Hero's Eyes

by Bacopa Literary Review Fiction contributor William Nuessle

Jessie tipped her gauntleted hand carefully so the peregrine falcon would step off onto the fence post and grip the wood with all six razor-sharp talons. Heronimus settled on her perch, scissoring her blue-gray wings behind her back, studying her master with eyes of yellow-rimmed obsidian.

"You can do this," the falconer-in-training whispered to both of them.

Jessie is the main character in a (so far) unpublished novel written in 2020; by the time that story is taking place she is nineteen and a fully trained falconer. At some point after the manuscript was finished and resting, I realized that I wanted to know about this moment--when she and Hero had their first flight.

Pulling a gobbet of raw meat out of the pocket, she placed it in her gloved fingers where Hero could see and whistled down-up-down like they'd practiced over and over.

Without hesitation Hero leaned off the post, her talons scratching the wood. A rapid whumpwhumpwhump of powerful wings, a lifting of taloned feet later and Hero was feeding, the comforting two pounds returned to Jessie's wrist.

"Well done, my love," she whispered, elated.

The moment in and of itself was worth a close look, but the chance to also further explore the tempestuous relationship between Jessie and her mother offers (one hopes) a layer of depth to an already interesting story.

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Will Nuessle holds a third-degree brown belt in ninjitsu, rides a Harley, primary caregives three little boys, and claims he can recite the alphabet backwards in less than thirty seconds. More of his writing may be found at Will's Worldwide Writing -- The Story So Far.

Read William Nuessle's "Hero's Eyes" (pp. 136-138)
and other fine Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Prose Poetry
in Bacopa Literary Review 2021