//------------------------------// // A Bookloving Elf // Story: Twilight the Great Gray // by Odd_Sarge //------------------------------// “Where’s Digger?” The drake suppressed a yawn to scratch his head at the sudden question. “Uh, fourth floor balcony.” “Got it,” With a quick wave, the owl flapped up the staircase. Spike stretched, letting another yawn escape him. “Who.” “Yeah well,” Spike grumbled, rubbing his droopy eyes. “I don’t know how you owls do it.” He glared at the clock in the room; it read a little after midnight. “Twilight will kill me if she figures out I was getting late night ice cream.” “Who.” Spike waved Owlowiscious off as he went to find his basket on the second floor. Twilight found his friend perched on the railing, quietly staring up into the night sky. “There you are,” Twilight chuckled, setting down on the balcony behind Digger. “You weren’t in the main room when I got back from my late night flight.” His friend kept his gaze locked on the night sky. Twilight voiced his concern. “Digger?” “Have you ever noticed just how different this place is from Hoolemere?” Twilight blinked slowly. “Well, yeah. There are ponies here instead of owls—” “I meant how different this world is, not this place.” “Huh?” “Come up here.” Twilight obliged, hopping up to the railing beside Digger. “Look at the stars.” Twilight was caught off guard. “By my gizzard.” He stared. All around him, the stars twinkled, shining down on the duo atop the tree. The red, yellow, and blue sparkles were familiar, but their placements were strange. It was nothing like Hoolemere or any of the other owl kingdoms. “How did I not notice this before?” “It’s methodical,” Digger whispered. “It’s like someone placed them there.” “What do you mean? They just don’t look familiar.” Twilight wasn’t usually a fan of Digger’s philosophy, but this time it was for something more important than whether or not there were intelligent puffins. “Look again.” Twilight glared at his friend for not simply telling him, but eventually looked once more at the stars. He stared for a good minute, eyes tracing over the lights, but nothing came. Digger supplied a hint. “They’re in groups.” Twilight took in the new information, and in moments, he was staring wide eyed. In one spot, a sun formed. Elsewhere, a flower showed itself. In every place that Twilight looked in the night sky, there was a constellation, and no stars were exempt from one. “Where’s Glaux?” Twilight stared horrified, unable to find the great constellation. “I don’t know.” The two best friends stood huddled together, scanning the new night sky. “This isn’t Ga’Hoole.” Twilight was slow to reply. “And it isn’t the Beyond. I’ve been there, and the stars were never like this.” The minutes passed in silence, the two friends content to sit there with their new realizations. It was shattered by Twilight’s dark chuckle. “You know, I used to be able to say that you could name a place, and I could say that I’d been there.” He sighed, looking over the strange settlement below them. “But I don’t think anyone in the entirety of the Owl Kingdoms would even be able to name this place.” Twilight sighed, then pulled Digger close to him with a wing. Digger perked up as Twilight began to sing: Where go our stars, where goes our dark, the night once black and clear? Worry not, worry not, home, we’ll find home. Spread out your wings, don’t be afraid, let your gizzard sing. Worry not, my friend, we will find a way through. Worry not, Digger, we’ll see our friends soon. Here comes the night, here comes the night. We’ll learn to navigate this night. Digger sat still, thinking quietly to himself as the bard finished his impromptu performance. “So..." Twilight shook his little friend a bit “...whaddya think of that one?” Digger looked up at the expectantly grinning great grey. “It is… a lot more cheerful than your battle cries.” Twilight let out a quiet hoot of laughter and turned back to the stars, pulling his best friend even more close. The two sat there, content to stare. Digger felt his featherless legs shiver and pulled them in, causing him to turn into a little ball of feathers, wrapped up in even more feathers. Twilight chuckled. “Just like a hatchling, aren’t you?” Digger said nothing, letting the cool breeze hit the bigger owl, content to stay warm. “And don’t you go sleeping on me, I don’t need another incident like that last time we came back to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree after that trip to Ambala.” “I won’t,” came Digger’s murmur as his eyes closed. Surely a little wink wouldn’t hurt him? “Digger?” Twilight stared in disbelief at the little owl wrapped in his wings. He had continued to inspect the night sky in an attempt to make a mental map of the unfamiliar atmosphere. He was no navigator, however, and gave up minutes later, only to find that his friend had fallen asleep. “I told him not to sleep,” Twilight grumbled, awkwardly carrying the owl as best he could from the balcony. Inside the library, he found Owlowiscious dusting off a bookshelf. There were gentle snores from coming the second floor a floor below, no doubt the other Twilight that Twilight had bothered just two days prior. He sat there for a moment, thinking that statement over. “Good Glaux, that’s confusing.” “Who?” Twilight locked eyes with Owlowiscious as the assistant set the duster down. “Just the owl I was looking for!” Owlowiscious made a quiet ‘who’ in response to Twilight’s outburst, much to his chagrin. “Alright, alright, I’ll quiet down.” He shrank under the smaller owl’s gaze. “Anyway, do you have anywhere I can put Digger? He likes little crevices; always sleeps in the crooks of tree branches.” He sighed, moved his wings apart a tad to glare at the sleeping owl. “And he also likes to sleep when he shouldn’t.” “Who.” Owlowiscious flew towards the stairs leading down, stopping to make sure Twilight was following. “Who.” The message was clear, Stay close and don’t make a sound. Resisting the urge to perform a mock salute with his wing for fear of dropping Digger, Twilight followed the midnight librarian to the second floor. The snoring came full force, Twilight blinking as the once gentle sound turned into a tidal wave of noise. Confusion swept over him; the mare had been a quiet sleeper ever since meeting her. A quick glance at a candlelit writing desk gave a reason for the change; a large pile of scrolls. Scholar at heart, almost like Gylfie. Twilight gave an internal sigh as he thought of his friend, continuing downstairs to follow Owlowiscious. I wonder how she’s doing. He didn’t have to wonder for much longer as he stepped into the interior. “Who.” “I am not tiny!” He heard a scoff as Owlowiscious wilted a little. “I see some owls on top of a tree and the first thing that one of you says is that I am tiny!” “Gylfie when did you get here?” The tiny, or rather, small elf owl’s eyes snapped to Twilight as he rounded the corner. “T-twilight?” Gylfie gasped, flying over and wrapping her wings around the great grey’s body as best she could. Digger was roused from his short nap by the contact that the three of them shared. “What’s going on?” Digger was a little frightened. Twilight stepped back, causing Digger to spill out across the floor. “Digger!” The slightly bigger owl was scooped up in a hug by Glyfie. Digger looked a little sheepish as he returned the hug. As the two separated, Gylfie turned to Twilight and jumped up to whack his beak with a wing. “Oi!” He stumbled back, surprised. “What was that for?” Gylfie looked between the two, a mix of annoyance and worry evident on her features. “What was it for? It was for acting so casual after being gone from the Great Ga’Hoole tree for five months!” She turned to Digger. “And you and Soren have been missing for two months! The whole tree thought that you two had been lost on some adventure somewhere!” She glanced between the two, huffing. “And now after waking up in a different spruce than the one I had slept in, I find you two in this strange settlement that looks like it belonged to the Others!” “What’s going on down here?” The four owls turned to regard the drake descending from the second floor. “It’s hard enough to sleep with Twilight snoring.” “You’re not Soren.” Gylfie said plainly, eyes wide as she watched Spike reach the ground floor. Digger looked a little fearful as he turned about to face Gylfie. “W-wait, Soren’s gone too?” It was Gylfie’s turn to look scared. “You mean he wasn’t with you?” Digger shook his head. Spike raised a claw. “Um…” “Well he has to be here somewhere! You didn’t see him when you woke up?” Gylfie turned curious. “How did you even get here? Did you wake up in a tree, too?” “Nah, that’d be me.” Twilight interrupted. Spike opened his mouth to interject. “I g-got…” Digger took a shaky breath. “B-bobcat pounced me.” Gylfie looked horrified, rushing over to her fellow smallkin to hug him again. Twilight soon followed, wrapping both of them up in a bigger hug. “Is nobody going to ask about the fact that Twilight’s been gone for five months when he's only been here for five days? Or that Digger was here for two days and gone for two months?” All eyes turned to focus on Spike. He cringed. “Sorry. Bad timing.” Spike scratched his head for a moment. He chose to mutter his next sentence to himself. “Or where that ‘Soren’ is?” Noting that the three owls were still in the middle of comforting one another, Spike returned upstairs with Owlowiscious. “Whatever’s going on, I’ll figure it out.” “Who.” “Right, I mean we,” Spike chuckled as they reached the third floor. Spike wandered over to his own personal writing desk, littered with several books from the shelves. He pulled up a list of notes from under one of the books about natural magic surges and went about adding a third and fourth name to the page about the strange Band. As he went to put the note away, Spike’s eyes caught sight of an open page in the book. He yanked it up quickly and read over the text again. He grinned widely. “Owlowiscious? I need you to go grab some readings from the forest for me. I think I know what brought them here.” He looked over at the list of names again. “And maybe even what that Soren’s doing right now...”