Chapter 1: Fire

Soren, the Chaw of Chaws, the Search and Rescue Chaw along with the Colliering Chaw, were all waiting on the edge of the huge forest fire of Ambala, ready to take action as soon as the one leading the expedition, Ezylryb, would give them the go. The Rybs had been looking at the Fire with the worry of a few owls dieing here, it really was devastating and a lot of trees were falling, those would be very deadly to an owl trying to gather some coals but that ends up being very unfortunate and to get caught in a falling tree's way.

To help prevent such a drama, the Rybs had returned the newly chawed owls to the Great Tree. Most of them had left without a complaint. "Soren, come here please." The barn owl heard, from his ryb, whom was also known as Lyze of Kiel.

"Yes, we are all waiting for your order." Soren simply said, adressing all the rybs.

"Well now you have it, get moving lad! I trust that you will behave and gather some nice bonks" He smiled to Soren whom only nodded and left to rejoin the three Chaws plus the Chaw of Chaws.

They would not depart simultaneously, they would take turns, in teams. A rushed takeoff would make a of a confused flight for those who weren't veterans of the Great Tree. Soren heard Ezylryb yell "Go!" So the first teams of the colliering and search and rescue chaws had departed towards the blazing forest. Most of the owls there could feel the heat from where they had set camp, which was considerably far away. Next in line was the Chaw of Chaws.

Soren deployed his magnificent wings and took off along with the rest of the the Band, plus Ruby and Martin. Part were to gather bonks as the other were required to do both, gathering coals, and rescuing owlets. Soren was required to do both as he was one of the best at colliering, but also at persuasion, and convincing other owls of himself being a guardian of the Great Tree.

Ruby had already gathered a few huge bonks while the others were still looking for their first. Amidst the flames, a Barn Owl was searching, looking everywhere, Soren was looking for owls, or owlets to rescue. That was his top priority, he would only gather bonks if he was certain that there were no owlets in his range to rescue. He looked upwards and saw some of the colliering chaw's students flying around and gathering some coals, he looked around himself and saw a few of the Search and Rescue chaw students breaking in a tree where they had herd some cries for help. He was concentrating, turning his head sideways regularly so that he could detect any sound that would be suspect to an owl in danger. He detected a sound and looked down, there he saw a newly hatched owlet, that could not fly as of yet. He flew down, grabbed him and rushed to the camp. Soren gave a look at the owlet and could not help a small laughter from his amazed eyes, he could almost see himself when he was little.

He landed near Ezylryb who appeared to be trying to calm down a very worried family. "Calm down now miss, please, we will figure this out" Ezylryb was saying.

The lady took a deep breath and looked at her mate in despair, he shrugged as in that they could not do anything more. "Ezylryb, an owlet in need of medical assistance" Soren said.

"We will attend to him as soon as possible, Soren could you please go and scout that area over there?" He pointed towards an unexplored location within the fire, it seemed way to dangerous for anyone other then Soren to venture into. He nodded and flew straight for the blazing flames of the woods.

He flew up high, so that he could find the best way into the fire itself, he could not hear anything as he was too far from any potentially endangered owls. He managed to find a fallen tree, that was about to break in two pieces but was still hanging on another of the burning trees. Which made it a perfect way in, and a perfect way out if the tree did not fall. So he entered.

He looked around while keeping an ear out to any noises. After turning his head multiple times, Soren finally heard a yell. He immediately dived towards the very source of the screaming. Turns out that it was a young owl, perhaps a few moon cycles younger then himself was. As the owl, saw Soren, she stopped screaming and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Pure One! Get away! I shall never follow you!" After hearing it's voice, Soren determined that the owl was in fact a female. She was pretty similar to himself as she was another Barn Owl.

"I am not a Pure One, I am a Guardian of Ga'Hoole, I will lead you to safety" he said, quietly, although he knew that they needed to hurry and that this arguing was a waste of time, the tree could possibly break at any time.

"Sure!" She said sarcastically and lunged at Soren. He did not expect such as attack from this scared owl. She managed to struck him, as she had the element of surprise on her side. Soren now had a huge scratch going from a little above his eye to under it, luckily the slash had not caused any major damage to Soren. Himself hardly moved. Dear Glaux, why did I have to stumble onto a resisting owl... he thought.

She attacked again, but this time Soren was ready and simply blocked her talon. "Look, I will prove to you that I am in fact a Guardian" He started to recite the Fire Cycle "It was in the time of the endless volcanoes, where in the Beyond, a few very special owls..." The legend lasted for a minute.

"Quite the choice, considering the situation we're in" She said with a quick smirk and nodded to Soren. He nodded back and took off. She passed him, as he quickly told her the location of the camp. He had heard some more cries for help coming from the burnt grass on the ground. He heard a loud noise, turned around and saw that the tree that was his only way out had fallen on the ground, the fire now surrounded him, the only way out would be from the top, which was still connected by branches and some more fire.

He dived and caught the crying owlet quickly and swiftly. He took as much speed as he could to be able to fly through the fire without too many injuries. The fire was blazing across all the branches, hitting leaves and growing bigger in the process, this would be hard one to get through. Soren looked down towards the little owlet Your fate will be mine as well He thought to himself.

Chapter 2 to be out soon, will contain a short pov on the female owl's point of view and the sequel to this chapter.

Golden