Ruffled Feathers

Posted on Tue Nov 28th, 2023 @ 0:12 by Freya Callaghan MD & Alastair Temple

Chapter: Winter's Crest Festival
Location: Freya's room
Timeline: Around ten in the evening
2468 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Just as Freya was relaxing, settling in after the affairs of the day, there was a loud, resounding BANG against her window, followed by scratching and lighter thuds, along with sounds of distress.

To say her heart almost flew out of her chest at the noise would be an understatement. No-one expects a large banging noise outside their window unless you are in a 90's romcom and someone is pining after you... maybe this was one of those? No, let's get our heads out of the clouds.

Slowly Freya approached the window, a faint shadow looming behind, and opened it a touch to take a peak outside. The sounds of distress were painful for her in a different way, it was obviously an animal as she was well versed in the pains a Human can make.

An animal it was; a bird, unusually large, though she couldn't see much detail as the black plumage fell into shadow and darkness against the dark of the night. The bird tried to stand but collapsed through its leg and just lay there, panting, beak open. It looked up at her, an intelligence in its eyes - or rather, its one good eye - a gash across the bird's face, with dried blood in the feathers. As her eyes got used to the darkness beyond, she'd see just how large the bird - a raven - was, almost twice the size of a regular one, with the plumage on its chest and back messy and caked with blood.

"Oh you poor thing." Freya said softly as she gently scooped the bird up and placed it onto the dresser under her window. A cursory examination did reveal shallow gashes across the face, back and chest. "Looks like you've been in the wars my friend." She looked a little closer at his much larger leg and body. She was surprised having never seen a raven this size but maybe there was something in the Scottish water. He had trouble putting pressure on it but it didn't look broken. Sadly her specialty was not in veterinary care. A shiver ran down her back as a small gust of cold wind came in from the window and she regretted not putting a dressing gown on. Instead she stood in a small t-shirt and shorts.

The bird - its body larger than that of a cat - didn't struggle when she reached to pick him up. Instead it calmly let her, only complaining when a bit of pain tore through the creature when she set it down again. Still panting, as if trying to catch its breath and deal with the injuries, it spoke a single word, "Hurt," in that typical slightly inhuman tone that Ravens have when mimicking human speech.

"I can see that honey." Freya replied in a motherly tone. "You came to the right window." she mused out loud as she took a deep breath. "This might tingle, but I will help you." she looked in the birds eyes. There was an intelligence there, something that understood what she was saying and for a moment Freya swore she saw it nod in agreement.

She would need to do this in stages. The last time she'd helped an animal the injuries scaled up and she wasn't as prepared for that as she would have liked. She placed a hand over the wounds on its chest, and the other on the back. Closing her eyes she concentrated for a moment and a feeling of warmth emanated from her hands as her powers began to work.

There was a wince of pain, a few sharp inhalations of breath as small lacerations could be seen to form as blood escaped on the front of her t-shirt across her chest. The same on her back but that couldn't be seen by either her or the raven. No-one understood how much healing someone pained her, she lacked the adrenaline that sometimes shielded the pain as in her circumstances there was no danger that would have caused the original injuries.

"I'll get your face and leg in a minute..." she said as her own wounds began to heal up. Transference was a bitch.

The bird did understand her, even as it shuddered when she placed her hands on the injuries. They weren't life threatening and nothing was broken, but they still hurt like a female dog. "Thank," the Raven of Unusual Size croaked, letting Freya do her thing.

With her wounds now healed she moved on. Placing her hands on the leg of the raven she could feel no breaks or fractures, it was strange how she knew. Instead she felt some tissue damage that had caused some bruising and was her diagnosis for it being unable to put pressure on it. Lightly she pressed a couple of fingers on it and healed it up nicely. Bruises formed on her leg as a result but they quickly dissipated.

Then onto his face/beak where a nasty laceration across his eye had forced it closed. It looked nasty but again the same process of placing her hand there began the healing/transference process as a mirrored image appeared on her own face. "There, back to being your handsome self." Freya said as the wound across her eye began to knit closed.

The bird still let her, though the touch caused it discomfort initially before the injuries was transferred. As she took on the final injury, the large raven unfurled its wings to its surprisingly massive wingspan - larger than any natural raven's span - and folded them around her, as if to give her a hug. Again it cawed "Thank," as it did, carefully releasing her and folding its wings on its back again. The animal tried standing on both feet, and, finding the pain gone, did a little hop. There was still some dried blood caked on its ruffled and lightly damaged feathers, but it seemed completely healthy again.

It was a strange sensation, being hugged by a substantially large raven in ones bedroom, but it felt strangely Human as well. It took a second but she remembered what Al had said to her his ability was as the wings retracted and he did a little hopping dance. Maybe his arrival at her window was not as random as she had thought. "Al?" she asked hesitantly.

A nod-nod and a hop-hop dance. "Al," the bird replied. After that though it hopped down from the sink, landing with a substantial thud and waddled over towards her closed door - a sight to behold, a raven walking with that very sassy step they have. Once at the door the bird poked at the doorhandle with a wing. "Open," it croaked.

Freya cocked her head as she watched the swish of Al's walk. Truthfully she'd never watched birds and how they walk but this was quite a sight to behold. She thought it was cute. "Say please, Al." she teased but still opened the door for him. "You'll need to tell me what happened to you as well mister."

"Please," the bird croaked, letting out a shrill thrill of thanks as she opened the door for him. Once opened, he walked out, feathered tail swishing left and right as he did, into the hallway. He turned right, heading straight for one of the bathrobes he'd been placing all throughout the building, for moments exactly like this one. The large bird fluttered up to peck at the robe, pulling it from its hook and letting it fall to the ground. There the raven nuzzled into the robe, crawling inside, before with a poof of feathers he reverted back to his human self, standing up wearing the bathrobe and leaning against the wall for a moment to find his balance. His hair was ruffled and there were still some small streaks of dried blood caked to his face, where the bird-Al had been injured.

"Thank you," his baritone rumbled, with a nod and a tired smile to Freya. "... Can I come back in?" he asked, motioning towards her door.

Watching as the bathrobe grew taller as it filled out with Al's body all Freya could do for a moment was gawk. It took her a second or two to actually close her mouth. Knowing he can do that and seeing it were two completely different things. She also shook her mind free of the thought he was naked under there as well as he spoke to her. A quick look up and down before she rested on his tired, weary but still handsome looking face.

"Yes! Yes! Come in." she realized she had been blocking the door as her heads had been in the clouds. She rushed into the room and moved some biology books from the small sofa she'd managed to get into her room and placed them on the smaller coffee table in front of it. "Sit, sit, please." she moved away from the sofa and brought him back a glass of water.

"Thank you," he sat down tiredly, making sure his long, thick, shaggy bathrobe covered him suitably as he did. An exhausted smile as he accepted the glass of water and dipped a finger in to wipe the blood from his forehead with, before taking a sip, just letting the cold refreshing taste linger for a moment. "I'm sorry 'bout all that. That was all my fault," he explained. "Sometimes I go flying at night, it clears the head, helps me think. And tonight I was flying low and slow when a golden eagle jumped me. It's rare that they hunt other birds and even rarer that they hunt something as big as me, but it happens. He was bigger and stronger than me, but I was smarter than him and managed to fight him off. He got a few good hits in, though."

"You're welcome." Freya replied as she sat on the edge of her bed frame and listened to him.

"Please, don't apologize. I'm glad you came here, that you felt you could." Freya smiled a somewhat weak smile but she did mean what she said. "That sounds quite scary though. I can't imagine being attacked by an eagle even as I am now let alone as a raven. I'm glad you got a few hits in and got away... but maybe next time, a walk? In Human form? Hopefully an eagle will not see you as an easy lunch."

"That's just it though, they don't. It's very rare that they hunt a bird to begin with, or anything the size of an adult raven - let alone me," Al explained, tiredly. "He must've been desperate. 99.9% of the time I'm safe, out there," he mused, taking another sip of his drink. "And a walk defeats the purpose, really. There's - I don't know how to explain it, but flying makes me feel free, like nothing else can. Like nothing else does. And, I am sorry. I saw how taking on my injuries hurt you. Not for long, but it did hurt you."

Freya nodded. "It's something I'm used to, a side effect of my ability. Not that I don't appreciate your apology but I can't help myself when I see an injured soul, animal or Human alike." she moved to sit next to him on the sofa. "I'm glad you're okay. You did give me a fright when you hit my window, thought you were coming through it." she joked lightly. "Doing what clears your head is important and if that's flying then great!"

"Heh, to be honest, I thought I was gonna go through it when I flew in," he chuckled. A quiet brow raise as she joined him, but he made nothing of it. "So, this - healing ability, does it take a lot of effort? Energy? My shifting forms does. I can imagine taking on someone's injury and healing it does too."

"I'm glad you didn't. I'd have been picking glass out of my bed." she laughed softly. "As for my ability, it can. The more severe the injury, the bigger the damage I need to heal, the more it takes out of me. Not only in healing it on the person, the transference and then healing of myself. Sometimes even healing a disease can take a while to work out of my system. Diseases, cancers heal slower within me for some reason." she shrugged. "But looking at your transformation back to, well you, I don't doubt it takes a lot!"

A slow blink from Al. "You can cure cancer?" he gave a low whistle, very impressed. "So a few cuts from an eagle would've been child's play for you. Still, I don't like the idea that someone gets hurt, has to suffer through pain because of me," A sigh, followed by a smile. "You're good people, Freya."

"Thank you." Freya blushed. "If it makes you feel better it wasn't that bad. You put up a good fight with that eagle that he barely got any serious damage done." she said to make him feel a bit better about the situation. "Plus you make a very cute raven, and you are quite well spoken." she teased a little. "As for me, I'm a walking, talking aspirin commercial."

A warmer smile. "Ah, we've come to the 'no, you' stage of compliments, I see," followed by a stifled yawn. "I really should get back to my own quarters. Get cleaned up, get some sleep. Thanks again for - well, fixing me up. I know from experience that shifting forms while injured - ... does not go great.," as he started to stand up again.

Freya rose as Al did and walked around the small table towards the door of her room and opened it. "Get some rest Al. Drink plenty of fluids as well. You may be healed but you did feel a bit dehydrated as well. My little glass of water won't have done too much." she smiled warmly at him.

"It did not, but it was very appreciated," he offered with a tired smile. He hesitated a moment, not quite sure what to say next (which didn't happen often) before tipping an imaginary hat and heading towards his own room, just down the hall.

"Goodnight Al." Freya said as she chuckled softly at his tip of the hat gesture. He was a bit of an awkward man but in her eyes he could do no wrong. The illusion of the man on a poster in her teenager bedroom wall still flashing through her mind. As he walked away the swish of his bathroom danced across the back of his legs and Freya went back into her room closing the door behind her.