Fenna watched her fighters battle an invisible enemy and to her untrained eyes, it looked good. How well would it go when the enemy was here? What more could she do to prepare? She turned to look at Sil, who sat nearby. The bird of prey had proven to be a good asset in battle, she had fearlessly attacked their foes so far. 
"Can you set up some dummies?" she asked her appointed second in command. "Where the enemy will likely be when we fight."
The sergeant nodded and together with some other Falcons he set up some targets. "Practicing bow'n'arrow?" he asked.
"No, we'll practice Sil dropping things on them. Help me find some rubish, broken stone and logs the others don't need. lets how big and heavy we can go."

Fenna was fairly sure Sil wasn't an ordinary falcon, the way she had fought and how she reacted at times, there was an obvious intelligence. And, more importantly, a connection. Sil understood her better than any other falcon would, she understood her feelings. That's what Sil reacted to mostly. She came when Fenna was lonely, and that was just one of the many occasions Sil had shown understanding of what happened and what Fenna needed. 

Using words while doing actions, Fenna tried to teach Sil three words: "pick up", "drop", "go". The last time she had send Sil on a mission she had used her words and formed mental images, and that had been enough to make Sil understand she had to deliver that message to Lucy. So that's what Fenna did again, while also using physical gestures. It didn't take long for the falcon to understand the three orders and would pick up what Fenna pointed at and dropped it at what she pointed at or visualized.
The Falcons cheered when Sil carried out the orders succesfully.

"You are a very special bird," Fenna said when Sil joined her, smiling at the falcon. "I'm so glad you joined me." She stroke the feathers. "Thank you for being with me." Sil gently touched her cheek with her head. 

Fenna turned to the sergeant. "Can you wrap things up here? I need to go on errands."
"Of course, ma'am."
"I have an idea," she said to Sil as she walked away. "We're going to find a herbalist. And after that we shall find Zell for a drink and lament about the beer not being Heineken." Sil spread her wings and made an enthusiastic noise. "He's good company," Fenna agreed. "But they're all good people and we should try to help them as well as we can." She paused. "Maybe we'll start by not going near Wellsprings for the duration of our stay here. I've had enough of hooded people and powerful energies hidden in caves." 
As she said that she realized she hadn't seen them again so far. Had they stopped stalking her, or they had gotten better at it? Although the last one was unlikely, whoever the robed people were, they were not good at staying unnoticed.