Hiram's Neighbours were a pair of Burrowing Owls, or Athene cunicularia, and members of the Tytonic Union of Pure Ones. Part of a collaboration of Pure One excavators sent to infiltrate a portion of the Desert of Kuneer and pave the way for an invasion, they subsequently participated in the takeover.
History[]
Lost Tales of Ga'Hoole[]
Under the general command of Tarn, this pair of Burrowing Owls infiltrated the community of Kuneer, a sizable portion of which had become the focus for Nyra's ambitions and establish the Pure Ones' presence there, their task being to secretly honeycomb the Desert with interlocking burrows large enough for Nyra's Tyto army to amass for a violent and murderous takeover. Constructing a burrow on a piece of land uninhabited by any but a single elderly Burrowing Owl named Hiram, who burrow theirs would neighbor by only a few pytes. Soon after their arrival, the two slipgizzles were approached by Hiram but rebuffed his polite greetings with barely a word other than to tell him mind his own business least they mind it for them and busying themselves with excavating their burrow, wearing away the earth till the wall that sat between the burrows of Hiram and his neighbours was layered only by the thinnest boundary. One day, whilst discussing with a Barn Owl soldier the progress of their conquest conspiracy, Hiram's Neighbours spoke of how 'Her Pureness' would be pleased by the speed of which their takeover could be initiated was fast approaching, only to be cut off by Hiram's unintentional exclamation when they boasted how the forces of the Pure Ones would be stronger than ever. Instantly realizing they had been discovered, the two Burrowing Owls watched without a flicker of remorse as their cohort, bursting through the wall, cut down Hiram mercilessly. The burrow of Hiram's Neighbours was later the site of a vast assemblage of Barn Owls, Sooties, Masked Owls and several Burrowing Owls, including the burrow's owners. Listening as several of their comrades demanded that they reveal themselves and take Kuneer, then perhaps adding their hoots of agreement to the din, all were silenced when Tarn called for quiet and, after agreeing with the crowd's sentiment, instructed his fellow excavators to complete connecting tunnels linking the western and eastern networks together, allowing the radical supremacist army to pour out and massacre the community, though the second half of this plan was in the main thwarted by Tavis and Cletus, who's efforts got all but a few to safety.
Trivia[]
- Though their genders are never given, it is possible the two Burrowing Owls who's burrow briefly neighbored Hiram might have been mates, which would explain why, unlike Tarn, they worked in a pair.