01-02-2010, 01:41 AM
[html]
wc: 515 She held the creature down despite its screeches, putting more weight down to immobilize it. The thing was trying to flap and get away, but she had it down on the ground on one side…it wasn’t going anywhere! The light colored female had managed to avoid the strikes that it was trying to deal her with its claws and had one of its legs stretched out against the ground. She stopped for a moment to breathe, realizing that she had been holding her breath, and looked at the animal. It was an osprey, if she had her animals right…the large bird of prey had a black and white body, its chest and wing tips white with the rest of its body being mostly black. She had spotted it floundering around on the ground while on her way out to the border; Naniko had thought that she had smelled some elk out around this way, and had headed out after the faint scent early that morning. The osprey had a broken leg, she was now discovering, as she looked it over. The bone wasn’t sticking through the skin, but she could feel the bump and could tell from the bird’s reaction that she was hitting a painful spot when she touched it. She tried to calm the bird down, speaking to it in low tones and stroking its breastbone with one long finger. Slowly the animal began to listen to her and it began to relax, head lolling backwards. She needed it not to flinch when she applied the braces and tightened the pieces of cloth. Naniko put two long sticks on either side of the break as a makeshift brace, ripping off pieces of her shirt sleeves to use to hold them there. When she tightened it the animal gave one loud squawk, but kept still afterward. She was glad for that. It would have to stay off of its feet for a while until the leg was fully healed or it would never be able to land properly again. She explained that to it and it looked at her with one beady, unblinking eye. She picked the bird up with an “umph”, holding it under one arm as she continued. Naniko wasn’t one for eating birds…not even one as big as this one. They were too beautiful and graceful…and didn’t taste good to her. But it now looked as if she wasn’t going to be hunting today, not with this bird stuck on her side. She sighed and turned back toward her den. She’d have to explain to the pups that they would have a visitor, a non-edible visitor. As she walked she spoke with the osprey, asking it its name and where it was from. “Sccrl”, as it was called in its tongue, was from this area. In fact, he knew where her cabin was and had perched on the tree next to it several times in the past. She continued to speak with it as she walked, glancing up to the cloudy sky every once in a while to check the weather. |