Sharp Beaks and Slow Fingers (Private)

[Aselia Timandre]

Location: Piramba’s Pet Shop
Timestamp: 12th of Spring, 511 AV





“Good evening, Fai!” Aselia exclaimed as she entered Piramba’s Pet Shop.

After the owner had nodded her greeting behind the counter, Aselia went up to the second level of the shop to look after the fledglings. She had been working at the shop since last season and gotten accustomed to the Lhavitian lifestyle and developed new habits. When coming in at dawn, she always made sure the fledglings were okay first. The songbirds currently featured two nests, one full of fuzzy sparrows and the other one with four yellow canaries. Aselia made sure the food ration from yesterday was gone and refilled it with the mixture they gave almost all songbirds, made of sprouted seeds, bread crumbs and eggs. After refilling the water as well, she gauged the amount of bird poop in each fledgling cage and decided that the next cleaning could wait one or two more days. The canary daddy proudly sat on the wooden bar and sang a song for his children. Aselia tried to imitate the melody while watching him, but eventually she continued with her round.

Next were the grown-up songbirds downstairs. Once again, the Konti checked their food and water and refilled where it was necessary. Somewhere in between two cages, she paused to take a silk band out of her pocket and collected her white hair in a ponytail. Sooner or later the shop interior felt hot, if only because the animals needed a warm temperature for comfort and because she did so much physical work. Exhaling, she turned towards the next cage.

Two days ago, she had discovered that a parrot was plucking its feathers. That problem usually occurred from either malnutrition or boredom, so Aselia had taken one or two toys from other cages and put it into the parrot’s one. Now he could play with a small oval mirror hanging from the cage’s ceiling and a bell attached to a rope. Aselia untied the rope and pulled at it. The parrot immediately chased after it. Aselia spent about half a bell with the parrot that used its beak to catch the bell and make it chime. She had to smile and laugh every now and then.

Parrots were just so much fun! Their green, yellow and red feathers looked beautiful, and they were easily entertained. Moreover, she had heard that certain species could learn languages, although she had never dared to try herself. Birds were birds and should speak bird language, after all. Still she was impressed by their intelligence.

After the bored parrot had been served, she dedicated some more time to playing with the other parrots and larger songbirds. Because all animals were kept in cages, some easily got bored no matter how large their cages were. One parrot had gotten more attached to Aselia in the recent times, and she couldn’t help but take her out and cuddle her for a while. “Yeah, you’re a nice girl, aren’t you? You should have been born a cat, so you can purr, you know”, she teased the parrot and let her nibble her finger.

When the nibbling got uncomfortable, however, she pushed the beak away and sent the parrot back into the cage. Smiling at her, Aselia promised: “I’ll be back, girly!” Oh, how she wanted to give them names... but alas, they were to be sold, and not her own.

[Aselia Timandre]

Fortunately, raptors didn’t provide her with the same problem, because they didn’t trust their hosts as easily. While checking if they were all right, Aselia recounted the stock of Piramba’s. “One kestrel, two red-tailed hawks, three falcons and two owls”, she said to herself as she looked at them through the cage bars. Each and every exemplar was beautiful in its own way. Especially owls intrigued Aselia. They were popular because of Lhavit’s nocturnal lifestyle, but she knew she didn’t have the experience to train them yet.

Suddenly Fai stood behind her. “Will you go out again to try and train some sense into our kestrel prince?” she asked with a grin.

Aselia gave a short laugh. Indeed, the kestrel was barely grown up and needed to be trained. Aselia had started working at the right time, so the task of training it had become hers. Although she spent two or three bells every second day with the raptor, he constantly refused to trust her and do what she said. “Why, yes”, she admitted and shrugged. “What else should I do? Besides, I still believe he will open up if I only spend enough time with him. He’s stubborn...”

“...but so are you”, Fai commented and grinned. Patting Aselia on the shoulder, she left to look after the white kitten that had caught a cold. Aselia sighed, buried her hands in her pockets and sat down behind the counter for a while to watch the shop and serve any potential customers. She would only take the kestrel outside a bell before morning. While her main working hours were at night, she couldn’t train any diurnal birds during that time. And, well, the only birds she knew how to train were diurnal.

A few customers stopped by after midnight, but none of them showed interest in birds. So Aselia dozed off at some point, then did some minor work for Fai, got something to eat during her break and basically waited for the night to fade so she could go train the kestrel prince.

About two bells before the morning she got ready. As always, she had brought her falconry equipment with her. Now she put on the thick leather gloves that were used for working with raptors, took a hood and jesses and opened the prince’s cage. His head turned and he inspected her. Of course he knew what would come, and flapped his wings, but Aselia quickly put the hood over his eyes to keep him quiet. Then she tied the pair of jesses to his claws and to her left arm so that the bird sat on it without flying away. Of course, with the hood over his eyes, the kestrel wouldn’t escape anywhere. After grabbing a leash, she balanced the kestrel on her arm and left the shop through the back door. The building had a small backyard and garden attached to it. The ground was covered in short grass and there was even some sort of fruit tree growing in the corner. Walls enclosed the place from two sides, and the third featured a small fence made of wooden bars.

With one hand, Aselia wrapped the leash around the kestrel’s leg and knotted it as tightly as she could, yet she made sure that it didn’t hurt the bird. Her movements revealed experience. She had learned to work with the equipment long before being allowed to actually train the birds. Now she let her gaze wander over the grassy ground and saw a half-opened bag that radiated an unpleasant smell. Fai had prepared some recently killed voles, food for the kestrel. In the middle of the garden a perch of about five feet in size stood on the earth. Untying the jesses from her left arm, she walked over to the perch and tied them to it so the bird could sit on the perch.

Eventually Aselia freed the prince’s head from the hood, marking the start of another training session.

[Aselia Timandre]

Because he had proved to be so stubborn in the past, she hadn’t gotten far with accustoming him to her yet. Although he accepted food from her hands, he seemed to be too lazy to reach or fly for it. Something told him that Aselia would feed him anyway and he was clever enough to wait for her to give up on the subject and wait for a better day to try again.

However, this time she had waited two days to make him hungry enough. Flapping his wings in protest, the kestrel tried to free himself, but the jesses tied him to the perch. Aselia fetched the bag and took a vole out. Then she offered it to him, raising her palm to his head. Of course, he lunged for it and swallowed it in one piece. So far, so good. Because she had already gone through that stage of training before, she shortened it by offering another piece and only raising it to his feet. He reached down and took it, sharp beak pricking the leather of her glove. However, she had to take another step in order to advance the training.

The prince had to grow accustomed to the glove. Aselia wanted him to know that he only received food from the glove, and nowhere else. So she wrapped the leash around her right wrist, grabbed a third vole in her left hand and freed the bird from the jesses tying him to the perch. Then she walked backward, showing the vole to him. He saw food and saw it in her gloved hand. Now he’d have to take off and fetch it. “You are hungry, aren’t you?” Aselia said and waited. The kestrel’s black eyes watched her and every now and then his head twitched. He seemed unsure what to do or just didn’t care.

Sighing, Aselia took a step forward and raised her hand with the vole so he could see it clearly. She knew that shouting or talking to him wouldn’t do any good. Biting her lip, she waited and prayed. Eywaat was the Goddess of birds, but in her heart she prayed to Her as well as Avalis.

Suddenly the kestrel flapped his wings. His gaze had shifted to the vole in her hands. Slowly he took off into the air, cleared the distance on majestic wings and landed on the glove to swallow the meat. Then he raised his head and looked at her, as if saying: What? I’m hungry, so I came. Aselia smiled. “Sure, you’re a prince after all.” It was a small success, but at least she had gotten the kestrel to do something for his meal. Now he had shrugged off his laziness, and it would be easier to work with him from there.

Letting him sit on the perch again, she repeated the process. This time, she had barely covered the distance she wanted between them when he left the perch and glided towards the vole in her hand. Landing on the glove, he swallowed the meat and flapped his wings in satisfaction. Aselia smiled and praised him, although she knew she shouldn’t do it. There was still much more to do. The majority of the work still had to be done before he could be taken out to hunt for his trainer.

The third time he simply remained on the perch and observed his surroundings, pecking at the leash on his foot for a while and basically doing nothing. Aselia sighed and put the vole back into the bag. Obviously he was full. That meant two days of waiting before she could continue with the manning process.