Lucky Feathers (cap.1)
Taken from the waters"Not this time, Kadar. I will not allow that""But Maliiiik looks! It’s so soggy and exhausted, it can't fly like this!"Of course Malík saw it; he saw it all too well: it was from the beginning of the video call that the vile creature whom an unjust fate had assigned him as his brother continued to frame the trembling animal curled up on the bottom of the fishing boat. Now, normally, he didn't even bother this Kadar mania of picking up and bringing home whatever battered animals he found during his many trips, it was a nuisance, but nothing unmanageable. But this was all a different matter: the one on the bottom of the boat was a damned eagle!"Absolutely not. I believe, among other things, it’s illegal to bring an eagle home. It also does not hurt, it’s only very wet; leave it on the shore: it will dry in the sun and fly away when it’s ready to do so"The screen image turned sharply to frame Kadar's sullen face: "Oh, sure!" the boy snorted: "If before it won't be devoured by some stray dog or some other animal! Good heavens Mal, don't you watch the documentaries ?!""The harsh law of nature Kadar, what can I tell you ..." he replied, adamant, rolling his eyes: "An eagle so stupid as not to understand the difference between a lake and a tree branch wouldn’t have a very long life in any case. And if you have watched them properly, the documentaries, you should know that it’s not right to interfere with the mechanisms of nature; you will have already done a sufficiently good thing bringing it to shore ""Tell that to his chicks, heartless man," Kadar replied brusquely: "You can be sure that mom and dad will know how you condemned to death an entire family of eagles with your selfishness"Here it is again: the threat to tell everything to mom and dad was the one preferred by his sneaky younger brother; presented with an elaborate corollary of tearful puppy eyes and pitiful exaggerations, it was usually always able to convince both parents and Malík to accept any absurd request from Kadar. But not this time. This time Malík didn’t intend to yield: he would not have allowed this madness: "Sure" he retorted with a growl: "indeed, you know what I say? I will tell him myself. And I will also tell them that when you end up in jail for detaining a protected animal, I will bring you the oranges very gladly. I'm warning you, Kadar: if that beast goes through the house gate I'll call the police ""I dare you""And I'll wait for you with the phone in hand" Malík threatened, closing the call abruptly.He put the phone back on his desk and gave an exasperated sigh; why his crazy brother couldn't just help the hares and sparrows like any mentally healthy person?”However, the worm of guilt had already begun to gnaw his soul (damn Kadar and his harangues), preventing him from returning to the report he wanted to finish by evening in order to enjoy the weekend. Certainly, taking an eagle home was not feasible, and almost certainly not even legal ... they could have run into serious trouble ... But what if that bird had really had a nest of chicks waiting for it? What if she ended up in the lake because she was too desperate to find food for her chicks to pay attention to prudence? Was it breeding season for birds of prey? Was the situation plausible? But above all, why was it always up to him to deal with this kind of situation?!Malík furiously rubbed his hair in an attempt to clear his mind and continue his work, but the image of a hungry brood peeping more and more weakly continued to haunt him. Damn bird! I hate her! He thought, definitively renouncing his intention to work on his report to pick up his cell phone and start a search on the internet, trying to figure out what to do to save the bloody eagle and not be imprisoned at the same time.There is a sanctuary with a veterinary clinic for wild birds about an hour's drive from here. Below I send you the link. Contact them. They will tell you what to do. He wrote in a message to Kadar. It was all he could do.This and hope that his brother was not too angry to read other messages on his part, that he still didn't decide to take the damned beast up to his house, or that he would hear him arrive so he could stop him before making a complete mess , perhaps convincing him to go directly to the sanctuary for birds of prey.Wrong, wrong and wrong: too concentrated on his work, he didn't hear Kadar's car arrive, at least not until a tremendous chaos exploded downstairs; he found his brother leaning against the door that led to the garage, panting, with his arms covered with scratches, tears on his shirt and an embarrassed smile on his face: "ahem ... I had locked her in the trunk of the car but she is certainly related to Houdini ... I read your message right now, brother "he chuckled:" It's a wonderful idea! "Malík looked at him grimly for almost a minute (a minute he took to remind himself that homicide is a more serious crime than imprisonment without permission of wild animals) before announcing with a low growl: "I'm going to call the police""No, wait!" Kadar moaned: "Have mercy on me, Malík! Listen, let's call him the sanctuary now! I promise I won't try to keep her!""You can bet that you won't. When this story is over, I swear I'll kick you right to mom and dad: this time you really exaggerated," Malík said in reply, too angry to be sensitive to his brother's pitiful pleasures, his eyes already focused on screen of his phone from which he was activating the call to the sanctuary."Lionheart Center for the Protection of Birds" answered a baritone voice on the other side after a couple of rings: "How can I help you?""Good morning, I am Malík Al-Sayf. My brother picked up a bird that had fallen into a lake. We believe it is an eagle, we wanted to bring it to you directly, but unfortunately it managed to free itself and is now making a mess in the garage”The man on the other side chuckled: "Yes, well, usually we advise against trying to catch a wild animal if you are not an expert, it would have been enough to take it out of the water and take it to the shore and then point out the area where it had been sighted ... We would have done the rest. However if you give me your address I will come to pick it up as soon as possible "Malík couldn’t avoid rolling his eyes with an exasperated snort: "When you arrive could you repeat this to my stupid brother? And maybe explain to him how wrong what he did was?"The man on the other end of the line laughed good-naturedly: "I figured there was a child involved: it's always like this""More than a child we are dealing with a mental retardation in his case," Malík huffed, then proceeded to dictate the address of his home to the gentle falconer."However, to get the right equipment, could you describe the bird in question?""Yes, it is a big bird, it will be half a meter or more from the tail to the head ... It has a gray beak and brown legs ... Ah, and it is white," replied Malík, trying to remember as many details as possible about what he had seen during the video call with Kadar; he didn't even think about entering the garage, at least until he was joined by someone competent."White?" echoed the man on the other end of the line: "Does it look like the Harry Potter owl?""No, it is a bird of prey similar to an eagle, only that it is white with ocher streaks and on the wings ...""Wow!" the man exclaimed: "You have a Prior on your hands!" he exclaimed: "Fantastic! It's an extremely rare eagle specimen, you know? Don't worry though, it's not a wild animal: the Nizarite Eagles are a domestic breed of eagles and are all used to contact with humans. ""You can't tell from the mess he's making up there," said Malík skeptically.The falconer laughed again and closed the call recommending to pay attention but not worry: he would arrive within an hour.Kadar had gone upstairs to clean up and change ... And probably also to have some privacy so he could rail and complain to himself about his older brother's cruelty.Malík was alone in front of the garage door from which no more noises could be heard.Finally a moment of stillness. It was the first thought, accompanied by a sigh of relief.Oh God, what if that beast killed himself?Malík had this ugly habit of always expecting catastrophic conclusions for every situation that he would face and then be persecuted by the fear that someone might suffer because of his lack of action ... Others would have called it good-natured, he stupidity.Damn. It may have caught on somewhere, or pulled on some heavy boxes ... I hate that beast!To persecute him now, there was not only the image of dying chicks but to it was added a new tremendous vision of their mother who was slowly suffocating crushed by a pile of boxes, so Malík couldn’t avoid ignoring his own common sense and open the door a little to check what was happening in the dimly lit garage.The eagle lay sprawled on the floor, in fact, but she wasn’t crushed by anything thanks to heaven. However, her legs and wing were entangled in a tangle of leather laces. Poor thing ... Oh, damn her: I can't leave her so tied for over an hour ... God, I hate her! I'll end up leaving a finger! He groaned to himself.He took courage by taking a deep breath and crossed the threshold, taking care to immediately close the door behind him: "Ok girl, now be good: I want you out of here as much as you want to leave, but we have to wait for your chauffeur, and you can't wait for another hour or even more before being released from those laces. Let's try to be civil and work together until then, okay? " he murmured approaching slowly with hands open because he hoped in this way to show the animal his good intentions.The eagle stared at him the whole time with marvelous amber eyes, following each of the slow movements with which he proceeded to untangle the skein of leather laces. The knots that tied the straps to the paws required a bit of work, but in a few minutes Malík could wrench his hands away triumphantly.The eagle continued to stand still, staring at him with his head tilted in that curious attitude that birds have when they look at something that attracts them. Malík tilted his head to the side imitating her: "So the guy was right," he muttered, unable to stop a slight smile from pulling his lips: "you really are a good girl. Good and beautiful too, I have to admit," he added, taking courage and holding out again his hand to touch the beautiful plumage. The animal still remained motionless, and Malík deduced that the caresses didn’t displease her.He was halfway through the second caress when the eagle decided to observe the human's behavior long enough: she twisted her neck in too fast a stroke for him to retreat and dealt a peck powerful enough to open a deep cut on the poor man's ring finger. Malík grabbed his injured hand and jerked back as his attacker got up and, with a single flap of wings, reached a closet on the other side of the garage and then started staring at him again."Damn bitch!" Malík howled, instantly forgetting any positive thoughts about that winged demon: "I hope they’ll cook you in the oven soon!" he added before hurrying out of the garage, slamming the door.When the doorbell rang, both brothers were intent on healing their injuries, one in the bathroom and the other in the kitchen, still angry at each other."Good morning, I'm Robert, Robert De Sable, from the Lionheart center, we spoke on the phone a while ago" the falconer politely presented himself at the door, a bald giant so big that he had to bow his head to enter the door."Good morning, I'm Malík, this is my brother Kadar. Please come in: the eagle is this way" cut short Malík who didn’t really want to get lost in frenzies until that winged demon stayed in his house, while Kadar seemed to have decided to give Robert the infinite and heartfelt speech that he probably had originally prepared for his parents, following the man during his preparations so closely that on a couple of occasions he risked being trampled."Here she is, she's on top of that closet," whispered Malík to the falconer once the three had sneaked into the garage.Robert was far less stealthy in his approach: "Altaïr!" it thundered loud enough to make the walls vibrate: "what are you doing here?" he laughed soon after.The eagle seemed to recognize him even though he did not seem happy at all to see him: he spread his wings and tail threateningly and emitted a sharp screech."Young man, now I can tell you with certainty that there are no broods about to die of starvation: Altaïr isn’t reproducing and ... he’s not even female" chuckled Robert giving a light pat on Kadar's shoulder: "besides your brother was right to tell you to leave him alone: he’s a rather surly guy you know? " he concluded by winking at Malík who felt a sudden surge of sympathy towards the giant."No chicks?" Kadar yelped disappointedly earning his brother a slap on the back of the neck."So you know its owner I guess""Of course, I’ll bring Altaïr directly to him as soon as I catch him: it’s not the first time that this swindler runs away ... Uhm ... by chance you have noticed leather laces tied to his paws?""Oh yes. It was… I took them away from him because he had rolled them up until he couldn’t move, I apologize""No problem," Robert assured him: "they would have made it easier to take him for sure, but I think I can handle him equally without problems," he added, extracting a piece of raw meat from a bag that immediately attracted Altaïr's attention.Huge mistake.
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