THOTH & MORVEREN
“Yeah, she’s - ” Thoth started, but broke off just as quickly. He hadn’t looked at Danny once since his attention had been consumed by General, and now he did a double-take. Danny was holding out the thin, small bandage for him in one hand, and in the other he was clutching a notepad and pencil which Thoth was sure hadn’t been there a moment before. He blinked. “Were you… were you taking notes?”
Bewilderment swamped him. Thoth was so used to nobody listening to his lectures that he’d forgotten what it was like to have an attentive audience, let alone one which thought it could learn from him. It was so extraordinary that he didn’t know what to do with the attention now he had it. In addition to the aforementioned, he wasn’t used to receiving positive feedback, and particularly positive feedback from a peer - the occasional encouraging word from Nimueh or Tristan were about the only kind things Thoth ever heard from other fairies.
Clearly unsettled (Thoth had no capacity to hide his feelings; every emotion was written as clear as day across his face), he took the bandages a little awkwardly and rested them on the desk next to General. It felt odd to have a lab assistant handing him things - Thoth had worked alone for as long as he could remember. Deciding to ignore Danny until General was attended to properly, he cleaned the wound gently with some cloth and room-temperature, clean water on the other end of the desk. That should keep it free of infection. He then picked up the splint, held the magnifying lens over General’s wing and lined it up, chirping to her all the while to let her know what he was doing and warning her of potential pains so that she didn’t squirm or panic too much. With the splint in place, and the apologies for the upcoming discomfort made, he carefully bandaged it to her wing. A pen knife in one of the desk drawers severed the bandage from the roll, and he tied it off carefully before tearing off another, smaller strip and constructing a miniature sling from it. Unlike a fairy sling, which hooked around the neck, this one formed a sort of harness around General’s body. The speed and sureness of Thoth’s fingers, along with his lack of mistakes, indicated that this wasn’t the first time he had had to perform this particular procedure on a small bird. The idea of the sling-harness had originally come from a book, but Thoth had perfected the design with each application to maximise comfort, ensure longevity and discourage attempts at flight.
With everything in place, Thoth gave Danny and his notepad a sideways glance and proceeded to relay all the information he’d already given to General.
“You’ll need to bring her back in two weeks to change the bandages, and she won’t be able to fly again for at least another three months, probably longer… but she’ll be okay, as long as she rests lots and keeps the pressure off it.” He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, not quite sure what to do with his eagerly listening companion now. Most people took their leave of him once they had what they wanted, which suited him just fine, but he had the feeling that Danny didn’t want to go. “Uhh… did you have somewhere she can stay indoors, or did you want to leave her with me?”
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