There was a baby eagle. She lived with her parents on a high perched nest atop a tall pipal tree. One of her earliest and most deeply entrenched memory was of her mother returning to the nest with the kill of a bat in her talons which she had fed to the baby eagle with her own beak. So clear and rich was the memory that the baby eagle could still savor the warm texture of the meal.
The baby eagle was eager to start flying and hunting like her parents. Her parents would often warn her against her impatience. They would often recount stories/occasions of how they had become skilled only after several seasons of hunting. The baby eagle however, would often give into her impatience and often succumb to her pride.
Once she started developing strength in her wings, she would often revel in the aesthetics and pleasure of flight and not focus on the finer aspects of hunting.
One day she ventured too far from the nest and on her way back a strong/violent current of air threw her off course (or maybe a hunter’s stone bullet hit her) of which she could never recover and fell on the hard floor of a forest clearing with a loud thud. Her right wing made first impact with the ground due to which it got severely injured. Once she reached the surface and got an occasion of steadying herself, she made several attempts of taking flight again but to no avail. It was starting to get darker and she feared that the man hunters who had taken a shot at her wing might find her on the ground. She gathered some strength and half walked and half flew (in clumsy flapping of wings) to take shelter in middle of a few boulders where it would be hidden from the sight of the man hunters. Out of pain and exhaustion, she fell asleep amidst the boulders.
She was woken up by a sharp thud on her back. She panicked and clumsily got into motion in the process hurting with her talons whoever it was who had caused that thud. It was after attacking subconsciously that her sharp eyes realized that it was a mountain goat. The mountain goat also almost instinctively reacted by kicking the eagle again by her strong knuckles before beginning to recede. The eagle shrieked out in pain as the second kick landed on her injured wing.
Hearing the pain filled shriek made the baby goat come back to the eagle to check if she was fine. By now the eagle was much dejected and disappointed and on the verge of crying. This time she did not attack the approaching goat. Instead told the goat that she had injured her wing ad was now unable to go home. The goat guided her that while her wing was injured, her feet was fine and that she should try to walk her way home.
The eagle told the goat that there are other terrestrial animals including man would try to hunt her so it wasn’t safe for her to venture on foot. The goat wisely reminds her that at that point in time walking to cover distance was her only way back home. The eagle sees the point and starts to walk in the same direction as the goat.
They walk some distance together during which time they exchange stories of the goat’s terrestrial life and the eagle’s avian life. After reaching the edge the goat tells the eagle that she will need to walk the rest of the distance by herself as she had to stay with her herd. The goat could also not take the eagle to her herd as the herd would be distrusting of an eagle.
Hesitantly, the eagle walked on towards the clearing that lay between herself and her nest. For some distance she walked unnoticed, but then she saw a huge lion (name Jhabrila) not far away from her. Jhabrila walks in his royal gait towards the baby eagle curious about what kind of game/hunt/prey it was. The eagle tried to run away but on ground it was no match for the lion’s pace. The lion came too close and the eagle got very scared. She could feel the bloodied breath of the lion as well as strands of his mane over her wings as he leaned over to sniff and inspect the eagle. She nearly froze to death but then all of a sudden she felt the bloodied breath and the mane receding. The lion did not seem interested in eating it up. The lion sensed the eagle’s anxiety and broke the silence for both of them.
“Well you are a pretty little thing. Even though we ate well an hour ago, I would’ve taken you for dessert. But my cubs don’t fancy your kind of feather. Plus you’re injured and I can smell a festering infection so I wont risk eating you”, Jhabrila said.
The baby eagle sighed out a cry partly out of relief and partly out of hunger. Quickly gulping down her own sigh she propositioned to the lion, “thanks for your mercy, Mr. Lion. But with my injured wing in this open forest I’ll soon be hunted. Can you please take me with you till I can resume flying. I can assure you I will not be a nuisance.”
Jhabrila thought about the proposition for a while and then said, “fine, but you eat after me and my two cubs if they are eating with me, although they usually stay with their mother. And when we ask you to leave, you leave.”
The baby eagle agrees. She follows Jhabrila wherever he’s going. Soon she spots the carcass Jhabrila had earlier mentioned. She asks permission which Jhabrila grants and then goes and eats from the carcass.
In their days together, the baby eagle develops great respect for Jhabrila. She convinces him to teach him how to hunt. Together they develop a unique hunting method. The baby eagle hides in Jhabrila’s mane when he chases the hunt. When they are close to the prey, the eagle emerges, takes a short flight and injures the prey with its talons making it lose balance which the lion then quickly overpowers and kills. Such method comes especially handy in killing tall prey like giraffes and elephants.
The eagle outlives Jhabrila. She lives on to assist his cubs in hunting and providing for the pride. She tells them stories of how strongly he had felt emotionally for them all.
She also manages to find her way home to her mother. She returns with a fresh kill of tender bat in her beak and keeps it at the feet of her proud mother who now has a few faded feathers.
Urban Shaman 