It was a windy night and flying back from the human castle was proving very hard for Diaval. He had done his best to stay close to the ground and out of the wind but that had meant flying through the wall of thorns his mistress had created. The wind was blocked there and he had become complacent unintentionally allowing a sudden breeze to blow him into one of the thorns.
He squawked in pain trying desperately to right himself before he could run careen out of control and impale more then just his wing. He managed, barely and managed also to fly the short ways back to his mistress collapsing on the ground in front of her with a apologetic caw.
"Diaval what..." She started to snap before she saw the blood spreading out from his wing. "Oh." she said softly. She lent down and reached out her long elegant hands, he flinched slightly as they slid under him, even though she was being gentle, it still hurt. He wasn't used to her being this gentle either.
She lifted him equally, gently, and settled him on her lap. He made a questioning noise in his throat, ruffling up his feathers nervously but she ignored him. He liked being this close to her usually he wouldn't presume to get this close to her no matter how much he wanted to, after all he was only her servant. Still she was the one moving him closer so, tentatively, he settled himself in her lap.
She extended his injured wing from his body, he squawked in pain and instinctively tried to pull his wing out of her grip.
"Diaval!" She reprimanded sharply and he stilled as much as he could. It didn't feel right for anyone to be holding his wing like this, even his mistress. Wings were too fragile of things, too easily broken, but he held still as she ran her fingertips lightly over his feathers. He could feel the warmth of her magic seeping into him and he closed his black eyes as the gold light began knitting his wing back together.
It hurt but almost in a good way, he know instinctively that this pain was a healing one and so he stayed quiet. Her fingers had smoothed slowly over his feathers more than ten times by the time the healing was done, and he had grown comfortable with the feeling. Once the pain had faded from his wing he fully expected Maleficent to release his wing and push him off her lap but she didn't.
Instead her fingers kept moving over his feathers in a slow, and steady rhythm that was quickly making him to relaxed to stay awake. Before he fell asleep he opened his eyes one more time and looked up at her. She was gazing up at the sky watching the sort rage of the shelter of her tree, her eyes flicked about the sky, seeming to follow the winds as if imagining what it would be like to ride such wild winds.
Her mind was far away from him, far away from this world and this time. It almost made him feel guilty, like he was taking advantage of her distraction by remaining in her lap. After all she didn't like being close with people. Besides, she had sent him to gather information at the castle. She would want to hear it, he should remind her. But she would turn him into a human so he could report and in that form she certainly wouldn't let him anywhere near this close to her.
Yes he should definitely remind her, but he remained all the same. Quietly he settled himself more comfortably making sure not to pull on his wing. He fluffed up his feathers and tucked his beak into the plumage on his chest. He heard his mistresses breathing quickening and slowing with the howling of the winds and felt her warm gentle touches over his wing. His black eyes slid shut slowly and he slept.