Chapter 4- Deserts and Digger

It was the dusk of the next evening when Soren and the others awoke. They stretched out their wings and blinked the sleep out of their eyes. He looked out of the hollow toward the rising stars and thought to himself, when this all be over. I just can't see what the point is in living when death will come anyway.

"Are we ready now?" twilight asked.

"Yeah, we need to get to Kunneer as soon as we can." Soren said with a sigh. He would have liked to just go home and be with his parents and younger sister, but he knew that the predicament that they were facing was far too important to waist any time.

And so, the three owls gently glided down a bit and rose up into the night on a warm updraft. Soren knew that they were getting close to Kunneer. The trees were thinning, the air temperature got warmer at a slow rate and the hills and rivers got smaller until they became hardly noticeable.

It was more than an hour before the hills of trees and stone were gone, replaced by cactuses and sand dunes. The heat from the dessert sands was creating thermal updrafts that made easy flying. The three owls were now soaring over Kunneer.

The sand seemed to glimmer in the moonlight. The only black spots on the ground were the shadowed figures of the three owls, as well as the cactuses. The magnificence of what Soren saw was beyond his belief. Gylfie and Twilight were unaffected, only because they had been there before.

"We should land, my wings are getting tired." Gylfie suggested.

Soren and Twilight exchanged a glance and nodded. They thought that they could fly forever, but for the sake of Gylfie they landed on a nearby cactus. The spiky surface did not harm the owls.

While we are here, we should search for the Burrowing Owl from your dream. If you are correct, he will aid us if we find him." Gylfie said.

"Gylfie, are you able to fly low to the ground?" Twiligh asked.

"Yes, I can search the ground for any holes that might host a Burrowing Owl."

"I'll fly higher, listen for any trouble." Soren said.

"And I," Twilight said, "will go find something to eat."

The three owls lifted off of their cactus perches and flew there separate ways. Gylfie was only inches from the ground and she left a small dust trail behind her tail feathers. Twilight soared high and seemed to melt into the moonlight and Soren flew a few feet from the tops of the cactuses.

Minutes passed, turned to hours of flying over the seemingly endless sea of sand dunes and nothing seemed to point toward finding the Burrowing Owl. They had passed by only five burrows, each empty. The night was half over when Gylfie saw foot prints stretching across a dune toward a small burrow.

"Soren, I think I have found something." Gylfie shouted up. "See if you can hear a heart beat."

"Okay Gylfie." Soren tilted his head and picked up a heartbeat. "It's an owl, I think. It is coming from that burrow."

Soren and Gylfie spiraled down and alighted on the sand near the edge of the burrow. "Hello, is anyone here?" soren asked, peering down into the hole

"G-g-go away, please!" a tiny scared voice replied.

"We won't eat you! We are normal owls, like you." Soren said quickly.

"N-normal?" the voice asked. Shifting noises came from in the hole. A tiny head poked out.

"Is this the owl Soren?" Gylfie asked looking at the round yellow eyes of the Burrowing Owl.

"I think so," Soren replied confidently.

The scared burrowing owl looked up at Soren and cringed in fear. "He is one of them! He is one of them!" he screeched and dove back into the hole.

"Soren!" Gylfie glared at him.

"What did I do?" Soren asked, confused and shocked.

"You scared him!"

"But how?"

"I don't know. Just, stay out of sight until I calm him down some." Gylfie motioned for him to leave wit a flick of her wing. Soren walked over to back of the hole and stayed back a few feet.

The Burrowing Owl soon poked his head out of the hole. "Did he leave?"

"Did who leave?" Gylfie asked.

In a hushed tone the owl stammered, "The m-monster."

Gylfie paused when he said these words. "Yes, but how did you know that he was a monster owl?" Although Gylfie knew that Soren was a normal Barn Owl, she wanted to see what caused this owl to panic so badly.

"The eyes," he said quietly, "the black eyes."

"I see," Gylfie replied, although she remembered the owls at St. Aegolius having red eyes, "but aren't the monsters' eyes red?"

"No, not until they ate…" his voice trailed off.

"Who did they eat? It is okay, you can tell me," Gylfie said.

"They ate everyone, mom dad, flick. I was the only one who got away." The owl began to cry.

"I have to tell you this," Gylfie said, "the owl that you thought was a monster, he is a normal Barn Owl. His eyes are naturally black. He and I escaped from the monster owls, those blood thirsty birds."

"So, he won't really eat us?" the timid owl seemed to relax a little.

"No, he's a friend of mine." She beckoned for Soren to return.

Soren approached and made sure he did not sneak up from behind. When he reached the hole he said, "My name is Soren."

"My name is Gylfie." The little Elf Owl said. "I would be delighted to know what your name is."

"I'm Digger." The Burrowing Owl said as he stepped out of his burrow.

This owl was the oddest thing that Soren had ever seen. His face was a lot like Gylfie's, but it was bigger and had round yellow eyes. It had some white feathers above his eyes and brownish feathers around his oddest feature, thought, were his long, featherless legs.

"Good-" Soren was about to swear but Gylfie glared at him.

"Soren was just thinking about letting you come to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree with us, am I right, Soren?" the Elf Owl said, shooting a glare at Soren. She was quite intimidating when she was angry.

"Unh, yeah…" Soren replied, not knowing what the intimidating little owl wanted him to say.

"Let us fly. Digger, we must introduce you to Twilight." Gylfie said.

"I want to run." Digger replied quickly.

"You want to run? Do you not know how to fly?" Gylfie asked.

"Yeah, I can fly, but I can run well, better than I can fly."

Soren and Gylfie exchanged a glance, and then lifted of into the sky. As soon as they were out of Digger's hearing range Soren shouted, "What were you thinking?"

"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," Gylfie replied.

"I mean you just coming right out and telling him he can come. I think you acted before you thought it over."

"You said that he was the right owl," Gylfie said calmly, "so I simply made it quick and easy. Less time wasted is best."

"But what if I was wrong, my drean happened in so many flashes that I could have mistaken that owl for this one." Soren sounded very anxious.

"I doubt that you were wrong. If you can feel it in your gizzard, you'll know that you made the right choice."

It was close to dawn when they arrived at the cactus where twilight was waiting for them. He had three mice gripped in his talons. "Wouldn't believe the trouble that I went through to get those mice." He said as the three owls gulped them down. "Took me three hours to get them all. Nope, the desserts not the place for a Great Gray like me."

"Well, we have a long night tomorrow, best sleep now." Soren said.

"Good light Twilight," Gylfie said, beginning a chane of owls saying good light to one another and they drifted of to sleep.