Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering

She had some awfully pretty turquoise chips that she had found in a stream on a search-and-rescue mission once.
    “Would you take some turquoise chips for the amber, Trader Mags?” Primrose asked.
    “Oh, yes, dear. I am mad for turquoise chips. They become me, you know. You have to have a certain plumage and stature for them to show. Run and get your turquoise, and I’ll wrap up the amber for you.”
    Soren, who was watching the bargaining from a wingspan away, caught a blur of movement behind a small stand of birch trees where mice could often be found. He decided to explore and, without saying where he was going, slipped away silently.
    Soren’s beak dropped open in utter horror as he peered down through the slim white branches of thebirch tree. Never in his life had he seen anything as revolting as the scene beneath him. An owl had just pounced upon a mouse. After having made a deep gash in its back exposing the spine, the mouse not yet dead but still mewling in agony, the owl had proceeded to tickle the dying creature with a blade of grass, all the while singing a little song. And then, most shocking of all, Soren recognized his own sister, Eglantine, who seemed frozen in rapt attention, watching as her friend Ginger sang, tickling and playing with what she would soon eat. This was in violation of every food and hunting law in the owl kingdom. Where had this Barn Owl been raised? What kind of family allowed this sort of behavior? Without thinking, Soren swooped down and thwacked the mouse on the head, killing it instantly and then gulped it down headfirst in proper fashion.
    “Hey, no fair! Why did you do that? That was my mouse.”
    Soren glared at Ginger. “You are a disgrace to the tree, a disgrace to every owl kingdom on the face of the earth. What sort of creature plays with her food? You don’t deserve to eat.” Then he swiveled his head toward Eglantine. “Eglantine, you go back to my hollow. I’ll talk to you there.” Eglantine blinked. It was as if she were coming out of a spell.
    “You’re always ordering her around. She doesn’t likeit. And you never include her. She feels left out,” Ginger said.
    “I hope she feels left out of this!” Soren shreed. He used the high-pitched tone of voice understood instantly by all owls to express utter anger. “Eglantine, on your way. And you!” He turned his attention back to Ginger. “You, I am reporting to Boron and Barran.”
    “Oh, Soren, don’t report her. She’s been raised by those awful owls, the Pure Ones. They never taught her anything. They were brutes, all of them,” Eglantine pleaded. Within seconds both Ginger and Eglantine were sobbing.
    “She’s right. I know nothing,” Ginger was saying, suddenly contrite. “I learned nothing except bad manners.”
    “This is beyond bad manners. This is brutality.”
    “Well, yeah. That, too,” she replied. “Your own brother was the most brutal owl imaginable.”
    “Yes, but I’m not, and Eglantine’s not. And we were all born in the same tree, in the same hollow, in the same nest to the same parents. We are not like Kludd, and you don’t have to be this way, either. Don’t use excuses. You’re among civilized owls now. Haven’t you learned anything?”
    “Oh, yes, so much. So much from your sister.”
    Soren saw that Eglantine was yawning now. When Soren had mentioned the tree, the hollow, the nest, and their parents, it had made her think of her dream.
    “What are you yawning about, Eglantine? You’re always yawning. Don’t you get enough sleep?”
    “No, I don’t think she does,” Ginger said. “I think she might have summer flux.”
    “Oh, great. Now you’re a doctor?”
    “Just don’t report her, Soren. Please!” Eglantine yawned again, and her eyes fluttered as if she could barely keep them open.
    “All right, all right. But Eglantine, I want you to sleep in my hollow. Then you’ll feel included, right?”
    “Right,” Eglantine said sleepily.
    “But what about me?” whined Ginger.
    “What about you?” Soren shot back.
    “I’m not included. Now I feel left out.”
    “Tough pellets! When you learn not to play with your food, maybe you’ll be fit to be included.”
    Soren made sure that Eglantine was bedded down in his hollow and then went to find Gylfie. “You’re not going to believe what I just saw.”
    “Look over there,” Gylfie replied, nodding in the direction of Trader Mags. “Do you believe what you’re seeing now?”
    Otulissa was