A Life Worth Two Pellets
True in your heart! Those words in the deep throaty hoot of his father were perhaps the last thing Soren remembered before he landed with a soft thud on a pile of moss. Shaking himself and feeling a bit dazed, he tried to stand up. Nothing seemed broken. But how had this happened? He certainly had not tried flying while his parents were out hunting. Good Glaux. He hadn't even tried branching yet. He was still far from "flight readiness" as his mum called it. So how had this happened? All he knew was, one moment he was near the edge of the hollow, peering out, looking for his mum and da to come home from hunting, and the next minute he was tumbling through the air.
Soren tipped his head up. The fir tree was so tall, and he knew that their hollow was near the very top.
What had his father said -- ninety feet, one hundred feet? But numbers had no meaning for Soren. Not only could he not fly, he couldn't count, either. Didn't really know his numbers. But there was one thing that he did know: He was in trouble -- deep, frightening, horrifying trouble. The boring lectures that Kludd had complained about came back to him. The weight of the terrible truth now pressed upon him in the darkness of the forest -- those grim words, "an owlet that is separated from its parents before it has learned to fly and hunt cannot survive."
And Soren's parents were gone, gone on a long hunting flight. There had not been many since Eglantine had hatched out. But they needed more food, for winter was coming. So right now Soren was completely alone. He could not imagine being more completely alone as he gazed up at the tree that seemed to vanish into the clouds. He sighed and muttered, "So alone, so alone."
And yet, deep inside him something flickered like a tiny smoldering spark of hope. When he had fallen, he must have done something with his nearly bald wings that "had captured the air" as his father would say. He tried now to recall that feeling. For a brief instant, falling had actually felt wonderful. Could he perhaps recapture that air? He tried to lift his wings and flutter them slightly. Nothing. His wings felt cold and bare in the crisp autumn breeze. He looked at the tree again. Could he climb, using his talons and beak? He had to do something fast or he would become some creatures next meal -- a rat, a raccoon.
Soren felt faint at the very thought of a raccoon. He had seen them from the nest -- bushy, masked, horrible creatures with sharp teeth. He must listen carefully. He must turn and tip his head as his parents had taught him. His parents could listen so carefully that, from high above in their tree hollow, they could hear the heartbeat of a mouse on the forest floor below. Surely he should be able to hear a raccoon. He cocked his head and nearly jumped. He did hear a sound. It was a small, raspy, familiar voice from high up in the fir tree. "Soren! Soren!" it called from the hollow where his brother and sister still nestled in the fluffy pure white down that their parents had plucked from beneath their flight feathers. But it was neither Kludd nor Eglantine.
"Mrs. Plithiver!" Soren cried.
"Soren ... are you ... are you alive? Oh, dear, of course you are if you can say my name. How stupid of me. Are you well? Did you break anything?"
"I don't think so, but how will I ever get back up there?"
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear," Mrs. Plithiver moaned. She was not much good in a crisis. One could not expect such things of nest-maids, Soren supposed.
"How long until Mum and Da get home?" Soren called up.
"Oh, it could be a long while, dearie."
Soren had hop-stepped to the roots of the tree that ran above the ground like gnarled talons. He could now see Mrs. Plithiver, her small head with its glistening rosy scales hovering over the edge of the hollow. Where Mrs. Plithiver's eyes should have been there were two small indentations. "This is simply beyond me." She sighed. "Is Kludd awake? Maybe he could help me." There was a long pause before Mrs. Plithiver answered weakly, "Well, perhaps." She sounded hesitant. Soren could hear her now, nudging Kludd. "Don't be grumpy, Kludd. Your brother has ... has ... taken a tumble, as it were.
Soren heard his brother yawn. "Oh, my." Kludd sighed and didn't sound especially upset, Soren thought.
Soon the large head of his big brother peered over the edge of the hollow. His white heart-shaped face with the immense dark eyes peered down on Soren. "I say," Kludd drawled. "You've got yourself in a terrible fix."
"I know, Kludd. Can't you help? You know more about flying than I do. Can't you teach me?"
"Me teach you? I wouldn't know where to begin. Have you gone yoicks?" He laughed. "Stark-raving yoicks. Me teach you?" He laughed again. There was a sneer embedded deep within the laugh.
"I'm not yoicks. But you're always telling me how
much you know, Kludd." This was certainly the truth. Kludd had been bragging about his superiority ever since Soren had hatched out. He should get the favorite spot in the hollow because he was already losing his downy fluff in preparation for his flight feathers and therefore would be colder. He deserved the largest hunks of mouse meat because he, after all, was on the brink of flying. "You've already had your First Flight ceremony. Tell me how to fly, Kludd."
"One cannot tell another how to fly. It's a feeling, and besides, it is really a job for Mum and Da. It would be very impertinent of me to usurp their position."
Soren had no idea what "usurp" meant. Kludd often used big words to impress him.
"What are you talking about? Usurp?" Sounded like "yarp" to Soren. But what would yarping have to do with teaching him to fly? Time was running out. The light was leaking out of the day's end and the evening shadows were falling. The raccoons would soon be out.
"I can't do it, Soren," Kludd replied in a very serious voice. "It would be extremely improper for a young owlet like myself to assume this role in your life."
"My life isn't going to be worth two pellets if you don't do something. Don't you think it is improper for you to let me die? What will Mum and Da say to that?"
"I think they will understand completely."
Great Glaux! Understand completely! He had to be yokks. Soren was simply too dumbfounded. He could not say another word.
"I'm going to get help, Soren. I'll go to Hilda's," he heard Mrs. Rhiann. rasp. Hilda was another nest-maid snake for an owl family in a tree near the banks of the river.
"I wouldn't if I were you, Rhiann." Kludd's voice was ominous. It made Soren's gizzard absolutely quiver.
"Don't call me Rhiann. That's so rude."
"That's the last thing you have to worry about Rhiann. -- me being rude." Soren blinked.
"I'm going, Kludd. You can't stop me," Mrs. Plithiver said firmly.
"Can't I?"
Soren heard a rustling sound above. Good Glaux, what was happening?
"Mrs. Plithiver?" Only silence now. "Mrs. Plithiver?" Soren called again. Maybe she had gone to Hilda's.
He could only hope, and wait.
It was nearly dark now and a chill wind rose up. There was no sign of Mrs. Plithiver returning. "First teeth" -- isn't that what Da always called these early cold winds? -- the first teeth of winter. The very words made poor Soren
shudder. When his father had first used this expression, Soren had no idea what "teeth" even were. His father explained that they were something that owls didn't have, but most other animals did. They were for tearing and chewing food.
"Does Mrs. Plithiver have them?" asked Soren. Mrs. Plithiver had gasped in disgust.
His mother said, "Of course not, dear."
"Well, what are they exactly?" Soren had asked.
"Hmm," said his mother as she thought a moment. "Just imagine a mouth full of beaks -- yes, very sharp beaks."
"That sounds very scary."
"Yes, it can be," his mother replied. "That is why you do not want to fall out of the hollow or try to fly before you're ready, because raccoons have very sharp teeth."
"You see," his father broke in, "we have no need for such things as teeth. Our gizzards take care of all that chewing business. I find it rather revolting, the notion of actually chewing something in one's mouth."
"They say it adds flavor, darling," his mother added.
"I get flavor, plenty of flavor, in my gizzard. Where do you think that old expression 'I know it in my gizzard' comes from? Or i have a feeling in my gizzard,' Marella?"
"Noctus, I'm not sure if that is the same thing as flavor."
"That mouse we had for dinner last night -- I can tell
you from my gizzard exactly where he had been of late. He had been feasting on the sweet grass of the meadow mixed with the nooties from that little Ga'Hoole tree that grows down by the stream. Great Glaux! I don't need teeth to taste."
Oh, dear, thought Soren, he might never hear this gentle bickering between his parents again. A centipede pittered by and Soren did not even care. Darkness gathered. The black of the night grew deeper and from down on the ground he could barely see the stars. This perhaps was the worst. He could not see sky through the thickness of the trees. How much he missed the hollow. From their nest, there was always a little piece of the sky to watch. At night, it sparkled with stars or raced with clouds. In the daytime, there was often a lovely patch of blue, and sometimes toward evening, before twilight, the clouds turned bright orange or pink. There was an odd smell down here on the ground -- damp and moldy The wind sighed through the branches above, through the leaves and the needles of the forest trees, but down on the ground ... well, the wind didn't seem to even touch the ground. There was a terrible stillness. It was the stillness of a windless place. This was no place for an owl to be. Everything was different.
If his feathers had been even half-fledged, he could
have plumped them up and the downy fluff beneath the flight feathers would have kept him warm. He supposed he could try calling for Eglantine. But what use would she be? She was so young. Besides, if he called out, wouldn't that alert other creatures in the forest that he was here? Creatures with teeth!
He guessed his life wasn't worth two pellets. But even worthless, he still missed his parents. He missed them so much that the missing felt sharp. Yes, he did feel something in his gizzard as sharp as a tooth.
