Falcon: If You Want to Know What Happens Next (And Possibly How it Ends)

I suppose I should be doing NaNoWriMo right now. 

But I don't feel like it.

So I suppose some of my audience is wondering what was supposed to happen next to Avrielle, the unfortunate heroine of "Falcon." Allow me to alleviate the suspense. I will pick up right where I left off.

One day, however, Avrielle's fortune changed. A young man she had not seen before came to the aviary.

“Who are you?” she asked the man.

“I am Robin, apprentice to the king's gamekeeper,” the man said. “The king believes you will make a good hunting falcon, and I am in charge of training you.”

“What? Train me like a common dog?” Avrielle gasped. “I never!” Robin reached into the cage to grab her, but she hopped out of his grasp like a bar of soap, and she bit and clawed his hand and fingers. However, she calmed down when Robin put a hood over her head. Then he removed it and fed her some meat.

“If you will calm down and behave yourself, I will feed you,” said Robin simply. Avrielle complied. Robin began to teach her how to be a hunting falcon, but he found that she barely knew how to hunt or to fly to begin with.

“Why are you so poorly coordinated?” Robin asked.

“I'm not really a falcon, I'm human. And I've only been cursed a few weeks,” Avrielle explained. Robin felt sorry for her. Robin decided he would try a different approach towards teaching her. He took her into the royal library to read books on falcons and falconry . He took her into the forest to train her with a lure and give her room to fly. While in the forest, they ran into some of the male falcons who had teased Avrielle.

“Don't be afraid of Robin,” she said when they tried to run away from her human companion. “He is a friend. He won't hurt you. He wants to show me what real falcons do.”

“A friend, eh? You claim to be human: are you sure he's just a friend?” Sidney sniggered.

“You want us to show you how to be a falcon?” said Farley, who was more sensitive than Sidney. “Why didn't you say so before?” Sidney and Farley gladly showed Avrielle how to be a proper falcon, to fly and to fish and to hunt, to spot a mouse shaking the grass in a field from a mile in the sky, to dive as straight as an arrow for the quail darting through the open meadow. 

Here I try to throw in some research I did on falconry

Avrielle became a superb huntress. Robin trained her to hunt with humans, and they became an efficient hunting team. Robin made sure to hood her and give her treats like he would give to a normal falcon. He asked the king to build her a special aviary called a mews with perches and ledges for her to hop on.

Robin also took Avrielle's curse seriously and treated her like a human. Robin motivated Avrielle to do her best, speaking kindly to her and stroking her feathers gently. When she was sad, he would comfort her. He told her she could be as happy as she made up her mind to be. And so Avrielle chose to be happy, and with her newfound skills and confidence it was an easy choice.

The king took Avrielle and Robin on his hunts, and she brought many ducks and wildfowl to grace his table. And just as the creatures of the forest had advised her, she made sure that the king hunted none of the animals that could talk. The king was very pleased with Robin's work with Avrielle, and he made him his Royal Falconer.

Back in her lair, Mandie the witch was bored, so one day she asked her magic mirror

Looking glass, O looking glass,

tell me what joy has come to pass.

The mirror showed Mandie Avrielle's success as a falcon huntress. Mandie was so angry that she spat at the image in the mirror and pulled her hair.

“Curses! Curses! If Avrielle becomes any happier she will break the spell!” said Mandie. She hopped on her broomstick and flew to the king's palace. She turned herself into a snake, and when the night came she slithered into the king's bedchamber. With a flickering forked tongue, Mandie whispered dark things in his ear. “Your majessssty, you must realizzze that Avrielle thinksss she is just a pet to you. She isss more loyal to her trainer, Robin, than to you. You must punisssh Robin for his treassson.”

Mandie slithered away, hissing in laughter. Then she changed back into herself and flew away.

When the king awoke, the witch's words went slithering through his head. He could not eat breakfast, he could not work. Surely what Mandie had said was not true? He hoped. He went hunting that afternoon, and though he tried not to look his gaze was drawn to Avrielle and Robin. It soon became clear that Avrielle was more loyal to Robin than to the king. She preferred his hands as a perch, she listened to Robin's commands more often, she was more likely to bring him a catch than take her prey straight to the king to bag. The king tried to spoil Avrielle, speaking to her softly and petting her and giving her extra treats, but Avrielle did not like being flattered by the king, and she bit his fingers instead. The king sent Robin to do extra chores and he spent some time with Avrielle while Robin was busy, but Avrielle refused to talk to him. He tried to set up special perches for her in his office and in the library, but she would fly off to some other spot to hide and the servants would spend all day trying to catch her.

One day, the king went hunting but made sure a different servant came along instead of Robin. Avrielle tried to fly away into the forest, but the king sent his hounds after her and his guard bagged her again. He locked her up in the mews without any food. Avrielle was heartbroken that the king was treating her this way, and she pined for Robin to come be with her. Late that night, Robin came to the mews to see her. Avrielle told him how the king was abusing her. Robin was angry with the king as well as sad for Avrielle.

“Let's run away to the forest where the king shall never hurt us,” said Robin. Avrielle agreed. Robin took Avrielle out of the mews and stole a horse from the palace stables, and they rode away into the forest an hour before dawn.

And that is all I feel safe telling you without giving away the ending. It does end happily, of course, and Mandie the witch ends up somewhat like this:

 

 Except there's a chicken coop involved (if you remember the chicken coop at the beginning).