A/N: Hey folks. I've been having a run of good writing lately, so I'm gonna try and update as many chapters as I can. I just hope I haven't jinxed myself. Ha!

I only own the books!

Chapter 2: Reading Lesson

Life in the Great Tree was . . . different. For one thing, the food was cooked! Pelli was amazed at how advanced the owls of the Great Tree were. They understood so much, from forging, to weather, to navigation . . .

To fires.

Pelli shook her head at that last thought. The colliering chaw was indeed something astounding. Being able to fly right into the heart of a fire, grab a coal and emerge unscathed. And Soren was part of it.

Pelli had been avoiding Soren ever since she got to the Great Tree. She was completely embarrassed that she had mistaken him as a Pure One when he was merely trying to rescue her from the fire that otherwise would have claimed her life. In the dining hall, though she could see him gesturing for her to join him with his friends at . . . a rather crowded nest-maid snake, she opted to choose a snake with less owls. If he flew up by her during free-flight, she quickly maneuvered away from him. However, there was one place she had been avoiding with conflicting emotions.

The Library.

Pelli had never even SEEN a book before, much less read one, and yet, Soren seemed to be in there every day along with an old Whiskered Screech Owl who had a squinty eye and a missing talon. He was . . . frightening. And though Soren and the old owl made her want to stay away from the library, she also desperately wanted to go in there and LEARN how to read!

And every day, she wondered about life back in Ambala. Had her friend Hortense escaped the flames? If she had, did the other know Pelli was alive or did she think her friend dead? With each passing day, Pelli longed to return to Ambala and find her friend.

A dream of flying through the remains of the fire of Ambala to find Hortense crying where Pelli's hollow had once been woke the Barn Owl earlier than normal. Pelli looked around. Her hollow mate, a Short-Eared Owl named Lilly, was sound asleep and the harsh light of the evening sun glared into the hollow. Deciding that she would be unable to get much more sleep, Pelli made her way down to the Library. Perhaps no one would be there . . . perhaps, she could finally look at those wonderful books and learn how to read!

As she suspected, not only did it seem like there was no one else awake in the Great Tree, but no one was in the Library either. Pelli felt a smile work its way over her beak as she looked at all the wonderful books. However . . . she couldn't even read the titles.

"Well . . . no way to start learning if I don't try." She muttered and pulled off a book that had an interesting cover. Staring at the title to try and discern a meaning, she gave up after a few minutes and flipped to the first page. There weren't even pictures.

000

Soren sighed slightly as he traversed the Great Tree. He had woken up rather early that morning and decided to make his way to the Library to read something before Tweener. He had the gollymopes. He was sure the Barn Owl he had rescued from the fire trusted him, so why was she avoiding him? She knew he wasn't a Pure One . . .

As he entered the library, he stopped short at the sight in front of him. The Barn Owl from the fire was there. She seemed frustrated though as she stared at the first page of a book that was lying open in front of her.

Pelli frowned at the odd squiggles that she knew were words and letters. She simply couldn't decipher the meaning behind them! She didn't even know which letters were which!

Looking up to give her eyes a break, her feathers pressed close to her body quite quickly as she jumped back a ways. Standing only a few steps away was Soren!

"How . . . How long have you been there?" she asked, quite startled. She hadn't even heard him enter the library.

"Only a few moments. What are you reading?" Soren asked, hoping that maybe he could get on friendlier terms with the owl and that she'd stop avoiding him.

Pelli felt ever more embarrassed. "I . . . I don't know. I don't understand the writing." She admitted sadly.

Soren looked from Pelli to the book and back again to the Barn Owl. "You can't read?" he asked, wondering why she seemed so uncomfortable.

Pelli shook her head. "I've never even SEEN a book before." Then, getting an idea, she walked over to the book again. She was closer to Soren than she would have liked, but she really wanted to learn how to read . . . "What's that?" she asked, pointing her talon to the first letter of the first word.

Soren looked over at the book and where she was pointing. "That's a 't.'"

"And that?" she asked, pointing to the next letter.

"An 'h.'" Soren clarified, moving a bit closer to see the words better.

"And how about that one?" Pelli asked, pointing to the last letter of the first word.

"An 'e.'" Soren said.

"Oh . . . 't,' 'h,' 'e' . . ." Pelli repeated the letters as she stared down at the word. "So it's . . . tee-atech-ee?" she asked, looking up to find that Soren was even closer than she had realized.

Soren churred, hearing her attempt at the word, 'the.' "No . . . The 't' and 'h' together have a 'th' sound."

Pelli blinked. "So it's . . . 'th-ee?'" she asked, a little confused.

"Say it altogether. It has one syllable. It's one sound. 'The.'" Soren instructed, smiling.

"The." Pelli repeated dutifully before frowning. "But you shouldn't have said how the word's said!" she snapped, wanting to have figured that out on her own.

Soren churred some more. "Sorry. I'll be more mindful of that in the future . . . er . . . I don't know your name."

"Pellimore. But I like to go by Pelli." Pelli said and as she did so, she realized that Soren had no grudge against her for thinking him to be a Pure One. She had been avoiding him for no real reason. However, she wanted to make sure, and one thing he said was causing a funny feeling in her gizzard. "And how do you know you'll even have a chance to tell me how a word's pronounced in the future?" she asked with a bit of a smile.

"Er . . . well . . . I thought you wanted me to teach you how to read." Soren said, rather embarrassed now. Of course, she wouldn't want him to teach her. She'd been avoiding him. It was sheer luck that caused him to even run into her.

However, Pelli smiled. "I'd like that." She said and then turned her attention back to the book. She pointed at the first letter of the next word. "What's that?" she asked curiously.

"An 's.'"

"And that?" The next letter was pointed at.

"That's a 't.'"

Pelli was dumbfounded. "But you said that was a 't!'" she exclaimed, pointing to the first letter of 'the.'

Soren churred once more. "That is. But that's a capital 't' and the other one is a lowercase 't'. They're the same letter, but they look different."

Pelli frowned at the book. "Letters are weird." She muttered, but pointed determinedly at the next letter in the word. "How about this letter? What's this?"

"That's an 'o'"

And so began the first of many reading lessons between Soren and Pelli.

A/N: Squee! I had fun with this chapter. =3 Even if this IS my third attempt at it. The writing streak is going! Yay! There's at least two more chapters in this story. I'll be sad to see it end.