I would like to thank Lowknave for suggesting this story. This one is a sort of sequel to "Different Feathers, Same Hearts" and is about Twilight and Digger and how the two came to know and live with one another. What are their backstories and how they came to meet each other and act like brothers, because they didn't say at all in the movie.
Warning: tickling and platonic, sibling-like love is mentioned in this story. This may cause the urge to say 'aww' and have your eyes glued to the screen because of the adorable cuteness. You have been warned.
I do not own Guardians of Ga'Hoole. All right belong to their respectful owners. I don't own the cover image either. It's called "Twilight and Digger" by FortunataFox, so all right go to them.
Enjoy the story!
Lantern twinkled against the dark velvet sky. Night had descended on the Great Tree of Ga'Hoole and to all those who had inhabited it. For the owls who lived there, night was the time to become awake and alive to the world.
Yet for two of the Great Tree's inhabitants, they chose to remain in their hollow tonight. For what reason? Twilight had the flu and Digger was there to take care of him. The young Burrowing Owl stood by his side while his friend sneezed and coughed while moaning and turning uncomfortably around in his nest, complaining one moment that it was too hot while the next that it was too cold.
"Digger," Twilight rasped before going into another fit of coughs. Digger came closer and patted his shoulder with his wing.
"Easy Twi'. I'm not goin' anywhere till you feel better," the Burrowing Owl replied. Twilight shook his head and tried to push the slightly younger owl away.
"No. No, you should be out tonight, not taking care of me. I hear the thermals are out tonight and they're really good. You can go out there and still catch them. I'll recover on my own," he replied. Digger shook his head and stomped his foot down for emphasis.
"No way, now how you gonna get me out that easily. I'm not movin' till you feel any better," he replied. He quickly jabbed his wing tip into Twilight's side. Twilight's body immediately froze up and his beak clamped close to refuse any sound from getting off. His eyes turned to focus and glare at the younger owl.
"I told you, don't ever do that," he said, his voice a bit low and not from the flu. He help his talons up mock threateningly and smirked. "Or else." Digger copied the smirk and lowered his head down and spread his wings out in taunt.
"Or what," he said. Twilight narrowed his eyes, and, with a surprising amount of agility and speed for someone sick with the flu, lurched forward and knocked Digger off his feet and onto his back. The Burrowing owl looked part frightfully and part playfully at the Grey Grey owl standing over him. He lifted his wings out in defense as soon as he saw Twilight spread out his talons right over the Burrowing Owl's stomach.
"No! No, no, no, no, no. Don't do it, Twi'. Don't even think about doing it," he warned. Twilight said nothing as he then repeated what Digger had done just a few moments ago and jabbed his talon into his side. Digger closed his beak a little too late and a slight giggle escaped before he shut his beak and fixed a glare on him.
"You won't do that again," he threatened. Twilight grinned and positioned all four talons over his best bud's gizzard.
"Unless I want too, and believe me I want to," Twilight said before quickly, scraping lightly over the owl's feathered stomach. Instantly Digger began to laugh. Twilight grinned and amped up his tickling speed. Soon, Digger was squirming on the hollow floor, laughing hysterically from the tickling.
"Twa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Twilight! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-a! Qui-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-t it," the Burrowing Owl begged between laughs.
Twilight smirked. He would let him up in a while, but... suddenly he felt exhausted, even though he had barely been tickling him for less than a half minute. He began to pant and let the Burrowing owl go. Digger breathed heavily for a moment before getting up and holding up his talons at Twilight, ready to tickle him, though he stopped for a second when he saw Twilight begin to droop. Feeling concern, the owl quickly postponed their to-be-continued tickle fight and helped guide him to his nest.
"Alright Alright. Don't overexert yourself, even if it means trying to get me to loosen up," Digger chastised as he helped Twilight get comfortable. The bigger owl lowered himself and almost collapsed face first onto the soft bed of moss and straw. His breaths were quickly and heavy, but after a minute he was able to speak again.
"Yeah... well... I just... wanted you to remember... what we did when... we... we were... chicks. Remember," he panted out. Digger's eyes widened for a moment, but then softened as the memory came to light.
"Yeah, I remember it..."
Grey twilight shrouded the land, blurring everything into masses of different shades of grey. Black and white merged into one another, lines and details became hard to make out. Still, one owl, a Great Grey to be exact, could tell the differences. He was named for this time, yet he had the ability to see clarity even the toughest or confusing of times, or in this case the hiding shadows of the dusk.
It didn't help that it was mostly either, but thankfully he could rely on his hearing as well as his experience to make it safely towards his hollow. He knew he wasn't to far away from it, he could make it there and just a few minutes. But... something kept on nagging him that evening. He kept thinking that he heard something crying out, but not the call of a bobcat or a chick calling out for its parents. No, it sounded... like... it was too far away to tell. He was sure it would be taken care of by someone or something else. He would not need to bother by it. He had caught plump vole in the forests here of Ambala and would have a full gizzard tonight on it succulent meat. What more did he need to worry about.
He skimmed over a patch of oak trees and into a headwind. As the air streamed past his wings and face, his ear slits picked up the sound again, but more louder and clearer now. Crying. The sad kind of crying. An owl was crying. It was close now.
'I shouldn't get involved,' he thought. 'It's really none of my business'.
But who was he kidding? He was flying down there to at least take a peak of who was crying. Dipping into the branches and avoiding being smacked by a few, he found a perch suitable, close to the ground to see yet still high enough from predators. His landing could have been softer, but when he turned his head to see who was wailing, it is clear that they were too absorbed with their own matters to notice.
There, on the woodsy earth, a young, barely-fledged Burrowing Owl stood in-between some roots of a tree, pressing his head against it and sobbing wholeheartedly onto the bark. His entire body shook with each breath intake and shivered with cold. Twilight stared at him for a moment, pondering whether he should go down and ask what was going on. He shook his head as he thought,
'No. No Twi'. Remember what you said, well thought earlier; Don't get involved. Next thing you know, their problems become your problems.' That being decided, he nodded his head and turned to leave.
"Eh-excuse mister." His whole body froze up as a voice spoke suddenly. It was young and full of emotion and he was afraid to see if it was who he thought it was. Twisting his head backwards yet still keeping his body stationary, his eyes made out in the dark the spring green, tear-brimmed eyes staring right back at him.
'Darn,' he thought to himself.
"P-pardon me sir, b-but I was wondering if you could tell me where am I," the young lad asked. Twilight was puzzled. How could he be here and not know what or where here was? He took a better look at the young owl. Burrowing. A typical desert owl specie, common in the desert kingdom of Kuneer. He had been there once before, actually lived in a cactus hollow for awhile before he decided desert living wasn't his style. Something in his gizzard now told him that this owl had a lot of things on his chest, and that himself almost felt the least bit... 'No, no, no. Twi', don't get involved. Be civil, be professional'.
"Um, well, you're in the forest kingdom of Ambala," he quickly replied, hoping his speech wasn't too stuttering. The Burrowing Owl sighed and dipped his head down.
"Oh," he simply said.
"You from Kuneer," Twilight asked, almost smacking himself when he just remembered 'don't get involved' just too late. Luckily, the boy didn't reply, just nodded his head. Silence followed quite quickly afterwards. He then decided that now would be a good time to get flying back home. Then for the second time that evening he froze up as the fledgling spoke again.
"Sorry again mister, but do you know where I can find a place to hide andres t and maybe finds some food," the young one asked.
'Of course' Twilight thought inwardly. 'New owl in a new land, always gonna ask things that I don't want to spend time talking about. But you did get involved Twi'. You did make their business your business. Now you're going to suffer through it all. Nice work Twi'.'
"In which order," Twilight asked. He decided that he might as well turn his body around to properly look at him. The fledgling regarded him with confusion as he sniggff and flicked a tear away from his eyes.
"Wh-what difference does it make," he asked. Sighing in a bit of frustration, Twilight spread out his wings and flew down to earth towards the owl.
"Huge actually," he said as he began to parade around a bit as he spoke. "If you need to hide first then you sound to really be in big trouble, but then again if resting first was on your mind then I suppose the scenario you're in isn't that dark." He then turned back to him and stared him right in the eyes. "So which is it? Do you need to hide or rest first?" His motivation for his question was simple, to get straight to the point and get this owl off his back. Just a simple answer, then he gives him directions and then they both part their separate ways. Simple and expected to happen. Yet, again, he was so wrong.
He hadn't expect the owl to shrink back at him, looking up with scared eyes. For a moment's worth of confusion, he couldn't figure out why this owl suddenly became so afraid of him, till the answer came faster then a jack rabbit hopping across the hot, desert sands of Kuneer. This owl was almost less than half of his own size. He had to stare right up at him just to be able to meet his eyes. No wonder he felt intimidated by him. To avoid further conflict and/or humiliation, he quickly stepped back and smoothed down his puffed up feathers to become slightly smaller looking.
"Well, um, h-hey listen sport," he quickly said as he composed himself. The owl looked at him shocked, but noticeably less afraid. Twilight rubbed the back of his with his wing sheepishly. "Hey, uh, I got some food here and I'm willing to share it with you." He lifted up the dead vole he had caught earlier that evening. He could've sworn then that he had seen a mist rise up from the owl's eyes from the sight of some suitable food. "Y-you can have some with me, but, uh, I would like to get home to have it, if that's fine with you."
The sides of his beak quirked up at the sight of the fledgling nodding his head rapidly. Twilight then swiped his wing in front of him, bading the other to follow. Soon both owls were in flight, heading towards that Great Grey's home. On the way there, the youngun asked Twilight, "Um, pardon me again sir, but I never got your name." Twilight's head turned towards him, eyes widened in shock, but then softened in realization.
"Oh, well I guess your right. My name's Twilight. And who might you be," he asked. They were just approaching the hollowed out, dead tree where he had made home in its tangled roots. The Burrowing Owl gave the faintest traces of a smile as he slid in closer to Twilight.
"Digger. My name's Digger."
"And who would had thought that we would become the most unlikeliest of friends, even each other's family," Twilight said. "An orphaned in hatching Grey Great and a family-less, fledging Burrowing Owl, made to be brothers." Digger's eyes widened as Twilight continued, "Not by feathers perhaps, not by our size or our species of course, but instead by our hearts. And...," he paused for a moment, "I wouldn't had had it any other way."
A moment of silence passed between the two owls. Digger was speechless. Had Twilight just referred to him as a brother? As part of his family? He hadn't had a brother since he was just fledging. The Pure Ones and the St. Aegolius owls had ransacked his home. His parents had gotten them out of there and told him and his two brothers to run, but there was a fire burning outside on the desert grass and few plants there were and the smoke was so thick. He lost them in the smoke, but managed to get out before he suffocated. He ran for days, away from it all. He had hoped no one followed him. He hadn't stopped till the scenery changed from sand and cacti to dirt and trees, higher than any cactus back home. He had finally stopped to rest and then realized that he was alone out there. He didn't know what to do, then Twilight had showed up and later gave him a home and a life with him. He owed it all to Twilight.
"I wouldn't either," he whispered back quietly and turned his head back up to look at Twi'. Twilight smiled at him, but then suddenly kneeled forward and burst into a fit of coughs. Digger rushed over to his side and guided him back to his nest, setting him gently in it..
"Easy Twi', Easy," he said. Twilight finally stopped cough and his breathing became a bit more ragged.
"Ugh, I cannot wait till this cold is over," he said and sniffed. Digger nodded. They then both heard the flapping of many wings outside and they saw the many shadows of owls flying in the same direction. The Dining Hall. Must be Breaklight, or dinner time for the owls. Twilight groaned again.
"Ooh, my sinuses. What I wouldn't give for a piping hot, nut cup of milkberry tea right about now," he said, sniffing again.
"Well, I could always get one for you. I can fly over there and maybe I can still catch some thermals on the way there," Digger offered. Twilight stared at Digger for a second before sniffing again and waving his wing towards the hollow.
"Yes. Yes. Good. You go do that. Hurry now, you may still be able to catch a good one," Twilight said, breaking into another cough at the end. Digger nodded and walked towards the hollow entrance. He turned around one last time at Twilight before he took off.
"I'll be back real soon. You stay here and get some rest till I get back soon," he paused before adding, "brother." Before Twilight could look up and ask, Digger had already gone into flight towards the Dining Hollow. Twilight could only stare out the exit at the sky.
"Brother," he repeated. He sighed and rested his head down on the nest to get some sleep in as he thought about it. "Huh, I guess we really are."
"A brother is a friend God gave you; a friend is a brother your heart chose for you" -Proverb
Hope you all enjoyed the story. Thank you again Lowknave for your story idea, I enjoyed writing it. Please leave a review and thanks for reading. Sincerely, v.t.7