"Hello, Kyle," Kyla greeted her brother.
"Hi, Kyla," he responded, concentrating on the target about one hundred fifty feet away.
The young man let loose the arrow at the target. The projectile whistled through the air and made a perfect bull's eye.
"Great job, Kyle!" Kyla exclaimed, clapping her hands together and jumping enthusiastically. "May I?"
"Sure," he said simply, handing the longbow over to his sister.
She acquired an arrow from her brother's quiver and put it in place. Kyla drew back the bowstring and let an arrow fly. It hit the bull's eye just to the left of Kyle's arrow.
He made a low whistle. "Not bad," Kyle admitted.
"For a girl, you mean?" she said sweetly, handing back the bow. She looked to the sky, a smile on her face, but it was soon lost. There she saw a red-tailed hawk circling the castle that was their home. She started to cry.
"What's wrong, dear sister?" Kyle asked, surprised at her sudden change of emotion.
"He's back," she told him, sullenly.
"Who's back?"
"The hawk, Kyle," Kyla said, tears streaming to her lips. "You're forgetting about our brother!" she accused.
"Oh," he sighed. "It's that day again."
"The day that father died and Little Hawk disappeared."
"We still call him by his pet name," he noted. "And I can't help but notice the hawk. It's as if he's mourning or won't let us forget. Maybe both."
"You know, Kyle, I still feel the same about Little Hawk."
"That the body wasn't his? Impossible!"
"That's what you said before, but I can't believe he's dead," she sighed.
"It was ten years ago, put it aside."
"I can't, Kyle. I just can't."
"Let's get some rest. The sun is beginning to set."
"And off goes the hawk," Kyla noted.
The hawk started flying southeast, towards the woods. Kyle led Kyla to the manor and they slept peacefully in their rooms.
"Tobias!" Rini cried.
The hawk flew into the forest clearing and landed on her gloved arm.
"Hi, Rini," he said, speaking into her mind as always.
"Why do you always leave on this day?" Rini asked the bird. "‘Twas tomorrow ten years ago you first found me. And this day, this season, every year, you fly off to the castle. ‘Tis a puzzle to me."
It's a restful, reflective place," he told her evasively.
Letting it rest at that, Rini turned towards her rickety cabin in the center of the clearing. The forest was beginning to chirp with the sounds of night.
"You are a strange bird," she said, walking towards her rundown shack. "You can make it up to me by telling me the story, though."
"Okay, Rini," the bird sighed. "I'll tell you the story."
"Goodie!" she cried in her childish way, though she was seventeen.
"There once was a young prince, who had done no wrong, when suddenly he vanished from his library, before his elder siblings very eyes. He was stunned and afraid, when he materialized in front of an elderly woman. She was a wretched old hag named Lynn. `Your family has done me harm!' she cried, `So you will pay the price!' "
"Wicked old witch!" Rini murmured, now in her rugged bed.
"Hush!" Tobias warned. "Anyway, the witch turned the poor boy into the bird of his namesake, a hawk. `See how you should live, little hawk!' she said mockingly, `But first see this trick!' And suddenly, he saw himself on the floor, the body stabbed through the heart. `No!' the boy-hawk tried to cry, but he had no voice. Then he tried to take to the wing. `Not yet, little hawk!' she exclaimed, `Watch!' The body of his human self disappeared and the boy-hawk was relieved. `Rest now, little hawk! Tomorrow the worst will come!' the last thing he heard before going to sleep was the witch's cackling. The next day, when he awoke, he had forgotten he was a hawk in his magical slumber, and when he realized what he was, he shrieked."
"Uh-Oh," Rini whispered, covering her ears tightly.
"Tseeeeeeeeeeer!" the bird cried.
"The old hag came in and told him he was just in time. She brought forth a crystal ball and the boy-hawk looked. In it he saw his brother and sister crying over the false body of himself. He would have cried if he could. He was as good as dead and with a cry he took flight."
"Tobias?" Rini asked, "You've never told me how you came upon this story."
Tobias hesitated. "Another hawk told it to me," he said at last. "Who knows, Rini? It could be true."