Guardians of Ga'Hoole 05 - The Shattering Read Free Page A

Ginger. “Just give me my helm, my nickel-alloy battle claws, and a burning branch, and I feel adorned.” The glare in the young Spotted Owl’s yellow eyes was harsh. It had been in just such battle gear that Otulissa had served with great bravery in one of the fiercest encounters with the Pure Ones.
    Once more silence settled on the table, thickly this time, like fog that wouldn’t burn off.
    A wet poop joke, that’s what we need, Soren thought desperately.
    “Did you hear the one about the seagull that got hit by the wet poop of a bat?” Often, wet poop jokes began with a mention of seagulls, for they were considered the worst and messiest of the wet poopers.
    “No, what’s that?” said Gylfie, equally desperate to lift the mood.
    “Well, this seagull got hit right in the eyes by an off-loading bat and could hardly see to fly. And the bat turned around and said, ‘Now you’re as blind as a splat!’”
    The table roared with the churring sound of owl laughter. A little too hard, Soren thought, for the joke was not that funny. He nervously looked down at Mrs. P. because they had just violated one of the few rules of the dining hollow—no wet poop jokes at meals. Nest-maids were under strict orders to writhe at the first words of a wet poop joke and throw everything off the table and send the owls scattering. But Mrs. P. was as still as could be. She must have been as desperate as the rest of them to change the subject once the dreadful word had been mentioned. Everyone continued to churr and guffaw. Soren noticed that other tables began to look at them as loose feathers from the laughing owls drifted down. But then he swiveled his head toward Primrose and caught his breath when he saw her. Glaux! Is she laughing or crying? The little Pygmy was shaking hard and making unintelligible sounds, but there were tears streaming from her eyes.

CHAPTER FOUR
A Missing Piece
    Y ou see, Eglantine,” Ginger was saying back in the hollow, “just one more way you’re being left out.”
    “I know. It’s getting bad. And did I tell you how Soren missed my first Fur-on-Bones ceremony?”
    “No, you don’t say! I am shocked. Your own brother didn’t come to your Fur-on-Bones ceremony? That’s unforgivable.”
    “He had some excuse, but he was really out larking about with the band.”
    “The band?”
    “That’s what everyone calls the four of them—Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger—because they all came here together, and they stick together.”
    “And leave you out!”
    “Right! I’ve never felt more left out in my life.”
    You feel left out?! What about me? Primrose almost screamed from the branch she was perched on just outsidethe hollow. She was eavesdropping. She knew it wasn’t very nice, but it was her hollow, too, after all, and they wouldn’t talk this freely if they knew she were around.
    “Do you know what I think you should do about it?” Ginger asked.
    “What?”
    Primrose inclined her head a bit more so she could hear better.
    “Well,” Ginger said in a cozy, chatty voice. “If I were you, I’d make a list.”
    “A list?” Eglantine said.
    “Yes, a list of all the things that your brother and his friends have left you out of. I think it always makes one feel better to make a list.”
    Racdrops! Complete racdrops! That idiot owl doesn’t even know how to write! Primrose raged silently.
    “Hmmm,” Eglantine said.
    “Making that list will be a relief. Trust me.”
    Don’t trust her! Primrose thought and rushed into the hollow.
    “Come on, Eglantine. It’s a great night for flying.”
    “Oh, I don’t think we’ll be coming, Primrose. We have things to do,” Ginger said.
    Primrose blinked. All right. I’m finished being polite. “Iactually didn’t ask you, Ginger. I thought with you still healing from your wing injury you wouldn’t be up for it, but certainly you are, Eglantine.”
    Eglantine looked nervously toward Ginger, almost as if to ask permission to go.