Welcome back to the Visitor. I know the name can be a little hard to understand, but with enough thinking, pretty much anyone can comprehend it. Now, back to the story. Yes, I know that you were all expecting to see someone like Soren or Gylfie to come barging into the place like some kind of heroes, but that ain't happening any time soon. At the very least, I made some reference to the GoG universe.

Chapter 2: The Revenant

A few hours after Kurth had been put to sleep, Henry called his friend, who happened to be a bird specialist and who was also quite interested in owls, and told her that someone had brought a very unusual owl. His friend told him that she was on her way almost immediately after Henry had finished his tale about how he got the owl. He also added that he had a blood sample of this owl and that there were two large scars on its body, one its face and the other was on its breast.

It had caught Lucy's attention when Henry told her that he had found a really unusual owl back in Minnesota and even if she did happen to live in Nebraska, in the city of Blair, she had to see that owl. One of the biggest reason was because the description Henry gave her about the owl resembled the owl that was the main character of the a book she absolutely loved.

And although that book had faced countless challenges in order to get published, such as having to deal with the original holder of the copyrights, it got published after five years of intense debates. The book had originally been written by a youngster named Michael Turner, who lived Canada. The interesting thing about that fellow was that it was his parents that published his book as he was in a coma. A coma that lasted for ten years, only to result in his death. Nobody really knew how he had died. He just did.

However, that was not the point. In that book, the main character of the book was a Barn Owl that happened to be the son of the craziest owl ever and after going through many hardships and heartache, the owl finally managed to kill his mother by plunging with her inside an active volcano. By sacrificing himself, the owl had managed to protect everything that it held dear, but because of some force unknown, that owl was brought back from the dead and was allowed to get a second chance in the land of the living.

The only problem with that decision was that the owl instead chose to exile himself in order to go search for the one that had helped him since the beginning. The one who had helped him was a human that was also called Michael Turner, even if humans were supposed the be extinct in the universe they lived him. The book had captivated her so much that she began digging as much information as she could about this youngster, only to learn that he had died almost a year after the book finally got published.

After hearing Henry out, it made her think if that book was not a prediction of the future. Or that maybe the soul of that youngster got sent in the universe of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, as the book was based upon the work an author that was well known for that series, Kathryn Lasky. So many theories could be applied to that but none of them mattered at that moment for Lucy. All that mattered was that she absolutely had to see that owl.

Not wanting to waste any time, she took he car and set out for Moose Lake, Minnesota. Since Henry had called him in the evening, she decided to get a good night's sleep before embarking into a nearly five hundred miles trip. Based on the results she got on the internet, the time required to go there by car was about eight hours long. While she did consider the whole trip to be worth the while, she still needed to be ready for such a long trip.

The next day, she packed her things and embarked in her car, a luxurious Audi R8 4.2. How she got that car was still a wonder as the car itself was worth more than most people's houses. But she had earnestly and honestly earned the money to buy without having too much debts to bother with. Now, it wasn't one of the new models, but it still cost more than most cars present in the actual society.

In any case, since she was working in her own falconry, she could just call her receptionist and tell her that she would be absent for next few days and just ask the other ornithologist to come instead. And so, her journey began. The owl occupied her mind ever since Henry had informed her about it and with the theories she had in mind, she had to see it for herself.

According to those same theories, the author who wrote the story to which she was so addicted tried to tell that the Hoolian owls existed. They were just in an isolated area that no one had ever found before. Maybe some kind of land that was explored once, but that was never reported back to anyone in the world. She took that author's words as her own and made them her beliefs.

One of the places that the young author suspected of hiding the Great Ga'Hoole Tree was the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle. The Devil's Triangle was a term used in the universe of Kathryn Lasky to describe an area that is affected by a magnetic field. And to prove his point, his explanation hinted to the possibility that all those ships and planes were sunk because of some kind of barrier that hid away the world of Ga'Hoole from the real world.

'Stay away from him! He brings death and misfortune wherever he is!' a voice echoed through Lucy's head.

Upon hearing this voice, as it was slightly menacing, she quickly pulled over to the side of the road and checked if it wasn't her phone or anything of the sort but nothing she checked seemed to have made up that scary voice she had heard. Had it been a warning? Who knew? In any case, she took back the road and continued to make her way to the town of Moose Lake.

As she was nearing the state of Minnesota, Lucy heard the little voice in her had more than a dozen times and each time she did, it was getting more and more menacing, almost as if it was trying to protect someone. It was when she stopped at a gas station to get some fuel that she experienced one of the most terrifying things of her life. She saw a man appear and disappear from her sight just like that! And what stressed her the most was that nobody seemed to have noticed.

Could it have been that the man was also the one with the voice that was always trying to warn her about someone that always brought death to those around him? That vision haunted Lucy to the highest point! She wanted to know what was happening to her, but there never seemed to be any explanation at all those those ... hallucinations.

After the event at the gas station in the city of Little Canada, Minnesota, Lucy didn't get any more encounters with that ghost or whatever that man was. Assuming that it was just due to exhaustion and too much thinking, she paid no mind to it afterwards. It wasn't until she was forty miles away from Moose Lake that she got the scare of her life ... for the second time in a single day!

'Sheesh! Why aren't you listening to anything I say, stubborn woman!' the voice once again echoed through Lucy's mind.

Fortunately, there wasn't anyone on the road as Lucy completely lost the control of her car. She was lucky that her car only hit a soft snowdrift. If it had been anything else, she would have surely died there.

"What the heck! Who are you? What do you want from me?" Lucy burst out in total anger, sending the questions one after the other.

'I see you decided to bare your fangs, woman! In any case, I'm not someone one you should bother yourself with,' the voice replied, almost as if it was making fun of Lucy.

"Why don't you show yourself, for a change?" Lucy harshly replied.

"Fine, fine! But don't go sayin' I never warned you about coming here!" a man exclaimed, appearing all of a sudden next to Lucy.

"You're ... no, that can't be!" denied Lucy. "You're supposed to be dead..."

"Was I ever truly alive?"

"But you ...," Lucy stammered.

"Wrote that book about the possibility of the Hoolian world being closer than we think. You were indeed very smart to have caught on to that. Not even my best friends were able to figure that out," the ghost stated.

"Well, thank you, but what exactly happened ten years ago, Michael?" Lucy asked once more.

"Oh, boy! That's one seriously mean question! Y'know, to have my soul roam the Earth in any way I can is one thing, but to be asked what exactly happened at a time that was already unclear is a complete other matter," Michael remarked.

"Please, I need to know! Your friend, Kurth, is here in Minnesota at this very moment and I think he is searching for you."

"If I had felt the need to see him, I would have done so a long time ago. You read the book, didn't you? I'm sure you know what happened after all those things with Nyra in Beyond the Beyond."

"What are you sayi ... wait! I remember now! You promised him that you would stay together, no matter what. You broke that promise when you gave him your life and a few days after, Kurth swore that he would find you and confront you for what you did," recited Lucy.

"See? That wasn't all that bad!" joked Michael, only to be met by Lucy's serious glare. "Fine, I'll stop being arrogant! You were right, though, I broke our promise and right now, I'm sure that he must hate me enough he wants to kill me..."

"So that's what this is all about!" muttered Lucy.

"Huh, what was that?"

"You're afraid. You always were!" Lucy let out.

"What in blazes are you talking about, woman?"

"You were so afraid of his reactions that you refused to try and find him. You never even thought for a second that he might have considered you his best friend and confident! You never even bothered to go see for yourself if he still resented you or if he had forgiven you!"

"Whoa, there! Enough with the accusations! As I said, if I had felt the need to go see Kurth, I would've done so long ago! Now, let me explain everything that happened in detail..."

Michael started his tale once Lucy parked her car in a parking once she had entered Moose Lake. He explained that once he was sent to the strange world of Ga'Hoole as Kurth's counterpart, his material body went into a strange trance in which he continuously wrote the body of Kurth's tale. Kurth indeed existed as a real Barn Owl, but his future was written by a human.

Michael's soul was just there to guide Kurth into the path his body was slowly carving for the brave owl. Everything he experienced had been already planned before, but no one even dared to think about that possibility. The concepts of the supernatural and science-fiction were thought to be only the fruits of the human mind, namely its imagination.

Of course, anyone who didn't have a critical mind or the mind to reject the pattern of common thinking would certainly call anyone who thinks like that a crazy fool. Why that response? Because it goes against all of their religious beliefs. It was almost as if one would claim to be a god when one wasn't. Some of them even called such a behaviour an offence against their religious point of view...

Anyway, that was slightly out of the matter since he now was getting farther and farther away from their main subject. Michael took back his tale by telling Lucy that when Kurth plunged with his mother, their talons locked, into the lava of one of the five volcanoes of the Beyond the Beyond, they both fell into the boiling lava and died almost immediately after falling inside the volcano.

Upon witnessing Kurth's death, Michael decided to take one decision he had a hard time dealing with. It was something he had planned to happen; he made every effort so that Kurth would become a hagsfiend and fight his mother with the same kind of power she possessed. But when he had begun to incite Kurth into doing that, he started asking himself what would happen afterwards. Since hagsfiends were supposed to to have disappeared from the world, he didn't want them to reappear because of a stupid decision so he led Kurth to sacrifice himself so that the world could be free once and for all.

That was how he began to plan something that would certainly have Kurth hate him for him; give away his own life to bring Kurth back from the land of the dead. He did so because Kurth had something the Michael barely knew in his own life. He had people who cared about him, no matter who he was or what he did in the past. He had some people who cared for me, but a lot of the people he knew resented him just for breathing. And, just to emphasize on that thought, Michael told Lucy that those people he knew weren't even acquaintance, they just happened to have crossed his path more than once.

After having made up his mind, Michael decided to put his plan into action and traded his soul to allow Kurth to return in the land of the living. Reluctant to give up on his only friend, Kurth tried to talk Michael out of his decision, only to be met by the human's response: look around you and you'll realize that those you cared for all this time can still care you for you.

"And that's about all of it," resumed Michael. "and after I traded my soul for his life, my soul couldn't find its way to my body as it had died and ever since then, I am roaming the Earth. After all this time, I still haven't crossed to the other side, so I believe that I may have some unfinished business here."

"Interesting theory," Lucy stated. "but there is one thing you said during your explanation that intrigued me a lot and I want to elaborate on that thing."

"And what might that be, exactly?"

"Earlier, you said that after you were taken to the Hoolian world, your body still continued to write down Kurth's story but according to the medical reports, you were in a coma just after you soul was separated from your body," Lucy told Michael.

"That's a good question ... you might wanna keep that one for a psychologist. I heard those dudes are awfully talented when it comes down to understanding the human mind!" Michael burst out in laughter. But coming back to the original subject, I want you to take me to him."

"Bring you to who?" asked Lucy, completely confused by what the ghost had said.

"Who else, nincompoop! I'm talking about Kurth, of course!"

"Oh, right! Sorry...," apologized Lucy as she started her car once more and take the road again.

This time, she would not make a travel that was around eight hours long. She maybe had around fifteen minutes in car before reaching Henry's office. Seeing him in person again sure made memories come back to her. Since they went to the same high school, they befriended each other there and since then, they kept that relationship to a stable level.

"I thought she was supposed to be here sooner than this!" complained Henry.

"Sorry I'm late!" Lucy let out as she entered Henry's office. "Some idiot made a mess on the I-35 and I got stuck in the traffic for almost two hours."

"Well, in any case, I'm glad you're here! That owl is seriously beginning to become psychotic!" Henry exclaimed, gesturing the room in which the owl was.

"First of all, have you been feeding the little fella with appropriate food?"

"I did ... I gave that owl some dried food, but it never even glanced at them," admitted Henry.

"You and your poor judgement ... I am still surprised that you have your own office! Owls don't eat dried fruits. They mostly feed on rodent and other such animals. What you should have given the owl was some fresh meat," Lucy explained.

"Well, you know I've never liked birds to begin with. I still remember that incident with that falcon twenty years ago."

"Oh, come one now! Don't be such a scaredy cat ... you know that owls are normally very calm birds. If it is angry against you, it may be because you did something you shouldn't have done," Lucy told Henry, looking at him with piercing eyes.

"I ... may have taken the blood sample by force and then put it to sleep with a soporific...," revealed Henry.

"See? That's why I still wonder how you got your own office! You're so afraid to experience what that falcon did to you again that you take useless precautions over such small things!" replied Lucy. "In any case, how about you let me see that blood sample."

"Yes, of course! Follow me," said Henry. "

"Do me a favour, dear," Lucy spoke. " and call that lady who said she would take care of the owl while I analyse the sample."

"Will do, ma'am!" Henry sternly replied, before bursting into laughter along with Lucy.

"All, right, now get to work! And please, keep the ma'am business out of here..."

"As you command, Lucy."

"Stop that already," whined Lucy.

"You know you love it, darling!" smirked Henry.

"Oh, brother!" muttered Lucy. "This is gonna be a long day!"

While Henry was busy calling Linda, Lucy went on ahead in the lab and placed a few droplets on a slide and put in under the microscope lens. The only reason she did that was to reinforce her thoughts on Kurth's revival. If some of his blood cells seem to have been reactivated not long ago, then that would prove her point. If the owl's blood cells were as active as any other animal or human, then it would mean that Kurth had never found his way into Minnesota.

But the coincidences were too many to be just the wrong owl. And more importantly, the soul the writer of the book that explained everything there is to know about mysteries of the Ga'Hoolian world had appeared to her and asked to be brought to where Kurth was. But he hadn't specified where this Kurth was supposed to be. Was he the one that Henry had taken in his office or was he elsewhere in the world?

Those answers were far from her possession, but there was one thing she was sure of, that owl's blood was strange. Its blood didn't show any signs of having been reactivated but it did show signs of mass production of blood vessels. She tried to understand why that was so, until she came to remembered that the reactivation of blood vessels was closely tied to the mass production of those same blood vessels.

"Incredible! So, this owl really is Kurth!"

'Yes, he is! Now, buy me some time. I'm going to see him,' Michael told Lucy.

"Fine, I'll do what I can," complied Lucy. "just don't take too long. Henry is good at getting what he wants."

'I'll keep that in mind. For now, just do what I asked of you."

As she finished her analysis, Lucy clearly heard someone enter the clinic. She started panicking! What would she do? How could she possibly hold them back now that Linda was there? No! She had to pull herself together, or Michael would never have the chance to set his past straight and maybe clear his unfinished business so his soul may rest his peace afterwards.

"Hey, Henry!" called Lucy.

"What is it, Lucy? Oh, by the way, this is Linda," Henry answered, presenting Linda to Lucy and vice versa.

"Hi, Linda," Lucy greeted, shaking hands with the redhead.

"So, you're Lucy. I've heard good things about you. According to Henry, you are specialist on birds?" asked Linda.

"Exactly! Birds have always fascinated me — unlike my friend here — and most especially owls. They have grace and beauty not many birds have."

"Anyway, what was it you wanted to talk to me about to call me like that?" Henry inquired.

"I didn't want to bother you with that earlier, but I am awfully hungry!"

"And you had to tell me now? When I was about to show the owl's progress to Linda?"

"Well, it might've helped if you had asked me if I WAS hungry when I arrived!" Lucy harshly met with Henry.

"Please, don't start fighting for something like that. After all, it is nearly time for supper," Linda intervened.

"What do you suggest we do, then?"

"Why don't you two come over to my house? It's been a while since I invited anyone to eat and I want to know a bit more how you two know each other," Linda told the two.

"What do you say about this, Henry?"

"Let's go. Knowing you, you will probably be as grumpy as ever if you don't eat soon," Henry stated.

"Ooh, you still know me well, I see! But please remember that I can also be grumpy anytime I want ... if you piss me off."

"Please, stop doing that," pleaded Linda. "It makes me feel guilty of setting this uneasiness between you."

"Alright, let's both shut up and be kind to our host for the time being," Lucy told Henry.

"Deal!" He let out.

Now that he had everyone out of the clinic, Michael went over to the room in which Kurth resided. Of all the things he expected to receive from Kurth, forgiveness was not among them. He had expected the owl to hate him for what he had made him do back when he was still in the Hoolian world. Finding his way there wasn't all that hard, though, as he almost felt like he was called to the wounded owl.

One of the advantages of being a roaming soul without a physical body was that he could go right through walls, whereas he needed to use doors before. Michael had always wondered what it felt like and now that he was able to do it, it felt somehow dull to him. Anyway, when he arrived in the room, he saw Kurth trying to open his port wing, only to be met with a failure.

The hit his wing had suffered when he hit that sign was so great that it literally rendered the owl unable to use his wing. He was still able to open his starboard wing perfectly. His port wing ... just stopped responding completely. Michael felt so sorry for that loss, but even he couldn't do anything to help. If the hit had severed a nerve there, then his wing was probably useless at this point.

When the owl turned back, his eyes widened in shock. Could it be that the thing standing in front of him was the one he had searched for? It hardly felt possible for Kurth to believe in that as the human looked so much older than the last time he had seen him. The age was able to fool Kurth a little, but the human's eyes could never fool him! He would always remember those kind, sympathetic eyes. When they had first met, it was what interested him the most.

Although, Kurth did believe that irony was toying with him. Why? Because it took him a commotion and a broken wing to finally find the one who he had been searching for. He had searched the entire world in a whole year and it wasn't until he flew by the city of Moose Lake that fate shone down on him. However, even if the world's irony and fate were against him, Lady Luck had a little something for him.

"Is ... that truly you, Mike?"

But there were no answers coming from the human that looked like his friend. It was strange. It was almost as if the human could not speak at all, but why would that be? Kurth had heard Michael speak to him a number of times he couldn't count anymore. Something in all of this didn't feel right for Kurth.

"Answer me! Please...," Kurth pleaded.

There were still no answers and Kurth was definitely worried.

"You can't speak normally, can you?" inquired Kurth.

Michael only shook his head in response to Kurth's question. At least, he was a little more reassured about the whole situation. Michael wasn't ignoring him, he was just unable to utter a single word. But then, another question was born inside the owl's mind: how would they communicate if he wasn't able to reply?

Then, Michael came closer and closer until he was just in front of Kurth and he showed the owl his hand. It had a strange coloration that was not common in the humans Kurth had encountered before. It was kind of grey and it looked like it was somehow transparent. When he tried to touch it with his left foot, Kurth saw why his friend was so strange.; he wasn't even material to begin with.

"What are you?"

'I'm just the soul of a departed that has yet to complete his unfinished business in the land of the living,' Michael replied inside Kurth's head.

"Wait! Why am I hearing you in my head instead of hearing your voice coming from your mouth?"

'That might be because the dead cannot interact with the living unless he is tied to them somehow,' the human answered.

"No ... you can't! You can't be dead!" protested Kurth.

'I'm afraid so...'

"So that must be why I never found you, despite all the places I've been to."

'Wait, you mean to tell me that you actually searched for me a whole year?'

"Well, yeah! I mean, you are probably my best and most trusted friend, so why wouldn't I try searching for you after everything you did for me," Kurth responded.

'And all this time, you never hated me once?'

"Mike ... out of everyone I met, you are the only one who taught me to remember someone for what they did for rather then for what they didn't."

'But I made you turn into a hagsfiend and you lost the whole Great Ga'Hoole Tree's trust because of me!'

"So? Where's your point?" Kurth simply fired back.

'You ... forgave me?'

"Of course, I did! After I was brought back to life because of you, I returned to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree and stayed there for a week before I exiled myself. During my stay there, I was almost considered as a hero. And you were right about Egg, she did love me!"

'I can't ... believe it! All this time, I blamed myself because I thought that I completely ruined your life and now, you're telling me that from the beginning, you had forgiven me?'

"Yeah! I couldn't stay mad at you for doing what you did. While it is true that your actions were extremely unclear, you intentions were always to protect us and I'm sure that if you hadn't made me fight fire against fire with Nyra, we would have probably never been able to win the war," Kurth told Michael.

'Do you ... truly mean ... that?' Michael stammered, sobbing slightly.

"Are you really crying, Mike?"

'No, that's just ... something in my eyes,' Michael lied. 'but are you truly saying that through your heart?'

"Yes, I am. But now, how about you tell me why you really came to do here?"

'Are you sure you want to hear it? It might cause you another heartache...,' Michael said.

"I am! Just ... go on," Kurth answered hesitantly.

'Fine, but don't go sayin' I didn't warn you.'

"I'm ready, I said. Now, would you just tell why you're here, for Glaux's sake!" Kurth let out.

'All right! Just calm down already!' Michael exclaimed. 'Now, as I was saying, I have died and my soul is now roaming, trying to find an unfinished business to complete. The more I think about, the more I have come to believe that you are this unfinished business,' Michael explained.

"Continue."

'After I will be but distant memory, you will have to act as if I had been your owner. Don't worry, I talked about it to Lucy and she has agreed to play along.'

"But why? I'm used to be free and to live my life alone," complained Kurth.

'With your wounds, you may never be able to be free again. Heck, you might not even be able to fly anymore. Face it, sooner or later, you will need to depend on someone to live,' Michael replied.

"What do you suggest I do, then? Wait around for someone to take me? With my scars, no one will want to even glance at me!"

'Wait for Linda to come and take you. She has no prejudices towards you. She's already accepted you, even with your scars. To be honest, I think she could be an excellent owner for you, especially since you can actually feed on food other than meat.'

"And then what? What will she bring me?" asked Kurth.

'She'll probably give you a shelter and love whereas the vet here has no knowledge in bird care. For the moment, she's your best bet,' Michael stated.

"What about you? Will we meet again someday?"

'I doubt it,' Michael said, his body slowly starting to fade away. 'after all, I AM dead and I think I've just completed my unfinished business.'

"Why? Why are we unable to meet again?"

'Because your glaumora belongs to your beliefs. If you remember correctly, you'll know that I never believed in any higher beings whatsoever ... I guess this is good-bye, then,' Michael uttered before completely vanishing.

"Mike‼ Don't leave me yet! I still need your wisdom ... please!" Kurth pleaded.

Don't worry, I will watch over you forever more. That much ... has already been written down.

And this is it for now. I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of The Visitor has much as I enjoyed writing it. Now, if any of you writers wonder how I managed to put some double punctuation, I'll answer you by saying that I made use of an alt code: Alt+19. That being said, I know the plot is hard to follow at some point, but please bear with it for the time being as it will begin to get clearer and clearer since I will be coming closer and closer to the original plot of the movie, albeit the fact that this story is in parallel with the plot of the movie. If it it so complicated to follow, it is because I develop with a fictive concept I completely made up in my mind so I could actually fit Kurth inside this story. Also, for those searching for more info on this story, feel free to go see my profile as I have updated it and I am explaining the concept of the story in depth there.

The 'Other' Guardian
LordChronicler46