Lost Tales of Ga'Hoole

Fowl Island. She had been to this part of the island several times since Sig first introduced her to the Resistance, and found their hideout easily. What she saw inside the cave was devastating. Several owls were wounded, lying in makeshift nests and being tended to by a few Kielian snakes. Toward the right side of the cave, near the entrance, she found Sigfried.
    “Sig?” She approached him. “It’s Thora, I’m here.” She saw the gash on his breast then. It had been covered with wet moss, but it still looked awfully painful.
    He was badly hurt, but reached a wing out toward her. “Is it really you? I can’t believe you came. There’s something I need to tell you.”
    Before Sig could say more, Thora saw the battle claws beside his nest, well made and almost brand-new.
    “You wore the battle claws I forged into a real battle?” Thora asked, surprised. The battle claws she had given to Sig were simple by battle claw standards, but they were perfectly balanced and meticulously made. She knew Sig thought highly of her special gift, but never thought he would wear them, much less into a real battle.
    “The claws were effective, Thora. I took out three Ice Talon guards with them before…” Sig’s voice trailed off and his face turned grim with pain.
    “But listen now, this is important,” Sig began again. “While I was at the Ice Talons’ headquarters, I overheard two slipgizzles giving their reports in a cave near where the supplies are kept. One of the voices sounded awfully familiar, so I listened for a while. She kept talking about how she had finally managed to get the information from her ‘target’ and how ‘circumstances’ might force her to ‘move faster with the operation’ than she intended.” Sig paused and took a deep breath. “Thora, I’m sorry to tell you this, but it was Rodmilla. Your stepmother is a slipgizzle for the Ice Talons.”
    “So it’s true, the rumor was true all along,” Thora murmured. “The worst of it. It’s all true.”
    Brunwella and Torsten decided to look for Berrick at the family hollow first, or as Torsten put it: “Reconnoiter home base.” Brunwella approached ahead of him. She was stunned by what she saw. In the one night that she and Thora had been gone, the hollow had been ransacked. There were papers strewn everywhere, every nest was turned upside down. A nut cup of ink had been knocked down and ink tracked over the scattered papers. Even the moss from the nests was thrown across the floor. Just beyond where her father’s nest had been, she saw something that she had never noticed before—a small compartment hidden behind a stone.
    “Brunwella!” came the familiar voice from the shadows just behind her in the hollow’s entranceway.
    “Da!” With a start, Brunwella turned to find her father in the hollow with Torsten at his side. Berrick swelled to almost twice his usual size upon finding what had happened to his family’s home. He immediately looked over to the small, once-hidden compartment that Brunwella was just looking at and gave an angry hoot. Then he went over to the ink-smeared papers scattered on the floor and lowered his big head to study them. After a moment of silence a bloodcurdling screech came from his beak. Torsten gave him a startled look.
    “Da, what’s happened?” Brunwella asked, still in shock.
    “Look here, Brunie, and tell me what you see.” He pointed down to the ink-marked papers.
    She did as he said. “They are talon prints, Da.”
    “And is there anything strange about them?”
    Brunwella looked at them again. “Yes. Here. On the left side, the last talon is missing…just like—”
    “Just like your stepmother’s. We have to leave this place immediately. As to the prints, suffice it to say, your mother is not who I thought she was. Let’s go find your sister.”
    Brunwella had never seen her father act this way. He turned to Torsten: “Go to the hideout south of the Ice Fangs. Warn them that the Ice Talons know of their location. Now.”
    Torsten left the hollow and flew as well as his wounded wing could carry him. As Berrick and Brunwella took off, she tried to explain to her father what had happened in the last few nights. Berrick listened, and seemed to be thinking hard about what to tell his daughter. Finally, he spoke.
    “Sometime ago I heard a rumor. An Ice Talon slipgizzle had supposedly infiltrated the family of an old Kielian League soldier, and was working to take down the Resistance.