Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

the activity and the sounds and moods of the volcanoes. As Dunmore padded along the perimeter of the ring of volcanoes, and Hoole flew directly above him, he would on occasion stop to point something out.
    “You see this one here, Hoole?” Dunmore said. “Listen for a grackling sound.”
    Hoole hovered. “Grackling? Is that like crackling?”
    “Yes, but grittier. It sounds like rocks being broken apart. We think that is just what is happening deep in the volcano—rocks are shattering.”
    So summer passed and the days grew shorter by slivers of seconds. Grank and Fengo watched Hoole. He had grown into a handsome owl. Both Theo and Phineas, younger and closer to Hoole’s age, had been excellent teachers. Theo had shown him rocks that he’d never seen on the island in the Bitter Sea and explained their properties, and which metals could be derived from them.
    Phineas had a wisdom beyond his years. In spite of being so small, he had traveled widely, and coming from the Southern Kingdoms, knew every forest there. So soon he was giving Hoole instruction in the immense varietyof trees and plants that grew in that unfrozen part of the world. Grank was pleased. The young prince’s education had been enriched by these two young owls. And how astounding it had been when Hoole had approached him that night shortly after he had returned from the hunt and told Grank he felt that some of the strategies used by the wolves would work for owls. And then most astonishing were those words he had said in innocent earnestness: “Uncle Grank, if I were king I would make lochinvyrr part of the H’rathian code.” It had taken Grank’s breath away. If he were king!
    “Will he see the ember in the way I did?” Grank wondered aloud one night to Fengo where they perched high on their favorite ridge.
    “That’s unanswerable.”
    And when he does find it, will it be too late? Grank wondered.
    There had been no news from the N’yrthghar about the war since they had reached the Beyond. Grank’s fires were unclear as to what was happening. Hoole, oddly enough, did not seem that interested in reading the flames these days. Grank suspected that he was too fearful about his mother, that he did not want to know if she had perished after the encounter with the hagsfiend and Pleek inthe Bitter Sea. He never talked about her anymore. But Grank thought of her constantly.
    “I wonder what happened to Siv?” he said to Fengo as they perched on the ridge. “How thrilled she would be to see her son now. He truly is becoming a prince.”
    There was a sudden scrabbling of rock beneath them. Fengo and Grank were immediately alert. They saw the shadow of a wolf dart off in the moonlight.
    “Who was that?” Fengo asked nervously. “No one ever comes up here.”
    But before they could chase the wolf, he had vanished completely.
    Neither Fengo nor Grank slept well. Finally, toward noon when the owls usually slept, Grank went out and decided to make a new fire in his forge. As the flames built up, he thought he saw something in them but it was not any image from the N’yrthghar. What he saw was a wolf streaking across the Beyond on an easterly course. The wolf was staying far north on a heading that would take him to the northern edge of the spirit woods, and it looked as if he were heading for Broken Talon Point. This was most unusual. Wolves rarely left the Beyond, and when they did, they usually went south into the Shadow Forest. Most unusual! He would monitor the fires andcheck on the wolf’s progress again before he mentioned any of this to Fengo.
    The next day when he went to the fires, he blinked in surprise. He saw not only one wolf traveling east and north but two. They were, however, far apart, one seeming to follow the other. That same afternoon, he went into Fengo’s cave and roused him from his midday nap.
    “What is it?” Fengo’s ears rose and twitched. He knew that his old friend would not wake him if it were not important.
    “The fires.”
    “What did you see?” Fengo’s green eyes glistened.
    “Two wolves heading out of the Beyond, on a course that will take them across to Broken Talon Point.”
    “And into the Northern Kingdoms—a land route. Longer but easier for a wolf.”
    “But they’ll still have to swim at some point.” Especially, thought Grank, if they are heading toward Lord Arrin’s stronghold. They will have to cross the Bay of Fangs. Otherwise it would take them years! “Someone must know that