Chapter 11: Similar Experiences

(Simon's P.O.V.)

It feels great today, despite all the injuries I have been sustaining over the past week or so… I looked over just as Tyler began to speak, "Are you ready to start flying? At any time that you feel pain, think of something to distract yourself from it… you won't have a chance to land once we begin our flight." I nodded my head as I yawned once more; feeling every individual muscle stretching and relaxed was an amazing way to start my day.

"Are you sure Simon? I don't want you to get lost again, I was lucky I had found you two so quickly…"

"Yes Tyler… I feel like I'm at my best possible condition for flying, I believe I can make it this time if you stick close to us." I looked him in the eyes as I was saying this, and he nodded as he turned around. I looked to my left and smiled at Shana who was beaming profusely as she was facing the sea. I asked, "What is it Shana? You are practically radiating happiness!"

Smiling, she looked at me as tiny lightning bolts surged through her eyes, and she spread her wings, "I'll tell you as we're flying."

I smiled wider as I stretched my wings, and when I took off, I felt her do so also right beside me. We started to flap more frequently so we could catch up with Tyler, who had been waiting for us as he was slowly spiraling in the air. Turning towards Shana, I asked, "Can you tell me now?"

She looked at me and said, "Yes, now I can… anyways, the guardians of Ga'Hoole aren't entirely known for their heroics… they are known for their bravery and willingness to do right." As she was speaking, I was looking forward and paying attention to Tyler, but in my mind's eye; Shana was painting a moving portrait, "They are a legend among owls, and most doubt that legends are possible… there is one phrase however, that means thousands of things, and it is this that most chicks, remember the legends from. Here is how my Da used to tell it to me; 'From the golden mists that surround the great tree of Ga'Hoole, the Guardians rise from the dark, performing sublime deeds without any rewards. They spoke nothing except the truth, and with their courage and hearts made of gold; they would vanquish the evil, and mend the broken.' Or that is how I remember him telling me…"

I looked back at Shana as she trailed off, and I saw sadness in her eyes, and I slightly flew closer and asked, "Shana… what ever happened to… your family?"

She looked back towards me, and I saw her beak quivering slightly as her eyes started to tear up. I cringed on the inside as I recognized the look that was in her eyes, her parents must've died…

Carefully and precisely, I flew as close to Shana as I could while maintaining flight, and I said, "Hey, hey… if you don't want to talk about it, I won't force you to. But if you do, I will listen whole heartedly." With as much flight control as I could muster, I tipped my wing slightly back before lowering it, and gently rubbing it against the top of her back. I eased away as it was becoming hard to maintain a steady path. I sighed sadly and said, "If it helps in any way, I can understand how it feels to lose your parents… though it was a horrible way to witness it…"

I glared down at the water far below us as that particular painful memory started to resurface. I shed a solitary tear as I looked back up, and I heard Shana whisper, "What happened?"

I sighed sadly as I turned and looked at her with a softness, and I asked even softer, "Are you sure you want to know?" she nodded as I looked back down, and I started to let the memory flood my mind. "It started when we were heading for a relative's home for a holiday…"

*FLASHBACK -THREE YEARS AGO-*

(A.N.: Every '…' is like passing into and out of consciousness.)

I was sitting in the backseat as dad was driving our car through the outskirts of town, and mom was holding a large map in her hands and resting it against the dashboard. I turned to look outside, and I was smiling as I looked at the snow drifting by, and watched as it would twirl around in miniature tornados before blowing away. I reached my hand up and wiped it across the window as it was starting to fog up, and I asked while still looking outside, "How long until we are at grandpa's mom?"

"We will be there in just thirty minutes Simon… I know you're excited, but this isn't our first Christmas out here." She answered back.

I rolled my eyes as I smiled, and said, "I know, it's just we haven't been here for two years, and you know I like grandpa's snow motorcycle thing."

I heard my dad chuckle as he said, "It is called a snow mobile Simon… and yes, we know, that is why this Christmas is going to be extra special."

Closing my eyes and leaning back against my seat, I sighed happily as I smelled the air, which was chilled to perfection, along with the sweet odor of eggnog and snow. I felt the car slowing down, and my body sliding towards the right side of the car. I felt as if the car was sliding, but it was quickly gone before I voiced my concern. It's not cold enough for ice… is it? "Dad… what is the temperature?"

I heard a few clicking, and I heard him say, "It is a little above zero, why?"

"I thought I felt us sliding."

I heard him chuckle as he said, "Don't worry about it sport, grand dad said the town salts its roads when ice is reported."

As I nodded, I let my mind relax on that matter, and I leaned my head back against my seat as I relaxed my body again. I was leaned against my door as my seatbelt was off, and I had my leg crossed under my right leg.

I felt a chill creep its way into my spine as my hairs stood up, and I saw my eyesight sharpen as I shot them open, and I barely muttered, "Oh no." as I felt the car slow down slightly, and then hearing my dad curse as he said, "Hold on honey, we hit a small patch of black ice."

My mom's nervous voice sounded to the right of me as she said, "Hopefully in ends soon…"

"Why is that darling?"

"B-Because the traffic light is red…"

I looked forward and saw cars driving by in the intersection as we were speeding towards it.

Our car must've hit a patch of un-iced road, because we were soon spinning towards the intersection, and all my senses shut down as we entered the cross road. I looked out my window and saw a dumpster truck speeding at us, and I could faintly make out the window vibrating as if the truck was blaring its horn. I looked the other way, and saw a car around our side just make contact with the front left side of our car, spinning us clockwise as glass shattered and I felt my head slam into an unyielding surface. My vision dimmed, but before it was black entirely, I could make out the lights of the dumpster truck a few feet from the front of the car, with white smoke billowing from its front tires that I could see, all before speed returned to normal.

A loud crash mixed with screaming and yelling, along with the jingle of glass bouncing off rough surfaces. Screeching noise filled the air and cold air whipped fast my face. The painful throb in the side of my head was wearing off, but my vision darkening hadn't.

I opened my eyes and noticed my head was looking out my window, and I could make out a car with a compressed hood against the light pole in the corner of the street flashing sparks into the air before I weakly closed my eyes again…

Loud noises started approaching as yelling was heard, and I opened my eyes and saw an ambulance along with a few cop cars racing down the street. I shifted my hips and groaned as I felt something warm running down my face as I closed my eyes…

I brought my hand up to my face as I reopened my eyes, and when I pulled my palm away, and saw it glistening red. I weakly swallowed as I saw the emergency vehicles pulling to a screeching halt, along with the sound of a fire truck approaching from the opposite side of the wrecked car I was in. I opened my mouth, and yelled out, "H… Help m-me… plea-se!"

Looking towards the front of the car, I blinked back my shock, and then I blinked again, and again… and again. Tears were forming in my eyes, and it took all my will power to look away. No matter how many times I blinked my eyes, the image of my parents was still burned into my eyes, and more so in my mind. I looked at my palm, and then looked past it and saw what was digging into my side; a shard of broken glass, and the painted part was facing upwards at me, had half a snowman's face on it…

I looked back outside my window and saw cops rushing towards the dumpster truck and the other car, and I saw the remaining cops, along with someone in a blue uniform running towards my car, but towards the other side of it. I reached down, and pulled the glass from my side, and was highly surprised when I felt not a thing against warmth running down the side of my body. I looked at my mangled door, and I pulled the handle; causing my door to literally drop off…

I fell out of the car as I dragged myself away from it, thinking only one thing, I must get away from my parents dead bodies… I felt the tears sliding down my cheeks, and I rolled onto my back as the pain started to engulf me, and I cried out. Soon, I saw a blurry black uniform, along with an equally blurry blue uniform standing above me. I felt myself being lifted up, but when the touched my side, I cried out, and I felt the pressure being removed and the fabric of my shirt being lifted…

"That's a deep cut; we need to get him to the ambulance now! He requires immediate care!"

"On it, we will radio for more ambulances…" I felt myself slipping away, and I faintly heard the bubbly voices saying, "HE'S GOING INTO SHOCK!"

*END FLASHBACK*

I was looking down as I muttered out, "My grandpa died of a heart attack as soon as he heard the news… and he was the only other relative I knew of that would take me in…" I shakily took a breath in, and I weakly looked over at Shana who had sadness and shock written all across her face. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, but I also felt like a thin line between Shana and I had been strengthened. Her eyes that once threatened to spill tears now only contained caring, concern, and understanding.

Looking back forward, I let my breath out, and steadied the quivering in my heart. When I felt a tear slowly slide down over a feather on my face, I sighed before trying to harden my emotions so that I didn't end up crying; I didn't want to appear weak for the world to know.

I felt something graze the end of my wing, and as I looked over, I couldn't help but soften at the fact that Shana was the cause of it. She smiled comfortingly as she opened her beak and said, "Thanks for sharing that with me Simon…" she looked away slightly as she said, "I think I feel like telling you what happened to my parents now…"

My smile dropped slightly and I shook my head and said, "You don't need to tell me, I just wanted you to not be so sad."

"But I want to tell you… my da use to always say 'sharing a memory can make one feel lighter, no matter how tragic.'" She looked back at me and said even firmer, "And I don't want to bear this by myself…"

I nodded and asked, "Well, then… what happened?"

While I was watching her, a shudder ran through her body, and she looked forward and said, "One day my Ma had been mobbed by crows while she and Da had split up to hunt, and Da had found her just before they grounded her."

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but what do you mean 'grounded her'?" I asked.

"Oh, um… it is a term my Da used to describe being rammed into the ground at high speeds… anyways, when he got there, he had just been able to fly between her and the ground. He told me that when he arrived, he and Ma fought them back, and that was why they were scratched up when they came home. They had collapsed in the hollow as soon as they had landed, and while they were slowly regaining their breath, they had told me what happened. Later, towards daybreak, we had all settled down and were sleeping… until mid-day when we awoke to the smell of smoke. My ma and da slept in a different hollow, so when my brother, sister, and I got out, we couldn't get to our parents, and they couldn't get to us…" Shana took in a few deep breaths, and a few tears slid down her face, but she continued, "later on, before we found a hollow to rest in, my brother and sister sacrificed themselves to fight off crows that had found us flying…"

I couldn't look away as I registered what she was saying, but I did manage to dry the tears over my loss, only to have them come out over sympathy for what Shana had went through. I sighed before saying, "Shana, I think that is enough… I don't want to have you in a sadder mood than you are already… just think about how life is for you currently." I smiled as she looked up at me and smiled weakly. Flying slightly closer, I said, "It is better to ponder on a mysterious future, rather than remain sad over tragic past events…" Her smile was growing the more I spoke, so I decided to turn her remaining sadness, into a full front happy attitude, "And if you're moping all day, you won't be able to enjoy me."

Smiling even wider, she giggled momentarily before she nodded. A random thought popped into my head, and I couldn't help but ask, "You remember when I first met you?" She nodded slightly as she grew slightly confused but curious, "Well… what were you thinking when you clawed my hand?"

When I finished, she slightly floated away as she looked away with a sheepish grin on her face. She looked back at me before saying, "I had no idea what you were, along with the fact that I had just seen you fight three crows; I was scared you were going to attack me."

I chuckled as I nodded and said, "I can see your reasoning in that… anyways, I was thinking…" I looked away slightly as I took this into more consideration, before turning back towards Shana and saying, "…what if we chose to live on the mainland, instead of at the Ga'Hoole tree? I know you want to see it, and most likely stay there… but I would like the idea of a forest more than one giant tree…"

I looked over at Shana as she opened her beak, but before she could say anything, Tyler was flying close to us, and he said, "We will be nearing where the fog collects around the tree… stay close, and pay attention only to me, and make sure you are flying near each other also… I don't want to have you guys getting lost again, ok?"

Looking back at Shana, her expression had gone slightly serious, and I heard her say, "We got it…"

"Ok, stay close now…" Tyler finished off as we continued to fly on, with a greyish white hue now rising from the water, and then condensing into a thick fog.

A.N.: Here is the next chapter; I hope you all enjoyed it! Please notice the question Simon asked that wasn't quite responded to… we will get to that in the next chapter, along with a few other things. This chapter was mainly a view of how Simon's background is, along with Shana's. That part of the chapter was a way to strengthen their bond, even if it was minuscular, understanding someone plays a big role in a relationship; whether it be your buddy, a GF or BF, or just a stranger; understanding how someone feels (and not just saying it) can, and will, gain you respect points…