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in at least five different colors that it could have just as easily been a Striped Owl for all she knew. The Long-eared Owl eyed Fritha suspiciously, but then pulled back into its nest. Was that a hint of recognition Fritha saw in its eyes? No matter , Fritha thought, you’re not the kraal I’m looking for.
    Then, right beside an especially round boulder, another kraal emerged from his nest. There were very few Pygmy Owl kraals, and he was one of them. And he was the very pirate that Fritha sought.
    Fritha landed on the round boulder, right in front of the kraal. She looked at him with wide eyes. He had dyed most of his feathers a royal blue, but at the very tips of his wings, there was a hint of pink.
    “Well, look who has come to the Pirates’ Lair,” the Pygmy Owl said. The kraal extended his wings out to the side as if in flight. To Fritha’s utter delight, the entire undersides of his wings were dyed her favorite shade of pink.
    “Oh, Da, I’m so glad to see you!” Fritha exclaimed in her first language—a dialect of Krakish. She hopped toward her father and laid her head on his chest. “And you remembered my favorite color!”
    “Of course, my love,” Flinn greeted his daughter with joy in his voice. “I’m happy to see you, too! You are looking very fetching in green.”
    “I wouldn’t think of arriving plain-feathered,” Fritha said. “How did you know I was coming?”
    “Oh, call it a father’s gizzuition,” he answered. “Now, come in. You must be famished. I’ve got a nice fresh lemming for you.”
    “A lemming would be splendid,” Fritha replied happily. She was quite hungry, but had not realized it in her excitement to see her da. “I have so much to tell you, Da! I’ve been having the best time at the great tree. You wouldn’t believe all the things I’ve learned to do!” The long trip was already worthwhile.
    The two Pygmy Owls, father and daughter, disappeared into the ground nest, chatting excitedly.
    Fritha was happy to be with her da. She would have liked to visit with her da for a full moon cycle, but she dared not be away from the tree so long. She would be missing too many chaw practices—the idea of missing even one chaw practice pained her; she couldn’t imagine missing more. It had been almost a year since Fritha last visited her da in the Pirates’ Lair. She would fit as much into her short visit as she possibly could, and the two talked into the dawn almost every night.
    Still, she couldn’t help missing the great tree. The season of White Rain would be in full swing, and she was looking forward to all the activity that came with it. She couldn’t wait to get back to her nest and see all her friends. How different she’d felt about her first trip to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree, she thought. She was so young at the time that she barely remembered it. What she did remember was feeling immensely sad. She was being sent away from home, after all. She feared that she would never see her da again. And even though her da told her it was for her own good, she didn’t fully understand why he was sending her away. And here she was now, being homesick for the tree.
    Although she still didn’t know why he had done it, how right her da had been to send her there! She was thriving at the tree—she was one of the best owls in the weather and colliering chaws, earning the highest merit badge a colliering chaw owl could earn, and she just loved writing for The Evening Hoot.
    As much as she loved her da, her visits with him always reminded her that the kraal way of life was just not for her—the vanity, the disorderliness, not to mention the thuggishness. And when it came down to it, most of the kraals were just not that smart, and they didn’t feel the need to get smarter, either. Her da was different in that respect. He was always inventing this and that, working out his “hypotheses.” Even now, as Fritha watched him, Flinn was tinkering with a new formula for a dye that