Gylfie's Story (Guardians of Ga'Hoole)

    Gylfie a small elf owl flew to the library in the Great Tree. This was her favorite place in the entire tree. She taught the Navigational chaw now since Strix Struma the old ryb that had died in the battle of the siege against the Pure Ones. It was nearly dawn when she settled down to plan what she would do with her next class, then she saw one of her best students come in. Her name was Firtha she was a pygmy owl and was up quite late, considering she just got back from visiting her father in the Northern Kingdoms.

“Yes, what do you need Firtha?” she asked.

“Well uh I was wondering… How exactly did you meet Soren and the rest of The Band?”

‘The Band’ was what everyone at the tree called Soren, Gylfie, Twilight and Digger because they came to the Great Tree together as orphans. Gylfie was shocked; no owl had asked her such a personal question before. Firtha noticed because she quickly added

“You don’t have to tell me, I was just wondering! If it’s too personal you don’t have to tell me.”

“Oh no it’s just I’ve never been asked that question before. It’s fine Firtha, I’d be happy to tell you.” She soothed.

The pygmy owl soothed her ruffling feathers and settled down on a nearby perch to listen and write down Gylfie’s story.

    I like many other owlets tried to fly before I was ready. I lived with my mum and da in the desert kingdom of Kunner. They had gone out hunting and had left me with the eggs and sister in the cactus hollow. I had already started branching a little. Branching is when an owlet starts to grow its flight feathers in and hop from one branch to the next to get the feel for flying. For me though it was mostly hoping from cactus to cactus. My sister was already fast asleep and the sun going to be coming up in a little while and the wind felt so good. It wasn’t too hot out and I knew my parents wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon, food was getting harder to find so they usually came back right at dawn. I had some time before they came. I went to the edge of the hollow and stretched out my wings. I felt the air flow smoothly through my feathers. It felt so perfect. I was sure that I could simply glide over to the nearby cactus and glide back before my parents found out. How wrong I was.” She laughed to herself. “Of course I wasn’t ready to fly. I was just a cocky young’un wanting to fly. I felt my wings catch the air before I tumbled beak first into the sand. I remember thinking about how much trouble I was going to be in when my parents found out. I waited with dread as I waited for my mum and da to come back. I tried to flap my wings to get back into the hollow; I even tried to climb back up. But I had no such luck. When I heard wing beats, my gizzard relaxed.

    Thank goodness. I’m going to be in so much trouble. Mum and da are going to be so angry. They always told me never, ever, ever try to fly without them watching. I readied myself for a good thwack on my head from my da followed by a scolding, but instead I felt talons close around me. They weren’t just talons either, they were retractable battle claws. My mum and da never wore battle claws, Elf owls usually don’t because we’re so small and if we do they weren’t this big. I glanced up at the owl that was carrying me it was a huge masked owl. At the time my parents had heard about the snatchings that were happening all around the Southern Kingdoms, mostly in Kunner, Abala, Silverveil and Tyto. I saw my family hollow vanish as the masked owl spiraled upwards. He met up with a bunch of other owls that also were carrying owlets. Another was also a masked owl that was carrying a Barn owlet that was just starting to molt his downy fluff. When our captors flew parallel to each other to exchange a word he stared at me with wonder.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“My name is Gylfie. I’m from the desert kingdom of Kunner.”

“Soren I’m from Tyto.” He opened his beak to say more, but I cut him off. 

“Wait until they start to sing. Then we can talk.” He gave me a look that said

“How do you know that?” I had already been watching what these owls were doing and once and a while they would start to sing some horrid song that I couldn’t remember. The Barn owlet however seemed to have just recently gotten snatched. When they started to sing, my carrier and Soren’s flew next to each other once again.

“Why are your eyes yellow?” he asked.

“Why are yours black?” he seemed to realize how stupid of a question and apologized.

“Sorry, I’ve just never met an owl with yellow eyes.”

“That’s okay.” I replied.

“So how did you get snatched?” he asked. Goodness this owl is full of questions!

“I did what parents always tell you not to do. I tried to fly before I was ready. What about you?”

Soren thought for a moment. “I’m not sure.” He said “I was just looking over the edge of the hollow in the fir tree we lived in and I fell out. I was a good distance away I’m sure I didn’t fall out by accident!” he seemed to be trying to convince himself more than me.

“I believe you” I soothed. The poor owlet seemed more scared then any of the dozens of other owlets. We talked until we arrived at the canyon of St. Aggie’s and the rest is history.

    When Gylfie finished her story Firtha looked up from writing. “But didn’t you miss your mum and da?” she asked.

“Not as much as Soren did. His parents seemed to be more connected to him and his sister Eglantine than my parents with my sister and me. My da didn’t have such a great voice as Soren’s father had. My mum wasn’t as loving as Soren’s. I did love my mum and da, I really did but not as much as Soren did. It was my own fault that I was snatched, and in a way it was for the better. If I hadn’t been snatched I wouldn’t have meet the Band. If I hadn’t been snatched I wouldn’t be able to read, write, or navigate the stars. I wouldn’t be a Guardian of Ga’Hoole.” 

“What if they are alive? Would you go back and live with them? Visit them?” the pygmy asked.

Gylfie thought for a minute.

“I don’t think there alive Firtha. And it they were, yes I would be happy but I wouldn’t exchange being with them for the life I have now.”

Her student nodded. She stopped writing and thanked Gylfie. Her mentor continued to read, but little did she know that Firtha had written down her entire story. She wouldn’t put it in the newspaper or anything, but she decided that the personal stories of The Band should be recorded, even if no one read it for a long, long time. She continued onwards back to her own sleeping hollow. She would ask the rest of the band about their stories tomorrow. They deserved to be remembered by owls and other creatures alike, until the end of time.