Vedantic Tales : The Discipleship
        of Ajay : The Osprey

As the day of the exams approached, Ajay practised harder than ever before, rising long before the sun and doing his triple rolls and back flips over and over in the predawn light, making sure his slightest movement was flawless, exactly timed, and in consonance with the fickle air currents. His techniques had become instinctive with him; he played with the winds as with close but mischievous friends, anticipating their tricks and vagaries, laughing with them when he outwitted them. At times he screamed with the sheer joy of the game, not thinking that this might alert his fellow birds to his early practice in the empty sky. Sometimes he flew so high that the sun, still below the horizon at the College dorms, flashed on his wings. From beneath he looked, then, like a small erratic comet. This, too, was observed. But there was no sense of secrecy in Ajay's heart; in his rapture all thought of competition was erased. When he was not concentrating on some exceptionally intricate maneuver, he felt only elation at the rhythm and freedom of his flight. This was his element, his God-given way of living. He was flight, wedded body, mind, and soul to the art.

Then it happened. One early morning, as he was resting on the wind, after practicing quadruple twists followed by a pinwheel, something slammed into him from above, striking him with the force of a hurled missile. He felt bladelike talons rip his back. Instinctively he faced whatever it was and saw Ahmad flying rapidly upward in preparation for another plummeting attack. He turned over, his legs extended skyward, and as Ahmad struck him, screaming, he raked the falcon's belly. An anger ignited him with total violence. The two birds flung themselves at one another in a fight to the death, feathers flying. He was aware that Ahmad was trying to strike at his eyes, but retreat did not occur to him; he struck back with all the strength he had. Not wounded as badly as Ahmad, quicker in his rapier like slashes and dodges, he was winning.

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