A worried hush had fallen in on the Great Tree ever since Terri brought up the theory that Pure Ones were recruiting owls, and possibly humans, from the human world. Boron, Barran, Ezylryb, and all the other rybs and the rest of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree were all gathered in the dining room. Boron stepped up.
"Ahem. Now, you all have heard that Terri discovered this map…" He held up a piece of parchment. "…In her hollow. The map had obviously been put there by someone anonymous, since she and Chloe have claimed that they, or their roommates, never even knew that there was a map hidden in there." Barran now spoke.
"This map has the locations of all return portals in the Southern Kingdoms. We think that there is even another map of return portals of the Northern Kingdoms in that hollow. But whatever the case, there have been Pure One patrols flying in and out from Beyond the Beyond, and each time they come back, they have more owls and a couple humans with them. This proves that they are most likely taking in new soldiers from the human world by accessing a return portal." Boron continued the speech.
"Now, Terri's first thought was that the Pure Ones are planning to launch an attack against the Great Ga'Hoole Tree." All the owls suddenly wilfed and the humans stared up at Boron in shock. "However, we have not any evidence to prove that…yet. The Pure Ones may also be launching an attack against St. Aggie's and not us." Everyone relaxed.
"BUT!" They all snapped their gazes back to the Snowy king. "That is of our concern too. St. Aggie's has the largest storage of flecks. Glaux knows what terrible things flecks can do to us. Yesterday, we found out that our dear friend Ilene has been afflicted with flecks and seems to be in some kind of eternal sleep. If flecks can even get inside a human's body without them noticing it, who knows what they Pure Ones would do to all owlkind and mankind if they get control of the flecks?" Bubo raised a talon.
"Why don't we all send someone to spy on the Pure Ones?" Out of the corner of her eye, Terri saw Ezylryb flinch. But Boron shook his head.
"No. It's too risky. If we send a whole lot of people to the Pure Ones, they will instantly guess it's some sort of trick. And if we send them one by one, they will still be suspicious because of the great increase of people who actually want to join them."
"But we must do something!" cried Vilaryb. Everyone started chatting with worry to each other.
"What will we do?"
"We can't go to war, if they have even more soldiers than us!"
"Too many of us will die!"
"We can't even try to fight them!"
"QUIET!" Boron's command rang throughout the dining hollow. He looked at Barran and nodded.
"Also, Terri says that Taylor seems to be missing," she said. "Has anyone seen her?" Ezylryb flinched again.
"Not me."
"Not me!"
"I didn't see her this morning."
"Terri, please tell us what happened to make you think that Taylor left the tree." Everyone looked at her.
"Well, last night I told her to come hang out with me and my friends. But when she didn't come a while later, I suspected something was up, so I went to find her. She wasn't in the hollow, and that's when I found the map. I checked in all the other hollows around us, but she wasn't in any of them." Terri stopped to clear her throat. "When I went back to the break room, no one had seen her either." Everyone was silent either with astonishment or horror.
"I went to Danryb and Vilaryb because that's where Taylor said she was going…But they didn't know what I was talking about. So they started to search for her too."
"We were going to report it to you, sir." Danryb was now speaking. "But you were already asleep and we didn't want to disturb you."
"Okay. We are going to send a Search and Rescue patrol—"
"No!" All heads swiveled to face Ezylryb.
"No," he repeated more calmly. "I have sent Taylor on a special mission to get a book we have lost. It will take her a while, because the book is only found in one place in Silverveil." Eyes swam with confusion. Was the real reason of Taylor's disappearance because of a book?
"This book is very precious to me," Ezylryb briefly explained. "And it contains valuable information."
"What kind of information?" a boy called from the back.
Oh dear, how am I supposed to answer this… Ezylryb pressed on.
"It tells about flecks." That was the first thing that popped into his mind, but everyone, even the rybs, seemed to understand anyway.
"Nonetheless, we will have to continue without Taylor," said Mikeryb, leader of the Search and Rescue Chaw. Maya nodded in agreement.
"Maya, you and Bubo go prepare the battle claws and battle hands." Boron looked out over the crowd. "We need as many as we can to prepare for the war that's coming…if there is one." Battle hands were like battle claws, except they're designed to fit a human hand instead of talons. They were first invented by Maya, who had trained as an apprentice of the Rogue Smith of Silverveil before she came to the Great Tree. She also thought of leaving little spaces on the tips of the battle fingers so she could insert sharp slivers of diamonds. This way, it tore at the opponent more easily…and painfully.
"Sire, you might want to send the Metals Chaw out," said Maya. "We need more iron and diamonds, if not then any kind of hard gem or rock."
"The Colliering Chaw too!" boomed Bubo. "We're nearly outta coals this week! I'll take those lazy bums out till night and they ain't gonna rest until each of them has collected about 50 buckets. And they better have some bonk coals or I'm gonna whoop their scrawny little butts into the right peach-ish shape!" The members of the Colliering Chaw wilfed and shrunk.
"We don't need that much…" muttered Maya.
"If only we had ice weapons," said Suzie, a member of the Weather Chaw. Her owl partner, Khao, perched on her shoulder. "But the only one who has them is Hizashi."
Hizashi was a Japanese girl that had traveled to the Northern Kingdoms from the human world. There, she had become as fierce as any human being could be, but still not evil. She brought her ice weapons with her, which included: six ice splinters, one ice dagger, and one ice scimitar, when she decided to go to the Ga'Hoole Tree. She had gotten wary of the war in the Northern Kingdoms.
There was a strap with three pockets. She carried three of her ice splinters in these pockets and had nearly perfect aim. Because of her skill, Danryb allowed her to get her own pair of battle hands. Hizashi grew stronger. Some say that she had launched an ice splinter at an enemy owl a mile away and still, it hit the poor owl square in the chest. And conveniently, her ability was to make ice out of thin air to make more ice weapons.
"Yes, Hizashi's help will be greatly needed," agreed Dewlap grimly. "We must find her. Where is she?"
"I'm here!" she called. Hizashi was holding her ice scimitar, which would explain why the kids around her were shaking. Her strap was more like a belt, and the three pockets currently did not have any ice splinters in them.
"Hizashi, if I may," began Vilaryb. "Would you mind if I asked you to teach the Battle Chaw how to use ice weapons?" All of the Battle Chaw gasped in astonishment. Hizashi thought for a moment.
"Hm…Alright, I will. But if they try anything on me—" She shot a quick glare at Athena. "—I will quit instantly and keep the skills of the ice weapons to myself."
"Thank you," said Danryb.
Athena was a rude girl who thought acted like she was Barran. She said that she deserved as much respect as a queen just because her second name was a god's name. Hizashi had taken an immediate dislike to her, as did everyone else. Athena had always been jealous of Hizashi because of her ice weapons.
"Everyone will start training immediately. Dismissed!" Everyone scattered. Only Terri was left behind and stared at the sky from the gigantic opening in the ceiling. Dark clouds were beginning to gather. She could sense that dangerous times were coming, besides the fact that she's a cloud reader/weather changer. Suddenly, something called down to her.
"Talia," it said. Terri blinked. Talia had been her name in the human world.
"My name is Terri," she replied. The voice sounded familiar.
"Talia," it called again. A snowflake fluttered down.
"Snow!" gasped Terri. "In the end of summer!" She looked up. It was no mistake. The voice belonged to her other sister.
"Judy?" she whispered.
