Star Rise by Kathryn Lasky

Author:Kathryn Lasky
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2014-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

The scent of the bobcat was growing stronger. Tijo had begun to fashion blade points for his arrows and spear. He needed meat, but could these blades serve the horses, who only grazed on grasses?

It was chilly and Tijo shivered alone. Hold On and Yazz had gone in search of water, and the other horses were standing in pairs for warmth. Tijo yawned. Despite the cold, his eyelids were growing heavy. The air shuddered with the hoot of an owl.

He wondered about hunting from the back of Hold On. Would any of the other horses let him ride? It seemed unlikely. He could always build a snare, although once by mistake he had caught a ghost owl or omo owl. They were called ghost owls because of their white faces and were considered bad luck. The chieftain ordered him to kill it, but instead he had set it free. Luckily, the snare had not broken its wing.

Tijo heard the hoot of the owl again. He felt his body become uncommonly still, and he was overwhelmed by a strange sensation, as if his own spirit was slipping from him.

They will call that ga in times to come.

Tijo looked around. Someone, something had spoken. He saw his own sleeping form beneath him. Do I wake or sleep?

You are awake. The voice came from the branch.

Then he saw the pale, heart-shaped face of an omo owl. A ghost owl.

I am not a ghost, the owl replied. Nor are you. We are anything but ghosts.

What are we, then?

We are long spirits. Time weavers. We weave between the oceans of time like the shuttle of Haru’s loom. We see the cloth of the future and that of the ancient past. The owl paused. Like him. He spun his head and appeared to flip it upside down. It almost made Tijo dizzy, but he saw what the owl was indicating. There was a tiny horse flickering in the night. First Horse, the dawn horse. He is the one who leads the herd, the owl said.

But who is ga?

Ga is not a who, but it is part of Hoole. Yet Hoole has not yet happened. Hoole has not yet hatched.

What is to come in the future? Tijo asked.

Oh, we are in the before of the long after. And the tiny horse, he was before the before in the first dawn of the horses.

And you see this?

I see it all and so will you, horse boy.

Those words — horse boy — rang like chimes in his mind and stirred Tijo’s heart. Horse boy. I am Horse Boy and not Lame Boy!

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