As we flew away from the nest, I grew uneasy. Father was silent, simply flying and gazing at the green below.

We were flying farther than I had ever been, and I saw the green was changing. There were less trees and more open areas, some water here and there too.

For the first time Father broke the silence, calling me. I looked at him, and he dragged my attention to an area in the green. I focused my gaze and noticed a bunch of small green preys moving among the green. They were pretty hard to see!

Wait, did Father take me hunting? I understand everything now!

Father called me again, flapping his wings a bit, motioning for me to stay there.

I yelled in the affirmative. Fixing the little greens, he dove for the one trailing behind the others. He was extremely fast, the little greens did not even realise he was there before Father caught one of them.

They all scampered away in a hurry, and it was pretty funny how they abandoned one of theirs so easily. Father roared loudly, calling for me to come down.

I dove down excitedly, keeping my wings folded and my head towards the ground, imitating Father. The feeling of the wind rushing against me and the increasing speed was a delight.

When I got close to the ground, I extended my wings in one motion and almost choked and tumbled from the abrupt shock.

I narrowly missed Father, scraping the ground a fair distance with my talons to stop myself from hitting a big rock.

That was close! I must practice dive landing a lot more in the future.

Father angrily shouted at me a few times while I hung my head low in shame. The little green kept struggling and yapping under his feet, getting his attention away from me.

A little less angry, he motioned for me to come closer with his wing. As I approached, I could see the little green in more detail.

It was green on the top and white below, with four legs, a head with two small bone-like thingies protruding out, and a tiny tail. It had no talons, no scales, no spikes, not even big teeth. It really looked frail and harmless under Father’s big feet.

The smell is very different from the big grey prey that Father and Mother bring home too. As I stood next to Father’s feet, studying the little green, Father put his jaw around its neck, looking at me from the side.

The little green got really scared and struggled even more, but Father did not even budge. He made biting motions, but never actually bit the little green. He suddenly stood up, releasing the green prey from his claws, motioning for me to go after it.

The little green did not waste any time and fled for its life.

Are we playing catch? Exciting!

I took off and chased after the little green. It was pretty fast, but no match for my speed. In only a few moments I was above it. It tried to dodge left and right, but it was not very smart. I just made a big flap and turned to get in front of it, the wind almost tripping it. That took it by surprise, letting me almost effortlessly grab it.

I guess it never played catch? That’s a very basic tactic! The little green struggled wildly in my grasp, but it was really weak, only slightly shaking me. Father landed close by, looking at me expectantly.

I did not disappoint him, going for the neck and biting down with force.

The little green’s struggle ended pretty fast, going limp.

Success! My first hunt is a success! I thought it would be harder, but I’m probably just too strong. I released the limp prey’s neck, before roaring proudly to the skies.

***

I think I greatly exceeded Father’s expectations, because he was a lot more expressive than usual. Not only did we touch heads, he also gave me a few licks and cooed, which he rarely did. It made me happy to see him happy.

I was pretty hungry after my hunt, but Father did not want me to eat on the spot, insisting I carry the prey home. After flying while carrying prey for a bit, I think I understand why.

Flying with and without prey is very different. Not only does it make take off and landing tricky, it also takes more effort, completely changes balance and reduces mobility. And the little green is very light, let alone with heavier preys!

When we reached the nest, I was way more tired than usual. No wonder Mother and Father rested a lot! As me and Father landed, my sisters ran around me happily, looking at my prey and sniffing it.

Mother came over in a hurry from the back of the nest, the worry in her eyes slowly replaced by happiness. She touched heads with me, cooing loudly and licking my face all over.

I really did not think she would be so worried about me! I’m not sure why but I don’t like her being worried. I must show her how strong I am so she will never worry again!

I freed myself from her licking, roaring to get her attention. As she looked at me, I erected my chest high up, wings fully extended and roared as loud as I could, showing off my might.

Except for Father they were all pretty surprised. My sisters started imitating me, while Mother went back to licking me. It did not really work as planned.

***

After all that happened that day, I was really tired. I took a few bites of little green meat, and it was pretty good. Sweeter than the grey prey’s, but not as juicy. I left the prey to my sisters to finish before going to sleep in my spot.

The next few days were mostly spent hunting with Father or Mother. Sometimes I watched them hunt, sometimes they watched me. We mostly hunted big greys and little greens, sometimes we found new prey and hunted those instead.

I got to try lots of different meats, and I found that the big grey was just the best. Tasty and juicy, and there’s a lot of it too!

I also spotted some big things, and they did not look like prey. They made me wary, but as soon as they spotted us they ran away, which confused me. Isn’t anything that runs away prey?

But apart from a few loud roars, Mother and Father never chased them. That’s too bad, some of them really looked like they had lots of meat on them. But there’s certainly a good reason for not chasing them, I just don’t know it yet.

When I was watching Mother or Father hunting I paid a lot of attention. Father likes hunting in open areas, diving from high in the sky, using the speed to break the prey’s balance on impact, and go straight for the neck while the prey is stunned.

Mother prefers to hunt in more covered areas with a lot of trees, picking isolated targets and using the trees as cover, then silently dropping feet first on the prey, leaving it incapacitated or even dead on impact.

Both styles are fun, but I prefer Father’s. The feeling I get diving from the sky is just addicting and never gets old.

After a few days my sister started coming too, and hunting together became our new favorite game. The food issue I was worrying about was resolved, now each of us could eat our fill. In turn Mother and Father stopped bringing food to the nest, and we just ate preys on the spot most of the time.

***

On one morning, I went hunting in the forest with Mother. I flew in front, a few flaps above the trees, while Mother flew in the back high above.

This was how hunting went recently, my parents stayed back and just watched me do the hunting when it was my turn.

I flew above the region for a while, searching for fresh prey. Then a bright color caught my eye. I turned and headed towards it to investigate. On a closer look, it was a little green, but it has a pink bit on its head. I have seen pink prey before, but little greens do not have any pink on them. Strange.

I wanted to find something else than a little green to hunt, but I really wanna find out what this pink is. I found a trajectory among the tree branches, positioned myself and dropped. I broke branches in my fall which alerted the prey, but I dropped too fast for it to react.

I felt its bones break and it couldn’t move at all. If it was Mother, she would have left a bloody mess on the ground instead.

I studied the little green choking and spitting blood, and finally saw what that pink thing was. A small pink thing attached to its right ear, rectangular in shape and completely flat, with some tiny black, ant-like traces on it.

I look closely at those traces. They were arranged in a line, some traces identical.

That is a very weird thing to have attached to your ear. How did it get there? What is it for?

The little green died at some point, but I did not really care, more interested in this thing.

Maybe try sniffing it? I gave it a try, but it did not have a particular smell. Wait. I looked around while sniffing the air. There is a smell I never encountered before, and it comes from somewhere close.

I left my prey to walk around the area and sniff out the smell. Nose close to the ground, I started approaching a bush where the smell was stronger.

But as I got a few steps away from the bush, the weirdest thing happened.

The bush stood up and started running away. What on the sky is this thing?

I don’t know but if it runs away, it is prey!

For a bush, it ran fast. I thought I was going to lose it, but then it tripped and fell. My chance! I jumped on the bush to restrain it, but didn’t go for the kill yet. The bush started struggling and making weird noises.

I sniffed it again, but it did not smell like a bush at all. Maybe it isn’t a bush?

Without using too much force, I picked it up from around the middle and shook it left and right. As I shook it, branches and leaves were sent flying all around.

I put it back down, and now I understood. It was in fact not a bush, but a creature with two legs, two arms and a head. This thing is really weird.

The head and the hands are white, the top of the head covered with long brown fur, and the rest a mix of green, grey and brown. There’s some round things on the chest too. Everything about it is strange.

As I studied it, the creature recovered from the shaking. It looked at me and I saw terror and fear in its eyes. Funny. I watched it get up and try to run away, but it kept stumbling and falling. So it walks on two legs? Just like me, but it is pretty pathetic.

I was about to go play with it, when I heard Mother’s roar above.

Ah, I got carried away and forgot my original goal. The prey fell over on hearing Mother’s roar, and I wondered if it could get up again.

Maybe I should help it? This prey is really funny, I’ll call it the funny prey.

I turned around and hurried to the dead little green, picked it up and flew out of the forest, joining Mother who looked at me curiously, before heading home together. What a great day.