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Stormaway lay back napping against a tree. Suddenly he was startled awake by the shriek of a black hawk rending the air as it dive bombed a fat wood pigeon high above the treeline. The pigeon managed to swerve out of its way with a hair’s breadth to spare. As the hawk swooped around for a second pass, the pigeon angled downward, beating its wings furiously in an effort to reach the cover of the forest canopy. Just as it seemed certain that the pigeon couldn’t make it in time, an arrow streaked up from the trees to cut the air between them, just catching a breast feather of the hawk. The hawk screeched in alarm and pulled out of its dive, giving the pigeon the breathing space it needed to reach the safety of the woods.
A ripple of conjecture swept through the clearing. Tarkyn and Water
