As both Soren, Kludd, and Gylfie, Soren's new freind, were thrown harshly upon the stone floor among other snatched owlets, and in the initial cries of the other owlets, Soren called out "Kludd! Where are you?"
As he looked around frantically trying to locate his brother, he found Gylfie, or she found him, and all commotion froze as the most beautiful and largest barn owl flew over the entire group. After she landed on a perch, flanked by two other masked barn owls, she spoke "I am Nyra, Tyto Ablah General of the Pure Ones. You are all orphans," At this word half the owlets flinched, most other gasped, but Gylfie stood her ground and yelled

"No! The Pure Ones are not our families! LET US GO!" At this outburst Nyra swooped down on the petite owlet, who had wilfed, somehow making herself even smaller.

"What's this?" Nyra inquired.

"You leave her be!" Soren retorted.

"Yeah! She's not even half your size," Added another barn owl, who had stepped foward, plumage puffed, and met Nyra's fiery gaze with her own. This held for a few seconds, until Nyra poisonously announced

"Fiery little Tytos. Well then you and your little patch of fuzz will stay together. AS PICKERS!" After her words, two great horned owls swooped in, one for Gylfie and Soren, and the second for the other barn owl.

"What about my brother?" soren yelled back. "Oh? Now where is he?" As she said this Kludd jerked, trying to look away, "Owlet, this one says your his brother," she cooed while advancing on him, "Would you like to join him?" She asked, and Kludd looked from his brother and Nyra, and looked the other way in submission.

"That's what I thought."

"Kludd..." Soren weakly replied.

"GUARDS! Take them to Pelletorium."

O

As the trio of owls walked down the stone floor, Soren was feeling a mix of emotions, that was cuasing his gizzard to clench almost painfully.
Why did Kludd not join us? Or at least speak out. And who and why did that other owl stand up Nyra?

"Soren, we need to escape!" Exclaimed Gylfie, Soren's newly befreinded Elf Owl, "I think that they are trying to moonblink us!"

"I know we need to escape," Soren softly said, "but how? And what in the name of Glaux is 'moonblink'?"

"It's when an owl is very tired, and it falls asleep at night, it may loose all sense of itself, and cannot tell what is right from wrong."

"That's horrible! How do we escape? Not being blinked, or anything else bad!"

"We need to fly," said the female barn owl, who was walking behind them, "I'll explain later. They are watching."

When both Soren and Gylfie looked around, about three or four owls were watching them. They had seen their talk! But...had they heard? After a while, they saw the beautiful shine of the full moon.
As she said, that night, when the other owlets were asleep, and in obvious discomfort, and the gaurds were relaxed, she told them her plan. "I am Eyja. I am from the northern kingdoms. I was sent here to find out anything I could about the 'Pure Ones'." Both Soren and Gylfie eye's widened, and Gylfie inquired, "But you're just an owlet! Like us!" "No, I am not fully fledged, but I do know how to use this," she slowly replied, slightly extending her wing, exposing what seemed to be a shiny pine needle to Soren, and a clear cactus needle to Gylfie, "It's an ice needle. Not as deadly as an ice splinter, but small enough for me not to hurt myself," she said with a hint of shame in her voice. "How did you get here? And you did this by choice? Why?" Soren poured out questions, which was a great relief from the rule against questions. "I got here from another owl dropping me outside of Aggie's, so I was one of the first owlets picked up by them. I'm doing this becuase my father was killed defending us from Pure Ones, and I want revenge." She said, with her pretty plumage puffing. "I have an idea. I'll come back for you, I promise." She said looking mostly at Soren. "Excuse me! I would like to try to apologize for my outburst earlier tonight at the Ablah General!"

"Fine. Hey you guys!" Jutt yelled to the two owls with metal masks on their faces, "The female wants to apologize to Nyra! Would you escort her?" The masked owls swooped and grapped Eyja roughly, and as they left, Soren felt a sharp twinge in his gizzard. Why am I feeling like this? She said she'd be back...

"Soren, we need to stay awake. And say your number, not your name."

"Why?"

"They are trying to make it meaningless to us. So make your number meaningless, just a jumble of sounds."

I got stuck in the worst place imaginable, but with the best owls with me. I'm not sure if this is luck, or Glaux's doing, but I'm thankful!

As they entered a large room, the Great Horneds were speaking again, but Soren paid no attention, until the one called "Jutt" had handed him a small strange stone, and ordered him to take it up a flight of stairs, and once he got to it, he felt a massive force, which he tried to resist, but still brought him to the ground, when a bat snatched it from him, and placed it into a larger batch, which was carried away. Once Soren returned to his companions, he was only a quarter of his normal size, and shaking violently. Gylfie had an extremely concerned look on her face.

"What happened?" Gylfie whispered.

"I...I...don't know...it was like those things were messing with my gizzard directly! We must get out of here!" Soren replied, his voice cracking from his tears. Only one owl in the entire room noticed this. He would have to confront these owlets.

"You two! The Barn and the Elf owl! Come with me!" Grimble yelled, after the pellet picking was over. They complied, of course, but were scared stiff.

"What are you going to do with us? Jatt will be very angry if we aren't at our pits." Gylfie started, though hard to understand, due to her trembling, when the Boreal owl who had introduced himself as Grimble, repleid: "Well then, they're going to be very mad when they find out what I'm going to do with you," As he said those last words, Gyflie wilfed to only a quarter of her normal size, and Soren was half his size, "I'm going to teach you how to fly. You can breathe now!" He said laughing, as the tiny Elf owl exhaled, knocking herself on the ground, and laughed herself along with Soren.

Earlier in the night, Eyja was being "escorted" to Nyra, but she had other plans.

"Could we land somewhere? My wings are sore," she fake-whined. "Aah, alright. On that rock over there. That's big enough." As they were just about to light down, Eyja moved like lightning, pulling the ice needle from her port wing, into her dominant talons. Once she plunged it into the owl on her starboard side, she pulled it out, cuasing a massive amount of blood to stream out, knocked the other owl onto his back on the rock, she used the momentum to stab the second owl through his breast bone. As she removed the mask from the first-slain owl, she put it on herself, as a disguise. She took off, second mask in her talons. I had to kill those owls. I saved twenty owls, probably! But i still feel awful. As she reapproached the pits, she asked Jutt, or maybe it was Jatt, where Soren was. He answered that Grimble had taken them to his cove, which was on the east side of St. Aggie's. I must save them. Why, I don't know. It was something about that Soren. But what I can't put my talon on. As she settled down on the ground, the three owls looked like they had seen a scroom. She the remembered that she had the mask still on! Once she took it off, she wrapped both Soren and Gylfie in her wings. Both Soren and Eyja felt their gizzards unclench, and she exclaimed.

"I was so worried about you two!" Once she caught what she had said, ending the embrace, she added quickly, "You both have seen what has happened here."

"We're glad to see you too. And you never told us you could fly." Soren said. "Well...I wasn't sure if you weren't just slipgizzles for them. I'm sorry, but too much was at risk." She replied, with more than a hint of embarassment and shame. "I brought you a mask. We can escape from this place, and if anyone were to ask, we could say that we were taking Gylfie for punishment, by request fof Nyra!"

"Unless of course, I know that you are imposters," cooed a voice they all recognized, and now had a reason to almost go yeep. It was Nyra. She stood behind them, flanked by owls with masks.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Grimble you were so close to having your family back. Now you must die for your betrayal." Nyra let out a gizzard-hurting screech, and Grimble rose to fight her in the air. After they had fought, grimble finally had the advantage over Nyra, and yelled to the four owlets to try and fly for their lives. Eyja, Soren, and Gylfie all yelled at Kludd to come with them. He coldly replied no. This struck Grimble, and gave Nyra the chance she needed to throw him over the edge, and by that time the three owlets, had flung themselves over the edge, or more Eyja had pushed them over the side. As Eyja yelled orders, Soren was able to gain control, while Gylfie had to be caught by Soren, at the last second before she had hit the ground.

O

The trio of owls flew on in silence, shocked at what had happened hours ago. Why Kludd had opted to stay was beyond all of them, and they were mostly concerned on fleeing from the hagsmire they had been in. Soren had no idea of what they had done to him, but it must have been horrible. Kludd was always resillient so they must've used things Soren couldn't have imagined! Or, so he thought.

"Soren, we should light down somewhere. It's nearing dawn."

"Well...you're right."

They found a strudy branch, and Eyja lighted down first, Soren afterwards, and Gylfie, who had landed wrong and was upside down!

"AAAAIIIEEE! What happened!" Gylfie screeched.

"Well i'll tell you what happened, girly! You didn't grip the branch tight enough! You held it loosely, and your momentum cuased you to be like that. Just let go and tip you wings, you'll be right-side up in no time!" Boomed a massive silver owl, who had just flown in. And, just as he had said, when the petite elf owl let go, and with a flutter of feathers, she was on a lower branch, looking around, rather suprised she had been able to pull that off.

"Amazing!" Eyja said, half in shock and delight.

"How did you know that?" Gylfie, who had composed herself, asked.

"The Orphan School of Tough Learning! The second I hatched, I had to learn all by myself."

"Oh...well...maybe you could teach of some things...we're not orphans though, we think...by the way what is your na-" Soren started but was cut off by a yell from below them.

"Soren! Is that you? I know your voice anywhere!" Hissed a very familiar voice. Mrs. Plithiver!

" Mrs. Plithiver! Is that you? Really really you?" Soren cried, swooping down to meet the rosy snake, who coiled up trying to reach to meet the owlet.

"Oh, I thought I'd never see you again! I had climbed down the tree to look for you and Kludd! Where is Kludd, anyway?"

After those words were spoken, the original three owls wilfed. They all vividly remembered Grimble, the boreal owl, having Nyra pinned of the floor, and telling Kludd to escape. Him saying no, Nyra throwing him off the ledge, finishing the old owl off mid-flight.

"He...couldn't get out of where we were taken," Soren lied, and although the blind snake could sense doubt, she was overwhelmed by seeing the owlet, who she was sure was dead, or worse.

"Soren we have to get you back to the hollow, your parents are worried to the point of going yeep. And who are your freinds here?" She said, if just now refrencing the other owls, or she had never noticed them.

"Well, missy, I'm Twilight!" Said the Great Gray, who had himself fluttered onto a lower branch, Eyja and Gylfie in tow.

"I know this might seem rude of me, good sir," Mrs Plithiver started, "but how did you get your name? It's rather...unorthodox."

"Rude? Bah! Many owls have asked why, even I asked myself why once, and it's becuase I hatched on the fringes of night and day." He said flawlessly, as if he had practiced for that certain question.

"Well thank you. And you, miss?" She inquired, looking at Gylfie.

"Gylfie, madam. Nice to meet you." Gylfie replied politely. Before Mrs. Plithiver could ask, Eyja answered, introducing herself. After a few more moments of Soren and Mrs. Plithivers' reunion, the snake was coiled on Soren's back, bursting at her seams with the feeling of flight.

A few more hours passed, and they were at a very familiar place, for the Great Gray, the Barn, and the nest-maid. For the owl and snake, this was the place they had lived in for as long as either of them remembered. For Twilight, on the other hand, remembered this as the place he had grown up with foxes. For Eyja and Gylfie, this was sightseeing time. The most greenery Eyja had seen was in the water, and for Gylfie, cacti. Once they found the tree that was the last place Soren saw his parents, they called out. No answer. Another call. Still, no answer. At this, Soren's flight quickened, and landing on a perch, he peered inside the hollow.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing was in the hollow, that had been full of love, laughter, and life. Soren finally gave in to what had been tightening his gizzard for hours: his sadness, tears, and feelings. He almost collapsed on the floor, but managed to stay standing. Although he heard a concerned voice, he didn't turn around. It sighed, and someone was preening his feathers, trying to comfort him. He flipped his head, and saw, rather than his mother, Eyja, running her beak through the feathers on his back. He wheeled around, and wrapped his wings around her, embracing them, and they both swore the heard each other gizzards' tremble at the touch. He held onto her for both physical and emotional support. He held himself up, and Eyja was preening the feathers on his shoulder.

Even though Soren wanted ironically to be as far away from the hollow as possible, they stayed for the day, but Eyja and Soren stood by each other on a perch, not speaking, for they knew what the other was saying.

O

Ok, I know if your reading this and you already have read this, and your wondering : What is chubs doing? I'm tired of having so many chapters. It makes a story more appealing to have less.

I do not own the Guardians of gahoole series, Kathryn Lasky does. I only own Eyja, and her personality.