Dark Stag Ch. 01

"You let a woman do falconry?" The young man right across the table from me said. It was not one of unapproving shock but one of awe and wonder.

He sat next to the young woman with the freckles, the two sharing very similar features. Their bone structure, freckles and curly hair clearly showed they were siblings. These definitely were the twins Mercury warned me of. This boy was just as gorgeous as his sister, but not as polished looking. He definitely was a rough and tumble kid!

"No," I said plainly, "Falconry is a game! Barbary is for those who use raptors to eke out a living."

"You know what falconry is?" The young man asked.

"I saw you all with your black eagles lure coursing the birds on pulleys and hare fur, trying to beat each other's times." I responded, my tone becoming more biting than I'd want. All eyes fell to the door behind me. The king finally made his appearance, taking a seat on his breakfast throne. There was a sense of regalness with his presence, quite unlike anything I've experienced.

He was a wide man, wearing an elaborate gold chest plate with satin shoulder pads and cape. He took a seat, placing a napkin on his lap and another in the eave of the collar. The queen suddenly grabbed my arm, pulling me to my feet as everyone stood up to respect the king's arrival. She placed her hand on my back, nudging me to bow.

The king's eyes fell upon a vacant chair beside the nobleman to his left. He scowled as he poured an excessive amount of salt onto his eggs.

"Where is that boy!" He snarled.

"He's out in the raptor pins. He's trying again with Silver." The queen said, we all taking our seats. The king then looked at me with a smile. His black and rotting teeth were upsetting to my stomach.

"Pardon my manners. I didn't even notice we had a guest. I'm king Bourgion, nice to meet you!" The king said getting to his feet to shake my hand. I stood up, shaking his hand surprised by how beefy a mitt he had. We took our seats and everyone bowed their heads. I simply watched as they said a prayer to bless their foods. The queen reached for my head and pushed it down while the king said his prayer.

"Amen." He finished. He picked up his knife and fork, cutting into the cakes onto his plate, "You've come a long way didn't you boy?"

"I did," I smiled cautiously, "my grandmother is probably thinking I'm dead...."

"Can you give a detailed description of what happened to you? You seem quite intelligent..." The king said, unsure how I ended up here. All ears tuned in to hear what I had to say.

"Yes your grace," I nodded, "I was hunting, having to travel extra far because prey is scarce these days. Once I finally made a kill, I temporarily had my guard down while skinning the animal. My hunting stag was on edge for some reason and attacked some horse riders which are exceptionally rare in Illisia! I generally can restrain him but he escaped my grasp and that is when it took a turn. The stag killed several of the riders before they shot him dead. I um... the stag was the only way I could make a means of living and when he died I was quite upset! Then when one of the riders tried to behead him, I defended my stag's honor... I mean they didn't belong in Illisia so I tried to send them packing. It didn't work as well as I thought and what ended up happening was I told them that since my stag was dead, my village would come after them and that they better leave. They decided that if I ended up missing there'd be no leads to trace and that's how I ended up here."

"Wow." The young prince said from across the table.

"And they just took you?" The king asked, not liking the way it sounded.

"Yes your Grace. The altercation was broken up at first by their leader but when I warned them of the impending danger they were in, it started all over... The only reason it stopped was because a gun was pulled out on me." I continued.

"And you think it was wise to tell them of the danger when they were complete and utter strangers?" The queen asked with a warm smile.

"No..." I giggled, her motherly energies pulling out joy.

"So they took the boy to dodge conflict..." The king said, stroking his chin.

"And the boy's stag did kill many of their own." The king's left nobleman said. The queen gave the man a smoldering eye.

"But it is illegal to take literate, common tongue speaking slaves! Something must be done!" The queen said in my defense.

"It was a true mistake." The nobleman responded, "A misunderstanding that simply took a wrong turn... I think it'd be wise to let the slavers slide this once! Again, it was a mistake...."

"They tried to do this under the rug! They could have left the boy where he was or kept him long enough to get out of dodge! But no, they dragged this boy thousands of miles across desert to a region he's not familiar with! If there wasn't an audit, this boy would be in the slums doing unthinkable things! He deserves justice! The Slavers...should...be punished!" The queen said.

"Very well. I'll bring down sanctions for the crimes..." The king said, his left nobleman not being very pleased. The queen rolled her eyes as well, not satisfied with mere sanctions. She clearly was against human trafficking.

"So back to... Your teeth!" He said, suddenly mesmerized, "So white and pristine! What do you do?" It truly caught me by surprise.

"Um, there is a plant called rumafung which has these fibers. Each morning after I wake up and each morning before I go to bed, I'd tear of a leaf a brush my teeth with them. Then I'd use some of the stringy fibers inside the bark of the tree to clean between my teeth. Lastly, I'd make a minty brine to freshen my breath." I explained.

"Sounds like a lot..." He said as he stuffed his mouth with the cake.

"I was raised doing it so it makes all the difference." I responded with a chuckle.

"So what is it like living in Illisia? I know it's one beautiful place." He asked, quite curious.

"It's quiet even more so since many of the creatures have disappeared. Um, there is a lot of bustle on the coastal cities but it's too much going on there so I don't go unless I have to. I live in Boma, Illisia, a lot of grassy woodlands with sparse inhabitants. It's a very tough place to live, but I love it. The closer you get to the center of Illisia the more people hunt for a loving. I'm one of those people." I explained.

"Hunting, what do you hunt with? Bows and arrows, rifles, spears?" He asked.

"We use raptors, bows and huntsmen blades." I said.

"You use birds of prey to hunt?" The king asked, surprise.

"Yeah, its the Barbary way. Illisians have have been doing it for centuries." I smiled.

"What is your raptor of choice?" The king continued.

"I have a giant long wing that can take down all sorts of prey ranging from a little song bird to a giant boar." I expounded.

"She sounds like quite the bird, utterly massive to be able to take down an animal that size." The king said, his interest level growing.

"She is rather large, the largest raptor I ever dealt with and consequently the most fearsome." I said, sounding too uneasy for my liking.

"Describe her." He said.

"She's about three feet at the hip, seven feet long from nose to tail tip, has a sixteen foot wingspan. She weighs an average of twenty five to thirty pounds, all over silver plumage except for a translucent band on her tail and primaries. Not only is she fast winged but she's also fleet footed as well. She's probably the most powerful raptor in the skies." I described. All looked on in disbelief.

"She sounds like Silver." The prince said.

"Silver?" I asked.

"We've searched lands far and wide for a raptor like Silver not knowing exactly where he was from." The king noted, "Silver is a very large and un-trainable raptor which matches the description of your raptor perfectly."

"So there is another silver long wing out there just like Bazahra." I said to myself.

"That bird is wicked! He shredded my arm a year ago and my motor skills haven't been the same since," The king's left nobleman said, "No one can touch it, or enter its pin. They risk serious injury upon entry! The only one who somehow manages to come out unscathed is the eldest prince and the most he can do is feed the damned bird."

"I told that boy to leave that bird alone... it's too dangerous!" The king said, pounding his fist on the table.

"Each raptor," I began, "has their own temperament and that must be acknowledged! Not all raptors are as easy to train as a bay wing or a sparrowhawk. Not all raptors are dimwitted and unintelligible to human language. The fact that they must problem solve to make kills should be proof that these are highly intelligent creatures. When looking at a raptor, the least specialized they are, the more intelligent they tend to be. You have to take the time to understand your bird which can take months for a completely wild bird. That long wing, seems wild. From my experience with them, they are very high energy and need be flown every day, much like their smaller cousins the falcons. Unlike falcons though, they do well in high heat and can fly all day. They also are much more intelligent than falcons, having a capacity to understand and exact out complex commands. But, they are sensitive, easily upset, and none trusting. When they don't have an outlet to channel their need to flex their wings, they become destructive. The last thing you want is a thirty pound creature with, six inch talons, a powerful lacerating beak and a destructive attitude."

"We've tried breaking him in but its too vicious. It'll drop down and chase us out of its enclosure. In fact it may have made him worse" The nobleman said. I looked at him, unsure what he meant by breaking-in. It didn't sound good at all.

"Breaking him in?" I asked.

"It is how we train raptors, vigorous positive and negative reinforcement training until it does what we want it to do. But that raptor, is just unmanageable." He explained.

"When you have such a powerful and intelligent creature," I paused, a shadowing swoop passing meters over the table only to disappear from site. Everyone looked up, noticing it. Suddenly a gazelle was knocked more than thirty feet into the air, screaming wildly until it hit the ground, dead on impact. Whatever struck the gazelle had vanished.

"What the hell?" The king asked, standing up to look over the side of the deck. The fanning servants stopped too, unsure what killed the gazelle. Everyone stood up, unsure to look at the gazelle or up to the sky. The poor creature had fallen on its neck which had snapped under the force of the impact.

I knew it was Bazahra. She never killed a gazelle with one pass, always deciding to play with it before delivering the final blow. This, however, was very much odd! I looked around for any surrounding trees. She typically would perch after such a sudden kill, generally keeping a keen eye on her prey. The nearest trees were all in the distance hundreds of yards away. She wasn't in any of them. However, up the stairs next to the stoop, nearly hidden from sight was a massive birch tree. Surely enough, perched in the top branches was Bazahra, looking at us all.

"Did it jump and land wrong?" The queen asked.

"No," The right nobleman said, "Something came over us and knocked the living stew out of that thing! Whatever it was too damn fast to see."

Everyone settled back down to the table, unnerved by the dead antelope. The king turned to the fanner behind him, standing on the stoop.

"Tell someone to clean up that mess and tell my son I sent for him." He demanded. The woman bowed and flipped off the stoop, disappearing out of sight. I looked back at the tree to see Bazahra still perched, relatively out of sight, her silver feathers acting as solid camouflage in the grey canopy.

"How would you approach training the long wing?" The king asked.

"You have to show to it you're not a threat, first off. Secondly, there needs to be bond. The easiest way to bond is by deciphering if the raptor is food motivated or chase motivated. High energy raptors tend to be very food motivated but there's no telling. Each one is as different as a person. The next step to bonding is making it work for its food. With a raptor, there has to be a reason it wants to keep coming back despite being free to the open skies. Social bonds are the key to that in these intelligent ones but in the less intelligent ones, you know food is the major cause. The last and most important thing though, you have to know when the raptor is upset, when it's riled up, happy, concerned, hungry, and when it simply want to sit on your lap with those big talons curled up and purr like an oversized kitten. It's something you can't rush." I explained.

"I've seen this bird, its temperament and its power. I'm sorry but I stand a firm disbeliever that this bird can be tamed." The left nobleman said.

"If you don't mind," I said to the king, "I'd like to call upon a friend." The king looked to the birch tree with a smile.

"Sure." He said. I whistled loudly, waiting for a return whistle. Seconds later I heard the bright reedy whistle of Bazahra and the pitter patter of talons clanking against stone. I turned around and could see her head crest making its way across the roof. She then jumped down, standing beside me. She looked at all the other people sitting at the table. They stared at her in the utmost of shock, surprised to see another silver long wing.

Bazahra chattered at the sight of all the people, unsure why they were staring at her.

"You know I can't understand you when you do that." I said to her. She then shrieked and bit at my leg for whatever reason.

"So she's the sneaky little bastard that just killed one of my gazelles." The king asked with a laugh. I fell to my knees, tickling the rowdy bird.

"I'm not even sure why she did it." I laughed. She ruffled her feathers as my tickling dislodged quite an amount of dust.

"So this is your raptor." The left nobleman asked, his voice jarring from a mix of emotions. I smiled at him.

"She's on the timid side." I said.

"And you trained her?" The king asked.

"Yes, it was a challenge. The biggest issue I had with her was often underestimating how smart she is." I said.

"And how'd she find you?" The king asked.

"I'm not sure. I got here the day before yesterday and I saw her flying overhead. I guess she followed the slavers that took me all the way here. She was smart enough to know I was in trouble. The thing is, she has poor nighttime vision so she wouldn't have been able to follow until sunrise. The caravans did not stop moving at night either so she had a tremendous amount of ground to cover!" I said, impressed with the bird.

"That's one loyal ass bird! They don't make them like that." The left nobleman said.

"Rejon..." Bazahra squawked. To everyone else it sounded like the random noise making most birds did, "...Is not dead." I looked at her in astonishment.

"What?" I asked her.

"Come." She responded. Everyone looked at me, unsure why I was conversing with the bird. They could not discern her speech.

Bazahra walked towards the stoop, everyone giving her a wide girth. The bird hopped up, next to a fanning servant. Bazahra looked at the lady and hissed, the woman stepping away. I stood next to Bazahra looking over the horizon unsure why she summoned me.

"What are you trying to tell me?" I asked.

"Look!" She said, pointing her neck out. I looked at the outer perimeter, seeing nothing. Her eyes were obviously fixated on something I couldn't see. I kept looking.

Suddenly a big black horse sized creature stood atop the perimeter. It was too far to discern what it was. Its feet touched down on the perimeter and it leapt down to the pasture below. The distinctive sound of bugling let me know exactly what this was. My eyes welled as I watched the huge black stag sprint as fast as its lean legs could carry it.

Soon, his two massive five foot horns, dense main and two long white stripes running down his flanks were visible. There was something tied around his neck.

"I can't believe this...that's my stag." I said. He came up to the balcony looking up at me. The stag released a deafening bugle, everyone covering their ears. Bazahra, startled by the loudness squawked and took flight away.

"Didn't you just say he was dead?" The king asked, "And why are all your animals so loyal? This thing managed to come all this way for you!"

"I'm as lost as you are! Can I go down and greet him, your Grace?" I asked.

"Sure, just don't mount him and tail out of here." The king responded, coming to the stoop to view the magnificent creature.

Like a child in delight, I ran down the stairs and hugged Rejon around his neck. He cringed, giving a light laryngeal whistle showing he was still in pain. I went around his deer-like body seeing that someone had stapled his wounds and they were still healing. He was in no condition to be ridden for now but would be soon. The pouch around his neck was made from premium leather. There was a letter inside! It read:

'We heard the gunshots from miles away running! You were gone but we found Rejon lying on the ground bleeding out and your springhare and gazelle kills. We're not sure what happened to you but everyone for miles around became worried with the gunshots! You know with guns being seldom used, we thought some type of accident occurred and came rushing to the sound! A few other neighboring villagers helped us load Rejon onto a trolley so we could bring him back to see what could be done for him. As soon as I was able to get him the slightest bit of his strength back, he struggled and bugled to the top his lungs, desperate to go and find you! The animal was already distressed so I wrote this up quickly, and am going to put this around his neck and let him go free. Rejon is a smart animal and it seems he believes you're alive. If you are, I know he'll find you! It's the only thing I could do from here! If you two find each other, write me back! I need to know that wherever you are, you're safe.

Sincerely, your grandmother,

Taja.'

All I could do was stand there and cry. Rejon brushed against me, wincing in pain as he shifted weight to the the injured leg. I hugged him tightly, realizing this was quite the turn of luck. Now with the fastest thing on four legs, I could eventually leave but it'd be an undertaking... home was thousands of miles away.

"Stay, Rejon..." I said heading back up the balcony, "My grandmother wasn't too far away from my location when she and other villagers heard the gunshots. Gunshots are rare in the region so everyone became worried and went to track down the source. They only found Rejon who I presumed was dead due to his wounds. They began nursing him back to health, closing the gunshot wounds. Not long after he was able to stand again and was begging to be released, so my grandmother did so. Before she did, she wrote a letter, hoping Rejon could somehow find me and he managed to do so."

"So the stag survived gunshot wounds then traversed thousands of miles of desert to save its owner? How are you all breeding your animals over there? What are we doing wrong because our creatures are not this loyal?" The left nobleman chuckled.

"I don't know much about Rejon's breed. I got him by fluke a long time ago. All I know is that his species is from the Kalahari to the south." I laughed.

"So it is a desert creature..." The left nobleman said.

"Yes." I smiled.

A boy roughly my age came through the double archway. He was fairly tall, taller than me at least. I couldn't make out his face very much. Shaggy and very curly hair came down over it. He wore elegant furs and leather tights, obviously used to riding horseback. From the dense hair, glimpses of honey toned eyes peeped through. The king grabbed the boy, pulling him close. The boy seemed tense, so much reluctance in his body.