Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

awash with seawater. Three managed. Two others, however, skidded into the ocean. There was a searing howl as a hag’s port wing was grabbed by the water. Siv blinked to see more clearly who it was. Then silently prayed, Glaux, may it be Ygryk! Let it be Ygryk!

CHAPTER TWO
A Shadow King
    O utside the hollow, the world darkened as the shadow of the earth slid across the moon, but inside the air seemed to vibrate with a new luminosity as the shimmering egg rocked violently, shuddered one last time, and then split wide open. Grank gasped. It was Grank who had rescued the egg and brought it to this lonely island in the middle of the Bitter Sea. His assistant, Theo, looked over his shoulder in awe as the tiny featherless blob flopped from the shell and then tumbled onto the puffs of down they had prepared for him. Tufts plucked from both their breasts. Theo peered at the fluffy white under-feathers and wondered how the down from two such different owls, for he was a Great Horned and Grank was a Spotted, could look so similar.
    The chick’s eyes were still sealed shut. His head seemed enormous in comparison to his body. He looked no more a prince than any other newly hatched chick. Grank leaned over and bent very close to the chick whosebody was still throbbing from the exertions of hatching. “Welcome, little one. Welcome, Hoole.” Grank thought he saw the head flinch. Then he detected a movement pulsing ever so slightly behind the eye slits. Then one eyelid popped open and a gleaming dark eye was revealed. It was dark, but not black like a Barn Owl’s, and not yet the rich amber of a Spotted Owl. That would come later.
    “Welcome, Hoole.” Theo bent forward and spoke in a very soft voice. Grank had warned Theo never to call Hoole “prince.” His identity must not be revealed to him until the time is right. Besides, Grank had thought, better he think of himself as a simple lad. It will make him work harder as a student.
    “The worms! Theo, do we have the worms?” Grank asked anxiously.
    “Of course, right here.”
    Theo fetched a worm and began to drop it by the little owl’s head.
    “Here, I’ll take that,” Grank said quickly. Taking it in his beak, he crouched down so that his shoulders and head were on the ground, then twisted his head as only an owl can, by flipping it nearly upside down so that the worm was almost touching Hoole’s tiny beak. Speaking out of the side of his own beak, he coaxed the chick. “First worm, Hoole, this is your First Worm ceremony. MayGlaux bless you and make your gizzard strong.” The little owl opened his beak and took the worm. “Atta boy!” Grank boomed. Hoole shuddered and nearly dropped the worm. “Oops, sorry, lad.”
    Grank had never felt so much excitement as when the chick had taken that worm right from his beak and swallowed it headfirst. Traditionally, owls ate all of their prey headfirst. Of course, it was hard to tell with a worm which end was the head. “The lad’s a natural, an absolute natural.”
    A natural what? Theo wondered. A natural eater? But Theo did not begrudge his master’s enthusiasm. Theo would never begrudge Grank anything. He had learned more from Grank than he had ever learned from anyone else. Indeed, Grank was the only owl to have ever paid much attention to Theo. It was from Grank, who knew the secrets of fire, that Theo had first learned the possibilities of shaping metal into objects. Theo had a gift for the art of blacksmithing that was quite incredible. Until then, no one in the entire owl world had ever heard of this art of forging metals. Theo would someday be called the first blacksmith. His inventions would have an impact on the owl kingdoms as no other invention in the history of owls.
    Nothing grows as quickly as a baby owlet. One minute Hoole was having his First Worm ceremony, then thenext his First Insect, and before it seemed possible, his First Meat-on-Bones! Owls were ceremonial creatures and took quite seriously the many occasions that marked the important passages in their lives.
    He was always hungry, this owlet. It seemed to both Grank and Theo that they were constantly out hunting prey for the little critter. Grank honestly did not know what he would have done without Theo. The young Great Horned Owl had had to cut back drastically the time spent at his forge. Grank called out to him now, and Theo looked up from his work.
    “Theo!”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Can you fetch us another field mouse?”
    Theo sighed.