Manning the Hawk

They come off the trap with the posture of a miniature dragon. God do they hate you. You get them home, put jesses and anklets on them, attach to these with a swivelled leash, and make them stand on your gauntleted fist. Their greatest virtue is that they detest homo sapiens, not to mention the few remnant humans. They will drop and hang upside down like a bat, or bate - try to fly away with four feet of leash before they drop and hang again. You disgust them, and you can't blame them. They'll do anything to get away from you. This goes on for however long it takes for them to stand there without bating...usually a day or two. In Medieval times and somewhat beyond they used to have waking parties for hawks. Falconers believed that you could not let the hawk sleep until it was manned, or inured, to your presence. We are much more enlightened these days, and have no illusion of inducing Stockholm Syndrome in our subjects. In the evening they go into the dark mews, and they have nightmares about you.