The water feels like a sheet of ice as she plunges into the river. It soaks her auburn fur down to her skin. She tries to kick upwards against the water column above her head and just barely manages get her head above. She opens her mouth to cry, but is rewarded with a full mouth and is pulled under once again. Two, three times she repeats this until finally the rapids began to slacken. Her head bobs up and she howls like she never has before. Her little limbs feel heavy and she struggles to swim. The current begins to pick up, dragging her faster and faster along. Sharp rocks now jut out here and there around her. Instinctively, she tries to catch hold of one, but instead she is flung against and bounced against them by the rapids. After one final bounce, all goes dark for her.
*********
"Little fuzzball...come on, wake up."
Blair blinks slowly, whimpering and coughing.
"Good. Pain is good; it just lets you know you're still alive."
She looks towards the voice. Standing by her head is large raven with shiny feathers and long talons. Her azure eyes open wide. "Please no eated me!" she squeals and curls herself into a tiny ball.
The raven chuckles. "Eat you? Why would I ever want to eat such a waterlogged little pup as yourself?"
Blair peeks out from her paws.
"No. Instead, why don't you explain to me why you are alone and what you were doing in the river."
"No!" She hides her face once more.
The raven narrows his eyes at her, but then takes a long, deep breath and hops closer. "My name is Bertramus...but you may call me Vasco. Does Fuzzy have a name?"
"I not Fuzzy..."
"You mean I'm, or I am. You are lacking a verb."
Blair tilts her head. "I am Blair?"
"And how old are you?"
She shakes her head. "Vasco first!"
The raven considers this question for a long moment. "That, Blair, has a very complicated answer. As far as this form is concerned, it is about six years old. However, I myself am far, far older than that."
The pup scrunches up her muzzle. "Like...like twenty hundred like daddy?"
Vasco snorts and shakes his head, grinning. "Ah, close enough I guess. And now, how old are you?"
Blair at this moment shifts her form. She had learned that it was much easier to express numbers with hands and fingers than claws and paws. She holds up four fingers. "This many!"
Vasco nods slowly. "I thought as much. Strange to see such a young Faolduine alone. Where is your pack?"
The child looks away.
"Your parents?"
She begins to sniffle and the raven tilts his head slightly.
"Surely you have relations of some sort?"
Blair begins to cry and shakes her head. "All gone!"
Vasco looks at her before lowering his eyes to the grass in thought. There was no way such a child as young as this, raised in pack life would be able to survive on her own. However, he had already interfered with nature's own solutions to such situations.
"That's okay, little one. I'll take care of you." He drapes a wing around her. He wonders to himself how he is going to manage this as he is trapped in this form, but he was always a crafty one. He knows he'll think of something. "Let's go see if we can't find somewhere warmer. You'll get sick out here in this wind as wet as you are."
Blair nods and stands up, still sniffling and shivering. "Vasco?"
"Yes, Blair?"
"What you?"
"Another question with a complicated answer I'm afraid. But in all simplicity, I am a Maia—or well, a wizard, I suppose—who is stuck in the form of a raven for the next—" He pauses to think. "Fourteen or so years, I believe."
"Why?"
Vasco looks at her. It had been a long time since he had talked with anyone, much less tried to convert his thoughts into such a simple way. "Well..." he sighs. "I guess you can say I was bad and my Vala—ehm, angel possibly?" He huffs; this was more challenging than he had expected. "Got mad and punished me in this manner."
"Bad wizard got birdie time out?"
"Essentially, yes." He smiles a little. "You're a smart tike, you know that?"
Blair giggles.
"Now, to make this easier, shift back to your wolf form. You're much, much lighter and simpler to carry that way. You have too many gangly limbs in your human form."
She giggles still, but does as he says.
"That's a good, lass. Now, we are going to be going very high up as I look for a place for us to stay the night. You can close your eyes if it startles you, just please do not squirm and I promise you'll be perfectly safe, okay?"
"Okay..."
Vasco nods as he gets her in his talons and takes to the sky. At least since she has dried more from being straight from the river, she wasn't quite as heavy as before.
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