Bücher online kostenlos Kostenlos Online Lesen
Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering

Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering

Titel: Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering
Autoren: authors_sort
Vom Netzwerk:
library. It was summertime and there were fewer chaw practices and classes, so she could pick out a book and read just for fun—a nice joke or riddle book. Nothing too serious like colliering techniques, weather interpretation, which the owls of the great tree were expected to be familiar with, ortrack recognition, land and celestial navigation, which Primrose as a member of the search-and-rescue chaw was expected to know. No, not tonight.
    Tonight, she would find herself a really good joke book and she would laugh as loud as she wanted because there would be no one else in the library at this early hour of the evening.

CHAPTER TWO
Spronk No More
    B ut Primrose was not to be alone.
    “I just don’t understand it, Digger,” Otulissa said in a low, rasping whisper as Primrose entered the library. “If it hadn’t been for Dewlap, Strix Struma would never have been killed. She’s a traitor, I tell you.”
    “Look, I agree that she’s a traitor but we would have had that battle with the Pure Ones any way you look at it,” Digger said. “Primrose, you’re up early,” he added, seeing her come into the library.
    “Yeah, couldn’t sleep,” Primrose lied. “You’re talking about what’s going to happen to Dewlap?”
    “Yes, and as far as we can see, nothing’s going to happen to her,” Otulissa huffed. “It just isn’t fair.”
    “They say,” Primrose offered, “that she’s had a nervous breakdown. That she’s really sick and didn’t know what she was doing.”
    “Breakdown, my flight feathers!” Otulissa harrumphed. “And I’ll tell you what she was doing.” Otulissa didn’t waitfor them to ask. “She was not only leaking information to the enemy and destroying books, but she was hoarding.”
    “Hoarding!” both Primrose and Digger said at once.
    “Hoarding what?” Digger asked. “What possibly could there have been to hoard last winter?”
    “I’ll tell you what: While we all were starving during that long siege, she had her own private supply of milk-berries and Ga’Hoole nuts. You didn’t see her getting any thinner last winter while the rest of us were so pathetically skinny we could have slipped through a knothole.”
    “I can already do that,” Primrose said, trying to make a small joke. After all, she had come here to read a joke book. She had not expected such serious conversation.
    “Oh, sorry,” Otulissa replied. “I wasn’t talking about Pygmy Owls, but you got plenty skinny yourself, Primrose. Probably could have slipped into a hummingbird hole.”
    “What are you reading, Otulissa?” Primrose asked, hoping to lighten the mood.
    “Dowsing and divining techniques for metals and water. There’s a short chapter in here by Strix Emerilla. You know, my ancestor—”
    “The renowned weathertrix,” Primrose finished the sentence. They all knew about Otulissa’s ancestor Strix Emerilla. There was hardly a word written by her thatOtulissa hadn’t read, and she rarely missed an opportunity to remind them of her connection to the great owl. But Primrose didn’t mind. She was happy that Otulissa was showing signs of being herself again.
    “That’s terrible, about the hoarding,” Digger said. “I never knew that. I wonder what the parliament will decide about Dewlap.” Then he looked slyly at Otulissa. “Have you been to the roots lately?”
    Very few of the owls knew about the roots, but Primrose had once overheard the band—as Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger were often called—talk about them. Of course, they had immediately sworn her to secrecy. The place they called “the roots” was a cramped space deep under the Great Ga’Hoole Tree directly beneath the parliament chamber. Something about the tangled roots and ceiling timbers caused sounds to resonate, most particularly the sounds coming from the owls’ innermost parliament chamber. The roots transmitted the voices of the owls in the parliament above. Listening in on closed parliament sessions was the only really bad thing that the band, plus Otulissa, ever did. It was out-and-out eavesdropping. They all knew it. They all felt guilty about it. But they simply couldn’t stop. They had a million and one ways of rationalizing their snooping activities, but theirexcuses never made them feel much better. Still, they continued to secretly listen.
    “I just don’t buy it—the stuff about Dewlap having a nervous breakdown: She’s not shattered.”
    “Shattered?” Digger and Primrose both said
Vom Netzwerk:

Weitere Kostenlose Bücher