desperate as the rest of them to change the subject once the dreadful word had been mentioned.
Everyone continued to churr and guffaw. Soren noticed that other tables began to look at them as loose feathers from the laughing owls drifted down. But then he swivelled his head towards Primrose and caught his breath when he saw her. Glaux! Is she laughing or crying? The little Pygmy was shaking hard and making unintelligible sounds, but there were tears streaming from her eyes.
“You see, Eglantine,” Ginger was saying back in the hollow, “just one more way you’re being left out.”
“I know. It’s getting bad. And did I tell you how Soren missed my first Fur-on-Bones ceremony?”
“No, you don’t say! I am shocked. Your own brother didn’t come to your Fur-on-Bones ceremony? That’s unforgivable.”
“He had some excuse, but he was really out larking about with the band.”
“The band?”
“That’s what everyone calls the four of them – Soren, Gylfie, Twilight and Digger – because they all came here together, and they stick together.”
“And leave you out!”
“Right! I’ve never felt more left out in my life.”
You feel left out?! What about me? Primrose almost screamed from the branch she was perched on just outside the hollow. She was eavesdropping. She knew it wasn’t very nice, but it was her hollow too after all, and they wouldn’t talk this freely if they knew she were around.
“Do you know what I think you should do about it?” Ginger asked.
“What?”
Primrose inclined her head a bit more so she could hear better.
“Well,” Ginger said in a cozy, chatty voice. “If I were you, I’d make a list.”
“A list?” Eglantine said.
“Yes, a list of all the things that your brother and his friends have left you out of. I think it always makes one feel better to make a list.”
Racdrops! Complete racdrops! That idiot owl doesn’t even know how to write! Primrose raged silently.
“Hmmm,” Eglantine said.
“Making that list will be a relief. Trust me.”
Don’t trust her! Primrose thought and rushed into the hollow.
“Come on, Eglantine. It’s a great night for flying.”
“Oh, I don’t think we’ll be coming Primrose. We have things to do,” Ginger said.
Primrose blinked. All right. I’m finished with being polite. “I actually didn’t ask you, Ginger. I thought with you still healing from your wing injury you wouldn’t be up for it, but surely you are Eglantine.”
Eglantine looked nervously towards Ginger, almost as if to ask permission to go. “Well … well, maybe just for a little while,” Eglantine replied. “But I’ll come back early and make that list, don’t worry Ginger. Yes, we have important things to do.”
“It will be a relief, Eglantine. I promise.” Then as Primrose and Eglantine were leaving the hollow to join the others for a few flight frolics under the rising moon, Ginger called out, “A real relief, like sleeping.”
Primrose brimmed with joy to be flying with her best friend through the satiny black night. The air was so smooth and soft, soft as an owl chick’s down. Ruby, a Short-eared Owl and probably the best flier in the tree, was inscribing figure-of-eights just under the paws of the constellation of the Big Raccoon, which was rising in the eastern sky. Primrose, however, was cautious. She didn’t want to get too happy. Things might change. And she certainly didn’t want to think about Eglantine making that stupid list. She was wondering if she should say something, not specifically about the list, but about Eglantine feeling left out. She was sure Soren didn’t mean to leave her out. He didn’t have a choice with this weather experiment thing. And just as she was wondering whether to say something, Eglantine said, “Well, time to get back to the hollow.”
“What? Are you yoicks? The night is just beginning. The Big Raccoon is hardly up. I can only see two of his paws.”
“Well, look. Soren and the band are taking off to do their weather experiments already.”
“That’s different. They have things to do. They can’t mess around out here like we can. You don’t see anyone else taking off for their hollows.”
“Well, I have things to do too.”
“Like what?” Primrose was flying just beneath Eglantine, and flipped her head backwards and up as only owls can.
“Just things,” Eglantine answered vaguely. “And sleep. I want to catch a few winks.”
A few winks? That must be an expression she picked up from Ginger. “What do you need to sleep for? Owls don’t sleep at night – especially not a night like this.”
“Well, I’ve been feeling Kind of tired lately.” Eglantine tossed this last comment over her shoulder as she flew off in the direction of the great tree.
Primrose blinked. Maybe there really was something wrong with Eglantine. Maybe she was getting summer flux or grey scale. They said that owls with grey scale slept a lot. Oh, dear, I hope she isn’t really sick.
Meanwhile, as the Big Raccoon climbed higher and higher in the sky, the band of four – Soren, Twilight, Gylfie and Digger – headed north to a small speck of an island that dripped like the tiniest leak from the peninsula of the Broken Talon. They were flying there to perform their weather experiment for Ezylryb.
The conditions were perfect for setting out the small floats made from bundles of downy feathers and hollowed-out Ga’Hoole nuts.
“Now, what’s this all about?” Twilight asked.
“The idea is to measure the wind drift and current variations in this part of the Sea of Hoolemere,” Soren replied. “So we set out these little floats, then fly back in a few days and see where they are. Make sure the streamers are well attached because that’s how we’re going to find them again.”
It was fun work, and for a snack when they finished Soren had brought along some barbecued bat wings left over from tweener.
“Glaux, this island is so tiny even I feel big on it,” Gylfie said. “Where are we going to light down for a snack?”
