So here's Chapter 9 at last. Mesmo takes a long journey and meets a falcon and a wolf. Enjoy :)

Chapter Nine: 'So that's what a wolf looks like.'

In the eight moon cycles that were to follow I took a trip around the owl kingdoms and really grew into a fully fledged upright young telepathic owl. In my constant search to find these wolves and one wolf in particular, I also took a journey to explore new land and meet new owls. From Tele Town in Silverveil I ventured to Shadow Forest, then across the Barrens, in and around the Forest Kingdom of Ambala, around the border of the Desert of Kuneer and then on to the Forest Kingdom of Tyto. I didn't talk to many owls, I mostly just read their minds from a distance. The ones I did talk to were all very surprised that I was telepathic. They did know about my kind, but to them we were just a myth. Most didn't believe me until I demonstrated and some even went yeep, nearly fell of their perch or actually did fall before regaining flight just before hitting the ground. So I stopped telling strange owls about my powers. All in all it wasn't quite as great meeting a non-telepath as I expected. The conversation between myself and the middle-aged spotted owl I met in Shadow Forest went something like this:

-"Hello there sir!"- I boomed into his head telepathically. I was so excited to meet a non-telepathic owl that I nearly scared half to death.

He regained his balance after nearly falling from the branch on which he perched. "What in the name of Glaux in Glaumora!" He frantically swiveled his head around in all directions until his eyes finally came to rest on me where I perched on a branch a behind him.

"Greetings young'un," He began, still spooked "I could have sworn I heard a voice in my head. I must be going yoiks."

-"Oh, you're not going yoiks sir. I'm telepathic. Sorry if I scared you."- I spoke telepathically again.

He shuddered. "The… the... telepaths are... are just a myth." The spotted owl stuttered.

"Well I'm not a myth." I finally spoke out loud.

"No, that can't be. Telepathy isn't real" He shook his head.

I'm telling the truth sir. Think of anything and I'll tell you what you thought about."

"Okay, I'll humor you." The image of me flying up and away and leaving him alone came into my mind.

"It's me flying away isn't it?"

"It can't be! Well, what do you want from me owlet?l"

"I... Um... Are you a Guardian?"

The owl jerked in disbelief. He then turned around, spread his wings and flew off. While speed flying he sheered. "There are no Guardians and there are no telepaths!"

'Wow' I thought 'He really is yoiks.'

This conversation occurred at one of the times I took a rest from traveling. During my long journey from Silverveil to the Beaks, I made stops every now to rest and to learn. I never stayed longer than a week at a time in the same place in an owl kingdom. I would find a nice empty hollow in a particular place where I would like to settle down, find some soft rabbit's ear moss for it and fall sleep. Then I would wake up at twilight the next few nights and go exploring, hunt, prectise flight techniques, practice combat with branches and my new battle claws, practice telepathy and read my telepathy book back at my temporary hollows. I often left my book and battle armour in these temporary hollows when I went exploring and hunting. Telepaths have a very unique and efficient method of hunting. When prey is spotted the telepath would get inside its brain and cause it to freeze in fear. The owl would then easily be able to swoop down and kill it with one swift step and fly up with the rodent in its talons and enjoy a well deserved mind-manipulated meal.

I enjoyed my voyage in the sky with my battle armour on and my book strapped my back with vines the most though. I traveled for about three nights at a time, sometimes alighting down to rest my wings and sometimes just have a look at something that interested me. I also stopped and found a hollow every night just before the dawn and read the telepathy book in the morning light and slept during the day. I flew for a while during the day a few times. I was joined by crows with the intention to mob me on several occasions. Such small brains they had. I devised multiple ways of combating these filthy creatures telepathically. They included mental blows that sent the crows hurtling through the air in unconscious, mind control and the irregular forced yeepness. After a small amount of encounters with these crows they started to avoid me. In fact some even tried hide when they saw me coming. Which they were quite excellent at, what with smaller minds being more difficult to detect and all. Word spread in the crow universe apparently to avoid the 'evil telepathic manic' or so I read from the crows' minds. Each night I spent flying the load of the ancient artifacts became lighter and lighter. It even became easier to do flight maneuvers. Soon it felt like I wasn't carrying any armour or book at all. I was getting stronger with each passing night I spent soaring trough the sky as the best Cortex Silencer in telepathic history. My telepathy was improving a great deal too. My mum, da and my mate Silvaria would have been proud of me. I thought about them and Tele Town every night, especially during flights when I looked to the horizons as I was carving the air around my grey primary feathers.

I'll never forget the day I saw the most peculiar bird sitting atop a birch tree one night. I was flying along the River Hoole when I spotted the bird I later learned to be a falcon. I alighted down on a branch on a tree a few meters from the birch and took my helmet off so as not to attract his attention. A wolf moon was out tonight and the glint of my helmet was reflecting its shine. I watched the falcon. It was defiantly not an owl, a crow or a seagull, which I saw one night and it thought something so revolting that I yarped a pellet right over the land that I was flying. The bird was watching the River Hoole flow by that separated the Forest Kingdom of Ambala where I spent most of my travels, from the strange land with rocky spires known as the Beaks. We were perched in Ambala near the border and this creature had not yet sighted me against the pine tree which camouflaged well with my lateral whitish-grey and brown plumage on my belly, brown wings, back and tail feathers and grey and brown head and neck. This is how Barred owls such as myself look. He was a very different however. He was the most muscular bird I had ever seen. The colour black was present on his large wings, back, flight feathers and his head. His deep onyx eyes which reflected the River Hoole and his dusty black curved beak were yellow at their base. A colour that I rarely saw, expect when I looked under my own feet or saw my beak in the reflection of myself in a pond. And his large feet were also this light yellow colour. They harbored the biggest talons I had ever seen. He had to be a bird of prey. All of the rest of the feathers on his legs, belly and the insides of his wings and tail feathers were a tan colour with horizontal black lines except for his neck which was just regular tan. I decided I would read his memory. I had become so much better at memory reading since the first time I tried it with my now deceased mate. Through the total unlocking of my powers and with practice I obtained, I was better at it now than any other telepath had ever been. I slipped into his memory banks while concealing my mental presence and analyzed the knowledge he had about himself, past experiences and then finally inspected his regular emotions and personality at the front of his brain. This large bird was called a peregrine falcon with the formal name of Falco peregrinus. He was a mooncycle or so younger than me and was in search of a mate. But I picked up that he had a major crush on a female Barn owl named Era. I blinked. If that wasn't enough, this owl was a Pure One. He was usually a fun-loving enthusiastic free flier, but tonight he was depressed.

'Oh Era, why do you love that Tallox wet pooper.' He thought as he stared into the water. 'If only I were a Tyto Alba.' Then a thought of him diving for coals to bring back to the Pure Ones with this owl called Era whom he was a good friend to came to his mind.

'He's in allegiance with the Pure Ones.' I thought as rage from my gizzard began to rise to my brain as it had all those moon cycles ago. But he continued to think and now the rage fell all the way back into my gizzard and turned soft. Sympathy then replaced it.

'Too bad she's a Pure One. I don't know what she sees in them. How can I be friends with a Pure One? And more importantly how can she BE a Pure One. She's nothing like them. I love her and I know she sees me as a friend, but I want to be so much more than that and I want her to leave the Pure Ones and Tallox and be with me.' He then began to ponder on how beautiful and lovely this owl was and I thought of Silvaria.

I don't know how it happened, but when I thought of Silvaria I accidently injected the thought into his head.

'What the...' He thought 'I've never seen that kind of owl before. How could it pop into my falconistic head? Although... She looks kinda like Era.'

I couldn't just let him think he was going insane. He had enough problems of his own. So I flew up to the birch tree where he was perched.

He stared me down and then said, "Hello there. My name's Talon... This is so weird. It's like... Like I had a vision of you before you came."

"Er... About that. It's my fault that you saw what you did. My name is Mesmo by the way. I'm a Barred owl."

"So that the kind of owl I saw. But how is it your fault? You can't make me see stuff."

-"Actually I can. I'm telepathic."- I said telepathically.

"Wow, that's so cool!" He shrieked as only a peregrine falcon could. "What else can you do besides reading minds and talking into minds?"

I was breathless. Everyone whom I met in all of the other owl kingdoms thought it to be some kind of curse. But I ignored them. I was proud of my Teleglaux-given abilities handed down to me through the ages.

"Well," I replied, "I have the ability to control minds..."

"Ooh, do me , do me!" He shrieked again.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Make me do something!" He replied

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

-"Alright."-

I focused on his movement functions located at the top of his brain and decided that I wanted make him lift his wings. I concentrated on the cells that controlled his wings and forced him to spread them. I held them up for five seconds and then dropped them. His wingspan was just a centimeter smaller than mine. Talon gasped.

"I feel like a puppet." He smiled. "So who was this owl I saw before you came? Was it you?"

"No. She, was my mate. I mistakably channeled the thought to your mind when you thought of this 'Era' owl."

"No worries." He looked sort of embarrassed about me reading his thoughts. "So what happened to your mate anyways?"

"The Pure Ones." I replied. "Not only did they kill my mate, but they killed the rest of the telepaths too. They also burnt our home to the ground."

"Aw, I'm sorry. I know they're bad and mean. What reason would they have to eliminate all the telepaths?"

"They probably saw us as a threat." I shrugged my wings. "But what of Era? What's her story?"

He looked into the River Hoole as he began to speak. "I've been friends with Era since we were hatchlings." He began. "We joined the Guardians for a while and we were in the colliering chaw together, that's collecting coals for fire by the way. I've always had a major crush on her and she knew it. But she didn't feel the same way about me. Also she felt like she didn't belong with the Guardians and that she was misunderstood. So she left the Great Tree one mourning and left me a note saying she's joined the P.O.'s."

Then he looked up at me. "I don't want to help the Pure Ones by bringing them coals, but it's the only way I can talk to her. She's a collier for the Pure Ones now. Though I doubt she could have collected the coals that burnt your home. How long ago was that again?

"Six moon cycles" I replied.

"Yeah, we were still with the Guardians at that time. Now she met an owl there called Tallox and fallen head over talons in love with him. I just wish she would come back to the Great Tree with me."

Then there was an uncomfortable silence. It was broken by the talkative falcon. "Are you heading to the Great Tree of Ga'Hoole?"

"Yes." I replied "But I have to find a telepathic wolf first."

Talon tilted his head slightly.

"Only, I don't exactly know what a wolf looks like."

"Oh, well it's furry and walks on four legs and has a long body. You'll know it when you see it. I saw one hunting in Tyto Forest just before I came here. There is a wolf moon out tonight you know."

I unfolded my wings slightly as if to fly off. "Can you tell me where I can find it?"

"Uh-huh. Just cross the river towards Tyto and fly four degrees east of the Golden Talons constellation and he's probably still at the lake and the small mountain I saw him between when I flew over here."

"Thank you and good luck with Era." I said and then rose in flight to fetch my stuff and meet the wolf.

"Goodbye my new friend. We'll meet at the Great Tree if you ever find your way!" He called as I flew off.

"Bye!" I called back. Friend... I've never had a friend before. Only a mate.

As I entered the Forest of Tyto I found a nice hollow to sleep in the following day and to leave my armour and book in. I flew around for about ten minutes after I found the hollow and before sighted the lake and the mountain next to it. From where I was flying while I first crossed between the lake and the small mountain I spotted a brown blob lying next to the lake. It was alive, it had brain that I could now faintly feel. There was tree that grew next to the lake a few meters from the brown blob. I perched in it and observed this creature which was a lot clearer now up close. It matched Talon's description of a wolf. 'So that's what a wolf looks like.' I thought. The wolf was eating a hare and now looked up at me. I felt a tremor of fear deep within my gizzard. Those canines were terrifying.

"Hello owl." He barked.

"Hi, my, my n-name is M-Mesmo."

"Don't be afraid, I don't bite. My name is Le-Eton."

He continued to eat some more then looked up at me again.

"Is there I can help you with?"

"No, it's just that you're the first wolf I've ever seen."

"Oh, well in that case." The wolf stood up and posed. "Better?"

The wolf was caught in my mesmerized gaze. Never before had I seen such powerful legs and such a long well-built furry body. But something else caught my gaze. There seemed to be something out of place. A twisted tail.

"Mesmo... Over here buddy." Le-Eton called to me.

I ruffled my feathers. "Your tail. Is it... normal."

The wolf looked back at his tail. "What this? Oh no, it's not supposed to be twisted. I'm a malcadh you see."

"Oh," I replied, "Terribly sorry to disturb your meal. I have to be off now."

"Good to meet you Mesmo." Le-Eton lay down with his kill and started tearing again.

Okay, I know the Pure Ones don't know how to use fire. Just dismiss that please. Chapter 10 will be posted soon...