Guardians of Ga'Hoole 06 - The Burning by authors_sort Read Free Book Online Page A

She’s gone yoicks right down to her pinfeathers!

CHAPTER EIGHT
Hoke of Hock
    I have never in my life met animals as tight-beaked as these creatures of Stormfast Island,” Martin was muttering to himself as he and Ruby flew over the westernmost edge of Stormfast, scouring the landscape below for the kind of terrain where an elderly Kielian snake might dwell. The Kielian snakes were a peculiar breed, at least from an owl’s point of view. To begin with, they ranged in colors from pale greenish-blue to turquoise. They were not blind and were known for their incredible muscles and their fantastic industry. They were also unbelievably supple. This, combined with their muscle power, allowed them to penetrate places unreachable by other snakes, actually tunnelling into enemy territory. They could move earth, even frozen earth! And they could swim as well as any seal or polar bear.
    It was Ezylryb who had seen how useful these snakes could be in war. He had come up with the idea for a stealthforce of Kielian snakes that would fight both on the ground and in the air on the backs of owls. Hoke of Hock had been the supreme commander of this stealth unit. Octavia had trained under him. And now Martin and Ruby had been sent to recruit him for the war against the Pure Ones. A division of Kielian snakes was a crucial part of the plan for the invasion of the canyonlands.
    But there was a problem. Hoke of Hock seemed to have utterly vanished and none of the other Kielian snakes or owls on Stormfast were inclined to say much about him. Ruby and Martin had first flown to the promontory called Hock. But there was no trace of the old snake. And now once again they were flying over the ragged promontory of the island that jutted out into the turbulent waters of this wind-lashed shore where he supposedly lived. They didn’t have much time. In a few nights they were due to rendezvous on Dark Fowl Island with the other owls of the Chaw of Chaws.
    “It’s going to be terribly embarrassing if we are the only owls who don’t do our part,” Martin said.
    “Yeah,” Ruby replied. “I’m sure Otulissa has done hers and more.”
    “She’s probably found that book, memorized it, and four others besides.”
    “Well, if we don’t find this snake before we meet up with the rest, maybe we can ask them to help us,” Ruby said in a hopeful voice.
    “You forget we have a deadline. Pack ice, the katabatic winds.”
    “Ohhh!” groaned Ruby. “I did forget. Pack ice sounds worse that getting mobbed by crows.”
    “It’s not the ice so much as the katabatic winds that drive the pack ice. We don’t want to have to beat against those to get home.”
    “Kind of like getting stuck in the rim of a hurricane’s eye, I guess,” Ruby said with quiet dread in her voice. Getting stuck in a hurricane’s eye rim was just about the worst thing Ruby and Martin could imagine. If this happened, an owl would spin around violently forever and ever, the force of the wind tearing off its wings and stripping every feather from its body. It was a terrible way to die.
    “Look, I see something down there,” Martin said suddenly.
    “Where?” asked Ruby.
    “Straight down. It looks like a glimmering—”
    “I see it!”
    The two young owls began a dizzying spiral descent. A sinuous glowing streak oozed slowly over the ground. They hovered, almost mesmerized by the undulatingmovement. Suddenly, the streak coiled up, waved its large bulbous head, and opened a mouth showing long, very sharp fangs. “Vasshink derkuna framachtin?”
    “Ruby, what’s the word for ‘little’ in Krakish?”
    “You asking me?”
    “‘Michten,’ I think that’s it,” Martin said and then began to speak to the snake. “Iby bisshen michten Krakish.”
    “Hoolish fynn? Vhor issen?”
    “Uh…uh…yeah. We’re from Ga’Hoole, the great tree.”
    “Bisshen michten Hoolian, erkutzen. Speak me little Hoolian.”
    Martin looked at Ruby. “I think we’d better land.”
    As the