My own made up Golden Tree story

[hightyto]

BY THE WAY, PLEASE COMMENT ON MY STORY IN MY GUESTBOOK OR AT MY MESSAGE BOARD. THIS IS A STORY THAT I MADE UP MY SELF! I MADE IT LIKE SO I WAS WRITING THE "GOLDEN TREE" READ AND ENJOY! IM NOT QUITE DONE YET, BUT I HAVE A LOT DONE SO FAR!



GUARDIANS of GA’HOOLE

Book 12:

The Golden Tree





Chapter 1:

Back at the tree





Coryn watched as the owls all looked at him with a weird and confused look on their faces. When he had told him that he thought that Nact’magen was once again seeping into the world of the Owl Kingdoms, the entire band seemed to believe him, just none of them really wanted to believe him.

“Listen everybody, we all know that might not be true, I think it’s all to early to tell, and way, way to early to start panicking, as there is really no reason to,” Soren said, “I don’t think we should jump to any conclusions just yet, I mean we don’t even know if-” Soren was cut off by Twilight, who of course, had a different plan, a more physical plan.

“Soren, I know you don’t want to whip this tree into a frenzy over what you might think is not even real yet, but from what you have told me about this ‘Magic” or whatever it is, it seems pretty deadly, and to even think about how deadly it could be in the talons of Nyra and the pure ones, we need to take action, we need to take down whatever is left of the pure ones before its to late!” Twilight insisted. Coryn knew he shouldn’t feel this way, after all his mother was evil, and threatened freedom in the Owl kingdoms, but he couldn’t help his gizzard giving a twinge when he heard Twilight talk of killing the pure ones, which also included, of course, his mother. One could almost never feel anything when you heard plans of a death plan to your own mother, but deep down, Coryn knew what had to be done, especially if she somehow got possession of Nact’magen. She would simply be too powerful, also including the fact that she was once again recruiting owls for the pure ones, he didn’t think there was anything, not even the knightly owl’s of Ga’Hoole could do about a complete take over.

“Twilight,” Gylfie interrupted “hold on a second, we don’t need to go be preparing the troops just yet, don’t get ahead of yourself!”

“Wait, Gylfie, he’s right, we need to take immediate action, you know it, too. My mother can’t be left alive, we all know that, so don’t try to dodge the subject of killing my mother trying not to hurt my feelings, I know just what you know, she needs to be killed. We need to ready the troops, everybody. They all looked at young Coryn in silence, he was right, they were trying not to hurt his feelings to hide what they really needed to talk about, but now, now they had to do something, but Soren thought maybe preparing an army wasn’t the best course, after all, Coryn did tell Soren to help him out with all this king stuff, the poor King didn’t even know where to start.

“Coryn, I don’t think we should bring armies,” Soren said, as Twilight looked somewhat disappointed, “I think only us, as we are known, the chaw of chaws, and you, go. Think about it this way, Nyra would probably figure out easier if we sent a whole army, we would be more secretive if we only sent a small group. I mean, There is probably slipgizzles right here in the Great Ga’Hoole tree just waiting to tell Nyra were sending an army, she would be alerted, and be ready for us when we got there, we would have the element of surprise if we just went,” Coryn looked down at his talons in embarrassment, he should have thought of that,“ So it should be Me, Gylfie, Twilight, Digger, Otulissa, Martin, and Ruby, what does everybody else think?” Soren looked upon the other four owls, three of which he had came to the Great Ga’Hoole tree together, forever bonded by their experiences with St. Aegolius Academy for orphaned Owls, the other Owl, who had against all odds, escaped his mother’s evil wrath and became good.

“Soren,” Gylfie Began, “I don’t think that we should bring Martin, Ruby, Or Otulissa, the less Owls the best, like you said, we need to be discreet in this matter, besides, I think we could probably do without them, and I could sure use without those headaches that Otulissa’s loud clattering beak gives me all the time,” They all gently churred a bit, then they all agreed with Gylfie, it would only be the original band including Coryn.

So the owls began to file out of the hollow, just in time for Ms. Plithiver to come in with great news.

[hightyto]

Chapter 2:

New Arrivals



Soren!” Gasped Ms. Plithiver as she barged into the hollow they were all in, “They are coming! Your eggs are about to hatch!”

Sorens gizzard gave a bid twinge as he immediately hopped up to the hole in the hollow and lifted into flight, twirling around the Great Ga’Hoole tree until he arrived at his own hollow, he had been waiting for this for so long! He couldn’t wait to see if first little hatchling to come out, how he wanted a little girl, though he also wanted a boy, oh, he was so excited he didn’t even care! The other four owls were right behind Soren, they knew how excited he was, Twilight would also soon feel this way, for three eggs of his own were coming, also. His mate was named Jenny, another large Great Gray owl; his egg’s should be hatching soon too. Digger also hate his mate, her name was Sylvanna, who used to be the very youngest ryb of the great Ga’Hoole tree, she was very beautiful and even though she was a burrowing owl, she had lovely legs, which were all bare. Soren arrived at his hollow, where the first thing he heard was a small little crack, of course, only Soren and Pelli could hear this crack, for Barn Owls had the most keen and perfect hearing in all of the Owl kingdoms.

“Oh, Soren!” Pelli called out as she ran to embrace Soren, “They’re finally coming! I can’t believe it, my first hatchling!” She hugged Soren and waddled back to the nest where the soon to be owlets were, Soren followed her. The rest of the owls stayed back a bit to give the couple some room. Just then, they all heard another crack and looked straight at one of the three eggs, the egg tooth was now visible! That’s when it hit Soren, he had really grown up, he could remember the day when his parents, Noctus and Marilla Alba were watching one of their eggs hatch, it was the first time Soren had seen it happen. The egg kept cracking until the egg was only just open, then baby owl took one more crack at it and plopped out, just then a piece of Soren’s whirly glass that he had gotten from a recent Trader Mags visit, caught the light of the moon and a brilliant rainbow of light struck the little owlets body. “Oh Soren, we are blessed by Glaux!” she hooted in a very cheerful note.

“It’s a girl! Said Ms. P as she entered the hollow, they had all completely forgot to check it’s sex. “What ever will you name it?” the blind nest maid snake asked. Soren had actually thought about a name for a little girl.

“ Pelli,” Soren started, “I was thinking about a name for a girl, what do you think about naming her… Can we call her Nina? “What a wonderful idea, Soren!” replied Pelli. Soren breathed a sigh of relief, he looked down upon his little baby, and thought.. Gylfie churred a bit, very happy of Sorens new little arrival. All of the other owls went up one by one to look at the owlet. Gylfie stopped and patted Soren on the back and winked and patted him on the back with her small wing, telling Soren without actually saying it, “good job, old friend.”











Later that night when first light was just on the horizon, Soren and his mate, Pelli sat with their owlet Nina falling asleep. Just before they blinked their eyes into sleep, they heard yet another crack, then another, then another. The cracking continued for another few minutes, with closer inspection, Soren realized that not only one egg was hatching, but the other one was, too. Soren thought that the next egg to hatch probably wouldn’t be as excited, but he soon realized that he was wrong, he felt the same way he did when the first ones hatched, happy as ever.

Soon both egg teeth were visible, the timing seemed absolutely perfect, and they both plopped out at the exact same time.

“Two little boys!” hooted Pelli, “oh Soren, I’m so happy, this couldn’t be more perfect! Now, what shall we name little ones?” She asked.

Soren had given this much thought, of a name for a boy, but he wasn’t sure if Pelli would approve, so he gave it a try anyways. “Well…” Soren stammered, “do you think we can name one of the boys Hortense?” Soren hoped she would say yes, Hortense was the owl that was responsible for saving many, many eggs from the evil wrath of St. Aggies clutches, and was deemed a hero in all of the forest of Ambala, and many owls were named after her, male of female.

“That’s a great idea, Soren, I know how much you care about Hortense, or mist, as she is now called,” said Pelli. Soren was very happy now. He looked down at Hortense and thought, my little Hortense; I hope you can live up to your name.

“So, what shall we name our last one?” Pelli asked.

“Oh, Pelli, you should name this one, I’ve already done two, its your turn. She looked down at the little baby, she thought it was just the sweetest thing; it was so small and helpless.

“How about Declan?” She asked. Soren looked a bit confused about the name, and then realized where it came from.

“Naming him after your father is a good idea.” Said Soren. Pelli let out a happy sigh, and then looked onto her three little babies. She looks so happy, Soren thought, it’s so hard to leave the chicks on a mission right after they hatch, with the fact that we are trying to kill Nyra, I could be killed myself.

[hightyto]

Chapter 3:

The misty encounter









Coryn went into his hollow, he thought that it was so big, yet he was the only one in it, he felt lonely in such a big place. He was so near hundreds of owls, all in the same tree, but yet he felt so far away. He had been feeling a weird twinge not only in his head but in his gizzard, he was drawn to the Ember, he didn’t wasn’t to go anywhere without it. It was hard for him to even take his eyes off of it when he looked at it; it was quite mesmerizing to him. Coryn was in Boron and Barren’s Hollow, also where they died. Oh, thought Coryn, this place better not have their scrooms! Sure enough, just after he thought that, all around the tree mist gathered on the sea of Hoolemere, making it hard to even see the water. Coryn already knew what was coming; he hoped to Glaux that this was a good scrooms, and not his fathers that had haunted him in his past. The mist started to take shape, Coryn say two big white balls in the mist, and they seemed to call him. Coryn jumped to the edge of his hollow, looking closer at the now two great snowy owls formed by the mist.

Of course any other owl of the great Ga’Hoole tree would know who these two scrooms were, but Coryn didn’t, because he never actually got to see Boron and Barren.

Suddenly Coryn felt himself suddenly life out of his body, like he simply stepped out of his feathers, but when he looked to his side, he still saw his body. Fortunately Coryn knew what was happening, he had gone through this when he saw the horrible image of his own father’s scroom, or Scroomsaw as it is more educational name.

Coryn looked down to see where he was, not his real feather on bone self, but his spirit self was. Horror came upon his face when he saw he was simply on the water. He quickly tried to flap his wings to get away but found his wings to be useless; they hung there like heavy stones at Coryn’s sides.

“Not to worry, young king, you are safe now,” said a female voice that came from one of the mist shapes. Then Boron began to speak, all the while Coryn tried to remain as calm as possible.

“We are the old monarchs of The Great Tree. We passed away peacefully as you recovered the Ember,” spoke the male Snowy owl. Coryn suddenly felt bad, and he thought to himself, oh, great. So I’m responsible for two deaths of the noblest owls. That’s when Coryn realized he made a made by thinking that, Scrooms talked through minds, they could hear his every thought.

“Don’t blame yourself, Coryn, it was said that we would die when the great Ember was recovered by the true king, which is, of course, you. Now, we mustn’t waste any time, we have heard enough about scrooms in the lives that we lead, we know we have unfinished business here on earth before we can cross the trail to Glaumora. If only we just knew what our unfinished business was.” Said Boron.

“Wait!” Boomed the female Snowy Owl Barren, “Coryn! You must look! You must search the hollow, there you will find the letter!” Suddenly, the mist forms began to slowly drift away.

“Wait! You can’t go yet! Where do I look?!” Coryn screeched in the note of a Barn owl.

The male owl said his final words, “let the feather guide you! In the hollow! The feather guides you!” Then as fast as they had came, they were gone. The mist was disappearing. And suddenly he was back in his body away from the water, once again perched in the oval shaped opening in the great hollow. “Let the feather guides you!” Boron’s words came back to Coryn, what could that possibly mean? What feather were they talking about? Just then, as Coryn turned around to make his way to his nest, he tripped over one of the legends books that he and Soren had just recently read over. As he hit the ground, a sole feather drifted slowly off of Coryn’s breast feathers and drifted lazily to where he and Soren had written their notes on the legend books, just in case they ever needed to remember something. Just then it hit Coryn, follow the feather! It all suddenly made perfect sense. The owls of Ga’Hoole use feathers dipped in ink to write things, including maps, documents, poems, and letters.

“Letters! That’s it! The scrooms had told Coryn to find the letter! Maybe Boron and Barren had written a letter to Coryn before they had passed. Maybe they knew they would come back to Coryn as scrooms to remind him of the letter, and maybe they couldn’t simply have just told Soren or another owl to tell Coryn to read the letter. Maybe it was that secret!

Coryn’s gizzard gave a twinge of excitement as he remembered that Soren had told him when he had moved into Boron and Barren’s old hollow that they kept a small container filled with all of the things that they wrote. Coryn realized that Boron had said follow the feather because that’s what owls use to write, how clever! Since scrooms never could exactly tell the whole truth, they had given Coryn a perfect hint. Coryn excitedly hopped over to where the writings of the old Monarchs kept their writings, he sure hoped he was right about all of this. Of course, as soon as he opened the container, all of his theories were confirmed, as he pulled out a golden sheet of paper covered with black ink writing, and began reading.

[hightyto]

Chapter 4:

A Lost Letter



Coryn gently and carefully unfolded the letter, and began reading…







Dear new king,





This letter is for the new kings eyes only, and those who are closest to the king,





New king, we write this letter before our death nests, for you, read carefully. We have instructed one of the Rybs of this tree Ezylryb to give you the three legends books, for within those pages, the future lies. The books speak of treachery under the name hagsfiends with their Nactmagen. Yes, you are probably thinking that “so what, that was the past, it over now,” but it is anything but over, it is starting. You must read the legends, and put the Pure ones and Nyra, to a halt, immediately. There is a prophecy, which states that when the true king recovers the great ember, the monarchs will die, and King, we are the Monarchs, if you are reading this, we must be dead, and visited you as scrooms. But for the Monarchs to die is not all that the prophecy says, it also says that the past repeats, this has already been shown, with young Otulissa as Grank, and you, king, as Hoole. But you mustn’t forget about the pure, pure evil in the legends, they are included in the prophecy as well. Nactmagen is coming back; you must stop it before it shows it’s real, full strength powers. We believe, that when the evil in the legends repeats itself, it will be in the deadly Pure ones, and Nyra herself, is to be a Hagsfiend. If Nyra is to get hold of the great Ember of Hoole, her hagsfiend self will transform her into not only worse evil, pure, unstoppable evil, with Nactmagen. That is why you must not let the ember get to her, whatever you do, keep that ember safe, keep it with you at all times, for when you have the ember, you have powers also, powers that can well overcome Nyra at her normal self. That is all we have to say. Remember, you are not to let that ember out of your Sight! Only your closest owls are to be trusted! Watch yourself, king, for you must stop the great evil that won’t only threaten, but will for sure take all of the owl kingdoms down, including Ga’Hoole, without even having to try.





Good luck, be safe,



Boron and Barren

Coryn seemed to freeze, sure, he had thought all along that Nactmagen was coming back, and that Nyra, his very own mum, is a hagsfiend! But not it was much, much different. Now, all of those things he had simply thought were confirmed true, it even had a prophecy, for Glaux sake! Coryn felt like he couldn’t handle all of this, it seemed that it was just so much to handle, but then the words from the letter came back to him.

Watch yourself, king, for you must stop the great evil that won’t only threaten, but will for sure take all of the owl kingdoms down, including Ga’Hoole, without even having to try.

He then realized that he cannot back down from this mission, of killing his mom and the pure ones, he has to do this, all owl kind was depending on him, he must be strong



The next day, Coryn rose into the air to the library hollow of the great Ga’Hoole tree, not to read a book, but to see Soren and the band. They were all to meet in the library at first black, which was now. Sure enough, they were all there waiting for him. Coryn had the letter from Boron and Barren rolled up and gripped in his talons.

“Hey, everybody,” he began. And so Coryn went on telling the story all that had happened to him last night, including the scroom encounter, the “Follow the feather, and the letter. Coryn laid out the paper before the rest of the eager owls and let them read. The owls finished the letter and gasped as they looked to each other in horror knowing that their worst fears had all come true. Gylfie was the first to respond.

“Look, I am not going to go into detail about this, because we all know what must be done. We must go forth with our mission, we must get rid of Nyra this time, we must rid the world of the pure ones, and we must do it fast,” she finished. They all nodded, they knew she was right.

“Well,” Coryn began, “It’s weird, in the letter…” He took a pause, “They say that the Ember of Hoole must be kept by me, and only me, but they also said that I should bring it along on the mission. Wouldn’t that make more of a chance of it getting stolen by Nyra, if I am to bring it?” This was a very good question, they hadn’t thought of this, and he was absolutely right. Bringing the ember along would put it in much more danger of being stolen. But Digger felt differently.

“Wait a second. I’m not totally sure about this, and could be wrong. Maybe we should bring it, and keep it safe, until, maybe, just maybe, the opportunity to use it will present itself. Maybe were not supposed to know what to do with it until the time comes,” said Digger. This was actually a good very possible idea. Digger always was known for his deep thinking and connection making, he always came up with things just like this, things that no other owl would even think about.

“I think you are very right, Digger,” Coryn said, “I think I should bring it, just in case we do need it for something, just in case,” All the owls nodded again.

So they began making more in depth plans for their small invasion of Nyra and the Pure ones. And so it was set. They would fly out to the Desert of Kuneer, where it was mostly reported of being infiltrated with Pure ones, sometimes-even sightings of Nyra herself. Once there, the owls would scout the area for the most guarded are of Kuneer, where most possibly Nyra would be located. Then the five owls would fund a way to evacuate most of the pure ones to a more far away place so Nyra would be less covered. Then they would fly into battle, all armed with the best battle claws, NASTs, constructed by Bubo himself. Of course, all the owls would be armed with NASTs except Soren, who would once again wield the deadly claws of his passed away favorite ryb, Ezylryb. The would also be armed with a burning branch in one talon, and a ice splinter in the other. They would begin the attack on Nyra and her guards, once Nyra was killed, the owls would flee as soon as possible. They would not waste time on the rest of the pure ones, for once Nyra was killed, and they would lose all hope in ever ruling the owl kingdoms. Then they would return home.

“Soren,” Ms P. came into the library, “Pelli needs you to care for the little ones for a little while, I would do it, mind you, but you its time for The Night is done song,” and she slithered out of the library. Soren said his goodbyes and left for his hollow. Once there, he stood by the nest which carried his owlets and began to feed each of the three fat, juicy worms as the “Night is done” song put them all to sleep.

[hightyto]

Chapter 5:

Ruby suspects





Ruby had been trying to talk with Coryn for the first time, she wanted to get to know him a little bit, and after all, he was now king of all owl kind. But when she could never get hold of him, she tried following him to the library one day, but when she got there, she was in for something she had not suspected. She did not mean to eavesdrop like she did, but she couldn’t help it, she had a terrible sense of curiosity. So hen she listened to Coryn talk to the band, she overheard all of their plans of invading and killing Nyra right at her base, which seemed extremely dangerous, but when she thought about it she thought it was actually pretty smart, Nyra would never expect to be attacked right at her stronghold.

She wanted in on this, she didn’t care how dangerous it would be. It just wasn’t fair that they did not plan on including her in their mission; she was in the Chaw of Chaws, too! Of course she didn’t really want to be a tag-along, but she wanted in on this mission too much to care about that.

She planned that tonight at twixt time she would wait at Coryn’s hollow because he would then be making his way there so he could go to sleep. When he got there she would ask to be a part of this mission.





Finally! Ruby thought as she saw Coryn making his way towards his hollow. Ruby sensed his confusion as he noticed her eagerly waiting for him.

“Hello,” said Coryn, “Uh, do I know you?” asked Coryn. But before Ruby could answer Coryn started talking again, “wait, I know you, you are in the Chaw of Chaws! Ruby, right?”

“Uh…well yes,” Ruby replied. IT had made her feel good that the king knew who she was.

“I also know you when I saw you in the library, you were the one spying, right?” Coryn suddenly surprised Ruby. Ruby shrunk to half her size in seconds and wifled. She felt absolutely terrible. Then she wondered how he knew, but before she could ask, it seemed that Coryn simply read her mind.

“I heard you, can get to close to a Barn owl, with our good hearing and all. But hey, don’t worry. I’m guessing you want in this mission, right?

“I’m Sorry, Coryn. It was wrong what I did,” Ruby took a pause, “and it would be an honor to come along on the mission. I’m a great flier, sir, and I can fight, too!” She added.

You can come, I told the others I saw you, they are fine with you coming, they know your skills, and we could really use you, Ruby. But you must promise that you will tell absolutely nobody of this mission. Not Martin, not Otulissa, not Eglantine, not anybody. It is very important that nobody hears of this,” Coryn finished. Ruby nodded. But then she wondered, won’t any of them be missed? Once again, this young kind seemed to know what she was thinking.

“And if you were wondering, Ruby, our cover story is that were are al our scouting the positions of the remaining Pure one’s. But nobody will know we are attacking in any way, everybody except Bubo. For he is the one supplying us with our weapons, which include, NASTs battle claws, and ice weapons of our choice. We are leaving tomorrow night, so try to get some sleep and tomorrow night, we will all meet at Bubo’s cave for weapons, then we will leave for Kuneer,” He finished. Ruby nodded, then thanked Coryn and left for her hollow to try and get some sleep.







“You can’t leave now, Soren!” Pelli insisted, “In the time you are gone, you could miss their First meat ceremony! I could try to hold it off, but you know how excited they all are about it, especially Hortense, he can’t wait!” Soren looked at Hortense who had already started to open up his eyes, and was already getting bored of an all-insect diet.

“Pelli, this mission is of great importance, you must trust me, please,” said Soren

“Soren, you could be killed, I could not handle that, think about the chicks Soren,” she said. Soren was a bit taken back, he hadn’t really thought about this much. What would happen if he were to be killed? “Soren, if you go, do you promise me that you will come back, please promise me that, Soren.

“Pelli, I can’t promise that, but what you can trust of me is that I will try with all my might to stay alive and make it back here in one peace,” Soren churred a bit, he was trying to lighten the mood.

“You had better,” Pelli bitterly agreed.



In distant hollows, Twilight and Digger had to go through the same thing, but eventually got the right from their mates to go on the mission. So it was ready, they would leave at midnight tomorrow. Full prepared for a viscous battle, or so they thought.

[hightyto]

Chapter 6:

To Kuneer



Coryn was the first one at Bubo’s cave at first black, he was so excited about the mission he got no sleep in the day.

The Soren came with Gylfie, and then Twilight came with Digger and Ruby. Apparently, none of them had really gotten any sleep.

“Ok, lets go,” said Coryn, “we have to get our weapons and leave as soon as possible.





“Ok,” Boomed Bubo, “lets get this all straight, NASTs for everybody, two bags each carrying six ice splinters, then ice swords all around?” Asked Bubo.

“Yep, that’s it, Bubo,” said Soren. They had planned on bringing two ice splinters for each owl so on their opening attack, they would have something to throw at the enemy before they actually got to the talon to talon fighting. Luckily, Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, Digger, and Ruby were all trained in The Northern Kingdoms to do this, whiz a ice splinter right at the enemy. The weapons were so sharp; they would tear right through the flesh. They planned on not giving Coryn an ice weapon since he didn’t know how to fight with them. He would be armed with NASTs and a burning branch, which they would ignite using the Ember of Hoole, which Coryn would be carrying in a small sling wrapped around one of his legs.

And so the owls collected their weapons, armed and dangerous, with Twilight flying point. It was decided that Soren would not lead this mission, which he found a relief, because the pressure wouldn’t be all on him. Coryn was to be the leader on this mission, for he knew most of the Pure ones. Coryn hoped to Glaux that he would not have to be the one to kill his own mum, Nyra.

The five Owls watched as the Island of Hoole slowly went out of sight. Then Soren checked for a course check, “Gylfie, Course check please,” He asked.

“Ok, lets see here, were going northwest to Kuneer. We will probably need to stay in Ambala tonight, and try to get close and check the Pure ones positions.

“Thanks, Gylfie,” Soren replied. He could always count on Gylfie; she was his best friend ever since he was an owlet. Thank Glaux, Soren thought, it’s a good things she was in the navigational chaw.

All of the owls in the chaw of chaws, and even just the band itself, all specialized in some category; Soren had colliering and whether interpretation, Twilight had his expert fighting skills, Gylfie had her smarts and navigation abilities, Digger had his superb tracking, and deep thinking like no other owl, and Ruby had her perfect flight skills and had proven herself extremely valuable in battle with an ice splinter. Together, these four owls made the best team ever, nothing could stop them, not pure ones, not Nyra, not anything! And that is what worried Coryn, whenever he thought about it he always came up with the same conclusion which was, what in Glaux’s name do I have to offer to this great team, am I even worthy of this? But still he flew on with the most fearsome dedicated, and loyal team in all owl kind.

They had arranged it so Twilight being the strongest in the band would carry one of the bags full of ice splinters, and Soren carrying the other. While, of course, Coryn carried the Ember of Hoole tucked away in a sack tied to his leg, he didn’t want to take any chanced, no chances at all with the ember being stolen.



After flying for the night, they finally came upon Ambala. They quickly found a un- occupied tree that was actually very roomy, and located very near the border of Kuneer.

Digger and Gylfie were going to be the ones who scouted out the pure ones locations, since Digger was in tracking, Gylfie would be small and go un-noticed, and because both owls were from the Desert of Kuneer and knew the land better.

Fortunately, there was tall grass in which the two owls could hide. When they go there, the quickly began the inspection. They really didn’t see any owls at all, none. Could the Pure ones have scared out every owl in Kuneer? Just then, out of one of the many burrows in the sand, and Barn owl stepped out. This owl was very rough looking and also looked a little old. Then another owl stepped out of another burrow, then another, then another. The owls that had stepped out of the burrows began walking around in the sand, occasionally flying. It most probable that they were keeping guard of the land, sometimes they even dropped down to hunt a vole or two.

This was good, the top priority of this scouting was to try and notice the most guarded part of the Desert, which is where they guessed that Nyra was. Digger was the first to spot it.

“Gylfie, look over there, “Digger pointed with his wings to where many owls were standing and flying circles around, “That’s where she has got to be,” he said.

“Good eye, Dig. You’re probably right. Now lets get back to everybody and report what we saw,” Gylfie said. Digger nodded and started walking to follow Gylfie. But just as they were about to lift into flight, Digger stepped and a stick laying on the ground and toppled into a thorn bush

“Youch!” Digger yelped in pain. Right then, Gylfie knew what was coming, she looked back over to where the Barn owl guards were and one was coming to investigate. Gylfie quickly pulled up digger and they lifted into a very low flight back to the tree to warn the rest of the owls. If Coryn or Soren were spotted they would be finished.

“Soren!” Gylfie gasped, “Everybody needs to get out and hide! The pure ones heard digger, they’re coming, hide!”

“What about you?” asked Soren.

“We will be fine, I have a plan, now get out of here and get very far away!” Without further question, the rest of the owls lifted into flight with all of the weapons. Gylfie and Digger stayed back to wait for the pure guard.

“What are you doing, Gylfie?” Asked Digger.

“Don’t worry, follow my lead,” Digger nodded. The pure guard suddenly alighted down the same branch as Digger and Gylfie.

“Just what do you think you are doing?” asked the pure one in a gruff deep voice.

“We live here, we were just walking and my friend here fell into a thorn bush,” replied Gylfie. Digger nodded in response and turned in a circle to show off the spots that the thorn bush had left. The pure one nodded in agreement and was about to lift off when he happened to look down at Gylfie and Digger’s talons. They had forgotten to take the NASTs off! This was it, they were toast!

“Hey!” said the pure guard, “Just what in Glaux name are you doing with those battle claws. Little desert owls don’t just walk around with battle claws, especially like those fancy ones! I’m taking you with me!” He said. Gylfie and Digger knew they couldn’t fight this owl off, he was huge with battle claws, and was probably a well trained soldier. Just before he could grab onto Gylfie and Digger, Twilight came out of nowhere with an ice splinter in his talons. He aimed, the expertly hurdled the deadly sharp ice through the air straight at the pure one. Before the ice hit its mark, the Barn owl jumped, but it was to late, the ice splinter pierced his flesh right in the shoulder, blood splattered the night and the owl fell of the branch and tumbled to the ground.

Gylfie and Digger were relieved, that would have been it. “Oh, Twilight, nice shot!” exclaimed Gylfie. Suddenly the Barn owl twitched, he wasn’t dead! Twilight recovered his ice splinter and raised it to finish of the dying Barn owl. But Digger intervened just in time.

“Twilight! Wait!” Digger yelled as he flew down to the ground where the Barn owl was, “Don’t kill him! We could use him, he could give us information!” Twilight lowered his weapon, Digger was right.

So they went back to the tree where Soren and the others were located, and told them what had happened. They decided that they would use one of the ice splinter bags to carry the Barn owl to a far away tree. However, they had to do this fast. Since the pure guard wouldn’t return, the other pure ones would want to go see if anything happened.

Soon the barn owl was back into a tree far away from the border of Kuneer. For now, they were safe from the pure ones. They planned they would treat the owls wound with fat worms and leaches until he woke up, and then they would interrogate him until he gives up information on Nyra’s definite location, then they would leave him to do what he wants. They would kill him after he gave up the information to put him out of his misery, but if they left him he would soon die anyways, he would be no threat.

[hightyto]

Chapter 7:
Interrogation

The five owls had successfully put the dying pure one in a large hollow that easily fit all of them. They agreed that Twilight would be the one to try to get the answers out of the Barn owl, on account of him being the scariest of all of them.
“Look!” exclaimed Digger, “He’s finally waking up,” he nodded toward the Barn owl that had just began to slowly open his eyes. At first he stared around dazed and confused. Then, he saw Coryn, and when he did, he almost jumped out of his very feathers.
“The cursed one! The cursed one!” The Barn owl franticly yelled. It was clear to the owls that Nyra has been leading the Pure ones to believe that Coryn is evil, and a threat to their cause.
“Turn feather of her pureness, mocker of the tyto’s!” The Barn owl kept yelling. Coryn backed away a few steps to try to get the owl to calm down, but, of course, that wasn’t Twilights plan.
“Hey!” he boomed, “Shut up you pathetic sack of sorry feathers!” The Barn owl continued his streak of yelling. Twilight had another idea. There was a glitter in the hollow as Twilight wove his ice splinter in the air and sliced of the barn owls ruffled feathers, it worked. The hollow fell quit as the prisoner stared at a huge great gray owl towering above him with a sharper than battle claws weapon in his talons ready to kill. His gaze then drifted to Coryn, who stood like a stone staring at him, the barn owl felt a tremor pass through his weak gizzard.
“Your in our hollow now, owl,” said Twilight as he tortured the prisoner with the glare of the ice weapon, “Your gonna’ do what we say, from here. And you gonna’ tell us want we want to hear, right?” it was more of a statement than a question, but the Barn owl nodded anyways.
“Where is she, where is Nyyyyra?” Twilight stretched out the word in a most horrifying way. The rest of the owls were taken back as well, Twilight was probably the most horrifying creature to this poor prisoner owl right now, and they guessed that he would tell them anything they wanted to hear as long as Twilight kept this up.
“She’s right here in Kuneer, I swear, I swear she is. I was guarding her burrow myself before I cam here,” The owl stammered. Twilight looked skeptically at him.
“Really? And how do we know your not directing us into a stronghold or trap of some sort?” Soren examined the Barn owl as he put on the most pathetic example of puffing up his feathers.
“I am not lying. To be honest, I’m to scared to lie,” he said.
“Fine,” replied Twilight, “but we need to know more. We need to know how many owls are guarding her, and when do they switch guards?
“The always have thirteen on guard, but you have to account that I’m gone, so they have twelve. They switch at first light, when they expect that no attack will happen,” The owl took a shallow breath then continued, “The put seven guards on the outside of her burrow, and six in the inside guarding her. Since I’m gone, they will move one guard from the inside to the outside, the outside is always the priority. Besides that, they have all of the other owls out scouting the lands and guarding other burrows. But you must understand, her pureness has put up her best guards at her guard post,” he finished.
“What a coward!” said Twilight. Soren looked at their prisoner and thought, the Pure ones are known to be fiercely loyal, why would this poor owl give it all up so easy? Soren realized it; he must not like Nyra, as most snatched owls didn’t. Soren stepped up past Twilight and looked hard at the barn owl.
“How old were you?” Soren asked. The owl had a confused look on his face, a confused face that was most obviously fake. Soren knew it, too.
“W…w…what do you mean?” the owl slowly stammered.
“Don’t play stupid, owl,” Soren said, “You know what I mean, how old were you when you were snatched?” The owl’s eyes welled with tears.
“I was seventy-eight nights , or at least that’s what my da told me. One night when my mum was out hunting, my brother and sister were old enough to leave the nest and were long gone, mind you. She didn’t come back for a long, long time. Then after while when my father was about to go out and look for her, a huge barn owl flew in. he held in his battle clawed talons my mother’s small body. He had told us that she had gotten ambushed by some of the owls of the Great Ga’Hoole tree. I never believed such nonsense. But unfortunately my father did. From that moment, after my father enlisted himself and me, it was always about revenge on the guardians. Then the battle of the burning came. He had just killed a Great gray owl named Bruce and was headed in the direction on a extremely large great horned owl who was armed with a big ball full of bonk coal’s attached to a chain like which was being swung wildly about in the battle. My father must have thought he could get past the weapon, but he couldn’t, he was killed. Months later after Coryn here escaped, I had overheard a conversation with Nyra and one of her new recruits that had already outranked me, and I heard her talking about my father. Then I heard her say something else, I heard her talk about the day we were recruited, and about my mothers death, and how they were the ones who killed her, and blamed it on the guardians so we would join up for revenge. Ever since then, I have hated Nyra, and the Pure ones. I want to escape so much, but I would be killed. But being captured by you and being away from them makes me realize I would die to get away from them, or die trying. What I am saying now is, I would like to help you. I would like to help you kill Nyra.”

[hightyto]

HERES SOME NEWS:

I AM JUST ABOUT TO FINISH ANOTHER CHAPTER, ALMOST DONE.
NEXT, I JSUT PLANNED THIS OUT. ONCE I FINISH THIS BOOK "MY GOLDEN TREE" I AM GOING TO CONTINUE WITH BOOK 13. I HAVE NO TITLE FOR IT YET BUT I SHOULD SOON ENOUGH.

[lockesdestiny]

i can not wait....

[hightyto]

okay. ill post the new chapter in a few minutes...

[hightyto]

Authors Note: ok, now these next few chapters start to show the power of the ember
Chapter 7:
Interrogation

The five owls had successfully put the dying pure one in a large hollow that easily fit all of them. They agreed that Twilight would be the one to try to get the answers out of the Barn owl, on account of him being the scariest of all of them.
“Look!” exclaimed Digger, “He’s finally waking up,” he nodded toward the Barn owl that had just began to slowly open his eyes. At first he stared around dazed and confused. Then, he saw Coryn, and when he did, he almost jumped out of his very feathers.
“The cursed one! The cursed one!” The Barn owl franticly yelled. It was clear to the owls that Nyra has been leading the Pure ones to believe that Coryn is evil, and a threat to their cause.
“Turn feather of her pureness, mocker of the tyto’s!” The Barn owl kept yelling. Coryn backed away a few steps to try to get the owl to calm down, but, of course, that wasn’t Twilights plan.
“Hey!” he boomed, “Shut up you pathetic sack of sorry feathers!” The Barn owl continued his streak of yelling. Twilight had another idea. There was a glitter in the hollow as Twilight wove his ice splinter in the air and sliced of the barn owls ruffled feathers, it worked. The hollow fell quit as the prisoner stared at a huge great gray owl towering above him with a sharper than battle claws weapon in his talons ready to kill. His gaze then drifted to Coryn, who stood like a stone staring at him, the barn owl felt a tremor pass through his weak gizzard.
“Your in our hollow now, owl,” said Twilight as he tortured the prisoner with the glare of the ice weapon, “Your gonna’ do what we say, from here. And you gonna’ tell us want we want to hear, right?” it was more of a statement than a question, but the Barn owl nodded anyways.
“Where is she, where is Nyyyyra?” Twilight stretched out the word in a most horrifying way. The rest of the owls were taken back as well, Twilight was probably the most horrifying creature to this poor prisoner owl right now, and they guessed that he would tell them anything they wanted to hear as long as Twilight kept this up.
“She’s right here in Kuneer, I swear, I swear she is. I was guarding her burrow myself before I cam here,” The owl stammered. Twilight looked skeptically at him.
“Really? And how do we know your not directing us into a stronghold or trap of some sort?” Soren examined the Barn owl as he put on the most pathetic example of puffing up his feathers.
“I am not lying. To be honest, I’m to scared to lie,” he said.
“Fine,” replied Twilight, “but we need to know more. We need to know how many owls are guarding her, and when do they switch guards?
“The always have thirteen on guard, but you have to account that I’m gone, so they have twelve. They switch at first light, when they expect that no attack will happen,” The owl took a shallow breath then continued, “The put seven guards on the outside of her burrow, and six in the inside guarding her. Since I’m gone, they will move one guard from the inside to the outside, the outside is always the priority. Besides that, they have all of the other owls out scouting the lands and guarding other burrows. But you must understand, her pureness has put up her best guards at her guard post,” he finished.
“What a coward!” said Twilight. Soren looked at their prisoner and thought, the Pure ones are known to be fiercely loyal, why would this poor owl give it all up so easy? Soren realized it; he must not like Nyra, as most snatched owls didn’t. Soren stepped up past Twilight and looked hard at the barn owl.
“How old were you?” Soren asked. The owl had a confused look on his face, a confused face that was most obviously fake. Soren knew it, too.
“W…w…what do you mean?” the owl slowly stammered.
“Don’t play stupid, owl,” Soren said, “You know what I mean, how old were you when you were snatched?” The owl’s eyes welled with tears.
“I was seventy-eight nights, or at least that’s what my da told me. One night when my mum was out hunting, my brother and sister were old enough to leave the nest and were long gone, mind you. She didn’t come back for a long, long time. Then after while when my father was about to go out and look for her, a huge barn owl flew in. he held in his battle clawed talons my mother’s small body. He had told us that she had gotten ambushed by some of the owls of the Great Ga’Hoole tree. I never believed such nonsense. But unfortunately my father did. From that moment, after my father enlisted himself and me, it was always about revenge on the guardians. Then the battle of the burning came. He had just killed a Great gray owl named Bruce and was headed in the direction on a extremely large great horned owl who was armed with a big ball full of bonk coal’s attached to a chain like which was being swung wildly about in the battle. My father must have thought he could get past the weapon, but he couldn’t, he was killed. Months later after Coryn here escaped, I had overheard a conversation with Nyra and one of her new recruits that had already outranked me, and I heard her talking about my father. Then I heard her say something else, I heard her talk about the day we were recruited, and about my mothers death, and how they were the ones who killed her, and blamed it on the guardians so we would join up for revenge. Ever since then, I have hated Nyra, and the Pure ones. I want to escape so much, but I would be killed. But being captured by you and being away from them makes me realize I would die to get away from them, or die trying. What I am saying now is, I would like to help you. I would like to help you kill Nyra.”














Chapter 8:
An owl reborn

The owls blinked, taken aback by this pure ones story. Nobody was quite sure what to say, but then Soren started it up.
“Well, first before we do anything, what is your name?” asked Soren starring at the barn owl.
“Stag, my name is Stag. I never liked the name, you wonder where they come up with such ridiculous names,” replied Stag.
“Well Stag,” Twilight began, “I guess we can trust you, after all, what do we have to lose? If you turn on us in battle, we would have had to fight you anyways if you were still with the pure ones,” he finished, and all the owls nodded in agreement. Coryn then had an idea, and idea that would be Stag’s final test of loyalty towards the band. He moved to the side, reveling a pitch-black mouse leather container. What’s that glow? Thought Stag, it is so bright but yet it is in a container where I cannot even see it. Stag felt a weird tingle in his old dried out gizzard. What was this glow reminding him of so much? Coryn began to open the case, removing the lid. He stuck his talons in to grab at something and when he pulled out his foot, was the Ember of Hoole Shining in all its glory.
Coryn was testing him to see if he would try to steal it, or react in a very strange way. But to Coryn, Stag was acting as calm as ever. Coryn glanced at the ember, and saw something move in the middle. He couldn’t stop himself from looking back, when he looked deep into the gizzard of the ember, he saw the image of stag standing on the desert floor, turning to his side, and completely ripping open a barn owls stomach, a barn owl that was a pure one. But that is not all that Coryn saw, when he looked even deeper, he saw Stag, but he also saw himself doing something he could not imagine. Coryn saw himself in the very hollow that they were in now, Stag was barley breathing, but still alive. Coryn could tell that Stag was dying in the picture in the ember. Then Coryn saw himself walk up to stag and drop the ember on Stag. How could Coryn be seeing this? As soon as Coryn had seen the first image of Stag ripping open a pure ones stomach guts made him believe that he could be trusted. Why would he even think about doing that?
They all watched Coryn, as a very confused look came over his face, what was he seeing in the ember? Every owl in the hollow thought it. Then they all followed Coryn’s eyes move to meet Stag’s.
Of course, Thought Coryn, the Ember can heal. And it showed the picture of Stag fighting for us so I knew he could be trusted. This ember has magic, but what about healing magic? Coryn remembered the wound on Stags shoulder, and when he looked at Stag he noticed that he looked as if he was dying. Coryn looked to Stag, then back at the ember, hoping for more images, but it was empty. Coryn was going to have to rely on the ember this time. As Coryn walked to Stag with the ember in hand, no owl stopped him. Even Stag remained still, not even scared. Coryn reached Stag and looked at him in the eye, then lifted his foot and drooped the ember of Hoole on Stag’s shoulder. The other owls jumped as they watched this horrific seen as Stag went aflame when Coryn dropped the Ember on him, Stag did not even scream.
I want to scream, but there is no pain. Thought Stag as he looked at his no longer feathers but only charred buts of down. But wait, Stag noticed something, he looked back at his wound, it was getting smaller, and before he knew it, it disappeared. The flame died down. Stag felt no longer hurt of the wound. But he did feel cold. He looked down in horror, as he saw no feathers, just down covering his whole body. He looked like adult sized owlet with no feathers. But soon enough, that was over to. Feathers were growing back. New primaries, flight feathers, and everything was coming back! They even looked much, much nicer! They were all pure white just like a Barn owls feathers should be, not the un-cared for dingy scrappy old ones he had about five minutes ago.
The owls stared, they had seen some weird stuff on their lives, but, but this is just plain impossible. Coryn had just dropped the Ember of Hoole itself one an owl and lit on fire, and now not only is he not hurt, but he looks better than ever. His eyes had their black light back with a little flicker in the back round of them. They all looked to Coryn for some kind of answer, and he began to speak. He told them all what he had seen in the ember, how he had seen Stag fight fiercely for them.
“I’m not really sure…I just sort of knew he would be okay, I just had a feeling in my gizzard,” Coryn took a pause and stared at Stag, then continued, “Magic, magic is coming back, just like I thought. So what if this is good magic. Bad magic can do the same thing. We must do whatever it takes to kill Nyra; we must take her from this world, and not let her take the ember. We can’t, the fate of the Owl world lies in our talons.”
They all nodded in unison, even Stag agreed, without question.
“Wait!” Twilight screeched, “we completely forgot! They will be looking for Stag by now!” It hit the entire group of owls like brick, they truly did forget. The Pure ones patrols could be out right now, and probably are out right now looking high and low for him. Twilight was about to speak again when Soren shushed him just in time, and began to speak in a very low whisper voice.
“These are barn owls, the can hear anything, they might hear us, we have to get out of here right now!” Soren jumped out onto a limb of the tree, just realizing that it was into the daytime, they had talked through the night. This could be an advantage to them; it will be harder for the pure ones to sight them now. Soren signaled the other owl to follow him with his wing, then he lifted off into a low flight near the forest floor, it wouldn’t be to hard to fly so low on account of that there was not much trees around.
They flew on for the next few hours. Boy, I will NEVER let these feathers get messed up again! I’m beautiful! Thought Stag as he glanced down at his breast feathers. They finally found another tree very far away from where they first were, they would at least be safe for a long time.
And so they planned it. They would put on a fake scar on Stag using the squeezed juice from nearby berries along the back of Stag’s head. They would also ruffle the feathers where the ‘scar’ was to make it look like a talon went through them. Stag would fly back to the Pure ones, telling them that went he went out to look for what made the noise, he was surprised attack from the behind by a family of Burrowing owls who he guessed hated the pure ones that had been hiding in the dirt. He would then tell them that he was knocked out when he fell to the ground, and he ended up coming back after he regained consciences. Then, when the signal of Twilights hoot came. Stag would begin the fight, with the other owls coming in armed with ice swords and flaming branches, which they would get from a fire ignite from the ember of Hoole itself. The owl’s first strike would be a swift round of tossing the ice swords at their enemies. Then they would regroup back at a nearby tree to get their actual battle swords, except Coryn who would fight simply with his battle claws. They planned to lure away some of the pure guards and distract others by setting the ember of Hoole in a large fire where they would get the burning branches from, Nyra would most likely send off some guards to try and retrieve the ember, except when they got there they would not only be greeted by the image of the ember of Hoole in the middle of a large fire where they could not reach it, but when the pure ones were distracted by the glow of the ember, Gylfie and Digger would come up from behind to surprise attack them, then go to join the battle. The only things they had not worked out yet were how to kill Nyra. They had all been wondering just how they would reach here, or if she would even come out to fight. At this point, they weren’t even sure who would actually kill Nyra.

Soren sat out on the highest branch of the tree they had been hiding out in. Soren watched closely as the pure ones who had been sent to find Stag hopped from tree to tree sticking their beaks in ever hollow they could find, looking for their lost comrade. This is their chance! Thought Soren as he saw a gray and red blur flash from the sky and dive toward the un-expecting pure ones. Soren watched closely as Twilight and Ruby swooped upon the pure ones and knocked them dead out of the tree with their ice swords. This had also been in the plan, once Twilight and Ruby got rid of them. It was time for the attack. They had to be Swift, and they had to be strong. And if they weren’t, Hagsfiends would once again rise.