Scouts on Patrol: The Gyrfalcon

TheCuriousSeed

And for today we have another episode of "What Tale Awaits us Today?" Today, however, this is going to be a bit different. Enjoy!

~The day started out pretty routine as Daylily, Heidi and Holly all trained as Scouts, but also had other tasks to take care of per their respective talents. Daylily and Holly were Animal Scouts while Heidi was a Water Scout. All was quite peachy until...

~"Can't catch me!" called Magnolia as she dared a few Fast Flyers to race her.

~Magnolia was a Speedy Tinker because not only could she keep pace with almost every Fast Flyer, she could surpass working pace of almost every Tinker with top accuracy almost every time. Today, however, Magnolia was in the mood for some reckless racing... very reckless racing.

~"Ready!" called Onyx, who hadn't been in the kitchen yet because soup wasn't on the menu today.

~The racers were ready.

~"Set!"

~Uh-oh, thought Daylily as she saw a gyrfalcon nearing the Hollow.

~"Go!" Onyx called and the race was on!

~"Stop the race and take cover!" called Daylily. "That gyrfalcon's hungry!"

~But the racers didn't hear Daylily's warning. Fortunately, Phoebe Wildflower, a fellow Scout, heard her loud and clear.

~"Something amiss, Daylily?" asked Phoebe.

~"We have to steer that gyrfalcon away before she eats at least one of us for lunch!"

~"Did someone say gyrfalcon and lunch in the same sentence?!" called Heidi as she and Holly flew to meet Daylily and Phoebe.

~"Yes, and unfortunately no one else seemed able to hear me or that gyrfalcon!"

~"Okay, I think we'd better find some more Scouts because the last gyrfalcon that came through here almost consumed a fellow Scout," said Holly.

~Three, two, one...

~"A gyrfalcon!" called a different Scout. "All non-Scouts take shelter!"

~"We'd better go," said Daylily as the four Scouts went after the gyrfalcon alone.

~Flying after the gyrfalcon, the four Scouts tried to get said gyrfalcon away from everyone ese, but she was a very wily gyrfalcon and had an even stronger hunger for fairies than almost all other gyrfalcons before, or even other members of the hawk family. Although even Animal Scouts were subject to other predators, even other ratites, at least Animal Scouts knew how to shoo away predators without having to hurt a one. This particular gyrfalcon, however, was too hungry and angry to care anymore. This made Daylily, who was the closest to the gyrfalcon, feel panicked, stressed and a little enraged.

~"Daylily, calm down!" called Holly, who wasn't as good at reading the emotions of predators.

~But the angrier the gyrfalcon grew, the angrier Daylily grew. The hungrier the gyrfalcon, the hungrier Daylily. Soon Daylily was so deep into the gyrfalcon's emotions that it took Phoebe, Holly and Heidi pulling Daylily away from the gyrfalcon to snap out of it. Daylily, like Beck, the best Animal Talent around and the only other fairy able to speak every language perfectly (at least, that Daylily knew of), even the languages of the birds, had very strong empathy... too strong. She'd had ten close calls in her lifetime before, but this eleventh one was the closest she'd come to actually losing herself too deep!

~What have I done? Daylily thought to herself, starting to weep.

~Fortunately the gyrfalcon was taken care of with no casualties, but Daylily still kept kicking herself figuratively over the gyrfalcon, all the while still angry, but now also sad and disappointed in herself.

~I should just turn in my Scout card, Daylily thought as she tearily headed home to see her firefly Gingerbright waiting for her. If only I wasn't given the gift of super empathy, then it'd be a little easier to be a Scout.

~"Daylily, stop beating yourself up," Gingerbright told Daylily as she handed her ten leafkerchiefs. "No one was lost to the gyrfalcon today and the other three Scouts didn't even have to hurt her. That gyrfalcon found better fare to consume instead of us."

~"Thanks, Gingerbright," Daylily said to Gingerbright, who could now read her thoughts. "You really know how to encourage a gal, though I doubt a ratite would want to consume you since you're an Arthropod, not a Chordate."

~"Well yes, but not many other Scouts can name our respective phyla from memory, not even the other Animal Scouts."

~"I really missed you, girl." Daylily began crying harder, hugging Gingerbright and taking a leafkerchief, which wasn't enough for all her tears.

~Daylily would've like nothing more than to spend the rest of the day home with Gingerbright, but even after Daylily used all ten of the leafkerchiefs Gingerbright gave her and found three clean petalkerchiefs to absorb all the tears and nose runs, Holly and her pollywog Fancesca came by as did Heidi and her new blue ladybug Jojo Sage alongside her right blue fish Sweetblossom. Phoebe came by too, although she didn't have an Animal Friend on her person.

~"Aww, you're making me all teary-eyed again," Daylily said, taking a fourth petalkerchief (she'd already used the first three) to wipe away her new tears.

~Everyone group-hugged Daylily to comfort her. After all, it wasn't everyday a gyrfalcon that hungry was that easily convinced to head elsewhere for lunch, especially when one of the strongest empaths wasn't there to help.

~"I won, and you know it!" Magnolia argued with one other Fast Flyer.

~"Did not! You cheated!" cried one.

~"Did not!"

~"Did too!"

~"Did not!"

~"Did too!"

~"Not!"

~"Too!"

~On and on this went until...

~"Oi, break it up, you two!" called Holly, flying between Magnolia and the other Fast Flyer. "Now what's all this row?"

~"Magnolia cheated!" cried the same Fast Flyer as she pointed at Magnolia.

~"Did not!" argued Magnolia. "Stormy's just jealous because she can't fly as fast!"

~"Am not!" argued Stormy. "Magnolia's just jealous because she had to steal extra Pixie Dust to gain speed!"

~"LIES!"

~"I'd think we'd better take this up with the Queen," whispered Phoebe as Magnolia and Stormy kept arguing.

~"Yeah," agreed Heidi.

~Daylily had a strange feeling something else would go awry today... something involving a gyrfalcon again, but this time she was the only one to notice. "Girls, we have to go," she told her fellow Scouts. "She's back."

~"Who's back?" asked Heidi.

~"The gyrfalcon, but this time she brought her partner."

~Either the gyrfalcon was in too great a mood for the taste of fairy to be swayed long and felt such a delicacy was unfit to be eaten alone or she wanted lighter fare to snack on, but this time Daylily, Phoebe, Holly and Heidi all flew to both gyrfalcons.

~"See, Garrett, this is where I first encountered that pesky Neverfairy," said the female gyrfalcon to her mate Garrett. "I figured I could take her down once and for all should I encounter her again."

~"Right you are, Meredith," answered Garrett. "Oh, I can't wait to take down some Neverfairies today."

~"Well, you'll just have to wait a bit longer!" called Daylily, now more confident.

~As the gyrfalcons zoomed in on the Neverfairies, the four Scouts on patrol called the other Scouts to help send the gyrfalcons off, but Daylily added that they shouldn't hurt the gyrfalcons until they absolutely had to. The gyrfalcons put up quite a fight, but they once again lost, leaving with no serious injuries.

~"And the next time any of your cast show up, we'll be ready!" called Heidi.

~"I think that's a bit much," said Phoebe.

~"Besides," said Daylily. "If we want to keep the promise of readiness, we can't relent yet."

~"Actually, I'm looking forward to a nice holiday," said Holly.

~Everyone agreed that when danger wasn't looming, holidays were nice, but they would still remain diligent.

I hope you enjoyed this tale, or rather, this first chapter of the tale. Happy reading and fly with you later!