Post by everyone02 on May 5, 2014 13:48:38 GMT -5
Nuray
The morning air was warm as she circled high above the streets of Basra. Ruffling the fair feathers on her chest the west wind carried her, allowing her to watch over her master’s stall as she was taught to do.
Nuray’s keen gaze never strayed from the spot that seemed so tiny underneath her but which was so important to the human she belonged to. Cackling quietly, the small bird flapped her wings and soared, just a little more towards the skies but not too far to lose sight of what she was expected to protect.
Down, in the world of the two-legged ones, people were busily walking by, paying the covered booth no mind or just stealing a curious glance at it before going about their business and she thought how life on earth was always hectic; such a stark contrast to the calm up in the blue where the only sounds were the gentle whisper of the air against her small body and the faint voices on the wind.
Steering to complete another circle, Nuray cocked her head a little, listening to the hum that was the vibrant buzz of the city and cast another look towards the stall, making sure there was no eager hand reaching behind the thick linen cloth.
Among the whirring murmurs of men and chicken and the clattering thunder of hooves on the ground she could hear the tales of the wild desert wind that sometimes reached these lands together with the breeze, melting into the local songs before at last they faded into silence. It was a quiet tune she sought to discern and while normally she had no trouble following it, today there was something different about the sound: a voice that broke the melody and caught her attention. She had never heard it before but still it sent a thrill of danger through her veins.
Angling her wings Nuray stopped immediately in her flight, beating them rapidly so that she stood motionless in the air, searching for the source of the cries that were so familiar and yet foreign to her mind. Angry, frantic screams in the language of the birds of prey, surrounded by the sharp white screech of metal that was always painful to her sensitive ears.
She turned a little, shifted to a spot closer to where the call came from and finally she knew where it originated: Another part of the city, further up towards the harbours – territory that was always curious because the water winds were so very different from anything she knew.
Albeit her task was to stay with the stall, to guard and to watch, something in that voice was stronger than her duty and it drew her away. Even when the cries of the other bird quieted down somewhat they still tore through her, caused her small body to tremble. And thus she flew, quickly, in loops that became larger and larger so that she came closer to the brother but didn’t leave her master’s property fully behind.
When she was just about to finish the third circle, at last she spotted him: A hawk, brown and definitely bigger than her. He didn’t seem to notice her navigate above, dark eyes set on figures below him and mind disconnected from the world that she belonged to.
There was something decidedly peculiar about him but the moment she noticed she already forgot because another sight had her freeze in flight.
There was her keeper, dark and tall, braced with his shining metal that he only ever used for training or when there was no other choice. He stood back to back with the female human she had seen with him earlier, at the stall; both of them tense and engulfed by the sounds of battle and of fight.
But it wasn’t that what stilled her and set her nerves tingling. It was the fact that she saw biting silver cut the air like snakes – fast and furious. And aiming at him.
The falcon knew no second thought, no doubt or hesitance. There was no bird of prey among her master’s people that had not been raised to defend and so she did just that. Booth and weaponry at last forgotten, her mind was filled with commands that her muscles followed blindly – turning her into a star of white that hurtled down with talons twitching and a whistling cry torn from an agate grey break. To save him.