There Was One She Still Missed, Part One

There was one she still missed.

Tawyn had long felt a connection to the beasts of the world. In her childhood she would climb up the trees, barefoot, to sing with the birds; an attempt at flight had bruised her kneecaps but not her admiration. She crawled into bushes and out of them again, burrs stuck to her tousled hair, in pursuit of all manner of tiny crawling things, and there were some nights that she would howl at the moon like a wolf. Her parents had shaken their heads at it all and pondered aloud if she would maybe make a good druid, but the druids said she lacked the patience for the art, and thus she followed the path of her family and joined the school of the hunt.

Her training had gone well; while she lacked the eye of some of the more gifted sharpshooters she made up for it with her passion and her love for the whole idea of the bow and arrow. Still, to her, the most important part was the communion with the animals, and the seemingly magical gift that enabled a hunter to tame a wild companion of his or her choosing. This was how Tawyn had encountered Tux the owl, and later, Locke the tiger and Eltanin the windserpent as well. There were no words in either Darnassian or Common to describe what these beasts were in relation to Tawyn, suffice to say that like her gun, and her wits, they were an extension of herself.

And yet there was one other– forgotten? No…

For the months had stretched into years and through this time Tawyn had had “trial runs” of sorts with various creatures, who she would release back into the wild upon realizing that they simply were not right for each other. But there was one–

A fierce raptor from the Wetlands. Tawyn was captivated with them the first time she saw one, stepping gracefully through the reeds to ravage a crocolisk. To tame one would be to capture a summer thunderstorm in a bottle.

So she did.

She named him Wash after a great hero from stories she’d heard of faraway lands, and she knew right away that he was different.

Wash was headstrong and stubborn, and didn’t break easily. Tawyn would give him a command, and he would do the opposite. She wouldn’t give any commands and he’d run off and attack something. And yet there was something that made Tawyn unable to release the raptor, and something that made the raptor unable to run away in the night. A growing, begrudging kinship. For they each saw themselves in the other’s eyes.

A month passed and it became clear that as the battles became more fierce and Tawyn ventured to more dangerous lands, it would be imperative that she had the trustworthy and steadfast Tux by her side. And so it was that she took Wash to a nearby stable master that she knew, and entrusted him in her care. Wash fought and resisted but Tawyn promised she would be back.

And she was– many, many months later, when her fighting prowess had been much improved and she remembered the fiery little raptor from the Wetlands. It wasn’t fair of her to keep him captive like that when she had other pets at this point. She had been putting it off, selfishly perhaps, but she knew the right thing had to be done.

Thus Tawyn took Wash far away, to a beautiful clear river in Nagrand. He was happy to be out and about, and cavorted around with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. But when they reached the river Tawyn gave him a pat and said “You’ll be happy here… there’s lots of room for you to roam around”…

…and then she released him.

Wash blinked and gave the night elf a quick indecipherable look, and then he was gone, off among the grasses and trees somewhere.

Tawyn watched him go.

—

The hunter glanced around the fire. Tux was perched on a log, Locke and Eltanin were curled up on the ground by her feet. They appeared to be asleep, though each was actually opening an eye every so often and scanning the surroundings. Tawyn reached down and gently scratched Locke behind an ear, and his subsequent growl of contentment made her smile.

But there was one she still missed.

(To Be Continued!)

18 thoughts on “There Was One She Still Missed, Part One”

The true essence of being BM. This nearly brought tears to my eyes.

I have 3 stalwart companions, including my kitty Nyx that I’ve had since level 11. I can’t imagine giving any of them up….not even for Loque’nahak.

Beautifully done, Pike. Loved it and cannot wait for more.

I remember the day you let Wash go…

/sniffle

/passes out kleenex

Hail Pike,

This history is beautiful, congratulations to you, its really the beastmaster essence, make me think about to create a hunter in a Roleplay server… make me think about my ghost saber Bastet, I love her so much like a really pet, I think I cannot release her, is like to release a spark of my soul.

Such an awesome little story, looking forward to the next part.

Also, I want a tame snow Leopard now. In real life. Gief to me a real Erethia, plztokthx!

One word.. WOW!

*snffs*
/Salute

A fitting commentary on True hunters everywhere, Master of Beasts, or no.
Thank you for this.
I’m off to re-tame the Carrion Crow I had from my Outland days again now… just for solo moments when I need a memory. He was a feather on the wind as well… Oh, how he soared!

very well written. i remember the original entry where you were releasing the raptor. i think that story and the one about your early hunter days is what got me following your blog.

I’m in the same boat.

I wish I still had Toruk. But now I have no room left…

That was very nice ……innocent and a grown up choice to make
It is hard to let a pet go

I had to let Kazè go which was my Black oldworld raptor go
few months later , i missed him and had to find him again

my pet trio has got back together , Gèki ( White Lion ) , Baku ( Black Gorilla ) , and Kazè ( Black Raptor ) and now we are on the scout for 2 more to join my zoo
Spirit Beast , why do you deny me …..

From your Lord and Master
Zalenna

p.s. – Some good BM news From blizzard
Beast Mastery is over-nerfed and could be buffed before Ulduar

“We talked about it a great deal today and agreed that we probably over-nerfed BM. Marks is in a good spot and Survival might be too high once we look at the changes we are making to all other classes.

Our plan is to buff BM before Ulduar, but I can’t give you a timetable more detailed than that, and things could change for any number of reasons. We are unlikely to touch Steady Shot for the reasons I have mentioned before. We are more likely to look at Kindred Spirits and Serpents Swiftness again.

Again, huge caveats: Predicting changes we are discussing making but haven’t made yet is fraught with peril. I only wanted to address this issue because it caused a lot of consternation in the community.

I don’t mind admitting when we make a mistake in the hope that it builds our credibility in the community. This was one. It won’t be the last.”

Great storytelling. I can’t wait to read the continuation. When she released Wash, it pulled at my heartstrings a little.

@ Constrictor
My spirit beast is called Bastet! someone else that knows a little about egyptian mythology…
My first pet pleides was with me right up till wrath but I had to take her back to teldrassil and release her so that I could free up the stable space for my spirit beast as she was being left behind in the levelling process……/sniff

It wouldn’t be half as miserable if you didn’t have to click “abandon”. I mean – really – abandon?

After fighting for life, limb and levels with them you’re forced by Blizzard’s poor choice of words to cast your pet aside like something used and unwanted.

Most of us, I think, prefer to believe we’ve released them back into the wild – to a better life. But then I believe that Blizz knew what the word “abandon” would do to the average beast-master hunter and they left it in to torture us.

Anyway – great work Pike – I look forward to more.