First Guardians of Ga'Hoole fic. I am so excited. So, I was thinking about during in the movie when Gylfie and Soren were taken to St. Aegolius how sincere Gylfie was when Soren stood up for her and the two escaped together. I was reminded how Soren was reunited with his family at the end, yet Gylfie didn't get to see hers. This made me think how close the two were and how, in a way, they're both each others family. So I decided to make a story for it.
I do not own Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. It all belongs to its original owners. I don't own the cover image either.
Enjoy the story!
Ever since the fall of the Pure Ones and Guardians's rescue of all the owlets from their clutches, it had been quite peaceful at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. True, they still held classes, went on scouting missions and learned important skills about being a Guardian, but with the knowledge of the evil out there defeated, it felt less stressful and more relaxed around here.
One such Guardian, an elf owl to be exact, felt the atmosphere change after the Pure Ones' defeat. Yet the recently made-Guardian, Gylfie was her name, also felt mixed emotions after the battle. She had joined the Guardians after she and her best friend Soren, a barn owl, had escaped the frightful experience at their stronghold in St. Aegolius where they had been abducted and tried to be forced into submission by the Pure Ones through their 'moon blinking' and moon scalding' methods. Yet they had survived and made it to the Great Tree, picking up along two new friends, Twilight and Digger, along with Soren's nestmaid snake, Mrs. Plithiver.
After the training and after the great battle with the Pure Ones, everyone had made it back home to the Tree. Best of all for her friend Soren, his entire family was there, minus the exception of his older brother Kludd who had been brainwashed by the Pure Ones and lost in the fight. Yes, all way pure and joyful for everyone.
But, then why did she feel something was missing?
She had been up, spending a few days up when she should have been sleeping, trying to put her talon on it. She would often spend hours just pacing or lying in her nest trying to figure out what was this void in her gizzard that was affecting her attitude. Then it hit her.
She hadn't found her family!
Soren had been reunited with his parents and younger sister, but her's still hadn't been found. She collapsed backwards on her nest he second the realization hit. Thoughts swirled around in her brain. Memories of her two parents, her three sisters that hatched out the same time as her, came to bounce around and play instant replay in her mind.
With all these thoughts brought questions with unknown answers too them. Were they still out there? Were they still alive? Did they miss her? Had they moved on? Did they even remember her?
Every question brought a new weight to her gizzard, weighing it down with each with no answer to lift it up again, until the weight spread to the back of her eyes. She blinked rapidly and felt fluid build up behind her eyes. She squeezed them tightly, letting it gather all together before it outgrew the height of her bottom eyelid and flooded over it. Two, big tears began falling rapidly down her face and wet her feathers in their descent. She let the others fall with ease down her face, turning over so she could sob into her nest and not have anyone see her and ask what was troubling her. First she needed to get over what was troubling her!
But first she needed to let it all out. Adjusting her angle on her nest, she pulled out her wings and covered her head, trying to at least find some comfort in the heat they gave off.
Soren had been worried for Gylfie. Her attitude had changed over the past few weeks. She had begun to act antisocial and when she did show up, she didn't always look so good. Her feathers were bedraggled from lack up attention to preening and her eyes were bloodshot. Had she been staying up late? Her instructors had been telling her that she had been unfocused in the class and her eyes seemed to droop throughout the day.
To sum it up, he felt worried for his friend. She had been quiet the past few days and the silence was unnerving him. And he couldn't let up a certain nagging feeling in his gizzard that 'he' was the cause behind this. Had he done something wrong? Had he done something to upset her? Had his spending time with his family more lately had anything to do with it?
Family. He stopped eating the dried caterpillars in front of him at the table as the word echoed in his head. Family. A memory of him and Gylfie came up into his head, a memory when they were at St. Aegolius. They had been gathered together with the other owlets and the Ablah General, the evil mate to Metal Beak, Nyra, had flown down in front of her when she had asked her to let them go. Nyra had intimidated her by her size and the look she was giving, so he had come to her defense and told her to leave her be. Nyra had then assigned them to the Pellitorium as pickers for their noncooperation, but not before they were sent to be moon blinked.
Before they had gone in with the others, they were escorted along with the other owlets down a dank, narrow, crack-like path in the rock. She had thanked him then, her voice was so full with sincerity. She really meant it. She even told him that he could go back to his brother instead of standing up for her sake, giving him a choice to decide. He had chosen to stay with her, that moment between them beginning to spark and friendship between them, one that helped them escape together out of the Canyonlands and out into the world where their journey had continued.
He had found his parents and family at the end of that journey, but she had not. She mentioned having both of her parents, plus a sister her age, but they hadn't shown up at the Great Tree when they returned. He had seen her just briefly in the crowd, just long enough to see her head turning and searching through the owls, searching for her family if they were there.
But she hadn't found them. He knew that, otherwise she would had introduced them to him. She wouldn't keep them away from meeting him if they were there. Still, why was she ignoring him?
"Soren? Hey, Soren! Ga'Hoole to Soren!"
He blinked and shook his head, briefly clearing his thoughts as he snapped his attention to the burrowing owl beside him that was staring at him with concerned eyes, also accompanied by those of a great grey owl and his younger sister, Eglantine.
"Huh? Oh, sorry Digger," he quickly apologized. He raised his talon to his head and pressed it against his feather as if he had suddenly developed a headache.
"This was the third time we've been calling you, Soren," Twilight said. The great grey was on the right of Digger and the left of Eglantine, yet he was the biggest of the the four of them at the table.
"Yeah, what's got your thoughts Soren? And may I have your caterpillars? You're not eating them," Digger asked. Soren looked down at his bowl of dried, green caterpillars. He had lost his appetite and there was no point to wasting food. With one movement, he pushed the bowl over to the burrowing owl with his wing, who mumbled a quick "thanks", before ravenously bowing his face into the pile of insects and munching on them.
"Big brother. Are you alright," a young, girl voice from beside him asked. Soren turned his head towards his younger sister. Eglantine had begun to develop her flight feathers and had begun to practice branching. Although, growing up and flying or not, he would always be his little sister.
"Yeah Eg'. I'm fine. Don't worry about me," he reassured. He then thought himself how Gylfie had been overt he last few days. She seemed pretty lonely. Maybe she just needed someone to visit her to cheer her up. With that thought, he got onto his feet.
"Um, I gotta go now. Bye everyone," he quickly said before spreading his wings and lifting into flight, despite the yells and protests of his friends and sibling.
The air was warm tonight as thermals rose out over the ocean, sending huge drafts of air up and allowing soaring to be done effortlessly. As of such, many owls were up at this time and enjoying the warm feel of air lift them high into the sky. Soren's wings ached with a feeling that he knew was wanting to go thermal riding, but he instead diverted his course towards the hollows. Gylfie's hollow to be exact. He wanted to find out what was bothering her right from her beak.
Gylfie was laying on her stomach in her nest when she heard the flapping of wings outside. She turned her head to see who it was and nearly jumped out of her feathers as a pale, white, heart-shaped faced suddenly entered her hollow.
"Aah," she screamed, falling out of her nest and onto the floor. "Soren! You scared me. Next time knock before entering, on the wood," she scolded. Soren smiled sheepishly as he fully entered the hollow.
"Sorry, Gylfie. I just came to check on you to see if you were alright," he replied. She tuned her head abruptly towards him, shock evident on her face. Though she quickly shook it
"Oh, um, no, no. I'm fine. It's fine. Everything is really... mm, fine," she stuttered. She didn't look convinced and neither was he. He extended out his wing and gently touched hers with the feather tip. She looked up shocked and confused up at his face.
"Gylf', it's okay if you don't want to talk about it right now, but I just want you to know, I here for you," he said. He retracted his wing and began retreating to the exit of the hollow.
"Soren. Wait," she quickly said, taking a hop to him. He stopped and turned back to her.
"Hmm, yes Gylfie," he asked.
"There is something I want to talk about with you," she admitted. Her eyes were cast down to the floor and she was drawing circles in the wood with her talon.
"Sure. What is it," he asked, moving back over to her.
"The fact is Soren... I'm.. I'm," she stammered before saying, "I'm jealous of you!" Soren backed himself away at the volume of her voice.
"What," he whispered.
"I'm jealous of you. Your parents, your family is here. You get to spend time with them and be with them, while I'm stuck all alone, not knowing where my family are or even if they're still out there. Your all happy spending time with your parents and siblings. You make me sick," she finished loudly as before.
Soren stared at her. She was shivering all over and her eyes were exceptionally shiny with fluid coming from the top and gathering at the bottom of her eyelids. She then turned around and threw her wings over her face as she began to shake with sobs. Soren recovered his shock and hesitantly took a step towards her. When she didn't react he came over till he was right at her side, so he extended and wing and placed it right against her back in as soothing gesture.
She froze in place, but then flung herself at his chest, shedding tears into his feathers. He was shocked again, but wrapped both his wings tightly around the Elf owl that only came up to his leg in height. He would let her sob and shed tears for as long as it took to get her to get all her emotions out.
It took a few minutes, but it finally came to just a few tears here and there and a couple of hiccups. Soren gently bent over and opened his wings slowly to gently place her on the ground. She sniffed and used her wing tips to wipe away a few stray tears.
"Feel better," he asked. She sniffed and nodded.
"Yes. Sorry," she replied. He shook his head.
"No, I'm sorry. I should had realized it from the start. I saw the signs, but I didn't know you were hurting this much," he explained.
"But I should had told you in the first place to avoid this whole mess," she added.
"Guess we both made the mistakes," he said. She nodded and gave a weak smile.
"Yeah," she added.
"Listen Gylf', I don't want you holding in anything from me or any other of our friends from your true feelings. They deserve to know what's happenings so we can help you," he explained.
"I know now, and I'm sorry," she replied.
"It's okay Gylf'. Now c'mon," he said, motioning her to the entrance of the hollow.
"Where we going," she asked.
"To see my family. You're my best friend, which means your practically a member of my family too. We just need to make it official," he said. Gylfie blinked and another set of tears dripped down from her eyes. She ran towards Soren and hugged him again, her speed and force nearly knocking him down.
"Thank you," she whispered, muffled by his feathers. He slowly extended his wings around her and hugged her tightly once more.
"Your welcome Gylf'. You've always been like a sister to me anyways," he replied. She giggled and moved away again.
"Ready to go," he asked. She nodded and they both spread their wings and took into flight.
As they flew off to Soren's parents's hollow, Gylfie took time to take in the world she missed when she was moping around in her hollow all the time. Never before did the lanterns rising the sky seem more luminescent and golden, never before had the night sky seemed more deep and endless with flying possibilities, never before had the stars and constellations seem more brighter in the sky. She inhaled a deep breath of the sweet night air and savored it. Right then she knew that it didn't matter that her family was away, she had her friends by her side. They were her family. And with her family, she felt at home.
A home with her best friends at the Great Tree of Ga'Hoole.
Hope you all enjoyed the story, I worked really hard on it. Please leave a review and tell me how I did. Thanks for reading you guys. Sincerely, v.t.7