Guardians of Ga'Hoole 08 - The Outcast

resisting this?
    “You know,” Hamish continued, “on that day when we first met at the carcass of the moose?”
    “Yes,” Coryn said.
    “When you came that night and we all ate together, the wolves and the bear ate from the moose. Well, that had never happened before. Wolves, we’re a superstitious lot. So talk began that your coming had something to do with the old stories. And because you befriended me, they now think it is my turn to go there, to leave the clan, and join the gnaw wolves who guard the ember.”
    “But it is a great honor, isn’t it?” Coryn asked.
    “Honors are lonely things. I would much rather have friends than honors.”
    “But I can still be your friend, can’t I?”
    “I don’t think so, Coryn. The clansmen of the Sacred Watch have no friends. They pledged their lives long ago to Hoole.”
    “To Hoole?”
    Hamish nodded. “Until the ember is retrieved, they are bound.”
    “But it’s just a legend, isn’t it?” Coryn asked in a quavery voice.
    “Is it?” Hamish asked.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Treating With the MacHeaths
    W ith each step the wolves took and each wing beat of his own, Coryn felt that he was coming closer and closer to his destiny. And he was deeply frightened. He thought he had been sent here to become a teacher for little Coryn, but now he was not so sure. He remembered so long ago when Gwyndor, the Rogue smith, had told him that he had free will. He did not have to do this. He could choose. Mist had said the same thing. He could turn around and fly away. But to where would he fly? Back to Mist? She would be so disappointed in him. Back to Kalo and little Coryn? The Great Ga’Hoole Tree? Oh, how he longed to go there, but he knew that he couldn’t. Not yet. Both Mist and the scroom had told him that there were tasks to be done. But what were the tasks? How did he have to prove himself before he went to the great tree, and why all of a sudden had his life become so bound up with Hamish’s? Was Hamish going to the Sacred Volcanoes because of Coryn? Or was Coryn going there because ofHamish? How had the Ember of Hoole bound them together? Hamish was to be its guardian but what was he, Coryn, supposed to be?
    The land of the Sacred Volcanoes was in the farthest reaches of the Beyond. They were heading toward that precipice Coryn had imagined on his first night in the Beyond when he had seen the shimmering moon quiver on the edge of the horizon. For the wolves, the going was slow because there were great snowfields that had to be plowed through. Coryn had slowed his flight so as not to get too far ahead. Poor Hamish was always lagging behind with his lame leg. But Coryn noticed that the other wolves helped him more. Often they would let him eat first at a kill. It was obviously important to them that they deliver their gnaw wolf to his duty.
    Hamish had told Coryn a little about the gnaw wolves’ lives at this far edge of the Beyond. They were never allowed to mate or have pups. Their lives were solely devoted to guarding the ember. It was not an easy place to live and there were many dangers.
    “It is the harshest weather in all of the Beyond. And the hunting is difficult.”
    “Hamish, how will you ever do it with your lame leg? You’ll die of starvation.”
    “That is the curious part. All of the gnaw wolves whogo there suffer some sort of defect either from birth or injury. My leg is crooked. Another might be missing an eye or a paw. But something happens to them.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “They grow stronger. If they are missing an eye, the vision in the other eye becomes sharper. Their hearing and their sense of smell are perhaps four times better than a normal wolf’s. A lame wolf or one missing a paw develops muscles it never dreamed of and is able to run faster than any healthy female and break track in the deepest snow. They gather a strength unequaled while guarding the Sacred Volcanoes, and you shall see that they are huge.”
    “So what are the dangers, if they are this strong?”
    “You see, there are other clans that would love to become the guardians of the volcanoes and the keepers of the bone mounds.”
    “Why, for Glaux’s sake?! It sounds like the rottenest job in the world.”
    “Well, it is said that there are certain powers that the gnaw wolves gain throughout their lives of guarding the ember, in addition to becoming strong. And that the ember itself has certain powers.
    “They say good King Hoole promised that in exchange