Falcon Wild by Terry Lynn Johnson

Author:Terry Lynn Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Published: 2017-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

Stark’s talons tense on my shoulder, and I snap to focus on my surroundings. Cooper has already seen something and motions for me to get down. He raises a finger to his lips for silence and crouches in the grass.

I scan the direction where he’s looking, across the prairie to our left and on to the foothills and buttes beyond that.

Cooper points to something in the grass, and I strain to see. Could it be a game bird? He hefts his stick in the air, taking aim. Does he really think he can spear one? Imagining eating a grouse makes my mouth salivate. I reach for Stark just as Cooper explodes from his crouch. He runs full tilt with his arm cocked back, holding his stick. It sails through the air. Two ring-necked pheasants lift out of the shrubs and squawk as the stick lands harmlessly beside them.

Stark launches herself.

“Ho, ho, ho,” I scream, just as Aunt Amy does with Tank. But it’s too late. Stark needs time to get height. She circles me, and her head swivels, watching for my lure. I fling my arm toward the pheasants.

Cooper races after them as if he can catch them by hand. They gain elevation.

“No!” He drops to his knees.

As I watch the pheasants take flight, Stark tucks her wings in close to her body and then slices through the air. She misses the first one but crashes into the second with a flurry of feathers. She drops with a few feathers clutched in her talons. The pheasants keep going.

“Stark!” I race toward where I saw her plummet behind a pile of rocks. “Please be okay.”

The look on her face is so full of reproach, I almost crack up. She’s disgusted with me. As if it were my fault they got away.

“Gah!” Cooper screams, dropping his face in his hands. “That was so close!”

“Yeah, but did you see Stark hit it? She’s so smart!”

“Smart? She missed!”

“That’s how you learn. Let’s try that again!”

We set off to look for more birds. With both of us on a mission now, and Stark following in the air, all three of us are on the same team for once.

“Stark has to have a good pitch—she has to be high in the air—before we flush those birds up,” I tell him. “Falcons fold their wings and drop out of the sky to catch their meals. Gyrs can also chase down prey, but Stark doesn’t have that kind of endurance yet. Falcons like Stark use their feet to swat prey out of the air. I once saw a falcon take the head off a duck in midair.”

I teach Cooper to dog for Stark, but he seems to be a natural at stalking. He’s quiet and focused. He even saw those pheasants before I did.

So when we both see the grouse hiding in the grass, something ancient shows through our shared look of excitement. There’s a reason everyone can see movement out of the corners of their eyes. We’re all hunters, after all, born with these instincts.

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