Guardians of Ga'Hoole 13 - The River of Wind

about this defector.”
    “Yes, the defector,” Digger said in a hesitant voice, and then he seemed to gather strength. He was suddenly happy that he could share these feelings and the frightening thoughts he had had when the sage first told them all about the dragon owls. “The dragon owls appear weak, vain, ridiculous, and powerless. But how did they come to be this way?” He swiveled his head slowly, searching each owl’s face for an answer. But none was forthcoming. “What have they done to earn this life, which is hardly a life?”
    “And yet it makes the rest of the owls of this sixth kingdom safe from them,” Otulissa said. “Assuming, of course, that they had previously been brutal or evil owls.”
    Then Soren very tentatively took a step toward Digger. “Are you imagining these owls in another…another…” He searched for a word. “…guise, Digger?”
    Digger could scarcely breathe. “I must be honest.” He shut his eyes. Just say it. Just say it, he told himself silently. “I have had thoughts of hagsfiends.” There was a gasp from the owls.
    “What kinds of thoughts?” Soren asked.
    Digger took a deep breath and began to speak slowly.“I began to think about hagsfiends when Tengshu spoke of phonqua, their fate. They accept this pathetic excuse for a real owl’s life because they are paying a debt in hopes of redeeming themselves. But something has gone wrong with this defector. He has desires. A will that is alien to his nature, to his phonqua, and the others are now fearful that it has skewed everything.”
    “Yes, the butterfly that disturbed the universe,” Mrs. P. replied softly.
    “What’s to be done?” Digger asked.
    “It is not our fate to deal with. Not our world.” Mrs. P. said.
    “But what if he goes to our world? What then?”
    “I don’t know, Digger. I honestly don’t know.” Mrs. P. sighed, then coiled up and swung her head toward the owls. “We cannot solve any of this right now. So all of you go back to your day nests in those cavities and try to get some sleep.”
    “I don’t know how one is supposed to sleep in all that glittery rock,” Ruby muttered. “The whole place just buzzes with too many colors.”
    Digger turned and looked at Ruby. “You’re right. This is the most resplendent place I have ever been to. It is what I once might have imagined to be glaumora, but it is truly hagsmire, Ruby. Truly hagsmire.”
    I have to go back! Now. I have to go back. I’ll find the Zong Phong. She’s in danger…I know it. Before they could stop him he was off, and suddenly he was back in his own world on the familiar side of the Unnamed Sea. But he had landed, oddly enough, in Kuneer. The hot desert thermals were rising. She was trapped beneath the sand, young, little, and vulnerable. A blue feather floated up in the desert air. Soren shreed, “ I will help you…I promise…if it’s the last thing I do…I will help you. ”
    “Wake up! Soren! Wake up!” Twilight and Ruby were both shaking him fiercely. “It’s just a bad dream.”
    “Starsight? Here?” Gylfie asked. “Even with all the constellations being different?”
    “It was so real,” Soren said, shaking his head. “Someone is in trouble…I can’t remember who, though. I think we have to go back.”
    Starsight was a phenomenon in which the stars in the sky in some mysterious way illuminated Soren’s dreams. Most creatures thought that during the day, when nocturnal animals slept, the stars vanished, but for some they did not. The stars became little holes in the fabric of their dreams, and through these holes they saw things happening far away, or in the future, things that often came true.
    “I just have this terrible feeling in my gizzard.”
    “I do, too,” Digger said.
    “Do you think we should go back?” Soren asked.
    Digger shook his head. “No. I am afraid I feel quite the opposite. I think it is imperative that we stay. Stay and figure things out.”
    “Do you think we are in danger of some sort from this new world?” Coryn asked.
    “Not exactly. I mean, I think we have been brought here as a part our phonqua. I truly believe that Tengshu is a good owl.”
    “ Our phonqua?” Otulissa asked.
    “I think, in fact, Otulissa, that the universe is about to be disturbed,” Digger replied.
    “A butterfly?” Gylfie asked.
    “No, a dragon owl.”
    “Huh?” Ruby said.
    At that moment, there was a noise outside the hollow where Soren had been sleeping. A long, low