You see it, don’t you?” Fengo said.
“I see something but I am not sure what.”
“It is an ember.”
So it was in the eyes of the dire wolf Fengo that I caught my first glimpse of what would come to be known as the Ember of Hoole. I felt its power immediately. I sensed that it could be a dangerous thing to let loose in the world. But it also held the promise of great good.
“You came to learn about fire, did you not?” Fengo asked.
I nodded. I did not ask how he knew this. I understood that in many ways this wolf was like me. He was a flame reader. He had firesight. And he knew much, for he lived in a world of constant fire here in the Beyond.
“I can help you,” he said. “I can teach you some things, but not everything. And you will soon learn more than I can teach, and know more than I can imagine.”
This puzzled me. “How can that be?” I asked.
“You can fly,” he said simply.
“But why should this help me learn more?”
“You are able to fly over the craters from which the fires leap. You can look into the heart of the volcano. On the wing, you shall catch the hottest coals.”
“Catch coals?”
“Yes.” Fengo nodded. “Catch coals and then make fire and see what can be made from fire. With that, I might be able to help you for I have explored the effects of flames on certain materials.”
“It doesn’t just burn things up?” I asked.
“Not always. Sometimes it changes things.”
I was intrigued and was wondering what these changes could be when he interrupted my thoughts.
“And perhaps one day you shall see where the ember lies buried.”
“Do you mean the wolf ember?” I asked him, for that was how I thought of the ember I had seen in his eyes.
“It is not the wolf ember,” he said quietly. “It is the owl ember. Make no mistake. It is the Ember of Hoole.”
“That cannot be!”
“Why not?”
“Because it has been told that Hoole was the first owl: In that time when all birds were alike, the first one to become an owl was called Hoole. It was even said that he was a mage. That he possessed good magic. But it is just a story from a time long ago when there were no high kings, no kings at all. The word ‘Hoole’ now means first of a kind.
“And in our wolf language the word ‘Hoole’ simply means owl. You see, my friend, it was the spirit of a Hoole that I followed when I led my kind here from our icelocked land.”
“The spirit of an owl? Not a real owl?” I asked him.
“You mean a scroom, then.”
“Yes, a scroom, if that is what you call the spirits of the dead.”
“Hoole,” I repeated the word softly. It had a lovely sound that seemed to spin out into the darkness like that wild and untamed song of the wolves when they howled into the night. “Hoole,” I said it again. Like a silvery filament of moonlight, it whispered through the dark.
The Guardians of Ga’Hoole
Book One: The Capture
Book Two: The Journey
Book Three: The Rescue
Book Four: The Siege
Book Five: The Shattering
Book Six: The Burning
Book Seven: The Hatchling
Book Eight: The Outcast
Book Nine: The First Collier
Book Ten: The Coming of Hoole
Book Eleven: To Be a King
Book Twelve: The Golden Tree
Book Thirteen: The River of Wind
Book Fourteen: Exile
Book Fifteen: The War of the Ember
A Guide Book to the Great Tree
Lost Tales of Ga’Hoole
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eISBN: 978-0-545-28339-7
Artwork by Richard Cowdrey
Design by Steve Scott
Table of Contents
Title Page
Maps
Illustration
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE Outcast Without a Name
CHAPTER TWO Venomous Visitors
CHAPTER THREE The Eagles’ Nest
CHAPTER FOUR Sky Writing
CHAPTER FIVE A Decision Is Made
CHAPTER SIX A Cry in the Night
CHAPTER SEVEN A Heartbeat Calls
CHAPTER EIGHT A Fiend Comes to Life
CHAPTER NINE The Egg Restored
CHAPTER TEN A Namesake
CHAPTER ELEVEN Listening to Legends
CHAPTER TWELVE Wolves in the Moonlight
CHAPTER THIRTEEN A New Friend
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Violence in Silverveil
CHAPTER SIXTEEN A Green Eye
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Of Sky and Trail
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Treating With the MacHeaths
CHAPTER NINETEEN An Eerie Feeling
CHAPTER TWENTY A Spotted Owl Goes Yeep
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Who’s the Teacher?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Basic Colliering
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE A Blood Oath
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR A Gnaw Wolf in Training
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE From the River’s Mist
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX In the Eye of the Wolf
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN The Glass Volcano
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Uncle Soren and the King
OWLS and others from the GUARDIANS of GA’HOOLE SERIES
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The Guardians of Ga’Hoole
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