Guardians of Ga'Hoole 15 - The War of the Ember

That number, however, did not account for the other animal species from the Northern Kingdoms, which had been streaming in at a steady rate.
    The Strix Struma Strikers needed no introduction to the strategy of Gareth’s Keep. The late founder of their unit, Strix Struma herself, had devised it. Behind them was the flame squadron, then the fighting companies from the Northern Kingdoms: the Frost Beaks, the Glauxspeed unit, and an entire division of Kielian snakes who would fight aboard their broad backs. Behind the Glauxspeed were the gadfeathers and the kraals jointly commanded by Madame Plonk. Beyond them, rippling in the dark night like a broad white river, were the polar bears. Finally, lurking around the edges of this mass of creatures, were the wolves of the Beyond in stealth units, or phyrngs, of less than a dozen wolves each, known for the speed and surprise of their attacks.
    All in all, it was an incredible assortment of creatures. Never before had such disparate species been brought together to fight as one army. But could these animals so bound to earth vanquish an enemy that soared in the sky? Company by company, the landscape beneath the volcanoes became a solid mass of animals from all parts of the Hoolian world.
    Coryn glanced at the unit that Doc Finebeak had just led to the slopes. The crows! He blinked, for among them he saw the white feathers of seagulls. Leaning toward Soren, he whispered, “Are those what I think they are, in among the crows?”
    “I believe so. Rumor has it that Doc Finebeak recruited seagulls as well. Together, it is known as the Black and White Brigade. But among the seagulls, their unit is called ‘The Splat.’ They specialize in splat attacks.” Soren paused. “And that means what you think it means!”
    “Great Glaux!” Coryn murmured, then began his address to the troops. “Owls, wolves, bears, crows, seagulls. Colliers, Rogue smiths, gadfeathers, kraals—This is a historic moment in the history of our Hoolian world. We have forgotten those things that separate us into species and have come to fight as one. Creatures of honor, creatures of dignity, who value freedom. It makes no difference if we are of fur or feather, earth or sky. You are here because you want to defend your dens, your nests, your ice caves, and because you would not want to be any other place.” He paused and looked out into the sky. The storm had abated, the sky had cleared, and an amazing sight was melting out of the night. Crisp white marks, rather like punctuation pointsin the night, marked with bright slashes of orange. “Great Glaux!” Coryn said, astounded. Fifty or more puffins were landing in a tightly packed formation. They made their way to the front ranks just below where Coryn perched.
    “Reporting for duty, sir!” Dumpy the Fifteenth said. A frozen fish dropped from his mouth as he spoke.
    Coryn continued speaking. “You are here,” he said, looking now directly at Dumpy. “Because you are smart, brave, tough creatures, loyal creatures, good creatures in a world that is threatened by violence. Yes, it is true. Some of us will die. But death must not be feared. Death in time comes to all creatures. Yes, every animal is frightened in its first battle. If that animal claims not to be frightened, then that animal is a liar. The real hero is the animal who fights even though scared. That is courage. There can be no courage without fear. We are all Rogue smiths of courage. We extract the metal of courage from the ore of raw fear. You will transform your fear, and thus yourself. And finally, you will save a kingdom.
    “We are going to pin this enemy between these two yondos, these two Hot Gates. And then we are going to come at those Pure Ones in waves and never let up. War is bloody. You are going to have to spill their blood orthey will spill yours. We are few, they are many, but in this land of the Beyond we shall set a standard of valor unmatched in the long history of the Hoolian world. And when you are old and gray, when you are grandmothers and grandfathers and your pups or chicks or cubs ask what you did, you can say, ‘Child, I flew, I ran, I galloped, I fought in the Great Hoolian Army led by the Guardians of Ga’Hoole!’”
    And then it was not but an hour later that the sky began to shake, not with thunder but the sound of a thousand wings beating the air. An enemy army of owls so vast, so massive that it was nearly unimaginable.
    Coryn flew to the high tip of