Guardians of Ga'Hoole 08 - The Outcast

Dunleavy
    SLYNELLA: green iridescent flying snake of Ambala; companion to Mist
    STINGYLL: green iridescent flying snake of Ambala; companion to Mist

Preview
    A peek at THE G UARDIANS of G A ’H OOLE Book Nine: The First Collier

    H e turned to me. The eyes of these dire wolves were a color I had never seen before. To say they were green does not do them justice. They were more like green fire. And Fengo’s were absolutely astonishing. Our eyes locked and in that moment something passed between us. I knew then that although we were owl and wolf, two such different animals, we shared something: We both had visions. I could see the image of the volcanoes’ flames reflected now in his eyes. As I peered deeper into that eerie greenness, I saw more. It was as if the eyes themselves were no longer eyes but something else. There was the reflection of orange flame, but in the center of that flame was a glimmer of blue and then a shimmer of green, the same green as the wolf’s eyes. But I was not seeing eyes.
    You see it, don’t you?” Fengo said.
    “I see something but I am not sure what.”
    “It is an ember.”
    So it was in the eyes of the dire wolf Fengo that I caught my first glimpse of what would come to be known as the Ember of Hoole. I felt its power immediately. I sensed that it could be a dangerous thing to let loose in the world. But it also held the promise of great good.
    “You came to learn about fire, did you not?” Fengo asked.
    I nodded. I did not ask how he knew this. I understood that in many ways this wolf was like me. He was a flame reader. He had firesight. And he knew much, for he lived in a world of constant fire here in the Beyond.
    “I can help you,” he said. “I can teach you some things, but not everything. And you will soon learn more than I can teach, and know more than I can imagine.”
    This puzzled me. “How can that be?” I asked.
    “You can fly,” he said simply.
    “But why should this help me learn more?”
    “You are able to fly over the craters from which the fires leap. You can look into the heart of the volcano. On the wing, you shall catch the hottest coals.”
    “Catch coals?”
    “Yes.” Fengo nodded. “Catch coals and then make fire and see what can be made from fire. With that, I might be able to help you for I have explored the effects of flames on certain materials.”
    “It doesn’t just burn things up?” I asked.
    “Not always. Sometimes it changes things.”
    I was intrigued and was wondering what these changes could be when he interrupted my thoughts.
    “And perhaps one day you shall see where the ember lies buried.”
    “Do you mean the wolf ember?” I asked him, for that was how I thought of the ember I had seen in his eyes.
    “It is not the wolf ember,” he said quietly. “It is the owl ember. Make no mistake. It is the Ember of Hoole.”
    “That cannot be!”
    “Why not?”
    “Because it has been told that Hoole was the first owl: In that time when all birds were alike, the first one to become an owl was called Hoole. It was even said that he was a mage. That he possessed good magic. But it is just a story from a time long ago when there were no high kings, no kings at all. The word ‘Hoole’ now means first of a kind.
    “And in our wolf language the word ‘Hoole’ simply means owl. You see, my friend, it was the spirit of a Hoole that I followed when I led my kind here from our icelocked land.”
    “The spirit of an owl? Not a real owl?” I asked him.
    “Oh, she was real all right. But long dead.”
    “You mean a scroom, then.”
    “Yes, a scroom, if that is what you call the spirits of the dead.”
    “Hoole,” I repeated the word softly. It had a lovely sound that seemed to spin out into the darkness like that wild and untamed song of the wolves when they howled into the night. “Hoole,” I said it again. Like a silvery filament of moonlight, it whispered through the dark.

The Guardians of Ga’Hoole
    Book One: The Capture
    Book Two: The Journey
    Book Three: The Rescue
    Book Four: The Siege
    Book Five: The Shattering
    Book Six: The Burning
    Book Seven: The Hatchling
    Book Eight: The Outcast
    Book Nine: The First Collier
    Book Ten: The Coming of Hoole
    Book Eleven: To Be a King
    Book Twelve: The Golden Tree
    Book Thirteen: The River of Wind
    Book Fourteen: Exile
    Book Fifteen: The War of the Ember
    A Guide Book to the Great Tree
    Lost Tales of Ga’Hoole

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