Smack! Flame slowed to a stop in midair, his rusty-colored, gray-and-brown plumage shaking with laughter. "Seriously Sam? Again? Listen to me. That. Is. A. Tree. Nowhere near to being the stick Dusty threw for you."

A Great Gray Owl tumbled through the air, but managed to regain control of his wildly flapping feathers seconds before he hit the ground and perched on the branch of a large oak tree on Cape Glaux. "Couldn't see it. It blends in with the trees too well," he muttered. The young owls were playing a game. One would chuck a stick as far as they could with their talons, and the others would race to catch it before it fell. Sam had missed and rammed face-first into a tree.

Dusty, a Burrowing Owl, was having a tough time hovering. Her chest was heaving as she churred, making her wings tremble and flap slightly out of rhythm.

Flame blinked his dark eyes smugly and went to retrieve the stick on the ground. He grasped its weight in his talons and took to the sky. "C'mon," he urged the owls, spinning his head around to face them, "we should probably be getting back to the Tree. If I'm late again to weather interpretation class, Hazel will go into a rage." Hazel was Soren's assistant ryb, a Burrowing Owl, surprisingly. She tended to overreact.

The others followed Flame as he silently soared across the dark sea of Hoolemere, speckled with the reflections of stars and the glowing, slowly dwenking moon. They flew in silence for a while, until Sam hooted to Flame and Dusty. "Don't tell my brother what I did today. He'd never stop teasing me."

Flame churred. "Don't worry Sam, I won't- probably."

"George or Oliver?" Dusty asked, confused. Sam had two brothers, one younger, an owlet, and one older, who constantly liked to pick on the younger ones.

"Oliver," Sam confirmed with a small nod.

As they flew, Flame thought about the day they all had met. Oliver, Sam, and George, along with their parents, had arrived soaking wet in a storm. The two younger brothers had not been able to fly, and the eldest had just had his First Flight ceremony. The storm had destroyed the tree they lived in, one of the few pine trees in Ambala.

Dusty had been a fledgling learning to branch, and Flame had volunteered to help her practice, when Dusty noticed the family of Great Gray Owls. Flame had managed to find them amist the swirling wind and rain (okay, not the best time for branching practice- but the older owls didn't exactly know about it), even though their gray plumage was barely visible, and escort them to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree.

Dusty had lived in the Great Ga'Hoole Tree ever since she hatched, and Flame... well, Flame didn't like to think, let alone talk, about his story.

A breeze stirred the tranquil water, whipping up tiny waves and marking the beginning of a storm. Clouds quickly covered the moon and the stars, making Flame giddy with excitement. It was just as Soren, the weather interpretation ryb (and king), had predicted. It would be the first time Flame had actually flown in a big storm with the members of the weather interpretation chaw, and he had barely been able to contain his joy when he found out. Owls who had not been tapped for a chaw normally did not fly into storms with the weather chaw. Most of what he had been doing before had included assisting Soren and Hazel with their experiments and flying into different types of clouds to collect data. But he had seen the chaw flying into raging storms before, and he had heard them hooting and churring with joy. He wanted to be tapped for that chaw so badly.

Dusty was the first to touch down on the floor of the main hollow of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Sam and Flame followed, shaking off the few drops of rain on their feathers.

Soren approached the three. "About time," he chastised. "We were just about to leave, and you missed tweener because you were up playing that stick game before First Lavender." The king turned and addressed all the owls who had not been tapped for a chaw yet, and who were flying with the weather interpretation chaw. "Now, remember: thunderstorms like this, while exciting to fly in, can be dangerous if you aren't careful. Follow all directions from Hazel or me and don't stray from the rest of the chaw. I trust I won't have to remind you of the unfortunate owl whose port wing was ripped off in a hurricane ages ago?"

The young owls nodded, brimming with nervous energy. They followed Soren as he took off from the hollow, howling a loud song, apparently traditional for the weather chaw.

Flame pumped his wings, keeping pace with Soren, Hazel, and the other Guardians in the weather chaw as they flew, without hesitation, into the swirling mass of thunderheads. The air temperature had dropped since the storm had rolled in, but Flame was lucky to have an abundance of down underneath his flight feathers to trap his body heat.

Soren whooped as he approached the edge of the gale. Flame saw him tilt his tail feathers and primaries and then he was popping up and down seemingly uncontrollably on the turbulent wind.

Eyes widening in surprise, Flame attempted to follow. "Fly through the scuppers to the gutter and make sure to watch out for holes in the wind!" Soren called to the young owls.

Looking ahead at the intimidating expanse of gray, Flame entered the storm, rain stinging his eyes. Before he could react, he was tossed this way and that, the wind toying with him, making fun of his small size. Maybe I'm not meant for the weather chaw after all, Flame realized. He watched Soren climb the baggywrinkles and fly into the gutter, wondering how he could do the same.

The young Flammulated Owl looked around and saw a Great Gray, Oliver, flying just downwind of him. He maneuvered around so he was flying in the giant owl's wake, and immediately, flight was made easier.

Flame was pulled over the edge of the scuppers with Oliver so fast that to him, it seemed like one moment he was still fighting through the scuppers and the next he was speeding through the gutter in Oliver's wake.

Because some of the students weren't in the weather chaw yet, after they went through the gutter, Soren called out a few orders, Hazel squawking them a second time to make sure they were heard, then headed back toward the tree.

The storm spit Flame out like he was a rotten bat's wing and sent him tumbling into the cool, crisp air of the night. The Tree stood out to any who knew where it was, for there was little fog at night in the time of the golden rain, and the Tree was lit up with hundreds of tiny, flickering candles (inside, so as not to be put out by the steady downpour).

The owls weaved through the great branches toward their home. Flame flipped his head around to look up at the sky, with the Golden Talons constellation clearly visible against the navy background.

When he landed on the main takeoff branch, he could hear the gazooling of many young owls inside. As he preened the water off of his feathers and went to join them, Flame thought about his home. Not where he had lived before, but here. This tree felt more like a home than his old hollow ever would, and he couldn't imagine leaving, even if he wasn't suited for his dream chaw. This was truly his home, and it always would be.

Yay! Another chapter and new characters!

Just so you know, I found some of the information on Wikia because I haven't read the books in such a long time. I am now in the process of rereading because I have the first half of this book planned out. Hopefully, that means more frequent updates!

Be sure to tell me if you see any errors that I missed or if my wording could be improved in some places. Constructive criticism is always appreciated!