Chapter 5: Storm
Pellimore was walking in the Great Tree, sometimes in areas that she was not supposed to go to, but it being day time, she probably would not get caught, or punished. She had been thinking about the storm that the Weather Interpretation Chaw was supposed to fly into. Even though Soren would be there, she couldn't help worrying. He could not be helping multiple owls at once. But that was not the end of her worries, as she still had Soren to worry about, what could guarantee that his experience would suffice in this storm? Mistakes are always possible; Soren could always execute a bad move and fall to his doom. Accidents happen, there is always a possible threat to the lives of the young owlets, that is not a change to the Guardian Training.
What if she got lost within the thick dark clouds? Would anyone come to her rescue?
Of course they would… Stupid question. Pelli thought to herself.
She still thought that flying through a storm on the first class was a little extreme, even for the great tree. Don't classes start with theoretical lessons? Won't there be a higher risk of serious injuries? Risk, was always an enemy, an unavoidable one, yes, but a permanent one, which made it ruthless and hard to escape.
There always is risk… Why would it change now? She asked herself, yet again.
She gracefully flew upwards, looking up to the burning sun and great white clouds, there was no danger of crows during the day if you were at the Great Tree. She stalled for some time, appreciating the moment which granted her peace and quiet, which had been missing for some time in her mind. She looked around, nothing to be seen except the tree trunks in which numerous owls and owlets were currently sleeping in.
Then, she shifted her attention to a strange figure to the top of the tree, an owl apparently. She quietly approached the silhouette, being sure to not make a sound. As she got closer, she noticed that the figure's eyes were closed, which kind of startled her, most owls that came up here would appreciate the view, not meditate.
"Hello there, Pelli" it said, turning around and opening its eyes. She had not realised it, but the figure was Soren, to her surprise. She felt a warm breeze hit her feathers, bringing calm to her.
"Soren! What… What are you doing here?" She asked, turning her head sideways, looking for other owls nearby, and expecting a reunion of some sort as she had never saw her friend on the very top of the Great Tree before.
"Well, I find this place quite relaxing, and I did not feel like sleeping today" he answered quietly, trying to calm Pelli with his low, soft voice.
"Does it have something to do with today's class, and with the storm?" She asked, hoping that Soren would feel as she does; being scared of venturing into such a storm.
Pelli then turned to look at the world, where you could not see anything but the ocean, the reflection of the sun on the water brought a wave effect to the horizon, which was starting to turn pink and orange due to the sun setting. Both seemed too astonished to say anything, the beauty of the Sunset was just stunning whilst the colors, simply prodigious. The others would most likely wake up in a few short hours, which left them plenty of time to talk over different topics, and most importantly, the upcoming class, which seemed to terrify Pelli more than seeing an Army of Pure Ones attacking.
"In theory, but I mostly just want to feel a storm again, it has been far too long since I have flown in one" He said, while looking at the approaching dark, menacing clouds, those of which Pelli was so afraid of, whilst he almost smirked at the clouds, taking it as a challenge, and acknowledging it.
Pelli gasped at Soren's courage "How can you be looking forward to it? Are you not scared?" she quickly pronounced.
"I've been through a lot worst then this, you know" he replied, with his usual calm voice.
"Yes but, can't someone die?"
"I highly doubt it, the Weather team mentioned a very small storm, and you go down with Ezylryb as your watcher, even if all the owls were to fall, he'd probably manage to save all of them" Soren said, trying to get Pelli to give Ezylryb a chance, as she was only judging him on what he didn't do, while she should be judging what he did, which makes him a far better ryb to any of the students that seem frightened by the old owl.
"I wish I could be as calm as you are…" Soren then turned his head to look at Pellimore, startling her a little.
"It comes with experience, considering that there is nothing we can do but do our best, I manage to calm myself with one simple sentence; "Whatever happens, happens"" He explained, trying to calm Pelli once more, as the storm would probably only be a minor one, unless the Weather team had made a critical mistake, or had simply failed to note something during their flying excursions that they would occasionally organise each time a storm would be coming close to the Great tree. Other reasons seemed impossible; one being that the Storm could change drastically once arrived.
"The others will wake up soon, you better get going, Pelli. It's been fun talking to you" Soren said after looking at the sun, yet again.
She glared at him for a moment, and then took off to her tree trunk, where she would await the start of the storm, and the start of the class.
-Class Start-
The students had gathered, ready for take-off, in front of Ezylryb, Pelli was in the back as she was among the oldest to be taking the Weather Interpretation class and could easily see above the other's heads. Soren was standing to the side of Ezylryb as he was the aid to the group, as there always was. His job basically consisted of making sure no owls got hurt during this simple, yet quite dangerous training mission.
"Now lads, do not over react to this storm, yes it is a little worse than we expected, but I have no doubt that we can go through anyways" Ezylryb said, trying to inspire everyone. The Weather Interpreters had recently announced that it would be a violent storm, but could still be ventured into, to one's own risk. Lyze and Soren had met to decide whether to go or not. The decision was obvious to them, a storm might not come until a few weeks from now, and they could not waste that opportunity to train the owlets.
There was quite a lot of panic in the crew; most of them had never even tried to fly into a storm. Yet, everyone kept quiet, probably due to extreme fear, or panic. Ezylryb started to yell out the positions to everyone on the squad. Meanwhile, Soren's and Pelli's eyes were locked; both kept fixating each other, in fear of losing one another. The glare broke when Ezylryb yelled out Soren's name "Soren, to the back!" He was appointed to the back so he could spot any owls flying, Ezylryb would not spot them all, as he would need to stay concentrated on the storm. Pelli, on her side, had been appointed to Far left wing, which is basically as far as you get from the formation on the left side.
"We're off!" Ezylryb said as he spread his wings.
The whole squad flew out of the tree, not looking back, only seeing the upcoming chaos that would be the storm. Soren's position implied that he had to move a lot among the owls, to see if they were alright, or if they needed to stop, all said that they were fine, bent on their determination to become a Guardian of Ga' Hoole that achievement for which most owls here will eventually reach, and bond with the seal, which unites the Guardians to the world, and to the Great Ga' Hoole Tree.
Soren noticed that Ezylryb was flying oddly, with his head on the side, he managed to see his beak moving, he then concluded that his mentor was doing as he had done for him, taking his mind of the mission, and talking to him, sometimes making him laugh.
He then heard him yell "The storm is near! Brace yourselves, lads!"
Soren immediately returned to his position, ready to catch any falling owls.
He took a look to the front, at the storm. It seemed a lot more violent than expected, perhaps even containing thunder and lightning within, which was not good to fly with. He wanted to reach Ezylryb, maybe call off the mission, but he knew that Lyze would never back down from a mission, and he would always be successful too.
He was hearing wind whistle near him, lightning strikes to the far back of the storm, to top it off, weak gusts of wind came to disrupt everyone's balance from time to time, as they already needed to stay balanced to the huge gusts, the small ones only made things worse, as they came from a different direction, and angle from the bigger ones, not good.
They entered the storm, to his surprise, none of the owlets seemed to panic, or go down. He deemed it safe to go to the front of the formation and help Ezylryb entertain the young ones, as he had always done on first missions, to help making the owls feel at home in storms. That simple move would get them interested in storms.
"So… Not too bad, aren't they?" Soren asked Ezylryb.
"I know, lad, though I think we'll skip the wall for today" he responded.
Soren nodded "Shall we head back to the Great Tree?" he asked.
"There was some place on my mind right now… Somewhere where teaching is easy" He said, obviously talking about the Spirit Woods, where the young owlets were always terrified to go to.
"Spirit Woods it is" Soren said, acknowledging his mentor's statement.