Sorry about the delay. I finally rewrote the chapters. Well, hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I do not owl (own... terrible joke) Guardians of Ga'Hoole.


Dain had risen and heard everything that was discussed. Mary approached him.

"Sweetheart, you are wounded. You should stay quiet in your nest…"

"Don't worry. I feel fine." Then, he turned to Soren. "I would like to thank you for saving me."

Soren sighed and moved out of Dain's way, so he could see his son.

"If you want to thank someone, you should thank your son. He saved you from instant death after you passed out."

Dain walked slowly to Shard's side and whispered in his ear while tears left his eyes: "Thank you, my son…"

Otulissa than said:

"Dain, you said that you could told us the story about Shard, but I don't think that this is a appropriate moment…"

The white owl interrupted.

"No. I think all of you should know the story behind Shard's birth."

Soren and Otulissa gulped.

"It all started after I met Mary…"

While Dain told the story, Soren imagined exactly that scene in his mind.


In the starry sky of Silverveil, Dain was flying between the trees in search of food.

"I'm pretty sure that I saw that mouse around here…"

He landed on a tree and started to triangulate. He could hear the sound of the slow heartbeats of his prey, but then, something started to shine inside another tree that was on his left. He lost track of the mouse and cursed himself. When he looked to the tree, he choked. The tree was TOTALLY green, and after some seconds, it returned to its original color.

"What in Glaux's name is happening here?!"

He thought that the moon could be playing tricks on his eyes, but he thought again: "The moon isn't green… I'm going to find out what's that…"

He entered the hollow with more fear than curiosity, and for his surprise, there wasn't anything special inside the tree… just an egg.

"I think I'm going yoicks…"

Then, the egg shone. Dain was dumbfounded. He didn't know what to do. At first he thought the egg was on fire, but again he thought that fire isn't green.

"What in Glaux's name is this?"

The mention of the name 'Glaux' made the egg shine even more. Dain hold the egg and felt attracted to it. But, he heard a sound. The wing beats of an owl… and it wasn't Mary. The brilliance of the egg disappeared while the owl entered the hollow.

"Who are you?" asked the Snowy Owl in an offensive position and in an aggressive tone.

"Fear not, Dain"

Dain jumped, surprised. 'How he knew my name?'

"My name is Glaux."

"Blasphemy! How dare you call yourself Glaux!"

"Kneel before me." Commanded the owl.

Some strange invisible force made Dain fall and kneel. He tried to speak, but he couldn't.

"Dain, you aren't a bad owl. You don't need to act so aggressively."

Dain stayed in silence as he couldn't do anything. 'Is he really Glaux?'

He felt his body trying to express itself, and it moved without him wanting.

The God owl looked to him in a curious form.

"So, you are one of the chosen ones…"

"What!" he said and then he blocked his mouth with his wings. He didn't knew he could speak again.

"Fear not. Go on, say what you want."

He took a deep breath and then said:

"I don't know if you really are Glaux or just a lunatic, but I won't give you the egg!" screamed while panting. Although he could stand still, the invisible force hadn't vanished.

"I won't…"


At that moment, Otulissa interrupted the story.

"Wait! What! How so? Glaux actually exists and you talked to him?!"

"Well… it wasn't really a chat… but yes. I believe that he was Glaux."

Otulissa couldn't resist and started to ask questions endlessly. After some minutes...

"How was he? And what is this talk of 'chosen ones'?"

"I can only remember that when he entered the hollow, I thought he was a Barn Owl, but he was a Snowy Owl just like me. His voice was as serene as a Boreal Owl's and his height was just like a Great Grey. In fact, I think he was a mixture of each owl. As for the 'chosen ones', I don't have a clue about what it could mean." Said sincerely.

Before Otulissa could ask another question, Soren said:

"Please, continue."

Otulissa calmed down and stayed quiet. She was too anxious for the rest of that story.

"All right…"


"I won't. You are going to take care of this child. I know that you and your companion will be happy with him."

"Him? It will be a boy?"

"Yes. By the way, he is too a chosen one."

That owl was starting to get smaller and smaller.

"Why are you diminishing?"

"I never leaved this egg. I live inside it… just as I live inside certain owls."

Dain looked to him as he transformed himself in an egg. But, even being an egg, he could still talk. " This little guy is going to become a hero someday…"

Dain would say something, but the voice interrupted him.

"You will only remember this conversation when the right time comes. Until there, live your life normally. So…Farewell!"

Dain was blinded for some seconds from an intense light that came from the egg. When he could see again, he didn't know that he forgot about the past five minutes.


Dain finished this part of the story and completed:

"I only remembered this after I waked, but I'm sure that Glaux's egg merged with Shard's. After that, I took the egg and brought it to my hollow that I divided with Mary."

Soren was fascinated. That story was really, REALLY different from any other that he had heard.

The Spotted Owl asked:

"But how Shard was born?"

Mary noticed that her husband was tired and answered:

"He was born during an Eclipse."

Soren remembered about the old legends that he read at Ga'Hoole's library about owls that were born on Eclipse days. " An owl who was born during an Eclipse has a spell thrown on herself/himself in which can lead to purity of heart or an evil-ish being." Soren hadn't doubt that Shard's spell was the good one. Shard didn't want the others to suffer. He was a good owl, and Soren thought that he would make a good Guardian. Maybe even better that he was.

While he was lost in his thoughts, Otulissa looked to him. He was breathing deeply and eyes closed. She knew that he was meditating about what he just heard. She turned to Mary and asked her to tell the story of her son.

She tried to calm down, at least as she began the story.


At that night, there wasn't any cloud at the sky. The stars were shimmering so bright that it looked like tiny holes that connected the Earth and Glamoura. I was at the edge of the hollow, thinking about our new egg. Due to some problems with flecks, I couldn't lay eggs, so having an egg for me made me feel very happy. Dain was hunting and he said that "the new mother of the Southern Kingdoms" should rest her body.

I went back deep in the hollow and stayed together with the egg. I could feel his heat, the heartbeats of that little owlet. I was so anxious that I regurgitated an pellet. Even if it was not "really" mine, I already felt attached to it. I was so occupied trying to find a name to give to him/her that I didn't even notice Dain entering the hollow.

"So… how is the egg?" asked my husband with elegance while put the rat on the floor.

"He is fine. He will probably hatch tonight!" I said without hiding my joy.

"That's good… " he said, but then, he cursed while hit his forehead with his left wing "Dammit… I forgot to hunt an insect for the First Insect Ceremony."

"You don't need to worry about that now sweetie. I'll go and get that after he hatches."

"No way! I go now. " he smirked. He was as happy as me. Our dream of having a son/daughter was close to come true. Do you know this sensation? (Soren and Otulissa nodded) "I think I just saw one just passing by here…" Dain was going to take off the hollow when he suddenly froze and started to shake. I noticed his vision was fixed in something.

"Something's wrong dear?" I asked in a voice a little lower than usual.

Dain turned to me and jumped in my direction and we fell on the ground one second before something hit me. I could only hear the noise of something extremely fast hitting the wood of our hollow. When we stood up, we saw that it was a burned coal. "What the…"

Unexpectedly, five owls entered the hollow. The five were Tyto Albas and were using metal masks and battle claws.


Soren and Otulissa flinched. Their hearts were racing and they were panting. Dain was holding a bucket with water and was cleaning Shard's blood.

From this moment on, Mary's voice started to fail. She was scared to remember those terrible moments, those moments of despair, but she looked to her son, and that gave her courage to face the past and continue with the story.


Two of them grabbed Dain by the wings while the others three restricted my movements by surrounding me.

"Where's the egg?" said the one that looked like the leader of them. It was the closest to a roar that an owl could make. I flinched and couldn't speak. That whole think was scary. Then, I felt something at my claws. It was the rodent that Dain hunted. He must have thrown that to me while that owl screamed. I already know what to do, but I simply couldn't do that right now.

Dain looked back, turning his head one hundred and eighty degrees, to face the leader.

"I don't know what you are talking about. In this hollow, only me and my wife lives."

I couldn't believe in our luck. It seems that before they enter the tree, a strong wind took a piece of moss that stood on the edge of the nest until the egg, covering it and concealing it.

One of the owls that was holding Dain asked fastly:

"What do we do now, boss?"

The 'boss' made a strange movement with his claws and the two owls who held Dain nodded and squeezed his wings. Dain screamed in pain and kneel. He looked to me, and I knew that that was the moment to put my plan in action. The owls that were surrounding me were looking to the leader. "This is my chance" I squeezed the rat in my claws and cut it into half. My claws were covered with it's blood. I took half of it on my beak and throw into one's head while with my claws, I dirtied the other owl's eyes with blood.

The scream of pain was sufficient to draw attention of the owls that were holding Dain, releasing him and coming into my direction, but their idea didn't work, because Dain made them trip on his claws. I was asking myself how stupid these owls were. I flew over the leader and reached the egg. As expected, the leader didn't let me reach the exit., but before he could even blink, Dain collided with him, making him lost balance and after that, they started to fight. When I could, I flew toward another tree, but them my gizzard froze when I heard Dain scream:

"MARY! WATCH OUT!"

When I turned my head to see what was happening, I saw that same burned coal coming toward me. I could barely evade it, but the coal burned part of the eggshell, making it crack.

"NO!" My world suddenly turned to black. My child was in danger and the only think I coud hear was that owl's laugh. Dain headbutted him, making him fell from the tree, but he could still fly. My anger was just growing. I wanted that owl killed with my claws piercing his skull. I left the egg inside the tree and flew toward him. "If it was a fight he wanted, he just got one. I was so drowned in my wrath that I didn't want to notice my limits. I just kept fighting him and he couldn't even touch me. I kept punching and plucking his feathers and when my anger reached its limits, I grabbed his claws and threw him at a tree, making him crash with his backs at full power on the wood. My muscles were aching, so I had to stop. Dain helped me reach the new tree while the owls were fleeing with their leader defeated, but not death. He was flying in a strange way while laughing.

We faced our burned egg. I couldn't stop my tears, nor could Dain. Our only child was dead… or so we thought. I felt the tree becoming even more dark, and when I looked to the sky, the moon was dark and started to rain. "The sky is crying… just as I am…"

Dain touched me and asked me to see something. When we went back to the hollow, the egg was moving. I cleaned my eyes. Am I seeing things? This can't be… It's a miracle! In less then one minute, we could see the egg tooth, and them CRACK. The egg broke and inside it, there was a white fluffy ball.

"It's a boy…" said Dain. "My boy… my son…" he cried silently.

We lost shards of our souls before he came to life, but when he was born, those shard in our hearts and gizzards were replaced with the love we felt the moment we saw him. It was needless to say what would be his name.

"Welcome to life, little Shard."


Mary finished the story while crying. She was a very emotional owl.

Otulissa and Soren were trembling. Those owls… they had absolute certainty that they were part of The Pure Ones. They were back. The moment Shard came to life was five days after Coryn died if Soren calculated right. Soren's heart didn't know the meaning of the word 'decelerate". He felt all his body pulsing at the same rhythm of his heart. Then, they heard another sound. The sound of a owl waking. Shard was waking.


What do you think about this chapter? Give me your opinion! (I'm accepting ideas too)

Glauxspeed!