happen?” Myrtle asked.
    It was a minute before anyone noticed Coryn off to the side, almost hiding himself behind a rock with his face still turned away.
    “This was no a miracle.” It was a young female owl who spoke. Coryn could hear the scratches of her talons against the hard gritty earth and rock as she came toward him. “You…” She hesitated. “You brought our egg back, didn’t you?”
    Coryn nodded but still would not turn around. He could hear the rapid heartbeat of the young owl. She was coming closer. He buried his head beneath one wing.
    “Won’t you turn around so we can see you?” she said softly. “Please!”
    Slowly, Coryn began to turn around, but his wing was still lifted against his face.
    “Who are you?” Myrtle asked.
    “Why are you hiding your face?” asked the young daughter.
    “Because,” Coryn began slowly, “I am not who you think I am. As I told you before, I am nothing like my mother or father. My name is not Nyra, I am Coryn.” And he let his wing drop from his face.
    There was a gasp and a little shriek from the youngdaughter, Kalo. But then she stepped forward. She extended her wing and touched Coryn gently. “We believe you. You brought our egg back. We believe you.”
    “Please come into our burrow,” Harry said. “Please, son, come in.”
    He called me son. No one has ever called me son.

CHAPTER TEN
A Namesake
    T he little egg deep in the burrow began to rock slightly.
    “Watch it carefully now, Coryn. It will sort of shudder,” Kalo whispered.
    “Shudder?” Coryn asked.
    “Yes. All eggs do just before they hatch. I really shuddered. Mom said I was the biggest egg she ever laid,” Kalo offered.
    “Hush up,” said Myrtle. “This isn’t a contest. It’s a hatching, a birth!”
    And it’s a miracle, Coryn thought.
    A miracle and a dream. It had been only two nights since he had arrived at the burrow