Chapter 10: Odd one Out

Cato mustered all the energy he could spare towards one singular goal, one that was so vitally important, that it had overridden the part of the mind that controlled common courtesy for others. At any moment, he could have collapsed from exhaustion, yet he continued onward. I think I could have too, the non-stop flight over both land and sea had greatly seeped the energy from my body. Still, I wouldn't leave him alone in a place as grand and tall as this.

I quickly caught up to him, matching my pace with his as we searched for any kind of food in the depths of the Ga'hoole tree. At this point, I'd eat pretty much anything I could get my talons on.

After some time spent roaming around the many bridges and spiraling branches of the tree, we had finally managed to locate where the food was being served. It turns out that we didn't need to go down, we actually needed to go up. You can imagine our reaction of this discovery. The sun in the sky had officially disappeared, and the lovely moon had taken its place.

We climbed up some roots, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Gylfie and Digger having tweener with each other, along with a few other owls on the upper levels of the hollow. She noticed my presence, and waved at me and Cato to come join them. The crow eagerly strolled over to them, not saying a word as he grabbed the first thing that he saw (which was a bunch of what seemed to be dried green caterpillars) and shoved a few straight into his beak. I wish I could capture the look on Digger's face, seeing as how Cato literally stole his food right in front of him.

"What the?! Help, someone! I'm being robbed by a crow in the frinking moonlight!" The burrowing owl yelled out, although I could tell that almost nobody took his cry for help seriously. Gylfie giggles at his silly, but understandable display, before turning her attention to me.

"So, looks like you finally made it. I… we, were worried about you two." She said with a heartwarming smile. However, it dissipated when she tried to look over my shoulder. "Where is Alex?" She asked, and while my spirits started to hang low to the ground, I had to be strong about this. No more tears, at least not for tonight.

"He's in the infirmary, recovering from our long journey. He'll pull through, like he always does." I firmly informed her, and while a part of me felt bad for not being entirely truthful about both my feelings on the manner and just how bad of a condition he was in, I didn't want her to worry about him. That's my job, for now. She nodded, and she thankfully didn't press for more details.

"Matty boy, could you please tell me who the hag this is? Because I want to know who I'm fighting before I deliver some much needed justice to this fiend." Digger crudely leered at Cato, over exaggeratedly cracking his neck, which made Cato's eyes widen, and opened his beak in confusion, letting out a half eaten caterpillar.

"Oh, him, that's Cato. He had nowhere to go, so we asked if he would come along with us, and he said yes." I calmly gave him a brief report of our new friend's situation, and I then staunchly stood between the burrowing owl and the crow. "He's not your enemy, and he's not a mugger Digger, he didn't mean to take your food. Right, Cato?" I looked over to him for an answer.

"Um, yes sir, I sincerely apologize for taking your food, and I hope you will forgive me." He said earnestly, but Digger wouldn't stop glaring at him. I honestly didn't know what to do, and I don't think Gylfie did either. The burrowing owl slowly stalks around me and to the crow, making himself look twice as big with his feathers. Cato thrusts his good wing over his face, and started to shake in fear. We back up, unsure of his next move.

Suddenly, Digger started to chuckle amusedly to himself, which started out quietly, but quickly grew into maniacal laughter. Then he started to roll on the wooden floor, cackling like a deranged lunatic. Two, much older owls than I, began to cautiously approach the bumbling burrowing owl.

"Is everything alright here?" One of them questioned the three of us, and we could not begin to explain what was happening. Digger began to speak.

"Oh my- Glaux! You… totally fell for it! Your faces, oh my Glaux, your faces!" He exclaimed through gasps of air. Oh… wow… he really did that, didn't he? I don't think he understood how big of an… asshole he looked at that moment. Gylfie, who quickly took control of the situation, excused the burrowing owl's behavior.

"Sorry sirs, my friend here, as you probably already know, is a very special person." She pats Digger on the head, like he was a baby owlet (I mean, he was already acting like one so…). "Isn't that right, Diggy boy?" She mockingly cooed at him. His laughter had ended, and was replaced by confusion and uncertainty.

"Uh, what the hag are you talking about?" He asked, although the elf owl has sidestepped around his question as quick as a flash.

"You see right there? He has a very bad case of short term memory loss, and it makes him act in what many would consider to be, a stupid, and idiotic way. Once again, I am sorry for the inconvenience good sirs." She politely bowed to the older owls, one of them nodding in approval before leaving the hollow, the other letting out a fair warning.

"I'd make sure that it doesn't happen again, got it?" The owl said, and then left the hollow, a slight limp in his step.

Digger stared at Gylfie incredulously, the slow burn realization that he had just been played for a fool at his own game was a splendor to see. She smugly smirks at the burrowing owl, and it was at that point that I couldn't hold back my own giddy laughter anymore.

"That… was so cool Gylfie!" I congratulated the elf owl, coming over to her and giving her what Alex called, a "high five" with my wing. I personally don't know why it's called that, since wings don't have just five of anything, but hey, I had to do something. She reciprocated the action, and even Cato, who was previously shivering from Digger's antics, churred humorously.

"You might be laughing now, but I wouldn't dawdle for too long. You know they'll ream you out to dry if they find out you're late for practice." Digger mockingly used Gylfie's tone of voice, the astonishment and surprise was wiped away from his face, showing off a grin that rivaled that of a hagsfiend's. However, she remained cool as her homeland at night.

"Yeah, and that includes you too, Digger." She said, before focusing her attention back to us. "I know that you guys have just got here, but I don't think they'll mind having a couple more students around. That is, if you want to be Guardians."

"Wait a second, you're training to become Guardians?" Cato questioned the elf owl, who was as shocked as I was to find out such a discovery. I would have never guessed that someone as… exuberant and abrasive as Digger would ever think to join something that was bigger than himself.

"Yeah, although it's not going to be easy, as it should be. You should have seen Digger after our first night here, he looked like complete, um…" She trailed off, I guess she didn't want to swear in front of us. Digger finished her thought for her.

"I felt like ten pounds of racdrops in a five pound sack, alright? To be fair, they didn't say that we had to learn how to read and write Hoolian, along with all of the other crap we have to do." Gylfie harshly bopped him upside the head for the rude language, although I think it was because she didn't want Cato to hear it, rather than me.

Glaux knows how much Alex swears every night.

"Now, we're not forcing you to do anything that you don't want to do, you don't have to come with us. The Guardians are alright with owls that don't wish to join their cause, as long as you're not a threat or anything to them." Gylfie said, and the burrowing owl chimed in with his usual response.

"But, you do get a pretty wicked pair of battle claws and a cool stylish helmet, don't forget about that." She rolled her eyes in dismissal of his comment.

"It's not just about the weapons and armor, Digger. Being a guardian, it's like you have to…"

"Commit to it, right?" I interjected. "You have to swear to yourself, along with everyone you know, that you will defend those that can't defend themselves, mend the broken and weak, make sure that those that are lost will be found. Did you have to do that?" I asked, and Gylfie nodded.

"Yep. It's funny, but I think Soren said something along those lines whenever we were deciding if we really wanted to be Guardians."

"Well, don't tell him I told you this, but at least you didn't completely sound like you were paraphrasing a part of a story that was told by your legend-loving father." Digger lowered his voice, his eyes looking around for the barn owl. I peered around the burrowing owl, and I saw the young Tyto stealthily approach us from behind. He covered his mouth with a wing, I think he was pantomiming a shushing gesture. None of us said a word, and Digger was none the wiser.

"It's not just about the moth, which was clearly mine, but I digress. There's a big lake, somewhere around The Beaks, and the area around it has so many fat and fluffy critters for miles. And it does something to your mind, makes you… crazy."

"Crazier than you?" I wondered out loud. How could a place make someone even worse than him?

"That's not the point I'm trying to make! The frinking place made us all lazy vain assholes, and I'm not entirely convinced that Soren ever changed in the first place."

At that point, Soren strode up real close to him, a mischievous smile growing on his face.

"You didn't." He creepily whispered in his ear. Digger jumps up in sheer terror, effectively head butting Soren right in the lower jaw. The barn owl's plan to scare him had unfortunately backfired. Still, laughing at the expense of my friends wasn't beneath me.

"I knew it! You were trying to kill me, weren't you?" Digger waggled a talon in front of the Tyto, who was rubbing his beak in pain. "Well, you're not going to get rid of me that easily, I'll tell you that!"

Soren sighed, probably getting tired of Digger's attitude. He rolled his shoulders, and then proceeded to pick up the burrowing owl with his wings. Obviously, the newly made passenger didn't take too kindly to being treated as an item.

"What are you doing?! Put me down this instant, you ninny headed mcspazatron! Someone, help, I'm literally being kidnapped! Hel-" Soren squeezed him hard, not enough to harm him, but enough to get him to stop talking and making a scene. I mean, I wouldn't want to be manhandled like that, yet I feel like for this one instance, this course of action was appropriate. The barn owl looks at the three of us, motioning for Gylfie to come to his side.

"I heard a bit about what you guys were talking about before I had that fantastic idea floating around in my head, and I just wanna say that you should probably take it easy for tonight. There's no need to make a decision as big as what we made when you haven't even got enough time to get some rest. You two must be exhausted after all that traveling, right?" He asked, and the two of us nodded slowly. "Go ahead and get some shut eye, and I'll take our little owlet away from here." He smirks, and his passenger's voice, although muffled, could still be heard.

"I hate you all."

"Let's take our lumps together, shall we?"

They leave us at the hollow, with a certain pep in their step. Cato and I were free to continue with our meal, which was something I really needed. I think we had a good excuse for sleeping the night away, and it's not like my schedule wasn't screwed up before. We shared the last of the caterpillars with each other, the taste of them was a tad too salty, but I couldn't complain. We were both drained from everything, yet that didn't stop the crow from speaking his mind.

"You have some very interesting friends, Matt." He tiredly remarked, "Especially that crazy little guy. How'd you guys meet in the first place?"

"We needed a place to lay low, and Digger's hollow was the only one we could find. At first, I thought that maybe we shouldn't have stayed in the home for an insane avian, but now… I'm glad to have met the two of them."

"Two of them? Someone was living with him?" Cato seemed as surprised as I was whenever I discovered that someone was huddling with Digger.

"Yeah, he's a big Great Gray owl named Twilight. Don't worry, he's not quite as, special as Digger. I think they complement each other nicely. That is, if you can believe that."

"So, is he, well, nicer than Digger?"

"He's different, that's for sure. He's kind of like Alex with the unyielding sarcasm, but he prides himself about using his words like the "poet" he is. He has a pretty decent filter."

"I guess Alex doesn't have one, does he?" Cato says and I chuckle in remembrance of all the times that the Tyto used literally every single swear word owl kind had created. Even the one that most people wouldn't use because of its inherent vulgarity, and ones that I wasn't too familiar with.

"Nope, not at all. I don't think he'd tone down the swearing even if he had a bunch of owlets around. But I like him for that."

"Really? Don't you ever get tired of it?"I shook my head no.

"There are way worse things someone could do than flippantly saying frinking or um, uh… fornicating. Are you tired of it? I wouldn't blame you, it took some time for me to adjust to his way of speech."

"Eh, my parents are the same, more or less. You should have heard my father getting angry with some dumb seagulls, he lost his voice for an entire day after that." He peers down to the ground, becoming a bit sullen. "I hope they're still out there, somewhere. I… miss them."

"Hey!" I reach over to the sides of his beak, lifting them up so that he looked like he was smiling. "Turn that frown upside down! If the Guardians can't find them, we will." He slowly grins naturally, his mood lifting from my positivity.

"You always know just how to raise someone's morale, Matthias. Maybe that's why Alex likes you so much."

"That's part of it. Anyways, we should probably get going. I feel like I'm going to pass out at any second."

We leave the dining hollow, and head back to the quarters that the mean owl called Samzon showed us. I noticed that the tree was now bustling with activity, and it was getting harder to maintain Cato's pace. My poor legs were just about to give out, but I was determined to get a good light's sleep (I know that the moon is out, I don't care, I'll sleep through the entire night and day if need be). We carefully maneuver past the waves of owls, of all kinds, shapes and sizes, and we climb our way up to our room.

I don't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I thought that I saw someone very familiar in the crowd. But, it couldn't be, could it? He shouldn't have been up so fast, there's no way he could instantly recover from such an encounter. He should be in the infirmary, safe and sound where nobody could hurt him.

Yet, something in my gizzard was telling me that what I was seeing was actually real. Who was I to ignore such a strong presence in me? When Cato flew up a vine, I chose to follow the silver owl. I slipped away from everyone, and pursued him. I wanted, no, I needed to find out the truth.

I tailed the owl outside, using the last bits of my energy to keep up with him. He perched atop one of the many thick branches of the tree, overlooking the lustrous moon in the sky and the expansive sea below. I hung back, partially because I wanted to listen to whatever he would say, and also because I couldn't move anymore. My legs didn't respond to my commands, my eyes growing heavy.

"I can't believe you… we, made it." He sounded just like Alex, although there was something mysterious and eerie about his voice. It seemed like there was a slight echo to his words. "I know you can't hear me right now, but I… I think I'm scared. I don't know what will happen if you die right now. I don't really want to find out either. We've been through too much, it can't end now, can it?"

Whoever this person was, if it was Alex or someone who looked and sounded the same as him, I could agree with that sentiment. It's too bad I couldn't give him the answers he needed. The barn owl trembles in sorrow, his voice wavering.

"I don't want you to die. If you died, I… I… would die too. A part of me would die if you left me, left us. Some of them may not admit it, but they all love you. I love you. Please… don't leave." The Tyto wipes his eyes with his wing, temporarily ridding himself of any tears that formed. Suddenly, he turns around, and those eyes, the same eyes as my friend's, looked back at me. "What, what are you doing here? Did you hear what I said? You can, you can see me too?" I didn't reply, but I think he knew that I could.

At that point, my body had finally given out. My grip had loosened, and all of my limbs became unresponsive and numb. Wind rushes into my ears, and the voice of my friend screamed my name as I fell closer and closer to the waters below. It was the last thing I would hear before I lost myself to a dreamless sleep.

"MATTHIAS!"