The Capture
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w:Guardians of Ga'Hoole: Book One: The Capture (Jun. 2003) by Kathryn Lasky The first novel in Kathryn Lasky's fantasy series Guardians of Ga'Hoole. A young Barn Owl named Soren falls (or is he pushed?) from his nest, and is taken to Saint Aegolius's "Academy" for orphaned owls.
- Kludd: You just hatched out two weeks ago. What do you know about sisters?
- Soren's thoughts: Maybe, they would be better than brothers.
- Chapter One: A Nest Remembered, p.1
- Noctus: Once upon a very long time ago, in the time of Glaux, there was an order of knightly owls, from a kingdom called Ga'Hoole, who would rise up each night and perform noble deeds. They spoke no words but true ones, their purpose was to right all wrongs, to make strong the weak, mend the broken, vanquish the proud, and make powerless those who abused the frail. With hearts sublime they would take flight...
- Chapter One: A Nest Remembered, pp. 14
- Notes: A legend of Ga'Hoole, repeated throughout the series
- (Soren explaining to Gylfie how he got captured.) "I don't really know what happened. I just fell out of the nest." But the second Soren said those words he felt a weird queasiness. He almost knew. He just couldn't quite remember, but he almost knew how it had happened, and he felt a mixture of dread and shame creep through him. He felt something terrible deep in his gizzard.
- Chapter Three: Snatched! pp. 29
- Gylfie: You are the last owl in the world I would ever say lacked humility, 12-8. You are for my friend and myself a perfect example of humility. You are beyond humbleness! You are...subglaucious.
- Hortense: Your words are kind, 25-2. I shall hope they might encourage me in my continuing quest for humility while in service to a great cause. (Hortense leaeves.)
- Soren: What in Glaux's name is subglaucious?
- Gyflie: No idea. I made it up.
- Chapter Thirteen: Perfection! pp. 103
- (Auntine after she kills Hortense.)
- Bye-bye! Bye-bye, 12-8, you fool!
- Chapter Seventeen: Hortense's Story, pp. 128
- Soren: Almost? There's a difference, Gylfie, between almost and enough.
- Gylfie: Yes. The difference is belief, Soren. Belief.
- Chapter Nineteen: To Believe, pp. 139
- Grimble: If only I were perfectly moonblinked [hypnotized]. If only I were...
- Chapter Nineteen: To Believe, pp. 143
- Grimble: You can do it! You believe! Feel it in your gizzard. YOu are a creature of flight. Fly, my children. Fly!
- Chapter Twenty-two: The Shape of the Wind, pp. 162
- I have redeemed myself by giving belief to the wings of young owls. Blessed are those who believe, for indeed they shall fly.
- Chapter Twenty-two: The Shape of the Wind, pp. 162
- Notes: Old Boreal Owl prayer, Grimble's last words.
- (After discovering Soren's former home is abandoned.)
- Twilight: Soren, they're gone. Maybe something happened to tehm. You shouldn't take it personally. Buck up now, old buddy.
- Soren: Personally? What do you know, Twilight that is personal aabout family. Remember, you're always telling us about how much you learned in your own orphan scool of tough learning. You don't know what it's like to hear stroies from a father, or to hear him sing. Do you know what a psalm is, Twilight? I bet you don't. Well, we Barn Owls know about psalms and books and the feeling of down.
- Twilight: I'll tell you what I know, you miserable little owl. The whole world is my family. I know the softness of a fox's fur, and the strange green light that comes into their eyes during the spring moons. I know how to fish because I learned that from an eagle. And when meat is scarce I know how to find the ripest part of a rotten tree and peck the juiciest bugs from it. I know plenty!
- Chapter Twenty-four: Empty Hollows, pp. 181
- (After Twilight, Soren, and, Gylfie invite Digger to come to the Great Ga'Hoole tree with them.)
- Streak: I've heard of that place. Isn't it just a myth, a legend?
- Twilight: To some it may be.
- Soren's Thoughts: But not to owls. To owls it's a real place.
- Chapter Twenty-seven, pp. 215
