Leagues and leagues away, the sibyl woke with a piercing yelp.
"Morgana?" The black wolf rolled over, ignoring the concerned stare of her traveling companion. Glaux, back off, you're not my da! she thought, but only lifted her upper lip a little, revealing her irritation at his closeness with a glimpse of the white crescents of her fangs.
The old, scarred, silver wolf took a step back, his eyes flashing with fear. This scrawny young wolf scared the be-Lupus out of him, and he was a ragged McMurray warrior who had once scared off a bear! No, there was something very unnatural, un-wolfish, about her, an insidious ability to inspire fear in all creatures…
Morgana closed her firey green eyes to block out her escort, to concentrate on what she had just seen… she swam through the images, pushing aside the irrelevant just as she would nose aside debris in a river, swirling memories of strange lives, of familiar faces, of owls and wolves and bears and… the Sibyl paused, finding the source of her distress. "A Changeling," she muttered furiously, her eyes darting back and forth under their lids, "an owl, at the moment."
There was a scraping noise, and her ears flickered in irritation as the image dissolved into mist.
"Regin, what have I told you?! Never, NEVER, take notes!" Her eyes snapped open, blazing yellow-green, and Regin dropped the bone that he had started incising her words.
He dropped his head low, and murmured, "Sorry, sibyl, please continue." She flounced to the mouth of the cave.
"It is gone," she growled. "I can tell no more. And once we get to Ga'Hoole, you can explain to the king why I wasn't able to divine the location of the Changeling!"
"The first born since the times of legend, right?" Regin remarked, hoping to add it to the bone. Anything to make it less of a failure, and hopefully to sooth his charge's anger.
The fire in her eyes seemed to go out, and her shoulders slumped. "The first born in a thousand years, almost exactly to the day." Her voice was flooded with something… pain? Regin thought in disbelief. This wolf had been nothing but a thorn in his side since his clan leader assigned him to protection duties, to escort her to the owl kingdoms. She had been sullen, angry, and cruel, but never once had she betrayed pain.
Nervously, he bowed his head and said, "Then, we must make all haste to the Great Tree… that is, if you're up to it."
"Frinkin' racdrops, you suddenly start to think I've turned into a sprink pansy? Let's move out, now!"
Regin rolled his eyes as the black wolf trotted away. He gathered up his prophecy bone, and stuffed it into his satchel as he raced after that pain-in-the-hindquarters sibyl.