Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

that,” she cackled. “Me going after a polar bear. But I got him, and I started pouring the fyngrotinto him. But he got away. Still, cursed be the creature that encounters a polar bear with fyngrot.”
    “Does he know how to use it?” Pleek asked.
    “Can’t tell you. And if he does know how, will he have the gallgrot to use it? You see, this is what is so interesting about my work. It is both nachtmagen, and scientific and philosophical.” She paused. “And it takes a unique courage. What other hagsfiend would live so close to open water? It is what my dear mum told me: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. The sea is my enemy, but I have spent a lifetime here in the Ice Narrows studying it. I shall one day divine a charm that will render salt water powerless against us.”
    “Pleek, Kreeth, come quickly!” Ygryk spun her head around from where she had been looking out of the cave. “Look there in the distance, coming through the Narrows…”
    “By Glaux,” whispered Pleek. In the fog of the Ice Narrows, the forms of four owls could be seen: Grank, Hoole, Phineas, and Theo.
    “Are those the claws you were telling me about?”
    “Yes,” Pleek’s voice quavered and the wound that ran down his back where new feathers were just beginning to fledge twinged painfully. Never would he forget the tearing of those claws on his back.
    “Hmmm, I don’t think it’s wise to attack,” Kreeth said thoughtfully. “They are four, all armed except for the Pygmy, and neither of you is ready to fight.”
    Ygryk looked down at the roiling water that churned through the Ice Narrows. A wave of nausea overcame her. She had to step back from the edge of the cave. She was a long way from fighting. Most of her half-hags had died in the cove. It would be many moon cycles before the remaining ones could reproduce enough for battle. Therefore her poison levels were down. It would be a long time. And would she ever dare fly over open water again?
    But Pleek’s eyes were bright. “They must be heading for Beyond the Beyond. That would be the most sensible place to hide out, across a vast sea and then to the farthest reaches of a broad continent. What Lord Arrin wouldn’t give for this information! Ha! But, Ygyrk, we have it. Don’t you see?”
    “See what, dear Pleek?”
    “We can still have our son and that son means power.”
    “Indeed, it does!” Kreeth said in a low voice. “With that young prince, I think I could complete the charm that would shield us all from open water. We could bring nachtmagen to the Southern Kingdoms.” She turned to Pleek and Ygryk. “We could rule!”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A Seedling
    “ A re we halfway there yet, Uncle Grank?” Hoole asked as they left the Ice Narrows.
    “Not yet, Hoole. I told you it is a long journey. We have to fly all the way across the sea of the Southern Kingdoms.”
    “Is it green like our seas?”
    “Believe it or not, I have yet to see the color of its water. The Southern Sea is always thick with fog. Once the fog thinned toward the middle and I saw that below me was an island.”
    “Were there any trees to perch in for a rest?” Theo asked.
    “Not a one. Bare as can be. Not a living thing. Just rocks. But we can still go down and take a rest if I can find the island again.”
    It was shortly after that the fog started to clear and patches of blue sky began to break through. “My, we are lucky!” Grank said. And then all at once every scrap of fog,every cloud seemed to evaporate and the sun was shining warmly.
    “Look! There’s the island!” Hoole shouted.
    The four owls began their descent, circling in steeply banking turns that grew tighter and tighter.
    From the very first moment that Hoole saw the island he felt as if his gizzard were singing. By the time they landed, he was in a state. He hadn’t felt such stirrings since he had first glimpsed his mother’s figure in the flames of the forge’s fire. Reminded of his mother, he once again felt that painful wrench in his gizzard and his heart. He drooped his head. A tear fell to his feet. The three other owls noticed that Hoole was experiencing something more than just a rest in a long flight. He seemed to be in some sort of trance.
    “A gizzard dream,” Grank whispered to himself.
    Hoole continued to look down. He peered harder as he spied infinitesimally small movements in the dirt. The kind of movements one might find in the N’yrthghar in a pile of snow when the ice worms