Senöki and the Stardust Owls (1/2)

Santa’s Village in the North Pole is one of the most magical places in the world, but do you know how that magic is made?

In order to work their magic, Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves need just one thing; magic dust. The elves’ secret ingredient to making magic dust is stardust that falls down from the sky when the Northern lights appear at night.

The North Pole is a very special place, as it is one of the only places that enough stardust can fall from the sky to be collected, if you know how. On their own, however, the elves aren’t able to collect nearly enough stardust for all of the village’s needs, and that’s where the Stardust Owls come in.

The Stardust Owls are a group of snowy owls who train and work closely with the Holhooja to journey out on nights when the lights are dancing in the sky. With their ability to see very well in the dark they can travel much easier than the elves, and fly up into the night sky with special jars from the Crafticians to scoop up stardust to bring back to the elves.

Working together the owls and the Hoolhoja regularly travel out near the mountains to collect stardust at night and bring it back to the Crafticians who turns it into magic dust. Everyone in the village has enough magic dust because of this.

The owls who work with the Holhooja must be strong, fast, and agile, so they spend time training with the elves and each owl has a special harness crafted just for them to carry their stardust jar. It is a great honor for an owl to join the Stardust Owls.

Senöki the snowy owl was the youngest in his family, with big round yellow eyes that were full of curiosity, and fluffy grey feathers that all baby snowy owls have. He was just getting old enough that his baby feathers were being replaced by lovely white feathers that would help him fly far and fast.

He greatly admired all of his family. His mother, father, and even his brother and sister were all Stardust Owls. They would each take turns travelling with the Hoolhoja to collect stardust, and each of them was so very proud of the work they did.

Ever since he had started growing out of his baby feathers and learned to fly Senöki had wanted to be just like them. He would practice flying with his sister, and train while carrying his brother’s stardust jar even though it was very heavy for the little owl. Whenever the Northern lights appeared in the sky he would sit at the edge of the nest and watch them, mesmerized.

Every time one of his family returned from their work he would ask them to tell him everything that had happened that night, and would listen closely the whole time. He would puff up his feathers and wiggle with excitement and tell his family how we was going to be just like them, and that he would make them proud. On those days he would go to sleep and dream of being big and strong, of flying very far up into the sky and scooping up stardust from the Northern lights like an expert. He dreamt that he would be the very best of the Stardust owls.

But there was one big problem that worried the little owl, poor Senöki was afraid of the dark!

We have more stories for you! Read about Senöki and the Christmas Owls