| The Capture | |
| |
| Credits | |
| Author: | Kathryn Lasky |
| Cover Art: | Richard Cowdrey |
| Cover Design: | Steve Scott |
| Details | |
| Publish Date: | 2003 |
| ISBN Number: | 978-0-439-40557-7 |
| Summary | |
| Soren's life is forever changed by a tragic event that leads him on a journey to expose the horrors of a group of evil owls. | |
| Previous Book: | N/A |
| Next Book: | The Journey |
The Capture is the first book of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series.
Summary[]
Soren is born in the forest of Tyto, a tranquil kingdom where the Barn Owls dwell. But evil lurks in the owl world, evil that threatens to shatter Tyto's peace and change the course of Soren's life forever. Soren is captured and taken to a dark and forbidding canyon. It's called an orphanage, but Soren believes it's something far worse. He and his friend Gylfie know that the only way out is up. To escape, they will need to do something they have never done before—fly. With the help of a newfound friend, they are taught how to fly and finally escape the winding tunnels of the canyons. And so begins a magical journey. Along the way, Soren and Gylfie meet Twilight and Digger. The four owls band together to seek the truth and protect the owl world from unimaginable danger.
Eyecatcher[]
Chapters[]
Prologue
- A Nest Remembered
- A Life Worth Two Pellets
- Snatched!
- St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls
- Moon Blinking
- Separate Pits, One Mind
- The Great Scheme
- The Pelletorium
- Good Nurse Finny
- Right Side Up in an Upside-down World
- Gylfie's Discovery
- Moon Scalding
- Perfection!
- The Eggorium
- The Hatchery
- Hortense's Story
- Save the Egg!
- One Bloody Night
- To Believe
- Grimble's Story
- To Fly
- The Shape of the Wind
- Flying Free
- Empty Hollows
- Mrs. P!
- Desert Battle
- Hortense's Eagles
Plot[]
Soren is plummeting towards the ground. He tries to attempt to save himself by beating his underdeveloped wings, but fails. Suddenly he starts recalling every memory from his short life:
Soren, a Barn Owl, is born in the forest kingdom of Tyto three weeks prior to the start of the novel as the second child of Noctus and Marella, and younger brother of Kludd. He and his brother are cared for by a blind nest-maid snake named Mrs. Plithiver. Kludd is shown to be a difficult and demanding owlet who seems to have resented Soren from the moment he hatched. Upon the hatching of the family's third owlet, Eglantine, Soren is immediately captivated by her and their parents dote on her; however, Kludd does not seem to share any interest in her. That day before bed, Noctus and Marella privately discuss the recent disappearances of a significant number of young owlets and even eggs, which Soren overhears and silently vows to never leave Eglantine unattended.
During Eglantine's early days, she and Soren progress to eating meat and fur respectively while Kludd learns to branch, arguing with his da about his own noisy hopping. He continues to be difficult and demanding, even refusing to share their parents' prey with his younger siblings. One day, Noctus begins to tell a bedtime story about the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, which Kludd doesn't like due to his preference for true stories. His father explains that legends can become true in your heart.
Soren recalls these words of his da while falling from the nest, landing safely on a pile of moss. Trying to think of a way out of his predicament, he suddenly hears Mrs. Plithiver calling down. He asks her for help and she goes to wake Kludd, as their parents are not home. Soren asks Kludd to teach him to fly, but Kludd mocks him and threatens Mrs. Plithiver when she decides to leave and get help. While thinking about his parents, Soren hears a rustling in the trees and calls out for them, but is suddenly snatched and flown away by a huge owl with long feather tufts above its yellow eyes. It shouts at Soren for talking back to it. They are joined by another owl named Grimble, carrying a very tiny owlet who whispers to Soren not to speak. More owls join them with abducted owlets, all flying toward the canyonlands and in between the spiky rock needles, where the hymn of "St. Aegolius" breaks out. The tiny owlet tries to talk to Soren under cover of the singing, but he only asks what she is and why her eyes are yellow. The owlet introduces herself as Gylfie, an Elf Owl from the desert of Kuneer. She goes on to explain that she tried to fly before she was ready, which all owl parents warn against, and Soren tells her he fell from his nest.
Once brought deep into the canyons, the young owlets are told by Skench, Ablah General of St. Aegolius, that they have been brought there to learn "Truth" but not ask questions, writing them off as distracting. She then tells them bluntly that they are orphans, enraging Soren. The Ablah General tells all the captured owlets that they have been "rescued" and will find out how best they can serve the "higher good". Skench then sends them to the glaucidiums to be numbered and taught their first lesson in sleeping. The baffled Soren is separated from Gylfie and led to a pit, where he meets a sweet-talking Snowy Owl named Finny, who will number all the owlets and serve as their pit guardian. One of them, a Spotted Owl named Hortense, is excited to get her new number. Soren asks why she is so eager to be numbered. She explains that she hates her name and reminds him not to ask questions. Soren is given the number 12-1.
The newly numbered owlets are then sent to the glaucidium for their first sleep march. Two Long-Eared Owl cousins named Jatt and Jutt explain to them the process, shouting fiercely at Soren for trying to ask a question. Soren tries to sleep in the awkward upright position, head upright, that is required at St. Aggie's, but suffers terrible pain until he moves into a shadow and out of the moonlight. Over the chaos of owlets being forced to march, following the moon as it travels and repeating their old names as they go, Soren finds his way to Gylfie, who explains that they're being moon blinked. She tells Soren that sleeping at night, especially under a full moon, is extremely dangerous and can even cause insanity. Back on the sleep march, Soren realizes that repeating his name too many times is causing it to lose its meaning. He and Gylfie discover that this is how St. Aggie's will make owlets forget their old names and erase their wills.
The two owlets sleep during the day in their separate pits, each trying to think of a solution to resist moon blinking. Both find their respective pit guardians nice enough, but a little odd, and occasionally share stories of their youth. One day, all at once, Soren realizes Kludd pushed him from his nest.
Gylfie finally thinks of a way to avoid the moonlight and moon blinking: stay under the shadows of the rock arches and march in place. At mealtime, with only a scant serving of bugs, Soren tries to tell Gylfie about Kludd, but she only tells him to get assigned to work in the pelletorium. He asks Finny to allow this, and she agrees, reminding him of his debt for the small favors she allowed him in the pit. Soren and Gylfie are then assigned to the pelletorium to pick out fleck or other items out of pellets. After asking what flecks are, Soren is subjected to laughter therapy and has his feathers plucked out. Afterward, he faints and is nursed by Finny and Hortense, the former of which explains that the brutal laughter therapy session was done to make him tougher and resist asking questions. While he tries to get information out of Hortense, he learns that she is a DNF (Destined Not to Fly) because of her clearance to work in the top-secret broody area. Soren then mentions the legends of Ga'Hoole, which horrifies Finny and causes her to faint.
After this, Gylfie recounts how she discovered that the library of St. Aggie's is in fact a storage room for all the flecks and other items. Most importantly, it's close to the sky: A perfect place to escape. She also suspects that Grimble, the owl who originally took her, isn't moon blinked.
Soren and Gylfie plan on asking Grimble to teach them how to fly and, in the meantime, learn all they can about St Aggie's, so that when they escape they can warn the other owls. Despite the two owlets' best efforts, they are caught hiding from the moon and are subjected to moon scalding: An even more powerful tactic than moon blinking, that is meant to cause forgetfulness. However, Soren recites the legends of Ga'Hoole to protect them both while giving Skench and Spoorn the impression that they're perfectly moon blinked. In the meantime, Gylfie continues to search as much as she can and discovers a hidden stash of battle claws, revealing that they may be planning to conquer the entire owl universe. She additionally realizes they must get jobs in the eggorium, where owl eggs are kept and sorted.
Once there, the two young owls are given special permission not to be made into DNFs, but threatened with moon scalding, which they already know how to withstand. Soren is horrified to enter the eggorium and realize the rumors of egg snatching are true. Soon after, Gylfie learns that the hatchery, where the eggs are nested and hatched, may be the perfect place to escape and they have to get promoted to work there.
Up in the hatchery, Soren is sitting a nest when he witnesses a hatching at St. Aggie's, which is horrifically cruel to the owlet, with none of the love and care his parents showed back home. At the same time, Gylfie discovers Hortense sneaking an egg from its nest, where a bald eagle picks it up, and realizes she is an infiltrator, relaying this information to Soren. She instructs him to befriend Hortense, telling him her nest will be the best place to take off from. Eventually they are able to speak to her in private and reveal what they found out. Hortense explains that she became a spy in response to the increased rate of snatchings in her home, Ambala, since the high deposits of flecks near her nest stunted her growth considerably and made her look like an owlet all her life, and also weakened her wings. She tells them all about the eggs she has saved and the bald eagles that come to rescue them, inviting them to see. Soren asks her to come with them when they finally make their escape, but she chooses to stay behind.
The next morning, when the eagle comes to save another egg, Finny, Skench, Spoorn, and other high-ranking owls come to confront Hortense, having realized she was spying as well. Soren and Gylfie hide in a crevice and watch the confrontation, which ends in the egg being rescued, but Hortense is pushed off the cliff. As a result, all the broodies are forced to endure moon scalding, with Soren inventing a new legend about Hortense.
Soon, the two young owls are almost ready to make their escape, but Hortense's nest is now no longer an option and they are forced to revert to their original plan of entering the library. One day, while Soren tests his wings, he is approached by another owl, 47-2, who tells him that that night, vampire bats will come and drink their blood, rendering them unable to fly. Soren and Gylfie witness this ritual, which is enjoyed by the moon blinked owls, but unspeakable to them, and they realize their time is short as the bats come regularly and Soren will have his wing feathers by the time they come back.
Finally, Soren and Gylfie are able to get close to Grimble and confront him as well. Grimble explains that he fought and killed one of St. Aggie's owls, Ork, to protect his owlet. Seeing his skills, Skench and Spoorn persuaded him to join them, promising to leave his family alone. Grimble was unable to completely resist the moon blinking, which rendered his family unable to recognize him, making them worthless to each other. He also reveals that St. Aggie's only aim is absolute control of every owl kingdom in the world. With that thought, Soren and Gylfie persuade Grimble to teach them how to fly. Eventually, Soren and Gylfie stage their escape from the library, but are found by Skench in full battle regalia. However, she is slammed against the library wall by an unknown force which allow the two owls to escape. Unfortunately, Grimble is killed by Skench during their escape.
The two owls experience flight for the first time, finding it wonderful and instinctively knowing what to do, but finally have to figure out how to land. Soren manages to land in a tree, but Gylfie lands upside-down. A Great Gray Owl reveals himself and helps Gylfie land properly, introducing himself as Twilight, orphaned by St. Aggie's after he escaped from them and learned to survive on his own. They ask him what he is doing there, and he explains that he is looking for the River Hoole, which will lead them to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. The young owls are shocked, having believed it was just a legend until now. The two of them join Twilight on his journey, but insist on checking on their old homes to see if their families are still there. Much to Soren's dismay, his family are no longer living in their old hollow.
On the upside, Mrs. Plithiver, Soren's family's nest-maid snake, is there. She confirms Kludd's true nature and suspects that he pushed Eglantine out of the nest as well, after having driven her away. As they enter the Desert of Kuneer, they meet a Burrowing Owl named Digger, who tells them that Jatt and Jutt had snatched his older brother, Cunny, before eating his younger brother, Flick. Digger accompanies the three owls in search of his old home from which he ran after the attack. While they are traveling, a St. Aggie's patrol consisting of Jatt, Jutt, and 47-2 arrive. The four owls proceed to defeat the patrol, with the assistance of Hortense's eagles, Streak and Zan. Digger gives up his search after the eagles tell him of his parents' deaths. From that moment on, all four owls swear a silent oath to be a band forevermore and fly off into the night, to continue their quest to find the Guardians of Ga'Hoole.
Behind the Scenes[]
- This is the first of six Guardians of Ga'Hoole books to include illustrations of the main characters as well as minor characters on the insides of the book's front and back cover.
- The owl on the cover of The Capture appears to be Skench.
- There is an unused alternate cover art for this book (see Gallery).
- On the cover it shows Soren being snatched by a St. Aggie's owl, mirroring the events in the storyline.
- This is the only book that has Soren technically as an "owlet." In The Journey, The Rescue, and The Siege, he is still fairly young and just getting started at the Great Tree (although he had left his mark on the tree by then), but fully fledged. In all of the rest, he is an adult owl, fully grown and ready to serve.
- On the cover, behind Skench is the moon in full shine. This is possibly because it is a night for moon blinking the owlets.
Gallery[]
Foreign Covers[]
