Guardians of Ga'Hoole: Painted Waters - Chapter 4

Calabric’s wings irregularly chopped the air as he flew, but that was standard. Morticia had heard from his own beak that his right wing had been mangled by a large black direwolf called Israropos. She imaged that had been in one of the wars that he fought in. He was the solid definition of a warrior. Nevermore flew ahead this time, as Calabric had insisted.
Nevermore turned his head back and called to the old owl. “Should we rest, sir?”
“What, are you weary already, crow?” He spat.
“Right.” Nevermore mumbled, focusing on the sky before him.
They’d been flying for hours now. Morticia drifted back to fly beside her masked father. “Da, perhaps we should rest…”
“For my sake? No, I can manage like I always have.”
Morticia paused for a moment before she called up to Zendaya and Nevermore. “We’re taking a break!”
Calabric grumbled something, but followed Morticia as she banked to the left and swooped down to land in the frozen frame of an old, dead tree. Calabric landed hard on the branch and gruffly folded his wings, facing away from the other owls. Zendaya landed next to him. “Sir,” she began. “Are you all right?”
He’d always been kind to Zendaya, as he rescued her from the returned Pure Ones when she was an owlet. “I’m fine, Zendaya.” He mumbled.
Morticia sighed. “Da, I need to talk with you.” She took off from the branch on which she perched and glided to one of the other dead trees. Her father had followed, and he landed next to her, his head swiveled in the opposite direction. “Da,” she said. “Look at me.”
He turned his masked face towards her, examining her with his golden eye.
She puffed out her chest feathers, refusing to be intimidated by his authority. “We don’t have time for your stubbornness; we have to find out what my gift means and get back to the Southern Kingdoms.”
“Why go back? The tree has been pillaged and taken by the Kraals.”
“There’ll be a resistance somewhere; I know it! Some of the owls will have escaped.”
“What chance will they have?”
Morticia shook her head. “This doesn’t sound like you…” she glanced down at his bare talons. “What happened to your battle claws?”
“I gave them to Zuko,” he said, as though it should’ve been obvious. “Haven’t you seen your brother since I left?”
Her eyes widened as she shook her head. “Da, he’s…”
“Morticia!” Zendaya called as she and Nevermore approached, landing on their tree. “Kraals, and they’ve spotted us.”
Calabric jerked his head towards the sky, and easily spotted five brightly colored owls. He hissed slightly as they landed on the tree across from them.
“You there,” called a great horned owl with red ears, a green head, and a face spotted yellow and orange. “You’re trespassing on Kraal land.”
“Sorry,” Morticia apologized, not too kindly. “We didn’t know. We just stopped to rest, and then we’ll be on our way.”
The band of owls, which boasted a northern hawk owl with green and blue feathers, an all orange spotted owl with pink talons and head, two fire colored barn owls, and the great horned; all churred in amusement.
The hawk owl replied. “No, you’re going to come with us. We hope you like enslavement because that’s going to be your new occupation.”
The great horned examined Calabric. “Wait just a minute,” he said. “You’re the owl who took out a patrol of three of us Kraals, aren’t you? Yeah, you’ve got a bounty on you; big if you’re dead and even bigger if you’re captured!” Calabric glared at him as he gave orders to his followers. “Bajak and Kujak, you take little blue eyes and the crow; Parpin, you take the painted gray one; Harkan, you and I take big black.”
Calabric suddenly launched himself forward and knocked the great horned off of his branch, leaving the other Kraals stunned for but a moment. Morticia flew at the barn owl called Kujak, drawing one of her mother’s throwing knives from the old belt. Zendaya took to the northern hawk owl, Parpin, and latched her claws into his chest.
Calabric quickly dispatched the great horned by slitting his throat, and turned around just in time to catch Harkan’s dagger with his helmet. He whacked the spotted owl with a great black wing, and brought up his talons, digging them into his neck and shoulders. He then beat his wings, rose up higher, and slashed the owl’s throat. Whilst the dispatched bird plummeted to the ground, he turned back to the other battling owls. Morticia finished off Kujak with a knife to his heart, Zendaya fended off a wounded Parpin, and Nevermore was being pinned and tormented by Bajak, the other barn owl.
Calabric screeched as he swooped in on Bajak, making the painted owl lift his head, but it was too late for him by then. Calabric pinned him to the ice by his neck, and as Morticia helped Zendaya finish off Parpin, the band of owls and crow reunited beside the remaining Kraal. He struggled for a minute, but soon realized that Calabric’s grip was too strong.
“Now,” Calabric began. “Where is your leader?”
“I’m not telling the likes of you!” He spat.
Calabric tightened his grip on the owl’s throat and let him choke for a few seconds before letting up. “We can do this all day.”
“Okay, okay!” He said between coughs. “She’s at the Ga’Hoole tree, but you’ll never get there! There’s too many of us, and you won’t make it past the guards.”
Satisfied with an answer, Calabric raised his talons to cut the owl’s throat. Bajak shut his eyes tight, but the black owl lowered his talons. “Fly back and tell Makilla that I’m waiting for her.”
After being released, Bajak took off and beat his wings quickly toward the Southern Kingdoms.
Nevermore spoke. “You shouldn’t have released him; he’ll bring reinforcements.”
“Let him,” said Calabric. “We’re not resting a moment longer.”

…

The Guardians who had escaped from the tree, which were luckily many, were holding up in the Shadow Forest. Phosphorus, the new appointed king of the Ga’Hoole tree, perched beside the elderly Soren on a pine tree. He was a northern hawk owl with handsome blue eyes, and was known to the Owl Kingdoms as a Wind Whisperer. There were very few Wind Whisperers about, the most well known being the king of Ga’Hoole and Harfang, an old snowy who had also escaped the tree.
Phosphorus, usually called Phosy, watched as owls swooped about the trees; helping to make weapons, gather food, and keep nests and hollows clean. Things had not gone terrible, but the tree was lost for now. He’d seen it set aflame, but knew deep down that the tree could not be destroyed by something as simple as fire; it was only the leaves and berries that caught fire, and they would grow back. That was a little reassuring, but he knew that the vicious pirate owls now held the tree, and that made his gizzard churn.
Saerlay, a short-eared owl who had once fought with the Pure Ones as Elkay, swooped down to land on the branch across from Phosy. He had been born with dark brown and blood red feathers, but had since dyed them gray. She spoke quickly to Phosy, “Is everything going all right?”
He nodded. “Yes, but there are some owls who haven’t shown up.” He lowered his head.
“Who?” She asked. “I could lead a patrol to search for them.”
Phosy shook his head. “Thank you, Saerlay, but no. We have too many patrols out as we speak. The ones on my mind now are Morticia, Elrab, and Zendaya.”
She was silent for a long time. “And Shaddow?”
Soren spoke. “He’s been gone for moons now; he went off to die alone after his mate died.”
She perched in another long bout of silence. She and Calabric had been enemies since she’d first met him; when he became the second Metal Beak, after Kludd had died again after being revived by a life elixir. She had been so young, and wanted the position of High Tyto for herself; she even joined a group of owls who resisted the second Metal Beak’s rule, and they had fought alongside the Guardians to end his tyranny. She’d even killed the owlet that he’d had with his mate at that time.
After realizing that she’d been silent for so long, she cleared her throat and bowed. “Thank you, my king.” And she took off.
Saerlay and Calabric had somewhat mended their rivalry, even after she’d perused him when he survived his last battle as Metal Beak and became Shaddow. She remembered flying into the Battle of the Blizzard, named after the snow storm it was fought in, and combating him for what seemed like hours. Finally, after knocking his mask off, she managed to stab him with her ice sword. He had plummeted from the sky, but landed in a snow drift; which saved his life. When the storm cleared, a bald eagle called Casio had found him and nursed him back to health; unaware that he was a fallen tyrant. Saerlay had had a strong feeling in her gizzard regarding his survival, and had hunted him down for moons before she finally turned away from the Pure Ones.
Saerlay had a strange feeling in her gizzard again. She managed to grab her helm and scimitar from her hollow before she took out five Kraals and flew from the Ga’Hoole tree. She donned her iron helm, accented with dyed purple leather, and took up the scimitar in her talons. Dawn was nigh, and the guards of the Shadow Forest base camp would be exchanging posts soon; she would leave then.
…
Once in the air, Calabric flew between Zendaya and Morticia; Morticia on his starboard side, and Zendaya on his port side. “Are either of you hurt?” He asked.
“I’ve only a small scratch on my chest.” Morticia replied.
“And I have three on my talons.” Zendaya said.
He angled his head around to examine their wounds. “Neither of your wounds should scar.” He sighed, gratefully. He’d always been nervous about Morticia or her brother receiving a wound because he was afraid it might scar. “So,” he said to Morticia. “What were you saying about Zuko?”
She sighed. “He left the tree,” She held out her left leg and only then did he recognize three long white scars descending her white feathered leg. “After he did this to me. I don’t know what was wrong with him! He must have taken your battle claws with him.”
Calabric fell silent. “This is all my fault; I shouldn’t have left the tree! If I had only stayed, this would never have happened...”
…
In the Beaks, the old fortress of the Pure Ones was being rebuilt, and Zuko stood witness to it all. The battle claws her black with silver etchings and gold tips, and the bracers that accompanied them were the same.
Zuko looked nothing like his father; he was a handsome golden barn owl, save the left side of his face where a patch of feathers didn’t exist; leaving scarred pink skin, and his blind and milky left eye. A white short-eared owl with evil red eyes perched next to him on a rocky outcropping. Her name was Aquila, daughter of Saerlay. “Everything’s going well, my king.”
“Good.” He said, quietly but firmly. He’d always had a soft and whispery voice, but it was stern one.
“The Kraals have taken the Great tree.” She said.
“Good.”
“Maybe,” she said, a smirk forming on her beak. “They even killed your sister. That’d get her…” her words were cut off by the young and strong owl’s talons, as they closed around her throat.
Zuko pinned her to the rock, squeezing her neck. “Don’t ever mention my sister!” He hissed, his voice rising in volume.
Aquila, at the mercy of her leader, began choking. Zuko loved the feel of power that this gave him, but he let her rise.  “Don’t ever mention her.” He said, quietly.
Aquila nodded, gasping. “Of course not… my king.”