CHAPTER SEVEN: MARGALO AND HER NEW FATHER
It did take some time for Margalo to get used to having a falcon for a parent. For instance, when he tried to preen her, as any falcon parent would a child, she instinctively thought he was trying to bite her and backed away. It took a while before she could trust him to preen her feathers.
Also, his habitat of hunting birds, especially, pigeons, unnerved her. True, he often killed them before they even knew they were under attack, but it still made her sad to see him ripping up a bird, whenever he seized one near their home. "Can't you let them live?" she begged him after seeing him kill yet another pigeon.
"Margalo, we'd had this discussion before," Falcon sighed. "I can't control being a carnivore. If you don't like it, you can leave the room until I'm done eating."
"Father, please, can't you at least not eat birds?"
"Well, I suppose. But I am naturally craving of them. Just like you crave fruit, I crave the meat of birds."
"Could you do it for me? Please, please, please!" his daughter begged him.
"Well, if it makes you happy, I won't hunt birds anymore unless I've missed a few meals and they're all I can get."
"Fair enough."
"But, I still will be eating meat. I can't have you begging for the life of every rat, mouse, squirrel, rabbit, and mole that I set my sights on. You wouldn't want me to starve to death, would you?"
"No, I love you father. I don't want you to starve."
"If it bothers you, I can eat in another room."
Margalo agreed with this arrangement, though she wondered if it made her father feel bad, as silly as it sounded. So, one day, when she saw him carrying a dead squirrel, she stayed in the room as he ate. "Doesn't this bother you?" he asked, pausing his eating, a bit of squirrel liver dangling from his beak.
"It's a bit gross. But my father shouldn't have to feel that he has to avoid me when eating."
"Margalo, if your stomach can't handle it, I'm not going to-"
"I can handle it. I just need to learn to get used to it."
"Be sure that you're doing this for the right reasons, and not because you think I'm offended if you can't take it. I can greatly understand why a canary would be revolted."
"Well, it's not like you took them alive. They don't feel that anyway."
"That they don't. But I don't want you vomitting up your food while you watch me eat mine."
"I won't."
And Margalo kept her word. Though, at first it made her stomach uneasy, over time, she grew used to it, until she just stayed in the same room with him and the two ate together, though, of course, Margalo didn't eat meat, save insects.
One day, Falcon found her sifting through his pellets. "Margalo, those come from my gizzard. What are you doing with them?" he asked her.
"I've been taking the bones out of them. I go bury them so that they can have a decent burial."
"That's very sweet of you. Still, I hope you are using your talons and not your beak to go through those. They came from my gut after all."
"I use my talons. Don't worry, father."
As Margalo went outside, to the ground level, to bury the bones of a dead squirrel that had been her father's lunch, a hungry eagle spotted her. The eagle dove at the canary, who wasn't paying attention, being absorbed in her task of burying the squirrel. Thankfully, Falcon had been watching. He made a very fast dive, pulling Margalo to safety just in time. "Margalo, be careful! You need to watch your surroundings!" he scolded her.
The eagle scowled, thinking that Margalo was going to be his prey, and flew off. This wouldn't be their last encounter with predators. A month after he'd taken in Margalo, Falcon found a hungry owl at night about to get her. She was busy gathering berries from a tree, out past sunset, despite him having told her to get inside.
The owl almost killed her, but Falcon got in the way. He killed the owl with his talons and began to eat it. "Don't tell me not to eat birds that try and eat you!" Falcon said, before she could complain.
Margalo, of course, didn't feel like complaining. That owl would have killed her had he not acted. He finished off the rest of the owl then turned to glare at her for her disobedience. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I'm sorry, father," she apologized.
"I'm glad that you lived to say that you're sorry. You almost didn't. I told you I didn't like you being alone after dark. Perhaps next time you'll listen."
"Yes, father, I'll listen," she said.
Years would go by. Margalo would grow till she was about 11 years old. Falcon would continue to protect her, sometimes taking would-be predators of Margalo and killing them in view of other, potential, would-be predators, to send a very clear message: Mess with my daughter and you die!
Still, despite his fierceness toward would-be predators and prowess of a hunter, Margalo found him as loving as her own father. Maybe he wasn't a canary, but he made a good parent. He remained single all this time, and Margalo missed having a mother.
One day, she asked him, "Father, can I have a mother?"
"Mother? You know I'd have to find a mate for that to happen."
"Can't you?"
"A lot of falcons think I'm odd for not eating birds."
"I'm sorry. I should have thought of-"
"Don't apologize, my daughter. If they can't respect the wishes of my little Margalo, then they aren't the right girl for me."
"I hope you find one soon. You shouldn't be alone."
"I'm not alone. I have you."
"But I need a mother, and you should have a wife."
"Well, I'll see what I can do."
