It was a rainy night at the enchanted orchards. The rain was falling like a waterfall in the spring time. For a the other owls it was to wet. But for someone named Starluck its beautiful to her. She took in a deep breath as she heard the sounds of rain fall and thunder. To her it was magical. A gust of fierce wind almost knocked the black white spotted owlet out of the tree but luckily didn't. "Whoa that was strong" she told herself. 2 hours when by and the rain was still falling and Starluck grew restless and hungry. Then something down blow caught her eye, a mouse. She still couldn't fly she taught herself to branching for a while but she was the one to take risk's. "Well why not I'm already hungry" she said to herself. She grabbed her mothers favorite scarf to keep her warm glided down from her nest to her meal and grabbed it before it can get away. She sometimes doesn't think things through when it comes to hunting. She is normally the keen, alert, crafty type but not when it come to hunting. Her feathers where soaked in rain water and a flash of thunder came around a gave her a slight jolt. She shook her feathers to keep her from getting to soaked. Then she heard the sound of flapping wings she was figuring some owl planning on stealing her meal. She quickly devoured her prize and tried to figure out where those wing beats were coming from. She turned around fast to see and old looking owl swoop her up and carry her off. "Hey what are you doing let me go" she screamed hoping someone might hear her but didn't.

"Where are you taking me"

"Don't ask questions" yelled the owl. She was terrified out of her feathers she didn't know whats going on. Her scarf was flapping in the wind and the breezes was in her feathers. Up ahead she saw a dark mountain she can feel the evil inside.

She saw another owl with the same color as the owl carrying her he said, "Hey there what did you catch today?"

"Snatched me up a black barn owl today" he answered. The other owl was carrying a barn owl he was a handsome owl he was about the same age as she was. He had grey speckles on his back and golden sunlight eyes. He turned to her and said, "Did he say you're a black bran owl?" She gave him a nod. He said his name was Soren and The Elf owl said her name was Gylfie. Soren asked for her name and answered Starluck. Starluck was then thrown to the ground to the hard, cold ground of the mountain she called out to her barn owl and elf owl friends. They were soon reunited. Then a old looking owl that carried her here stared to speak, " Your parents have abandoned you so you will now be classified by orphans." The owlets gasped but she didn't believe anything they said. "Tragic, I know, but by the mercy of Glaux, you have been rescued and brought here to St. Aegolius. In time, you will be grateful to the kindness brought to you and you will repay that kindness with labor. Some of you will be pickers." The owl stared right at an owlet who had just started getting real feathers.

"Oh no, I don't want to be a picker," he said.

"Some of you will be soldiers and in your way, you will all serve the high Tyto."

"Let us go!" Gylfie shouted. All of the owlets started screaming and talking. It was a complete madhouse. A couple of the owlets tried to run away but large owls with metal masks covering their entire face except their gleaming red eyes went in front of them. The owlets continued to make a ruckus until an owl screech came. Everyone quieted down and looked up. Two of the red eyed soldiers flew in line and perched on a wooden pole that stuck between a high level rock. Then a pure white owl with wingtips red flew so close to all the owlets that they had to duck to avoid being hit. The owl flew up and perched on the bone like pole that was onto of the rock.

"I am Nyra, general of St. Aegolius and mate to the lord high Tyto. I know right know you miss your families but you will come to understand that the Pure Ones are your new family."

"The Pure ones are not our family" Starluck spoke out.

"Yes let us go" cried Gyfie.

"She's right, let us go!" Soren added. Nyra flew down and stood in front of them, double of Starlucks size. All the owlets backed away.

"Tyto, don't waste your time," Nyra said. "Don't soil your feathers."

"You leave them be," Soren said.

"Oh, a spirited little Tyto. You and your patches of felt with stay together, as pickers." An owl came and pushed Soren, Gylfie, and Starluck down the right path. They pushed against his wing but he was stronger.

"What about my brother?" asked Soren.

"Oh where is he?" asked Nyra.

"Kludd," Soren called. Kludd tried not to look at them but Nyra saw him.

"Owlet, that one says you're his brother. Would you like to join him?" Kludd thought for a second and then turned his head away. "I didn't think so." The owl pushed them down the right path and made them wait until all the hatchlings had been singled out. He told them to get in line and follow him. All the owlets were scared and when one tried to run, another Pure One stopped it. We were walking down a fire lit path.

"Thank you," Starluck said. "You know Soren, you don't have to be here with me, you should be with your brother."

"I could never be with those Tytos," Soren said as he was bumped into by a hunched over owlet with a basket on its back. Its eyes were filled with white like the moon. "Hey."

"It looks like-like he's been moon-" Gylfie started but never finished.

Alright come on."

"Do exactly what he says or you'll never see the light of day again," an owl said looking right at the trio.

"Lean back, put your beak up to the light of the glorious full moon, and sleep." Once the owls couldn't hear them anymore, Gylfie started to talk.

"We mustn't fall asleep," Gylfie said. "I think they're trying to moon blink us."

"Moon blink?"Starluck said questioningly.

"In the desert, owls would get exhausted and collapse under it," Gylfie explained. Starluck looked around to see the other owlets yawning and close their eyes. "When they woke up, they just weren't the same as if they had forgotten who they were."

"Girls, we are going to get out of here," Soren said. Gylfie looked up at the sky.

"I know these stars," Gylfie said.

"But the only way off here is to fly and we can't," Starluck said.

"Not yet we can't but every time they're not looking, we're going to stretch," Soren said but then stopped. Starluck faced the moon and closed her eyes as an owl walked by. He looked at her closely and then left, thinking she was asleep.

"Do you really think we can make it Soren?" Gylfie asked.

"We'll get away," Soren said.

"I'm cold" shivered Starluck. She snuggled up to Soren and he wrapped one wing around her.

"Together" whispered Soren. The moon was going down and Starluck was exhausted. She just closed her eyes to rest them and the next thing she knew was that owls were pushing her as if they didn't see her. She felt like she should be following someone and she looked around for Soren and Gylfie.

Soren, what do we do?" Starluck asked.

"We need to act moon blinked," Soren answered and then told Gylfie. Starluck tried to act moon blinked and no one saw her. Gylfie was walking with straight legs and her wings spread out as if she was a zombie. Soren just stared forward. They were pushed into this place and a moon blinked owl was throwing pellets at us.

"Ew, other owls pellets," Gylfie complained.

"Maybe it would have been better if we had been moon blinked," Soren said.

"Eureka," one owl said and grabbed the moon blinked owls face. "Great job number eight, five, seven, whatever." He threw the owlet back and picked up the pellet.

"Hey you with the blank expression," the white owl said.

"That's all of them," the red owl said.

"Oh, listen he's talking." The red owl continued to explain.

"This is the kind of pellet you're picking for. Mouse fur, mouse bones, that's all standard. The rare ingredient in this one is what Mr. Mouse ate. A metal fleck." He picked out two flecks and shoved them in Starlucks and Soren's beak. "Now you go take it up to where all the flecks belong." Soren and Starluck walked slowly toward the dancing blue light.

"Faster." The owls pushed us forward to make us go faster. They climbed up the small set of stairs and the blue light grabbed the blue flecks. Soren was starting to huff but Starluck didn't feel anything. She saw a blue light go into his chest and he huffed harder and faster. A bat came down from the wall and quickly grabbed the fleck from Starluck. The bat put it in the pile and grabbed the other one from Soren. It screeched and a bat from way higher up swooped down and grabbed the basket. It flew it away and Soren was being sucked in. When the blue flecks were out of reach, they let go of Soren. Soren breathed heavily.

"Starluck, are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine but what happened."

"Alright, get back to work." The owls called. Soren rushed back to Gylfie with all the energy he had left.

"What happened?" Gylfie asked.

"Those birds are doing something terribly wrong," Soren said and bent down to face Gylfie. "We have to get out of here."

"And exactly what do you think you're doing?" the owl that carried Starluck here came up to them. He looked at us closely and Starluck stepped back in fear. "C'mon let's go." He pushed them forward with his wings. Starluck stayed close to Soren. They were taken to this cut in the cliff which was blocked by some large branches.

"What do you plan on doing with us?" Starluck asked.

"Quiet," Grimble said and pushed Starluck and Soren forward. He looked back at the red eyed Pure One. We went along further in. Starluck looked at Gylfie and she was filled with fear and she was shaking. Starluck was just as scared as she was.

"Where are you taking us?" Starluck asked.

"Stop asking questions," Grimble said and pushed them again. Gylfie jumped and gasped after seeing a pile of bones on the floor.

"The Pure Ones won't be too happy if you don't let us get back to the pelletorium," Gylfie said. Grimble walked ahead and faced them. Starluck shrunk back again and Soren put his wing over her.

"No, and they won't be too happy when they find out what I'm going to do to you, are they?" Grimble spread his wings out a little and Gylfie held her breath. "I'm going to teach you to fly."

"Fly?" Soren asked.

"You can breathe now," Grimble said. Gylfie dramatically let go of her breath and Grimble laughed. "Things have been getting worse here I told myself that anyone who was smart, and brave enough to resist that I would help them. I guess you three will have to do."

"But aren't you a Pure One?" Starluck asked.

"No, I hate them, almost as much as what they turned me into," Grimble said. "My feathers weren't always stained with these colors. When the Pure Ones invaded our kingdom, I fought back. They thought they could use that so they took my family. They promised if I followed orders, no harm would come to them. I've been doing their dirty work ever since."

"That's terrible I know how you feel" said Starluck. She took her scarf off her neck and began to tell about her mother "This scarf belonged to my mother. She flew in to a storm and never came back." Tears stared to stream down her face and wiped them off her face "Okay I'm good I'm good." Soren and Gylfie looked at each other. Grimble flew up and perched on a rock.

"Now have you been flying at all before?" Grimble asked.

"I have been branching," Soren said.

"Well you don't have the luxury of gliding from a nest anymore," Grimble said. "We need to work on your power skills starting with what you already know. Show me." Soren started running and flapping along with Gylfie and Starluck. Soren flapped and rose into the air and Gylfie followed right behind him. It took a couple of seconds before they grew tired and landed.

"Try to feel every muscle, every feather in each stroke," Grimble said. Starluck started running and flapped, slightly rising into the air. Starluck felt every feather and muscle that moved and it helped her a bit. Soren jumped and flapped his wings before he hit the ground which made him go higher and higher. Gylfie was above him and she was flapping so much that she flipped over and started to fall. She hit Soren on the head and landed with her back on the ground. Soren landed next to her and we all laughed. Starluck remained in the air but she fell and knocked Soren over too. They all laughed again.

Grimble urged them to keep practicing, "Alright you three, that's enough. Back to work." They all sighed and got back up. It was bitter work but all worth it to get out of here. Grimble flew in front of them to show them how to fly. "More flap, deeper flap." Grimble turned and flew behind them. Starluck was learning to use the air to hold herself up instead of wearing herself out by flapping. But she still wasn't getting close to being able to fly. "The still air will teach you to use the down strike. Make your wingtips meet if you can and that's all." Grimble flew over there heads as they landed.

"I can't curl my feathers enough Grimble," Gylfie said. "My wings are too short."

"They always said Lyze of Kiel's wings were too short," Grimble said and landed in front of them. "But that didn't stop him. You're going to have to fly a long way to get to the guardians." Starluck and Soren both looked at him with hope.