Griffin was hoping they’d just forget he was there, but Luna turned to him. “Griffin?”
He knew she meant it kindly; she wasn’t trying to make fun of him, was just wanting to include him. He shook his head and caught Skye flashing Rowan a smirk that said, So what else is new?
“Well, that old owl looks pretty fat and dopey,” said Luna jauntily. “I figure I can do one wingspan. What d’you think, Griff. Can I do it?”
“I’m sure you can,” he said, “but—”
“But what?” she asked. Griffin could hear the other newborns sigh impatiently, but there was definitely a gleeful spark in Luna’s eyes. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Griffin almost smiled. He was good at this. “The worst? Well, the way I see it, you fly in, you roost, you’re only one wingbeat away. And maybe this owl hates bats, or maybe he’s in a really bad mood tonight, or maybe he’s so hungry he figures no one’ll notice one less Silverwing newborn in the forest. You’re just one wingbeat away, so there’s no chance of getting away if he wants to snatch you up. And in one swallow you’re down his throat and then you get hacked back up as a little packet of bones and teeth.”
“That’s disgusting!” said Skye.
“Yeah, well, that’s how they eat,” Griffin said, with considerable satisfaction. “And until a couple years ago, that’s what they did to bats.”
Luna nodded, grinning. “Yep, that’s pretty much the worst that could happen. Wish me luck!”
She flexed her knees and prepared to take flight, but to Griffin’s huge relief, the owl beat her to it. Spreading its huge wings, it lifted from the branch, and swept silently off into the forest.
Rowan looked accusingly at Griffin. Sourly he said, “You talk too much.”
“Griffin’s good at talking,” Luna told the other newborns. “He’s hilarious.” Skye, Rowan and Falstaff all looked at Griffin, puzzled, considering this for a second. Then they all turned back to Luna and started talking about what they should do next. Griffin gave her a grateful smile.
Suddenly, his nostrils twitched. “Do you smell that?” he asked. Only Luna heard him. “What?” she asked.
“I smelled it earlier …” Sniffing, Griffin lit from the branch, trying to follow the scent. It wasn’t hard. The smell was stronger now, definitely not skunk. He climbed above the tree line, and was pleased to see Luna flying after him. Climbing higher still, he turned his face westward into the wind, breathed again and then saw it.
Far away to the west, a line of dark mist slithered above the forest canopy, dispersing as the wind blew it towards him. Griffin’s eyes traced it back down to the treetops, then into the forest. Through the sifting mist, past a stand of pines, he saw a bright flickering.
“Fire,” he whispered to Luna. He’d never seen it before, but he’d heard plenty about it. Fire didn’t come out of nowhere. It was made. By Humans. By lightning. But there hadn’t been any lightning for weeks.
By this time, the other three newborns were flapping towards them, Falstaff lumbering through the air, complaining about how hungry he was. Then they all saw the light dancing deep in the forest.
“Maybe it’s one of those secret places where the owls keep their fire,” Skye said to Luna.
Long ago, as they all knew, owls had stolen fire from the Humans, and kept it burning in hidden nests throughout the Northern forests.
“Not very secret if we can all see it,” Luna said.
“Must be Humans,” said Griffin, and felt a shudder even as he uttered the word.
“Let’s go take a look,” said Luna.
“Yeah,” agreed Skye. “Come on.”
“Shouldn’t we tell our mothers first?” Griffin said worriedly. Humans were dangerous. Everyone knew about the things they’d done to bats. All the newborns were taught to report a sighting to their mothers immediately.
“We’ll tell them when we get back,” said Luna. “It’s just a few hundred wingbeats.” Impatiently this time, she said, “Come on, Griffin.”
“Oh, let him stay if he wants,” said Rowan, and the words sounded more dismissive than considerate. As usual Griffin was ruining their fun. He turned east to pick out the summit of Tree Haven. It already looked a long way away, and they would be going even further away now.
He wished he were more like Luna. Fearless. He tried sometimes to be brave, but it never worked. He just started thinking and then worrying, and all he could ever see was how things might, could, would go terribly wrong. His mother shouldn’t have named him Griffin. When he’d asked what it meant, she said it was a creature who was half eagle, half lion—both brave, powerful creatures. It seemed like a cruel joke now, he thought glumly. Should’ve been called Weed, or Twig, or something.
He glanced at Luna. She looked genuinely disappointed. He gritted his teeth. He’d already said no once tonight. He couldn’t face two humiliations in a row.
“All right,” he said. “Just a peek, though, okay?”
About the Author
KENNETH OPPEL is the author of many books, including Airborn, winner of the Governor General’s Award; Skybreaker, winner of the Red Maple Award and the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award; and the million-copy-selling Silverwing Saga. His most recent novel is Half Brother. Kenneth Oppel lives with his wife and three children in Toronto. Visit his website at www.kennethoppel.com.
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More praise for
SUNWING
WINNER OF Mr. Christie’s Book Award for 8–11 yr. olds
Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children
Ruth Schwartz Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature
CBA Libris Award for Best Specialty Book of 2000
NOMINATED FOR 2001/2002
Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award
Hackmatack Atlantic Provinces Readers’ Choice Award
“In Sunwing Oppel admirably fulfils his promise of a sequel. The pace is hectic, the villains are dastardly, and the narrative style is that of a series of extremely visual scenes. By book’s end, in a tour-de-force of clever plotting, all is resolved. This book is a natural for the onscreen generation.” —Sarah Ellis, Quill & Quire
“Filled with high adventure … criss-crossing plotlines keep the story hopping while excellent characterizations make the anthropomorphizing believable.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Perhaps Oppel’s secret is that he doesn’t write down to children, but shares with them the matters that have troubled him since he was their age … Shade is one of the most plausible non-human narrators ever imagined.” —Val Ross, The Globe & Mail
“This breathless, special-effects laden adventure will hold its readers, and not just because of its exciting variety. Shade has problems all kids deal with—insecurity, jealousy, desire—here expressed with schoolboy verve.” —Toronto Star
“Action packed and suspenseful, this continuing adventure can be read on its own, but will appeal most to those fantasy fans who enjoyed the detailed bat world of Silverwing.” —Booklist
“Oppel’s thrilling saga of a young bat’s journey to find his long-lost father was the first or second pick of most of our panelists.”
—Quill & Quire’s Best Kids Books of ‘99, #1 Fiction Pick
“As in Brian Jacques’ popular Redwall series, the intertwining story lines, evil villain, and intense action will keep young readers enthralled, but Shade is a more complex character than most Redwallian heroes. The other bats’ characters are also well drawn, particularly Shade’s female sidekick, Marina, and even the sinister jungle bat—horrible as he is—has a strong reason for his villainy. Shade’s dangerous adventures make a memorable impact.”
—The Horn Book Magazine
“While the natural behaviour of bats is realistic, Oppel goes much further to develop a history, folklore, philosophy, and quest for the characters in the story, complete with heroes, villains, and a satisfying con
clusion that leaves the world a better place for all concerned.”
—School Library Journal
“There are fantasy sequences capable of captivating both children and adults, and one of the newest is by Kenneth Oppel…. This truly spellbinding sequel combines breathtaking suspense with humorous character development (Shade becomes jealous of Chinook, a handsome hunk of a bat who courts Marina), thought-provoking science (humans trap the bats, tag them with explosive devices and turn them into bat-propelled missiles), and meditations on mythology and religion (the vampire bats have their home under an Aztec pyramid).”
—Michael Thorn, Literary Review (UK)
BOOKS BY KENNETH OPPEL
Half Brother
Starclimber
Skybreaker
Airborn
Darkwing
Firewing
Sunwing
Silverwing
Dead Water Zone
The Live-Forever Machine
(For Younger Readers)
The King’s Taster
Peg and the Yeti
Peg and the Whale
Emma’s Emu
A Bad Case of Ghosts
A Strange Case of Magic
A Crazy Case of Robots
A Weird Case of Super-Goo
An Incredible Case of Dinosaurs
A Creepy Case of Vampires
Copyright
Sunwing Copyright © 2011 by Kenneth Oppel
Published by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
All rights reserved under all applicable International Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher
EPub Edition AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 978-1-443-41132-5
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
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