CHAPTER 7

My gizzard rung with the words. Pure ones? What was even more chilling was the leader of the five owls. He was a Tyto alba, apparent from his brown feathers and white face. That its, what I could see of it. His face was covered by a fierce metal mask -Looking like iron- that revealed nothing but two eyes; one open, and one scarred shut.

"Who are they?" Asked one of the 'cats' that stood below them. Enemies, Scarlet thought. At least that was the impression they gave her. Suddenly, the five owls multiplied. Six- eight- twelve? Owls waiting below rose to join their allies.

"We are the Pure Ones! The descendants of the purest of owls- the Tyto's that came before us! The mighty owls of the past; His pureness, Kludd the Highest of the pure! This is of whom we serve. Seize the castle! And as for the 'cats' you shall fight them last. They are too far from the sky to help the Guardians."

The owl behind the metal mask was right. The cats were too far below us to be of any help to us, unless they could leap. As if to answer my question, an orange cat with green eyes leaped with all of his might, scratching the feathers of one of the Pure Ones. It dropped to the ground, where the orange cat grasped it with it's claws and finished it off with a swift bite to it's neck. One of the Pure Ones stopped flying in mid air, it's wings folding in on themselves. It quickly plummeted to the ground, landing in a small Ga'Hoole tree. That's what we all 'going yeep,' where an owl is shocked in mid-flight, causing their wings to fold and plummet to the ground; usually resulting in their deaths. This owl, however, had survived.

The owl tried to fly back up to meet its allies, but was stopped by The Purest One. He dived towards the small yeeped owl, and swiftly slashed it's wing with a might sweep from his battle claws. This time, it landed in a pool of water. It did not return. "We have no place for yeeped weaklings in our mighty army!" I was horrified by these cold, cold words that the Purest One spoke of. I could not believe my gizzard.

Without warning, the Pure Ones attacked all at once, followed by dozens of owls from the castle -battle claws ready- leaping and swiping at the Pure Ones. The cats began to pounce, catching a few Pure Ones along the way. But for some reason, An'Deer was nowhere to be seen. I didn't have time to focus on his absence. I swooped into battle, knocking aside the smaller Pure Ones. How am I to fight with no battle claws?

Just as she thought this, An'Deer flew towards her, battle claws hanging from his beak. I quickly fitted my talons into them, their weight pulling downwards from my feet to my gizzard. For a few seconds, I felt as it my legs were going to be ripped off of my body. By the time I got used to it, An'Deer had handed out battle claws to all of the owls on her side. Char flew higher than the rest of the owls, and began to shout a song.

Without warning we will strike

Like a blizzard in the night

We'll strike you down in honor of our home

We'll make the tales of your demise well known

We will not lose to the likes of you

While you may be pure, us owls are true

We will show you how to fight

We'll have you ripped to shreds before first light

I could see that the Pure ones Were very distracted by this. It was then that a boisterous voice stood out above the rest, "Pure Ones, we must retreat. We will return!" And with that, the Pure Ones were off. There had been no casualties that I noticed.

"Where did you get that poem from, Char?" Scarlet was curious. "Oh, I made it. I have been reading a lot about the songs of Twilight, one of the ancient guardians of a land known as Ga'Hoole. They say it's what Ga'Hoole trees were named after." Scarlet was mystified. She had never heard of this land.

After the fighting was done, it was nearly light. But I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about the tales of Ga'Hoole Char had shared with me after the cats left and the battle had ended. He said he had read about it in the library. Could she find this book in order to learn more of it? But that wasn't what troubled her. As she looked over at her hollow-mater, Char, she wondered; What was Ga'Hoole?