05-03-2020, 10:09 PM
[table][tr][td]![[Image: b94dbd8a-65a5-11ea-af51-45358cb49cc4.gif]](https://piskel-imgstore-b.appspot.com/img/b94dbd8a-65a5-11ea-af51-45358cb49cc4.gif)
[div style="width: 300px; max-height: 100px; height: overflow; overflow: scroll; padding-bottom: 5px; margin-top: -5px; font-family: georgia; font-size: 8pt; color: #152232; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: justify;"]He kept fancying that Ivan was absorbed in something — something inward and important — that he was striving toward some goal, perhaps very hard to attain.
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pixel by tricky
[/td][td][div style="width: 300px; max-height: 100px; height: overflow; overflow: scroll; padding-bottom: 5px; margin-top: -5px; font-family: georgia; font-size: 8pt; color: #152232; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: justify;"]He kept fancying that Ivan was absorbed in something — something inward and important — that he was striving toward some goal, perhaps very hard to attain.
— Бра́тья Карама́зовы
At this age, the double-headed eagle was nearly the same size of Ivan. This should have been a cause for concern, especially this creature being an apex predator, but the the golden eagle fledgling had shown nothing but mischievousness toward her accidental imprint. She grew relatively fast and could make quite a lot of ground walking despite being a young bird that would should never leave the nest at this point. The mutations proved to be working in mysterious ways. She should have fledged by now and Ivan was starting to worry that she thought she was more of a cat than a bird. He didn't want to rob her of an eagle's life, so that was why he decided not to teach her a trick, per say, but to teach her how to fly.
Ivan himself was just beginning his adolescence and his hunting skills were starting to become more defined. He began by associating her with live prey. It was difficult for him to do this. She didn't know how to hunt so Ivan often had to act like a mother cheetah — however much he hated the idea — by catching prey and not killing it, releasing it for the eagle to catch it. This actually proved to be a terrific benefit, since now she was receiving stimulation and it resulted in less mischievous deviances. But it didn't really teach her to truly fly. She sort of hopped and flapped, but ultimately didn't get a meter over the ground.
Winston's disappearance left a damper in Ivan's persistence. They backslided in their progress, but whenever Ivan saw his father, he felt determined to try to make him proud. He refused failure. A perfect perfectionist.
Today Ivan gently dragged the dual-headed eaglet to the branch of a tree in the town and then promptly scratched his way back down. Ivan blinked up at her calmly and twitched his tail, trying to stimulate movement to get her attention. It took another minute or two, but finally the left head — which he was beginning to notice was the most astute and work-hardy of the two — began to raise their wings, and after some coaxing to the left head, she hopped down with beating wings, coming to a landing beside Ivan.
It was surreal to see that she actually seemed surprised and proud of herself. Ivan felt his chest warm for the first time. He always had a frosty relationship with the bird but to see her accomplish something that he thought would have been impossible since she was imprinting on a cat, well, it made him feel good.
"I'm proud of you," He smiled, a rarity in itself, as the double-headed eagle attempted another take-off, clumsily, but getting the hang of it.
Ivan himself was just beginning his adolescence and his hunting skills were starting to become more defined. He began by associating her with live prey. It was difficult for him to do this. She didn't know how to hunt so Ivan often had to act like a mother cheetah — however much he hated the idea — by catching prey and not killing it, releasing it for the eagle to catch it. This actually proved to be a terrific benefit, since now she was receiving stimulation and it resulted in less mischievous deviances. But it didn't really teach her to truly fly. She sort of hopped and flapped, but ultimately didn't get a meter over the ground.
Winston's disappearance left a damper in Ivan's persistence. They backslided in their progress, but whenever Ivan saw his father, he felt determined to try to make him proud. He refused failure. A perfect perfectionist.
Today Ivan gently dragged the dual-headed eaglet to the branch of a tree in the town and then promptly scratched his way back down. Ivan blinked up at her calmly and twitched his tail, trying to stimulate movement to get her attention. It took another minute or two, but finally the left head — which he was beginning to notice was the most astute and work-hardy of the two — began to raise their wings, and after some coaxing to the left head, she hopped down with beating wings, coming to a landing beside Ivan.
It was surreal to see that she actually seemed surprised and proud of herself. Ivan felt his chest warm for the first time. He always had a frosty relationship with the bird but to see her accomplish something that he thought would have been impossible since she was imprinting on a cat, well, it made him feel good.
"I'm proud of you," He smiled, a rarity in itself, as the double-headed eagle attempted another take-off, clumsily, but getting the hang of it.