Chapter 3: The Rebels
The family was tied up with ropes as they were being tossed into a cage. Above the cage were four great greys used to fly the cage to the camp.
Three days later, they had arrived to that cursed place. The camp was located in St. Aggies so that place was a deep and had a depressing landscape.
The family was immediately pushed by two big owls to a hall-like area.
There were already owls there, filling almost all of the area. Most of them looked depressed and some even angry. They managed to find a small area where they can stand together.
Around half an hour passed, a barn owl flew onto the rock in the centre of the hall. Two hagsfiends stood by his sides.
'Hello, new inmates.' he said, staring down at the owls in the hall.
The hall which was full of anxious chatting fell into utter silence.
'I am the regional leader of St. Aggies. You all may call me Sir. Oliver the second.' he paused for a while and continued his speech 'Enough with the introduction, let's get to the rules: First of all, you inmates should listen to every command of mine or else we have every right to assign any kind of punishment to you. Secondly, if not assigned to other regions or have special permission all inmates should go back to their 'dorms' by sunrise and start working at noon...'
The speech went on and on about the little rules, Antony was listening closely to every single detail while Athena is extremely bored.
A couple of nights had passed, it was time to eat. Andrew's parents and Antony were sent to Kuneer to do some hard labour and would be back three days later.
He and his sister Athena sat on a random table with a few seats to spare and started eating the two crickets they each got.
Other than the two of them, the table sat a middle-aged boreal owl and six others. An old burrowing owl who sat next to Andrew noticed them and told the others in the group.
'Hello, young ones.' said a female boreal owl. 'Wait, you two look oddly familiar.'
'Really? I... I did not remember meeting you.' replied Andrew in shock.
'You two look like my friend when she was younger.' she said.
A male short-eared owl turned to the siblings. 'They look like a friend of mine and his mate, her name is... O... Otu what?' he remarked.
'Otulissa?!' asked Athena.
'Yes, it's she.' he said.
'She is our mother.' said Andrew.
The table fell into grave silence, everyone turned their heads and stared at Andrew and Athena.
'Two of you are their children?!' everyone except for the middle-aged boreal owl exclaimed.
'Yeah, how in the world did you all know our parents?' asked Athena doubtfully.
'Long story. By the way, my name is Bess.' the female boreal owl said.
'Bess, The Knower?!' the siblings exclaimed.
Bess nodded.
'Besides, how did you two get here?' a young owl asked.
'Well, we went here for having illegal books in our library.' sighed Andrew.
'Not to mention that Bell blew our damn cover!' said Athena angrily.
'Bell did this?!' said Bess in disbelief.
'Unfortunately yes.' said Andrew.
'Besides, how did all of you get here?' asked Athena out of curiosity.
'We are actually a rebel group know as Warriors of Equality or WE for short.' said the middle-aged boreal owl 'I am Paro, the founder of the group. We were caught for being rebels.' said Paro.
'Are all of you part of the rebellion?' asked Andrew.
'Yes, but a few of us are still out there, spreading the word.' answered Paro.
'Haven't heard of you guys before, how big is your group?' asked Athena.
'There are around 150 members at the moment. Quite a small group.' he replied.
'I see.' responded Athena.
'You two seem interested, want to join us? But the risk is very high, you might be tortured of killed by them. Tell me if you two have decided.' said Paro softly.
'We'll be sure to tell you when we have decided.' said Andrew.
After that, the two went back to their 'dorm'.
