Guardians of Ga'Hoole 08 - The Outcast

word.
    “What do you mean, not anymore?”
    My question precisely, Coryn thought.
    “In ancient times…”
    “You mean the time of the legends, Da?”
    Coryn’s gizzard quickened. Nothing stirred him like hearing the fragments of the legends of Ga’Hoole. When he had first fled from the Pure Ones and spent the long winter hiding out in tree stumps, flying by day and sleeping by night, his only solace had been to listen to thebedtime stories and legends told by parents to their young’uns toward dawn. He had heard mostly fragments, rarely complete stories. Now he pressed his ear slit to the rough wood of the hollow’s sides.
    “In the time of the Coming of Hoole, when Grank, the first collier, rescued the egg that was the good King Hoole.”
    Rescued the egg! The egg of good King Hoole ! Coryn’s gizzard did a flip-flop, his heart skipped a beat.
    “The hagsfiends tried to snatch that princely egg. But Grank saved it and even raised it in the great Northern Kingdoms in a secret forest far from any other owls. But when Hoole was no longer a hatchling, somehow the hagsfiends and other evil owls found out where he was, and Grank and Hoole were forced to flee to Beyond the Beyond. Some say it was Grank’s plan all along to take the young prince there, for that was where his education would be completed. You know that Grank was not only the first collier, and a great one at that, but he had what some called wizardly powers. He had fire sight.”
    The similarity to recent events in Coryn’s life seemed both incredible and confusing. Was the egg he had rescued that of a king? Was little Coryn destined to be king and save the owl universe? Was he himself, like Grank? No wonder I must go to Beyond the Beyond. For if I am to be little Coryn’s teacher, maybe it is in Beyond the Beyond that I’ll complete my education to become a wizardly owl. And Grank had had fire sight just like I do! Coryn had never heard this detail before. And didn’t it make sense that he should become little Coryn’s tutor since he had rescued the egg? Oh, there were too many coincidences to be ignored. Coryn could hardly wait to leave for Beyond the Beyond.
    Now he finally knew why he must go. If he had only known this when Kalo asked him why he was going. But then again, he thought, that might have been a little too much. He tried to imagine himself saying to her, “Well, you see, Kalo, your little brother, the egg I rescued, he’s actually a king and I am supposed to be his tutor. Therefore I have to go to Beyond the Beyond to complete my education before I can start helping your brother.”
    First Black couldn’t come too soon! Coryn was very excited but finally he slept. He was awakened hours later at tween time, by the rustling in the Great Horned Owls’ hollow as they prepared to go out and hunt. He would wait until they left and then he would find the Star That Never Moves in the north sky and take his bearings as Mist and the eagles had taught him. He would head four points west of the star into Beyond the Beyond. This was his destiny: to teach a prince to become a king.

CHAPTER TWELVE
Wolves in the Moonlight
    A s Coryn left the Shadow Forest for Beyond the Beyond, the contrary winds increased and he was forced to stop again and again. He tried flying through the trees rather than above them, thinking that this would afford him more wind protection. But the branches of the trees were being tossed wildly, and dodging them was as much of an effort as flying against the wind. Then when the winds finally died down one morning, he was tempted to fly in the light of day. Tempted, that is, until he heard the loud cawing of crows. Why get mobbed now, he had thought, after all this flying. So he counseled himself to be patient. He slept through that day, then flew night after night, stopping only to hunt enough to keep up his strength. And always, always he avoided the notice of other owls. Finally, he reached his destination.
    The sky sparkled with stars. The moon was full and low, a “perching moon,” owls often called it as it seemed to perch like an immense silver ball on the horizon.
    The moon appeared to tremble slightly as if it might fall off the horizon. This could be the edge of the world, Coryn thought, for it seemed as if he had indeed flown far enough to take him to the edge of the world.
    Coryn had perched on a high ledge just within the border of Beyond the Beyond and was surveying the strangest landscape he had