Possibly, possibly not. Hard to tell, you know? Although the little silver-haired man in the red tunic's prone to watching things himself. You never know what you might see.
(In his case, 'what you might see' includes an extremely small, sleepy puppy curled up between his forearm and his chest.)
"Something like," he answers, not looking up. The pup's just started squirming, and usually that means he wants feeding... ah, no, he's gone back to sleep. "I found him with his mama yesterday."
He starts to say something else, but he looks up first. It seldom hurts to know who you're talking to.
... although in this case he has the oddest feeling he ought to know already.
Yeah, he knwos that kind of movement. Lord knows he's seen it often enough.
"The fellow I was tailing stole a dead man's dogs," he says quietly. "This one's mama was one of 'em. She was near dead when I found her, and this one was the only pup left alive."
He looks down at the puppy again.
"Couldn't do anything for the mama dog but make it quick."
There aren't a whole lot of people in the world who'd speak of the north country quite that way. The little fellow is one of them, and he reckons he probably knows most of the rest. Maybe.
He glances down at his tunic, then up again. "Oh, we wear parkas over the tunic when it's cold," he says, "and that's most of the time."
(In his case, 'what you might see' includes an extremely small, sleepy puppy curled up between his forearm and his chest.)
Reply
"It is like a baby, that?"
He means the puppy.
Probably.
Reply
He starts to say something else, but he looks up first. It seldom hurts to know who you're talking to.
... although in this case he has the oddest feeling he ought to know already.
Reply
Raven tilts his head, the movement oddly birdlike.
"It is not a thing I might have expected."
Reply
"The fellow I was tailing stole a dead man's dogs," he says quietly. "This one's mama was one of 'em. She was near dead when I found her, and this one was the only pup left alive."
He looks down at the puppy again.
"Couldn't do anything for the mama dog but make it quick."
Reply
"Quick is enough."
Particularly when there are ravens about.
"It is lucky, I think, that one. Also in good hands, perhaps."
Reply
"I do what I can," he says, running a finger over one of the puppy's flopped ears. "Goes with the territory, I s'pose."
Reply
"It is a thing to ask about, this territory?"
Reply
He's had some interesting reactions to that so far. How this one will react he'd quite like to see.
Reply
"I have, I think, been there before. It is not so bad a place, I do not think."
Then he blinks.
"Though I am not so much remembering all the red."
Reply
He glances down at his tunic, then up again. "Oh, we wear parkas over the tunic when it's cold," he says, "and that's most of the time."
Reply
"That part, I think, I do remember. I am fond of cold."
This is no lie.
He blinks once more, tilting his head.
"They call me Raven, who sets things right. It is descriptive, I think."
So.
Reply
"They call me Mouse, sir, if they don't know what I am; and if they do, then they call me the Silver Corporal."
There's no point in prevaricating. It's the truth. He knows what the folk of the North think of him.
He doesn't even know he's saluted until his hand is back at his side.
Reply
Probably it was the salute.
"Sir is, I think, not always so accurate. Raven will do well enough."
He grins, then.
"Mouse is not so bad a name, I do not think. Though I am, I think, wondering why it is 'what' and not 'who'."
Probably that is what he is wondering, at least.
Reply
"It was that or 'Big Man'," he finally says. "Cowhands've got a funny sense of what's a funny thing to call a man."
Reply
Raven considers this carefully.
"Also they stick."
Reply
Leave a comment