Guardians of Ga'Hoole 10 - The Coming of Hoole

flourishes in very few owls.”
    “Only in owls?” Hoole asked.
    “Yes, I believe so.”
    “Have you ever known an owl with Ga’, Uncle Grank?”
    Grank looked hard at Hoole. “Not yet, lad. It’s very rare.” But his eyes grew misty as if he were remembering something. Only to himself would Grank admit that yes, he had met an owl that he suspected had great Ga’ and that owl was Siv, Hoole’s mother.
    Unbeknownst to either Grank or Theo, Hoole did not confine his flying to just the night or the closest trees. Often after the two older owls were sound asleep, Hoole would sneak out of the hollow. Then one day, when the sun was the highest in the sky and he was returning to the hollow, Hoole spied something in the flames that licked up from the forge. What was it? It was real but not real. He could feel it. He could almost see it dancing on the edges of the flames. His gizzard clinched and for the first time in his short life he realized that there was something he missed. Something he missed terribly! But what could it be? He lighted down and peered harder into the flames.

CHAPTER FIVE
Yearning
    S iv watched Svenka playing with her two cubs, First and Second. Polar bears waited a long time to give their cubs real names. Svenka had explained the reason for this was that so often they died. Names made living creatures more lovable—or so the bears believed. Siv did not believe this for one minute. She had seen Svenka with her cubs almost since birth and knew that Svenka had always loved them, named or not named.
    The cubs were using Svenka as a slide, slipping off her back into the water. This was how they learned to swim. “Look at me, Auntie!” One of them called out now just before she splashed into the water.
    “No, watch me, Auntie,” the other bellowed.
    Siv looked at the cubs and their mother with such yearning in her gizzard she thought it would break. She knew that at this very time, her own chick must be learning how to fly, or perhaps he already knew how. And shehad missed it! She hoped that Grank had given him a good First Flight ceremony. Then she chided herself immediately. Of course he did. How could I ever doubt dear Grank? She shook herself a bit. She didn’t want to appear sad in front of Svenka’s cubs. It was a bright sparkling day on the water. Spring was coming. The ice was beginning to clear and this made it safer for her, because hagsfiends would not come around when there was so much open water. Furthermore, she sensed that Lord Arrin did not travel far without his posse of hags surrounding him. But at the same time, the iceberg that had been her home for months now was melting, shrinking smaller with each day’s sun. Soon she would have to look for a new refuge. If only she knew where her chick was. But even if she did know, would she dare to go? It simply would be too dangerous. Then again, she thought, what if she could find him? She knew it was a male. Grank had told her so. He had seen it with that special vision of his that could read light and fire. Yes, what if I really do find him? Then what? I cannot reveal myself as his mother. It would be too dangerous.
    Once before, Siv had disguised herself as a gadfeather. But still that would not solve the problem of where her chick could be found. How could she find out?
    That night as the cubs slept nestled in the deep fur of Svenka’s underbelly, their mouths all milky from nursing,Siv told Svenka of her growing yearning for her hatchling, her son.
    “The problem is I don’t know where in the N’yrthghar he is or might be.”
    “What makes you think he’s even in the Northern Kingdoms?”
    Siv blinked. She had never thought of this. But surely he was too young to fly out of the N’yrthghar and into the Southern Kingdoms. She paused in her thoughts. Or the Beyond. Would Grank have actually taken the chick to the Beyond? she wondered. It was his favorite place and he had a good friend there, a wonderful ally, the wolf Fengo. But it was so far away. And yes, she had to admit, so safe. Oh, if only she could read the shards of light, the flames of the fire as Grank could, she might then know where her son was.
    “I must see him, Svenka.”
    “But if you don’t know where he is, how will you know where to go?”
    It always comes back to that question, Siv thought wearily. How could she find out where he was? Then an idea burst upon her. “I must clad myself as a gadfeather again. Who knows more about where every