Chapter Two: Tele-Town

A week after I was hatched and had my First Meat Ceremony I started to take a great interest in the world that the other telepaths had built outside our hollow.

To any normal owl Tele Town as some called it, would be incredibly quiet since there was not much talking, but to a telepath the clatter of tele-talk almost enough to make you go yeep. That's why neither the Guardians, Pure Ones, nor any other owls ever found out about us. Th them we were a myth, a legend. We never wanted to draw any attention to ourselves. You see, we were concerned about safety. If any other owl ever found out about us and we were exposed there might have been trouble. We were obsessive about being invisible, hidden from the rest. For this very reason an elite group of owls took it upon themselves to stand guard in shifts and watch for any intruders. They were the most powerful, extensively trained and highly respected telepaths in all of town. These Cortex Silencers were often the top achieving Telepathic Grandmasters. I always looked up to them and it was my dream to become one of them someday, just like my da. If ever any owl came across the town, the Silencers would erase the memory from their minds. Even if they tried to fly away the silencers would either be powerful enough to erase that particular part of that owl's memory from a distance or they would fly after the owl to get within range of mind connection. The owl would wake up somewhere else and not have remembered what a magnificent sight he or she had seen.

Tele Town was built by some of the earliest telepaths in the northern region of Silverveil in the time before Hoole. There were about fifty hollows housing all kinds of owls, all telepathically inclined. There was also a large Telepath Academy with ranks ranging from Mind Reader to Telepathic Grand Master. Telepathic owls went to the academy after four weeks in which their parents taught them the basics and have started branching. We were all a sort of a family even though we weren't the same species. We had a dining hollow were we ate all our meals. Everyone helped with the hunt and game was plentiful. We shared breaklight and tweener in the great dining hollow in the middle of town. After which all the parents brought back something for their hatchlings eat. Ropes and bridges hung everywhere, connecting hollows and making life a lot easier. Each hollow was lined with a particular metal on the outside to keep the brainwaves inside it from coming out and also to keep the brainwaves from outside from coming in. It was called 'mu metal'. I learned a little later on in life that also protects against the damaging effects of flecks. We were blissfully unaware of such evil though. Communication between telepaths was frighteningly easy, we always knew what each other was thinking and feeling. For this reason it was not hard to find a mate.

One would accidently think: -Wow, she's beautiful. I love her, I wonder if she even likes me.-

And the other owl would say -You really think so? I've loved you for a very long time too.-

Then the first owl would say with wide eyes -Would you be my mate?"-

I've seen it happen many times before with my head sticking out of the hollow. The telepaths of Silverveil were a peaceful kind, just like the Glauxian Brothers. Completely cut off from the rest of the owl kingdoms, we had no idea of the evil that was growing in the gizzards many a barn owl whose minds were less pure than racdrops! None of us would ever use our powers to harm any other owl. Sometimes however accidents did happen and when it did the 'Mental Medics' were called upon. As you can see alliteration was popular among us, I guess it's because of the way it just rolled off the mind.

So that's why no one knew about the telepaths in Silverveil.