you think they’re part of the animal kingdom?” Gylfie asked.
“What other kingdoms are there?” Twilight said.
“Plant kingdom – I heard my father speak of the plant kingdom,” Gylfie said.
“They do look kind of planty. Don’t they?” said Digger.
“What do you mean? Planty?” asked Soren.
“I know what Digger’s talking about. That bright orange thing growing from the middle of its, I guess, face?”
“What do you mean – you guess, face?” the creature hollered. “I mean, we’re pretty dumb, but you must be dumber if you can’t tell a face from a plant.”
“Well, you look a bit like a cactus in bloom – the kind we have in the desert,” Digger said.
“That’s my beak, idiot. I can assure you that neither I nor anyone in my family is a cactus in bloom – whatever a cactus is and whatever a desert is.”
“Well, what are you?” Mrs Plithiver finally spoke up.
“Well, what in the name of ice are you?” the creature retorted.
“I’m a snake … a nest-maid snake. I serve these most noble of birds, owls.”
“Well,” said the creature who was not a cactus, “we’re just a bunch of puffins.”
“Puffins!” Twilight hooted. “Puffins are northern birds, far northern birds.”
“Duh!” said one of the little ones. “Gee, Pop, I’m feeling smarter all the time.”
“But if you’re puffins,” Gylfie continued, “we must be in the North.”
“Ta-da!” said one of the puffins. “Gee, you owls are getting smarter every minute!”
“Does she get a prize, Mummy, for answering the question right?” Another little chick, with an immense beak almost as long as it was tall, poked its head out of the hole.
“Oh, we’re just having fun with them, Dumpy.”
“But how did we get so far north?” Soren asked.
“Must have been blown off course,” said the female. “Where you come from?”
“The Beaks,” Twilight said.
“Where you headed?”
“The island in the Sea of Hoolemere.”
“Great Ice! You’ve passed it by. Overshot it by five hundred leagues.”
“What! We flew over it and didn’t even see it?” Digger said, his voice barely audible.
“Where are we exactly?” Gylfie asked.
“You’re in the Ice Narrows, far side of Hoolemere, edge of the Northern Kingdoms.”
“What!” All four owls gasped.
“Don’t feel too dumb,” the male said. “Bad weather conditions.”
“When do we ever have good ones, dear?” his mate mused.
“Well, true. But with the wind coming from that direction, they just got sucked up into the Narrows and then that williwaw came.”
“What’s a williwaw?” Soren asked.
“You get a big tumble, like an avalanche. Suppose you don’t know what that is – an avalanche.”
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