The Long Way Home: Chapter 6 - Helping Hands

The crunch of gravel alerted Samber to the approaching humans. Opening her eyes the little corva fluffed up her feathers in a clear show of unhappiness. It wasn't so much the humans she was unhappy at but the painful scratches she had gotten from her battel with the blue tyto. The jagged cut's hurt and hampered her hunting and fishing. She wasn't really in the mood for visitors but seeing one of the humans was her fisherman friend Samber let her feathers fall back into place. Her eyes fixed on the basket the fisherman carried, she knew there were fish scraps in it for her. That was how he normally brought them to her. The other human, a woman with the same sun-browned skin and dark hair as the fisherman had a large clay jar in her hands but that was infinitely less interesting to the colour corva. She didn't know if she could eat the content of that one. So the little corva fixed her gaze on the man and began to chattering to him softly. He smiled 

"Hey girl, it's me again, you gonna let us take a look at them wound?." The human held up the basket. "Look I brought you food. your gonna be a good girl right?" The human's warm voice and the prospect of a free meal made Sambers chattering go up in pitch. She didn't bother getting to her feet but let the humans come to her. The woman stopped a short distance away. 

"Do you think this is a good idea, she might bite" 

"Na, it'll be fine. I told ya she ain't a wild stryx. she'd have attacked one of the boats by now if she was."  

"She still might bite!" 

"I'll keep her distracted, you'll be fine" Samber switched her gaze from human to human as though she followed the conversation. She didn't understand a single word but when silence fell between them she filled it in with her own noise. This seemed to make the human man happy as he took a fish head from the basket on his arm and threw it just in front of her. Samber quickly snatched it up. In a split second, it was gone "See...all she cares about is the fish," The woman muttered something back but Samber was too transfixed on her fisherman friend to even spare her a glance. 

 

She ignored the woman altogether and kept her focus on the man and the fish bits he pulled one by one from his basket. It was only when Samber felt a slight sting down her back that she remembered the woman. Looking over her sholder she saw the human backing off quickly, hey clay jar still in her hand but now it didn't have a lid. Something thick was oozing down the side of it. The human's started to make noises to one anther again but Samber ignored them both, distracted by the feeling of something wet sliding down her back. Reaching her head as far back over her sholder as she could Samber saw a thick yellowish liquid oozing slowly down her back. It smelled faintly of honey and herbs but the more overpowering scent was something she wasn't familiar with. A sharp smell that seemed to sting her nose if she breathed it in too hard. She didn't like it. Ruffling her feathers she turned a disapproving look on the humans and clicked her beak a couple of times. The humans backed off a little further. The male dumped the rest of the content of his basket onto the beach as he went.

"That's a good girl...leave the salve alone and eat your fish..."  

 

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