St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls
The owls began to bank in steep turns as they circled downward. Soren blinked and looked down. There was not a tree, not a stream, not a meadow. Instead, immense rock needles bristled up, and cutting through them were deep stone ravines and jagged canyons. This could not be Tyto. That was all that Soren could think.
Down, down, down they plunged in tighter and tighter circles, until they alighted on the stony floor of a deep, narrow canyon. And, although Soren could indeed see the sky from which they had just plunged, it seemed farther away than ever. Above, there was the sound of wind, distant yet shrill as it whistled across the upper reaches of this harsh stone world. Then, piercing through the shriek of the wind, came a voice even louder and sharper.
"Welcome, owlets. Welcome to St. Aegolius. This is
your new home. It is here that you will find truth and purpose. Yes, that is our motto. When Truth Is Found, Purpose Is Revealed."
The immense, ragged Great Horned Owl fixed them in her yellow gaze. The tufts above her eyes swooped up. The shoulder feathers on her left wing had separated, revealing an unsightly patch of skin with a jagged white scar. She was perched on a rock outcropping in the granite ravine where they had been brought. "I am Skench, Ablah General of St. Aegolius. My job is to teach you the Truth. We discourage questions here as we feel they often distract from the Truth." Soren found this very confusing. He had always asked questions, ever since he had hatched out.
Skench, the Ablah General, was continuing her speech. "You are orphans now." The words shocked Soren. He was not an orphan! He had a mum and da, perhaps not here, but out there somewhere.
Orphan meant your parents were dead. How dare this Skench, the Ablah blah blah blah, or whatever she called herself, say he was an orphan!
"We have rescued you. It is here at St. Aggie's that you shall find everything that you need to become humble, plain servants of a higher good."
This was the most outrageous thing Soren had ever heard. He hadn't been rescued, he had been snatched away. If he had been rescued, these owls would have flown up and dropped him back in his family's nest. And what exactly was a higher good?
"There are many ways in which one can serve the higher good, and it is our job to find out which best suits you and to discover what your special talents are." Skench narrowed her eyes until they were gleaming amber slits in her feathery face. "I am sure that each and every one of you has something special."
At that very moment, there was a chorus of hoots, and many owl voices were raised in song.
To find one's special quality
One must lead a life of deep humility. To serve in this way Never question but obey
Is the blessing of St. Aggie's charity.
At the conclusion of the short song, Skench, the Ablah General, swooped down from her stone perch.
She fixed them all in the glare of her eyes. "You are embarking on an exciting adventure, little orphans.
After I have dismissed you, you shall be led to one of four glaucidiums, where two things shall occur. You shall receive your number designation. And you shall also receive your first lesson in the proper manner in which to sleep and shall be inducted
into the march of sleep. These are the first steps toward the Specialness ceremony."
What in the world was this owl talking about? Soren wondered. Number designation? What was a glaucidium, and since when did an owl have to be taught to sleep? And a sleep march? What was that?
And it was still night. What owl slept at night? But before he could really ponder these questions, he felt himself being gently shoved into a line, a separate line from the little Elf Owl called Gylfie. He turned his head nearly completely around to search for Gylfie and caught sight of her. He raised a stubby wing to wave but Gylfie did not see him. He saw her marching ahead with her eyes looking straight forward.
The line Soren was in wound its way through a series of deep gorges. It was like a stone maze of tangled trails through the gaps and canyons and notches of this place called St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. Soren had the unsettling feeling that he might never see the little Elf Owl again, and even worse, it would be impossible to ever find one's way out of these stone boxes into the forest world of Tyto, with its immense trees and sparkling streams.
They finally came to stop in a circular stone pit. A white owl with very thick feathers waddled toward them and blinked. Her eyes had a soft yellow glow.
"I am Finny, your pit guardian." And then she giggled softly. "Some have been known to call me their pit angel." She gazed sweetly at them. "I would love it if you would all call me Auntie."
Auntie? Soren wondered. Why would I ever call her Auntie? But he remembered not to ask.
"I must, of course, call you by your number designation, which you shall shortly be told," said Finny.
"Oh, goody!" A little Spotted Owl standing next to Soren hopped up and down.
This time, Soren remembered too late that questions were discouraged. "Why do you want a number instead of your name?"
"Hortense! You wouldn't like that name, either," the Spotted Owl whispered. "Now, shush. Remember, no questions."
"You shall, of course," Finny continued, "if you are good humble owlets and learn the lessons of humility and obedience, earn your Specialness rank and then receive your true name."
But my true name is Soren. It is the name my parents gave me. The words pounded in Soren's head and even his gizzard seemed to tremble in protest.
"Now, let's line up for our Number ceremony, and I have a tempting little snack here for you."
There were perhaps twenty owls in Soren's group and Soren was toward the middle of the line. He watched as the white owl, Auntie or Finny, whom Hortense had informed him was a Snowy Owl, dropped a piece of fur- stripped mouse meat on the stone before each owl in turn and then said, "Why, you're number 12-6. What a nice number that is, dearie."
Every number was either "nice," or "dear," or "darling." Finny bent her head solicitously and often gave a friendly little pat to the owlet just "numbered." She was full of quips and little jokes. Soren was just beginning to feel that things perhaps could be worse, and he hoped that Gylfie had such a nice owl for a pit guardian, when the huge fierce owl with the tufts over each eye, the very one who had snatched him and called him stupid, alighted down next to Finny. Soren felt a cold dread steal over his gizzard as he saw the owl look directly at him and then dip his head and whisper something into Finny's ear. Finny nodded and looked at him blandly. They were talking about him. Soren was sure. He could barely move his talons forward on the hard stone toward Finny. His turn was coming up soon. Only four more owls before he would be "numbered."
"Hello, sweetness," Finny cooed as Soren stepped forward. "I have a very special number for you!"
Soren was silent. Finny continued, "Don't you want to know what it is?" This is a trick. Questions are discouraged.
I'm not supposed to ask. And that was exactly what Soren said.
"I'm not supposed to ask." The soft yellow glow streamed from Finny's eyes. Soren felt a moment's confusion. Then Finny leaned forward and whispered to him. "You know, dear, I'm not as strict as some.
So please, if you really really need to ask a question, just go ahead. But remember to keep your voice down. And here, dear, is a little extra piece of mouse. And your number ..." She sighed and her entire white face seemed to glow with the yellow light. "My favorite -- 12-1. Isn't it sublime! It's a very special number, and I am sure that you will discover your own very specialness as an owl."
"Thank you," Soren said, still slightly mystified but relieved that the fierce owl had apparently not told Finny anything bad about him.
"Thank you, what?" Finny giggled. "See? I get to ask questions, too, sometimes."
"Thank you, Finny?"
Finny inclined her head toward him again. There was a slight glare in the yellow glow. "Again," she whispered softly. "Again ... now, look me in the eyes." Soren looked into the yellow light.
"Thank you, Auntie."
"Yes, dear. I'm just an old broody. Love being called Auntie."
Soren did not know what a broody was, but he took the mouse meat and followed the owl who had been in front of him into the glaucidium. Two large, ragged brown owls escorted the entire group. The glaucidium was a deep box canyon, the floor of which was covered with sleeping owlets. Moonlight streamed down directly on them, silvering their feathers.
"Fall in, you two!" barked a voice from high up in a rocky crevice.
"You!" A plump owl stepped up to Soren. Indeed, Soren's heart quickened at first, for it was another Barn Owl just like his own family. There was the white heart- shaped face and the familiar dark eyes.
And yet, although the color of these eyes was identical to his own and those of his family, he found the owl's gaze frightening.
"Back row, and prepare to assume the sleeping position." These instructions were delivered in the throaty rasp common to Barn Owls, but Soren found nothing comforting in the familiar.
The two owls who had escorted the newly arrived orphans spoke to them next. They were Long Eared Owls and had tufts that poked straight up over their eyes and twitched. Soren found this especially unnerving. They
each alternated speaking in short deep whoos. The whoos were even more disturbing than the barks of Skench earlier, for the sound seemed to coil into Soren's very breast and thrum with a terrible clang.
"I am Jatt," said the first owl. "I was once a number. But now I have earned my new name."
"Whhh -- " Soren snapped off the word.
"I see a question forming on your disgusting beak, number 12-1!" The whoo thrummed so deep within Soren's breast that he thought his heart might burst.
"Let me make this perrr-fectly clear." The thrumming of the owl's sound was almost unbearable. "At St.
Aggie's such words beginning with the whh sound are not to be spoken. Such words are question words, a habit of mental luxury and indulgence. Questions might fatten the imagination, but they starve the owlish instincts of hardiness, patience, humility, and self-denial. We are not here to pamper you by allowing an orgy of wwwhh words, question words. They are dirty words, swear words punishable by the most severe means at our disposal." Jatt blinked and cast his gaze on Soren's wings. "We are here to make true owls out of you. And someday you will thank us for it."
Soren thought he was going to faint with fear. These owls were so different from Finny. Auntie! He silently corrected himself. Jatt had resumed speaking in his normal whoo. "Now my brother shall address you."
It was an identical voice. "I am Jutt. I, too, was once a number but have earned my new name. You are now in the sleeping position. Standing tall, head up, beak tipped to the moon. You see in this glaucidium hundreds of owlets. They have all learned to sleep in this manner. You, too, shall learn."
Soren looked around, desperately searching for Gylfie, but all he saw was Hortense, or number 12-8. She had assumed the perfect sleeping position. He could tell by the stillness of her head that she was sound asleep under the glare of a full moon. Soren spotted a stone arch that connected to what he thought was another glaucidium. A mass of owls seemed to be marching. Their beaks were bobbing open and shut but Soren could not hear what they were saying. Jatt now spoke again. "It is strictly forbidden to sleep with the head tucked under the wings, dipped toward the breast, or in the manner that many of you young owls are accustomed, which is the semi-twist position in which the head rests on the back." Soren felt at least seven when sounds die mutely in his throat. "Incorrect sleeping posture is also punishable, using our most severe methods."
"Sleep correction monitors patrol the glaucidium, making their rounds at regular intervals," Jutt continued.
Now it was Jatt turn again. Their timing seemed perfect. Soren felt they had given this speech many times. "Also, at regular intervals, you shall hear the alarm. At the sound, all owlets in the glaucidium are required to begin the sleep march."
"During the sleep march," Jutt resumed, "you march, repeating your old name over and over and over again. When the second alarm sounds, you halt where you are. Repeat your number designation one time, and one time only, and assume the sleep position once more."
Both owls next spoke at once in an awesome thrum. "Now, sleep!"
Soren tried to sleep. He really did try. Maybe Finny, he meant Auntie, would believe him. But there was just something in his gizzard, a little twinge, that seemed to make sleep impossible. It was almost as if the shine of the full moon that sprayed its light over half the glaucidium became a sharp silver needle stabbing through his skull and going straight to his gizzard. Perhaps he had a very sensitive gizzard like his da. But in this case he wasn't "tasting" the sweet grass the meadow mouse had feasted on. He was tasting dread.
Soren was not sure how long it was before the alarm sounded but it was soon time for his first sleep march. Repeating his name over and over, he followed the owls in his group and now moved into the shadow of the overhang of the arch. "Ah," Soren sighed. The stabbing feeling in his skull ceased. His gizzard grew still. And Soren became more alert, the proper state for an owl who lived in the night. He looked about him. The little Spotted Owl named Hortense stood next to him. "Hortense?" Soren said.
She stared at him blankly and began tapping her feet as if to move.
A sleep monitor swooped down. "Whatcha marching in place for, 12-8? Assume the sleeping position."
Hortense immediately tipped her beak up, her head slightly back, but there was no moon to shine down upon it in the shadow of the rock. Soren, also in the sleep position, slid his eyes toward her. Curious, he thought. She responded to her number name but not her old name, except to move her feet. Still unable to sleep in this newfangled position, Soren twisted his head about to survey the stone arch. Through the other side of the arch, he caught sight of Gylfie, but too late. The alarm sounded, a high, piercing shriek.
Before he knew it, he was being pushed along as thousands of owls began to move. Within seconds, there was an indescribable babble as each owl repeated its old name over and over again.
It became clear to Soren that they were following the path of the moon around the glaucidium. There were, however, so many owls that they could not all be herded under the full shine of the moon at the same time. Therefore, some were allowed an interval under the overhang of the rock arch. Perhaps he and Gylfie, since they had wound up before at the arch at the same time, could meet there again. He was determined to get close to Gylfie the next time.
But that would take three more times. Three more times of blathering his name into the moonlit night.
Three more times of feeling the terrible twinge in his gizzard. "12-1, tip that beak up!" It was a sleep monitor. He felt a thwack to the side of his head. Hortense was still next to him. She mumbled, "12-8, what a lovely name that is. 12-8, perfect name. I love twos and fours and eights. So smooth."
"Hortense," Soren whispered softly. Her talons might have just vaguely begun to stir on the floor, but other than that, nothing. "Hort! Horty!" He tried, but the little Spotted Owl was lost in some dreamless sleep.
Finally, Soren was back under the arch and quickly moved over to the other side, which connected to the
neighboring glaucidium. The sleep monitors had just barked out the command, "Now, sleep!"
Suddenly, Gylfie was there. The tiny Elf Owl swung her head toward Soren. "They're moon blinking us,"
she whispered.
