Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

noticed that Elka would often slip away, giving no explanation. Not only that, Elka had grown progressively quieter and withdrawn into her own thoughts. So,determined to find out what was drawing her away, on this night the Snow Rose decided to follow her.
    She stayed a good distance behind so she would not be detected and when she came to the cove she found a leftover bank of snow that provided her with the perfect camouflage. Standing straight and very still, she stretched upward and compressed her plumage, blending perfectly into the snowbank. With one eye opened a fraction of a slit, she had been observing the strange interactions between Elka and the young Spotted Owl.
    What is going on here? she thought as she saw the young Spotted Owl grow more anxious, demanding that Elka come with him. Then suddenly two large Great Horned Owls appeared on the opposite side of the cove. That was when Elka shreed, “Ygryk!” and the tranquillity of the cove had been shattered. The two stranger owls swooped down on Elka and the young one.
    At the precise moment that Hoole screamed “MOTHER!” a white mass of feathers laced through with bits of twigs and berries—the Snow Rose—shot across the cove like a hurling ice devil blown off a ridge of the H’rathghar glacier. White feathers spun up in the night as she collided with Pleek. Then there was a swirl of feathers—tawny ones of a Great Horned, the rich brown of a Spotted Owl, and the gleaming black of a hagsfiend!Four owls tumbled through the air in a knot of fury as Pleek, the Snow Rose, Siv, and Ygryk fought high above the cove.
    The Snow Rose blinked and staggered briefly in flight. Great Glaux! A hagsfiend had appeared exactly where a Great Horned had been an instant before.
    And Pleek was now plunging down from above the cove in a death spiral with his talons extended toward the Snow Rose. Suddenly, there was a bright gleam in the night, and Pleek was knocked out of the spiral. The Snow Rose peeled off in flight. She flipped her head back to see what was happening and gasped as she saw blood coursing down the Great Horned’s face into his eyes. Above him was another owl who had the strangest talons. But they were not talons. They were more like claws and appeared much sharper, shining brightly in the night. As bright as the fyngrot the hagsfiend was now desperately trying to cast upon Theo, armed with battle claws.
    The Snow Rose looked around for Elka. Where was she?
    Phineas flew down to Hoole and tried to drag him to safety as above him four owls clashed in the night.
    The older Spotted Owl, Grank, suddenly flew in the face of the hagsfiend and, shouting in the strange language of half-hags, said, “H’blen b’shrieek micht garmish schmoot.”The hagsfiend’s wings began to fold and from underneath them the tiny half-hags fell into the cove’s water. The hagsfiend herself looked down in horror.
    Then the Snow Rose witnessed something she had never in all her life seen before. The wounded Great Horned, Pleek, dived toward the water. Just as the hagsfiend’s wing dipped into the cove, he pulled her free. The Great Horned Owl with the strange talons tore off after them.
    “Let them go, Theo,” Grank called. “Let them go. They won’t get far. Help me over here.” Then he turned his attention to Hoole. “Let me see your eyes, Hoole. Can you open your eyes? Can you see?” Grank’s voice trembled with terror.
    Of course, I can open my eyes, Hoole thought. Why is he going on about my eyes? Hoole blinked. He had never in his short life seen Grank look so terrible. His beak quivered, his eyes were filled with a dark amber terror. “What’s wrong with you?”
    Grank uttered a strange noise halfway between a sob and a gulp from deep inside his throat. “Glaux bless, she didn’t get one,” Grank said with relief drenching his voice.
    “One what?” Hoole asked.
    “Your eye. An old hagsfiend charm. It must have been Ygryk who attacked you.”
    Hoole was now fully alert. “Where did she go?”
    “Don’t worry,” Grank said. “The hagsfiend will never last. Pleek can’t support her that long in flight. He’ll drop her into the sea.”
    “I don’t know what a hagsfiend is. I want to know where my mother went.”
    “Your mother?” Grank was stunned.
    “I told you I saw a Spotted Owl,” Phineas said, lighting down next to Grank.
    “What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay back. You aren’t big enough.”
    “I’m big enough to