[fic] TGZ: Flying Hawks
Jun. 8th, 2005 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ickaimpTakes place after 'Chocolate Thief'.
Kaito and Hakuba had a morning ritual. It seemed somewhat odd to have a morning ritual, but every morning, after blearily pulling on clothing and before breakfast --and COFFEE!-- they went outside and fed the doves and Watson.
Something Kaito hadn't been aware of until he started watching Hakuba take care of his small raptor was just how much work a bird of prey was to take care of, compared to his doves. There were hoods, jesses --ties for the hawk's leg--, leashes, gloves (Kaito had once commented about the amount of leather bondage material to take care of. Hakuba had suggested where he could pull a dove out of) bells, and lures to train Watson with. Not to mention all the attention that the bird needed.
Even though Watson was just a Sparrow hawk, --Accipiter nisus, the smallest of the true raptors-- she still needed a large amount of room to spread her wings out. Her mews --which Kaito thought was an odd name for a bird's housing, considering the cat-like sound-- was the size of a bedroom, with perches on the inside and looking much like a shed on the outside with the former enclosed chicken pen that Kaito housed his doves leaning next to it. When it got colder, Hakuba had told him that he'd sometimes bring Watson inside the house, Sparrow Hawks usually migrated for the winter.
Privately, Kaito thought that the same was true of her owner. Eurasian Sparrow hawks were all over Europe and Asia, reaching as far east their home in Japan, called Hai-taka. So Hakuba's habit of travelling between the two countries for the summer and winter breaks was a migratory flight of it's own. Just East-West instead of North-South.
Compared the couple hours a day of care Watson required, doves were practically low maintenance in comparison. Kaito tossed his doves out of their pen for their morning flight, made sure they had food, water, enough hay or straw to nest in and occasionally mucked out the pen. The droppings went into a compost heap to fertilize the gardens; floral, vegetable and herbal.
After feeding the birds --not to each other, although Hakuba often made comments about being tempted-- they would go back inside, get their first cup of coffee or tea, eat breakfast and usually change clothing. Sometimes because it was dirty. Kaito privately wondered if Hakuba was partially colour-blind, or if it was just an early morning thing. Both of them tended to be night owls for various reasons.
After breakfast, coffee and getting dressed for the day, they grabbed their coats and took care of the rest of the morning ritual, flying Watson. Kaito's doves were usually back in their cages from their early morning flight by that time, so taking the Sparrow hawk for a flight didn't worry him nearly as much as it could have.
It had been a minor surprise the first time Watson had caught anything. Sparrow hawks were small raptors, they weren't big enough to catch rabbits, but they were very good at catching pigeons and doves. He'd watched as Watson had flown low over a hedge, startling the birds out of it, then snatching one out of mid-air and landing with it. The raptor had then -stared- at them, waiting as Hakuba walked over, calmly taking the dead bird from the raptor's claws, fed the proud bird a scrap of raw meat from a pouch --you never fed a raptor from its kill-- with words of praise. After Watson had finished the meat, he'd sent the bird back up into the air and proceeded to dress the dead pigeon.
Several days later, he found out that one of Mum's specialities was pigeon pie. Kaito was slightly disturbed, but they didn't make any comments about eating -his- doves, so he didn't make too big of a spectacle of it.
And it wasn't half bad, as far as food went.
Kaito was more of a coffee person, but he'd taken to bringing along a thermos of tea, usually some variety of black tea mixed with cream and sugar along with them. The tea was a bit sweeter than Hakuba usually drank it, but it was an acceptable compromise between the two of them for something hot to share.
Hakuba had an arrangement with some of the farmers in the area, they'd let him fly Watson in their fields in exchange for a portion of the doves the Sparrow hawk caught. It worked out for both sides, Watson got the exercise and the hunting practice, the farmers had a few less pests to worry about and both sides got something to supplement their dinner table with. It worked out well and it gave the two of them an excuse to explore the local area. The times he couldn't fly Watson, usually because of cases, there was a local group that bred and trained Falcons that Mum would call to have someone fly Watson. Watson had a habit of sulking at them the next day, but it worked.
So thermos in hand, hawk on arm, they tromped through the post-harvest fields in search of prey that hadn't migrated yet. It was usually cold and quiet with only a few people out and about. Watson had recently lost a bell in a field and Kaito was determined to find it. Hawk's bells had to be light for the hawk to carry them, thus were made of thin metal and wore out fairly quickly. But it was shiny and it gave him something to look for while Watson flew.
It was also a good truce time, the couple fights they'd had --neither of them was really used to sharing their home space with someone who wasn't a parent-- usually ended out here. Watson made a good mediator. They couldn't loose their temper without affecting the raptor and since neither of them usually wanted to back down by not going, they usually ended up having to -talk- things out.
Which was both novel and gratifying at the same time. Of course, they fought over stupid stuff, like toothpaste, but still...
Hakuba loosened the jesses and un-hooded Watson, who blinked and looked around calmly. According to Hakuba, Sparrow hawks weren't very good for novices, being hard to train, but he'd never seen Watson act any way other than in perfect control. She hadn't even left any slicings, or droppings, anywhere that he had seen at Sunset Mansion.
"Ready, girl?" Hakuba talked softly to the bird, stroking the wings. She spread her wings out a few times, flapping slightly as he bounced her a few times. On some silent signal, he tossed his arm up, casting her off the glove. She soared up in the air, wings pumping as she circled around them. They watched her a few minutes before beginning to walk, doing their 'job' of flushing the birds out of their hiding holes with their presence.
He watched Watson for a while, walking companionably next to Hakuba. He was conversant enough now in the language that he didn't need to stick so close to the detective for translations, but he wasn't quite yet up to just wandering out on his own and making friends just yet.
He noted, not for the first time, that it seemed odd that anyone would consider a bird of prey a 'pet', much less want to keep one. He could understand the lure in old times, when the birds and animals they brought down for their keeper was welcomed at the dinner table, but he still couldn't figure out what the bird got out of it. Raptors were pretty much at the top of the food chain, so it couldn't be for safety, like for the doves.
"Ne, Saguru-kun..." Kaito drawled, still watching Watson. He paused, the question freezing on his lips when he realised that he'd inadvertently called the detective by his name instead of family name. "Sorry." He muttered.
"It's all right. You can call me that if you want." Hakuba gave him a quick shy, almost fond glance. "I don't mind. I imagine it must be odd being the only one using 'Hakuba' while everyone here calls me 'Saguru'."
"'Kaito', then." He held his hand out and they shook, like they were meeting each other for the first time.
"Pleased to meet you, Kaito-kun." Hakuba, no, Saguru said formally before grinning like an idiot. Kaito returned the stupid grin as they continued down the road.
"At least I didn't call you 'Sa-chan', like your Mum." He teased.
"Believe it or not, I've been called worse." Saguru informed him wryly. "There was a girl in grade school that insisted on calling me 'Goo'."
Kaito raised an eyebrow. "Goo?!"
"Sa-GU-ru." The blond carefully enunciated. "Of course, you do realise that if you call me that I shall be forced to hurt you."
"I could always call you 'Guru'." Kaito grinned. "Oh Benevolent and Wise Teacher of English."
"Ha."
He snickered gleefully while the detective pretended to be annoyed. "You had a question?" Hakuba inquired.
"About Watson." He agreed, watching the hawk again. "Just wondering why you keep her. She's a lot of work and it's not like you need the food."
"I suppose so." Saguru agreed. "It is a lot of work. They're never really truly tamed, only less feral. They're obstinate, stubborn, fierce, you -never- know if they're just going to take off and never come back... And yet there's just something..." He shrugged, watching Watson catch a bit of a cross breeze and play in it.
"I guess the question should be why she flies with you-?" Kaito ventured.
"That may be closer." The blond nodded. "She doesn't need -me-, exactly. Not for food, at least around here. Guidance, possibly. They have a tendency to run into things when they focus on catching prey. They're terrible show offs, so I suppose I'm an automatic audience-"
Watching Watson play in the breeze, Kaito could agree with that.
"But mostly, I suppose it's because I can provide a safe haven." Saguru shrugged.
"Don't have to worry about predators or catching enough to get by." Kaito mused.
Saguru made a thoughtful sound but didn't say anything. They lapsed back into silence, walking along the path.
It took Kaito several minutes to realise that they weren't just talking about the hawk.
-fin-
-if we got any facts or information on Falconry wrong, please let us know.
Watson being a Female Sparrow hawk is still just speculation on my part, but damn if it doesn't fit, ne?
P.S. Nickname for Sparrow hawks: "Rocket in the Pocket." *snerk*
Kaito and Hakuba had a morning ritual. It seemed somewhat odd to have a morning ritual, but every morning, after blearily pulling on clothing and before breakfast --and COFFEE!-- they went outside and fed the doves and Watson.
Something Kaito hadn't been aware of until he started watching Hakuba take care of his small raptor was just how much work a bird of prey was to take care of, compared to his doves. There were hoods, jesses --ties for the hawk's leg--, leashes, gloves (Kaito had once commented about the amount of leather bondage material to take care of. Hakuba had suggested where he could pull a dove out of) bells, and lures to train Watson with. Not to mention all the attention that the bird needed.
Even though Watson was just a Sparrow hawk, --Accipiter nisus, the smallest of the true raptors-- she still needed a large amount of room to spread her wings out. Her mews --which Kaito thought was an odd name for a bird's housing, considering the cat-like sound-- was the size of a bedroom, with perches on the inside and looking much like a shed on the outside with the former enclosed chicken pen that Kaito housed his doves leaning next to it. When it got colder, Hakuba had told him that he'd sometimes bring Watson inside the house, Sparrow Hawks usually migrated for the winter.
Privately, Kaito thought that the same was true of her owner. Eurasian Sparrow hawks were all over Europe and Asia, reaching as far east their home in Japan, called Hai-taka. So Hakuba's habit of travelling between the two countries for the summer and winter breaks was a migratory flight of it's own. Just East-West instead of North-South.
Compared the couple hours a day of care Watson required, doves were practically low maintenance in comparison. Kaito tossed his doves out of their pen for their morning flight, made sure they had food, water, enough hay or straw to nest in and occasionally mucked out the pen. The droppings went into a compost heap to fertilize the gardens; floral, vegetable and herbal.
After feeding the birds --not to each other, although Hakuba often made comments about being tempted-- they would go back inside, get their first cup of coffee or tea, eat breakfast and usually change clothing. Sometimes because it was dirty. Kaito privately wondered if Hakuba was partially colour-blind, or if it was just an early morning thing. Both of them tended to be night owls for various reasons.
After breakfast, coffee and getting dressed for the day, they grabbed their coats and took care of the rest of the morning ritual, flying Watson. Kaito's doves were usually back in their cages from their early morning flight by that time, so taking the Sparrow hawk for a flight didn't worry him nearly as much as it could have.
It had been a minor surprise the first time Watson had caught anything. Sparrow hawks were small raptors, they weren't big enough to catch rabbits, but they were very good at catching pigeons and doves. He'd watched as Watson had flown low over a hedge, startling the birds out of it, then snatching one out of mid-air and landing with it. The raptor had then -stared- at them, waiting as Hakuba walked over, calmly taking the dead bird from the raptor's claws, fed the proud bird a scrap of raw meat from a pouch --you never fed a raptor from its kill-- with words of praise. After Watson had finished the meat, he'd sent the bird back up into the air and proceeded to dress the dead pigeon.
Several days later, he found out that one of Mum's specialities was pigeon pie. Kaito was slightly disturbed, but they didn't make any comments about eating -his- doves, so he didn't make too big of a spectacle of it.
And it wasn't half bad, as far as food went.
Kaito was more of a coffee person, but he'd taken to bringing along a thermos of tea, usually some variety of black tea mixed with cream and sugar along with them. The tea was a bit sweeter than Hakuba usually drank it, but it was an acceptable compromise between the two of them for something hot to share.
Hakuba had an arrangement with some of the farmers in the area, they'd let him fly Watson in their fields in exchange for a portion of the doves the Sparrow hawk caught. It worked out for both sides, Watson got the exercise and the hunting practice, the farmers had a few less pests to worry about and both sides got something to supplement their dinner table with. It worked out well and it gave the two of them an excuse to explore the local area. The times he couldn't fly Watson, usually because of cases, there was a local group that bred and trained Falcons that Mum would call to have someone fly Watson. Watson had a habit of sulking at them the next day, but it worked.
So thermos in hand, hawk on arm, they tromped through the post-harvest fields in search of prey that hadn't migrated yet. It was usually cold and quiet with only a few people out and about. Watson had recently lost a bell in a field and Kaito was determined to find it. Hawk's bells had to be light for the hawk to carry them, thus were made of thin metal and wore out fairly quickly. But it was shiny and it gave him something to look for while Watson flew.
It was also a good truce time, the couple fights they'd had --neither of them was really used to sharing their home space with someone who wasn't a parent-- usually ended out here. Watson made a good mediator. They couldn't loose their temper without affecting the raptor and since neither of them usually wanted to back down by not going, they usually ended up having to -talk- things out.
Which was both novel and gratifying at the same time. Of course, they fought over stupid stuff, like toothpaste, but still...
Hakuba loosened the jesses and un-hooded Watson, who blinked and looked around calmly. According to Hakuba, Sparrow hawks weren't very good for novices, being hard to train, but he'd never seen Watson act any way other than in perfect control. She hadn't even left any slicings, or droppings, anywhere that he had seen at Sunset Mansion.
"Ready, girl?" Hakuba talked softly to the bird, stroking the wings. She spread her wings out a few times, flapping slightly as he bounced her a few times. On some silent signal, he tossed his arm up, casting her off the glove. She soared up in the air, wings pumping as she circled around them. They watched her a few minutes before beginning to walk, doing their 'job' of flushing the birds out of their hiding holes with their presence.
He watched Watson for a while, walking companionably next to Hakuba. He was conversant enough now in the language that he didn't need to stick so close to the detective for translations, but he wasn't quite yet up to just wandering out on his own and making friends just yet.
He noted, not for the first time, that it seemed odd that anyone would consider a bird of prey a 'pet', much less want to keep one. He could understand the lure in old times, when the birds and animals they brought down for their keeper was welcomed at the dinner table, but he still couldn't figure out what the bird got out of it. Raptors were pretty much at the top of the food chain, so it couldn't be for safety, like for the doves.
"Ne, Saguru-kun..." Kaito drawled, still watching Watson. He paused, the question freezing on his lips when he realised that he'd inadvertently called the detective by his name instead of family name. "Sorry." He muttered.
"It's all right. You can call me that if you want." Hakuba gave him a quick shy, almost fond glance. "I don't mind. I imagine it must be odd being the only one using 'Hakuba' while everyone here calls me 'Saguru'."
"'Kaito', then." He held his hand out and they shook, like they were meeting each other for the first time.
"Pleased to meet you, Kaito-kun." Hakuba, no, Saguru said formally before grinning like an idiot. Kaito returned the stupid grin as they continued down the road.
"At least I didn't call you 'Sa-chan', like your Mum." He teased.
"Believe it or not, I've been called worse." Saguru informed him wryly. "There was a girl in grade school that insisted on calling me 'Goo'."
Kaito raised an eyebrow. "Goo?!"
"Sa-GU-ru." The blond carefully enunciated. "Of course, you do realise that if you call me that I shall be forced to hurt you."
"I could always call you 'Guru'." Kaito grinned. "Oh Benevolent and Wise Teacher of English."
"Ha."
He snickered gleefully while the detective pretended to be annoyed. "You had a question?" Hakuba inquired.
"About Watson." He agreed, watching the hawk again. "Just wondering why you keep her. She's a lot of work and it's not like you need the food."
"I suppose so." Saguru agreed. "It is a lot of work. They're never really truly tamed, only less feral. They're obstinate, stubborn, fierce, you -never- know if they're just going to take off and never come back... And yet there's just something..." He shrugged, watching Watson catch a bit of a cross breeze and play in it.
"I guess the question should be why she flies with you-?" Kaito ventured.
"That may be closer." The blond nodded. "She doesn't need -me-, exactly. Not for food, at least around here. Guidance, possibly. They have a tendency to run into things when they focus on catching prey. They're terrible show offs, so I suppose I'm an automatic audience-"
Watching Watson play in the breeze, Kaito could agree with that.
"But mostly, I suppose it's because I can provide a safe haven." Saguru shrugged.
"Don't have to worry about predators or catching enough to get by." Kaito mused.
Saguru made a thoughtful sound but didn't say anything. They lapsed back into silence, walking along the path.
It took Kaito several minutes to realise that they weren't just talking about the hawk.
-fin-
-if we got any facts or information on Falconry wrong, please let us know.
Watson being a Female Sparrow hawk is still just speculation on my part, but damn if it doesn't fit, ne?
P.S. Nickname for Sparrow hawks: "Rocket in the Pocket." *snerk*
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 02:49 pm (UTC)*flyingtackleglomp*
Date: 2005-06-09 06:45 pm (UTC)*grins* This bit started me snickering... They have a tendency to run into things...