Gylfies Discovery
I was supposed to go and tell the pellet gatherers that new trays were needed in our area. So 47-2
pointed me in the direction of what she called the Big Crack. It was, in fact, very near our area and ran straight up a rock side of the jpelletorium. I was told to go into the crack and I would find a line of other owlets also going to the storerooms and to follow them and not go off the trail. So I did just that."
Gylfie was telling the story so well that Soren could imagine every little turn on the path through the rock crack. It was as if he were right there with Gylfie
"There were many cracks leading off the main crack and sometimes voices could be heard. It was interesting that none of the other owlets who I followed seemed to even notice these cracks or hear the voices. Perhaps they had walked this trail so often it was meaningless to them. But I looked about and could see that at one point in the crack the sky cut through. Yes, it was quite beautiful, really, just a little piece of sky like a blue river flowing above, and then at one point the sky seemed very low. You know" -- Gylfie stopped and mused for a moment -- "ever since we have been here, Soren, I have had the feeling that St. Aegolius Academy is deep, deep in a stone canyon. That its very steepness and depth make it the perfect prison. But at this one point along the trail, I realized we were up higher and not so deep. Close to the sky."
"Close to the sky," Soren repeated softly. Once he, too, had been close to the sky. Once he had lived in a hollow high up in a fir tree lined with the fluffy down from his parents breasts. Once he had lived close to that blueness. That blueness of the day sky and the blackness of the night had been so near. No wonder a little owlet could almost believe it could fly before it really could. The sky was a part of owls and owls were a part of the sky.
Gylfie continued her story. "I thought that on the way back to the pelletorium I would try and look a little harder around this particular spot. Maybe slow down. Then I thought, maybe I could just pretend to be marching. You know, just like the Great Scheme idea. It would be a good test. Would anyone notice? Maybe not and better yet, there did not seem to be any monitors around." Gylfie's eyes brightened and she paused, hoping this idea would
sink in with Soren and convince him that it could all work.
"So, on the way back, that is exactly what I did. No one seemed to notice at all. They just moved around me as if I were a part of the stone wall that jutted out. And then something extraordinary happened. An owlet seemed to stumble near me. This owl, a young Snowy, just blinked at me and I thought, 'Great Glaux, I've been discovered standing here.' So I pointed up toward the sky -- as if I were admiring the view. "'Sky I said pleasantly. And the owl blinked, not a question blink, but a real moon blink. The same look that is in their eyes when they repeat their names on the sleep march." Gylfie took a deep breath, as if what she was about to say was terribly important. And it was. "I realized then that many words for these owlets, just like their names, have no meaning, no meaning at all. Can you imagine, Soren, an owl not knowing what the sky is?"
Soren thought for a moment. It was indeed unimaginable. Or was it? He remembered what Auntie Finny had said about some birds not destined for flight. But Soren had another question. "Does this owlet just not know the word or does she really not know what the sky is?" Gylfie blinked. Soren truly was a deep thinker. He continued, "Mrs. Plithiver, our nest-maid snake, I told you about her, well, she is blind, but she knows about the sky. She says
that all snakes, whether they are blind or not, call the sky 'the Yonder' because it is so far away for snakes. It is about as far as anything can be for a snake and that is why she loved working for our family -
- because she felt close to the Yonder."
"No, Soren, I think this owlet truly has been completely and perfectly moon blinked. She does not know the word, nor does she have any idea of sky."
"That's so sad," Soren said softly.
"It is sad, but you know it makes our job of escaping easier. Maybe the monitors have been moon blinked about words. But I have to tell you the other thing I discovered when I stopped at this place."
"What's that?"
"Well, down a side crack I saw a place that was guarded by an owl who looked familiar. As a matter of fact, I don't know how I didn't recognize him instantly. It was Grimble, the owl who snatched me. I've thought a lot about him. Do you remember what he said when we were flying here, something about it hardly seeming worth the effort and how the owl who snatched you warned him that he might get a demerit if Spoorn heard him talking that way?"
"Yes," Soren said slowly. He was not sure where Gylfie was going with this.
"Well, I think Grimble has perhaps not been perfectly moon blinked and that could be really good, too."
"Wait! One time you say it will be helpful to us if someone is perfectly moon blinked and the next minute you say someone like Grimble, who might not be, can be helpful, too."
"Grimble might be one of us, don't you see, Soren? He might be pretending to be moon blinked the way we have. As a matter of fact, I am almost sure he is."
"Why?"
"Because I went down that side crack and I found out what he was guarding."
"You did?"
"Yes. And do you know how hard it is to find out information when it's against the rules to ask a question?"
"Oh, yes!" Soren said.
'A couple of times I almost did ask questions, and Grimble seemed to sense it." "What did you find out?"
"Have you ever heard of books?"
"Of course I have," Soren said indignantly. "Books and Barn Owls go very far back." These were the exact words that his parents often said when they took out their few books to read aloud to the owlets.
"Especially since so
many of us once lived in churches. My parents had a book of psalms."
"Psalms?" Gylfie was truly impressed. "What are psalms?"
"Like songs, sort of, I think." Soren had not really heard that many. But when his mother read him the psalms it seemed that she sang the words more than spoke them. "But what about books? What did you find out from Grimble?"
"The place he guards is a book place. They call it a library. Have you ever heard of that -- a library?"
"Never. How did you find out all this? You certainly didn't ask questions."
"No, of course not. You see, it is off-limits. Only Skench and Spoorn are allowed in. That's how I sensed he might be one of us. He seemed to know the question before I ever had to think of a way of asking it. I want to get in."
"Why? I think we just need to get out of here."
"I want to know about the flecks," Gylfie said.
"Flecks? What flecks?"
"The flecks we're always singing about -- the bright flecks at the core, the ones the first-degree pickers pick for."
"Are you yoicks, Gylfie? You want to stay around this place long enough to become a first-degree picker?"
"Soren, something worse than just moon blinking
young owls is going on here. I just sense it. Something very bad. Something that could destroy all the kingdoms of all the owls on all the earth." Gylfie paused. "Something deadly." The word seemed to hang in the air, and Gylfie stared ahead unblinkingly
"These owlets are the walking dead. I think it would be better to be dead than be like 47-2, but you said all the kingdoms of all the owls on all the earth?"
"Total destruction," Gylfie said. Her voice was like ice. "Look, Soren. I want to get out as much as you do.
I think Grimble might be helpful, but we'll have to be very careful, and that library with those books holds secrets, secrets I think that could help us escape and maybe help other owls -- other owls in your Kingdom of Tyto and mine in the Desert of Kuneer. Would you want any other owls to go through what we've been through?"
Soren suddenly thought of Eglantine. He loved Eglantine. The thought of her being snatched, of being moon blinked, was almost more than he could bear. There was a world of Eglantines out there. Did he really want them to become empty-eyed, hollow-voiced, destined-not-to-fly owls? A shudder ran through Soren. It was not good enough to just escape. In fact, their task was greater than he had ever imagined.
A shriek split the night in the glaucidium. The moon had risen and the alarm for the first sleep march sounded.
Soren and Gylfie felt the stir as thousands of owls began to move. The strange babble rose up as each owl repeated its old name over and over again. The two little owls looked at each other and moved their beaks, turning the sound of their numbers into something that might pass for a name - any name but their own. And now, tonight, they would try the second part of their strategy for the first time. The one that Gylfie had tested in the Big Crack. They would march in place giving the appearance of motion but never moving from the cast shadows. If it had worked for Gylfie in the Big Crack it should work here.
Almost immediately they felt the press of owls about them. They held their breath, fearful that their ruse would be discovered. But the throngs of owls simply parted, just as the waters of a stream split to flow around a rock. They were jostled a bit and they felt a terrible chill as a sleep correction monitor swept by, but the monitor did not look twice at them as they marched in place. No, the monitor seemed only concerned about a small Snowy Owl ahead who had apparently been caught sleeping last time with its head under its wing. "Wing alert on number 8S-2. Monitors in the fourth quadrant, please be advised."
