Re: [Carriage House: Raven & Atticus]
[Matt was comfortable enough with the carriage house to come in through the back door without announcing himself. He had no idea why Atticus had taken a shine to an injured bird, but he thought it was important enough to call, and that was good enough for Matt. Did Atticus have a stronger connection to the animal world now that he was part wolf? Had he injured the bird by accident, or was his heart just as soft as Matt suspected?
He found Atticus in the living room, settling the bird onto a nest of blankets.] Good. [The blankets, the soft nest. A perfectly ordinary member of the big happy corvus family, or so it seemed to him, but there was that broken wing, evident just from a cursory glance. He crouched down in front of the sofa, dropping his bag to the floor.] Is it bleeding? [It was almost impossible to tell whether crows were male or female, so he went straight for the middle.] Hello there. [He extended his bare right hand toward the bird - crows were smart, and most creatures could read at least a little from the tone of human speech. He never thought it was useless to talk to an animal. He kept his voice low and even.] I'm just going to take a look at that wing. [To Atticus:] Can you get me a clean sock? The thinner the better. I think it might be going into shock, so we need to keep it warm, too. Kill any air conditioning you've got on.