Falcon

You recall the green and grey swirls painted and carved at the base of the memorial stone as you pad out to Dark Hollow Falls. You see several adolescents relaxing beneath the waterfall, taking advantage of the cave's current disuse as a place of healing. Nearby, beneath the heavy boughs of a pine tree, a stone with those same green and grey marks lay, butted up to a colorful tangle of flowers and weeds. There are several feathers scattered about the spot, and the wide pawprints of a bear mark the soil at your paws.

Not much was known about Falcon's life before she appeared to Tanana shortly after the Shenandoah Pack was founded. She bore the scars and thin frame of a lone wolf, and she spoke in a somewhat cryptic way. Her only known connections outside the pack were a least weasel who became her assistant, and a black bear that taught her all that she knew about herbs and medicine.

Rumors surrounded Falcon for her entire life. She was loved, respected, and also feared. Pups would speculate as to her origins and motivations. Was she a forest spirit in wolf form? Was she a former ally of Man? Why had she chosen to live with the pack even though she acted so... un-wolflike? No one knew. And outside of her pups, Tanana, and her apprentice Albatross, no one ever found out.

Falcon's first litter while living in Shenandoah was sired by Rappahannock, one of Shenandoah's scouts. While she was a good mother to them, and she humored her little Bluejay's antics well into adulthood, many suspected that she was looking for something in her progeny that she had not received with her first litter. Years later, she traveled far away, to the desert. When she returned, she was pregnant with another litter. And once they were born, it became clear that they were not full-blooded wolves. Indeed, the father had been a coyote. Tumbleweed was the sharpest out of the litter, and Falcon at last seemed content. Only these two pups of hers -- Bluejay and Tumbleweed -- remained in Shenandoah, even after Falcon returned to the coyote and conceived a second litter. To the surprise of many, neither of them became Falcon's apprentice. This honor she bestowed on Albatross, an orphan that the pack had taken in around the time Bluejay was born.

Falcon's life was long, and she evidently informed Tanana that her end was coming a few months before she passed. The leader was heartbroken at the loss of Falcon, who had been a dear friend of hers. But, the pack was ready. That fall, Albatross formally took up the mantle of Herbalist, and a farewell ceremony was held for Falcon. She was buried near Dark Hollow Falls, where she sequestered and treated her patients during times of widespread illness. It's said that animals of all sorts frequent her grave, occasionally leaving tokens of respect. Albatross and Tumbleweed are seen there frequently, ears pricked as they listen to the whisper of the wind through the leaves.

Icon by Jaycap#22349