β
They did not hear Grimble, as he lay dying, chant in the true voice of the Boreal Owl, in tones like chimes in the night, an ancient owl prayer, βI have redeemed myself by giving belief to the wings of the young. Blessed are those who believe, for indeed they shall fly."
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
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A legend, Kludd, is a story that you begin to feel in your gizzard and then over time it becomes true in your heart. And perhaps makes you become a better owl.
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
β
Everything here at St. Aggie's is upside down and inside out. It's our job not to get moon blinked and to stand right side up in an upside down world. If we don't do that we'll never be able to escape. We'll never be able to think. And thinking is the only way we'll be able to plan an escape."
-Gylfie
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
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You ugly rat-faced birds.
You call yourself a bird?
You call yourself an owl?
You ain't no decent kind of fowl!
They call you Jatt?
They call you Jutt?
I'm gonna toss you in a rut!
Then I'm gonna punch you in the gut!
Then your gonna wind up on your butt!
Think you're all gizzard!
I seen better lizards.
One-Two-Three-Four,
You're goin' down, won't ask for more.
Five-Six-Seven-Eight,
You ain't better than fish bait...
Nine-Ten-Eleven-Twelve,
I'm gonna send you straight to hell.
-Twilight
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
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Hush little owl,
You're with Twi.
I got the moves to get you by.
Big bad crows.
St. Aggie's scamps
Ain't got nothin to show the champ.
I'll pop a spiral
With a twist,
Do a three-sixty
And scatter mist----
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
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To find one's special quality
One must lead a life of deep humility.
To serve in this way
Never question but obey
Is the blessing of St Aggie's charity.
- The owls of St. Aegolius
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
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Far away if first black,
But it shall be back
Over field
Over flower
In the twilight hour.
We are home in our tree.
We are owls, we are free.
As we go, this we know
Glaux is nigh.
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
β
Night is done, gone the moon, gone the stars
From the skies.
Fades the black of night
Comes the morn with rosy light.
Fold your wings, go to sleep,
Rest your gizzards, Safe you'll be for the day.
Glaux is nigh.
Far away is first black,
But it shall seep back
Over field
Over flower
In the twilight hour.
We are home in our tree.
We are owls, we are free.
As we go, this we know
Glaux is nigh.
β
β
Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
β
We are the owls of the weather chaw.
We take it blistering,
We take it all.
Roiling boiling gusts,
We're the owls with the guts.
For blizzards our gizzards
Dr tremble with joy.
An ice storm, a gale, how we love blinding hail.
We fly forward and backward,
Upside down and flat.
Do we flinch? Do we wail?
Do we skitter or scutter?
No, we yarp one more pellet
And fly straight for the gutter!
Do we screech? Do we scream?
Do we gurgle? Take pause?
Not on your life!
For we are the best
Of the best of the chaws!
β
β
Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
β
Did Soren agree to be part of a system to protect Skench and Spoorn and the others?" Barren, the other Snowy monarch, asked in her soft voice.
He did indeed, madam," Ezylryb replied. "Soren is a much-misunderstood owl these days. Believe me, Soren will do whatever is required in this invasion.
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Burning (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #6))
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We're going to bash them birds,
Them rat-feathered birds.
Them bad-butt owls ain't never heard
'Bout Gylfie, Soren, Dig, and Twilight
Just let them get to feel my bite
Their li'l ole gizzards gonna turn to pus
And our feathers hardly mussed.
Oh, me. Oh, my. They gonna cry.
One look at Twilight,
They know they're gonna die.
I see fear in their eyes
And that ain't all.
They know that Twilight's got the gall.
Gizzard with gall that makes him great
And every bad owl gonna turn to bait.
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
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Hail to St. Aegolius
Our Alma Mater.
Hail, our song we raise in praise of thee
Long in the memory of every loyal owl
Thy splendid banner emblazoned be.
Now to thy golden talons
Homage we're bringing.
Guiding symbol of our hopes and fears
Hark to the cries of eternal praises ringing
Long may we triumph in the coming years.
- The Owls of St. Aegolius
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
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Give me a hot coal glowing bright red,
Give me an ember sizzling with heat,
These are the jewels made from my beak.
We fly between the flames and never get singed
We plunge through the smoke and never cringe.
The secrets of fire, its strange winds, its rages,
We know it all as it rampages
Through forests, through canyons,
Up hillsides and down.
We track it.
We'll find it.
Take coals by the pound.
We'll yarp in the heart of the hottest flame
Then bring back its coals an make them tame.
For we are the colliers brave and beyond all
We are the owls of the colliering chaw!
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
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Come to us and quackle and quank.
Relieve us of our stirrings
With your fangs so sharp and bright
Take this blood that's always purring.
Through our hollow bones it flows
To each feather and downy fluff.
Quell the terrible, horrid urge that so often prinkles us,
Still our dreams, make slow our thoughts
Let tranquillity flood our veins.
Come to us and drink your fill
So we might end our pains.
- The Owls at St. Aegolius calling to the bats
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
β
A legend, Kludd, is a story that you begin to feel in your gizzard and then over time it becomes true in your heart. And perhaps makes you become a better owl.
β
β
Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
β
At the edge of the avalanche
At the glacierβs icy rim
Grows the flower of the snowfields
Trembling in the wintry wind.
It dares to live in edges
Where naught else would ever grow.
So fragile, so unlikely
An owl slices through this blow.
She dares the katabats
Her gizzard madly quivers,
But for her dearest of friends
She vows she shall deliver.
Like the lily of the avalanche
The glacierβs icy rose
Like a flower of the wind
The bright fierceness in her glows.
The bravest are the small
The weakest are the strong
The most fearful find the courage
To battle what is wrong.
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Burning (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #6))
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βNight is Doneβ
Night is done, gone the moon, gone the stars
From the skies.
Fades the black of the night
Comes the morn with rosy light.
Fold your wings, go to sleep,
Rest your gizzards,
Safe youβll be for the day.
Glaux is nigh.
Far away is First Black,
But it shall seep back
Over field
Over flower
In twilight hour.
We are home in our tree.
We are owls, we are free.
As we go, this we know
Glaux is nigh.
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
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For when the world one knew began to crumble away bit by bit, when not only your memories but the memories that others might have of you grew dim with time and distance, when, indeed, you began to fade into a nothingness in the minds of the owls that you loved best, well, perhaps that was when legends could become real.
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
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The time has come,
The claws are passed.
An old owl rests,
A dieβs been cast.
It is a war for heart,
Gizzard and mind.
The weapons they wield,
More deadly than mine.
A blade draws blood, a fire burns.
But with the flecks, a mind unlearns.
A soul unhinges,
And then a gizzard quakes and cringes.
Senses dull,
Reason scatters.
The heart grows numb,
An owl shatters.
But these six owls are strong and bold,
And their story has not yet been told.
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Shattering (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #5))
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Barn Owls were known for their extremely sensitive hearing. They could contract and expand the muscles of their facial disks to funnel the sound source to their unevenly placed earholes.
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Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
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All for owls and owls for all!
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
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From what I was able to piece together, Lysa was days from branching when it happened. It was early evening. She was sleeping peacefully in her nest. Ma was out hunting. Pa was on the front lines, as he had been for many nights. And Lyze had just begun branching. He did this on his own, Pa was not there to help him. Too often fathers, and sometimes mothers, were not around to raise their chicks; the war took them away from their homes. Lyze had hopped through the branches of the tall, slender pine that had been our home. He was almost fully fledged, and so close to flying. From branch to branch he went, getting farther and farther from our hollow. He heard a soft chirp, and looked down to see little Lysa, having woken from her nap, at the edge of our hollow. She looked up at her big brother, longing to join him in his fun. Before Lyze could react, Lysa tumbled down to the ground. Lyze called out in the staccato bark of alarm that we Whiskered Screech Owls use in times of danger. But it was useless. He watched as a coyote snatched his downy little sister in his jaws, and disappeared into the eventide.
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Kathryn Huang Knight (Guardians of Ga'Hoole: A Guide Book to the Great Tree)
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I am an owl of low birth in the eyes of the world because I have had no proper upbringing." All the bluster was gone from Twilight's voice; even his feathers seemed to sag a bit and he appeared slightly smaller. "I have had no First Ceremonies, no First Insect, no First Fur-on-Meat ceremony. There is much I don't know."
Soren was stunned. Twilight never admitted to not knowing anything.
"But there is much I do know. I know light and shadow and everything in between. I know the life pulse in the throat of a bobcat and where to slash to break the blood pump that is the cat's heart. I know mountains and deserts and the creatures who fly and those who don't, but slither or crawl or leap. I know of all sorts of claws, as well as fangs and poisons that lock the talons and freeze the wings. I know the false horizon that comes in the heat of the summer when the air is thick with dew and confuses old owls so that they go yeep and fall. And I know all this, not because I was reared in a hollow lined with the down of my mother's breast, but because I was not. I was alone within minutes of my hatching. I can be alone. It is a special talent. And I can be alone again.
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Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'hoole, Book 2))
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congregations of owls seemed to be below, along with a hollow that was called a kitchen, from
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Kathryn Lasky (The Journey (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #2))
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There is never any call for envy or stinginess in owls, Soren. We have the sky, we have the great forests and the trees. We are the most beautiful fliers on earth. Why would we envy any other bird or animal?
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Kathryn Lasky (The Rescue (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #3))
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You who were born into evil found good. You who were raised in tyranny sought equality. You who were schooled in brutality learned only mercy. You who were taught the dishonorable discovered honor. You who were nurtured on the poison of the most ignoble owls in the world are most noble. You are my nephew and my king.
β
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Kathryn Lasky (The Outcast (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #8))
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Damn the MacHeaths for their jealousies, their mutilation of young pups, and their alliances with devil owls.
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Kathryn Lasky (The Outcast (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #8))
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And all the owls of the great tree that night believed, as well. They believed that there were many kinds of truths, those of science that could be proven through the brain, and those of legends that could come true in the hearts and gizzards of all owls if they only believed.
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Kathryn Lasky (The Outcast (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #8))
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rare contentment to complete a set. I feel this sense of rare contentment every morning at this hour.β Rare? Soren thought. That was a word he knew, for his parents had told them that the family of Barn Owls to which they belonged, the Tyto Alba, had become rare, which meant there were not many of them. So how could this owletβs contentment be rare if it happened every morning at a particular hour? βI, too, feel perfect.β Another owlet now spoke, turning toward Gylfie this time. It was nearly the same speech. At regular intervals now, the two owls turned alternately to Soren and Gylfie and gave short little reports on their states of contentment. On occasion, these reports became interspersed with comments. β25-2, for an owlet of your exceedingly tiny stature you have a fine posture as you peck.β βThank you,β Gylfie replied, and dipped her head in what she thought was a docile manner. βYou are most welcome, 25-2.β Then the owlet closest to Soren began, β12-1, your beak work is quite advanced. You work with industry and delicacy.β βThank you,β said Soren. And then for some reason he added, βThank you very much.β βYouβre welcome. But you need not be excessively polite. It wastes energy. Politeness is its own rewardβjust like flecks.
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Kathryn Lasky (The Capture (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #1))
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Where there are legends, there can be hope. Where there are legends, there can be dreams of knightly owls, from a kingdom called GaβHoole, who will rise each night into the blackness and perform noble deeds. Owls who speak no words but true ones. Owls whose only purpose is to right all wrongs, to make strong the weak, mend the broken, vanquish the proud, and make powerless those who abuse the frail. With hearts sublime, they
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Kathryn Lasky (The Outcast (Guardians of Ga'Hoole, #8))