Su had never seen a bath approached so cautiously, even by her children when they were very small. Certainly, she'd never seen one cawed and flapped at as if it were a predator about to attack. She took the bowl she'd carried the foxcrow in and scooped some water into it, reasoning perhaps that it was the depth of the bath that was unsettling. It did the trick. She watched, fascinated as the foxcrow dipped its head into the water and then twisted it, sending the water running over its feathers, fluffing them out and scattering water droplets everywhere.
"So what are you going to call her?" The healer asked, finally removing his gloves.
"Foxcrow." Su shrugged. "It's a wild animal, it's not for me to name."
She could sense the healer staring at her with mystification, as the captain had. But she had no interest in keeping the foxcrow in a cage, merely in preventing it from raiding their stores and, if she could, find out how on earth it could metalbend. She knew there were animals who could bend, her own mother had been taught by badgermoles, the original earthbenders, but she'd never heard of foxcrows having any bending ability.
It was staring at her again, sat with its wings tightly furled against its back and its fluffy tail curled around its paws and claws. She stared back, wondering what to do next. She had no intention of preventing it leaving, yet it was expressing no desire to.
"Well." She repeated. "Are you coming with me?"
The foxcrow leapt off the side table where she'd placed the shallow dish and loped to her heel, looking up expectantly when Su didn't move.
The healer chuckled. "I hope you like your new pet."
"It's not a pet." Su told him sternly.
"A familiar? She's taken a shine to you either way." His smile remained.
Su thanked him and strode to the door, hearing the tmp click of paws and talons hitting tiles as it ran after her. She took it to the edge of the city, bending a small hole through the petals but it merely remained at her feet, quiet and strangely still.
"You're clean, you're fed. I suppose if you're not going to return to your den, I should find you a new one." She spoke aloud, the strange sensation that the foxcrow understood her having been confirmed numerous times. Certainly, it was following her expectantly as she returned to her study and sat down on the sofa, trying to think of somewhere it could sleep. It immediately leapt up beside her and then curled up on her lap, tucking its muzzle underneath its wing. "You can't sleep there." She went to pick it up, but soft snores turned immediately into growls. She'd left the leather gauntlets used by the healer in the healing room. With a soft groan, she gave up on thoughts of escaping, too tired herself, and shifted until she was lying the length of the sofa. The resulting caws of protest disappeared as soon as she lay still and, after a few admonitory kneads on her stomach, the foxcrow curled back up again. Su gently manoeuvred a cushion under her head and settled more comfortably. She had no desire to make a wild animal a pet and yet there was a strange delight in being so immediately trusted by one.
She fell asleep with such thoughts and thus it was to sorrow that she woke, when she realised that the foxcrow was gone without a trace, a blanket in its place.
"You were fast asleep here when I came to find you last night. You're getting as bad as me, sleeping in your study. Is this thief causing you that large a problem?" Baatar asked gently as he came in with a breakfast tray, placing it on the long coffee table by the sofa as Su swung herself upright.
"I've solved the old problem, but it does appear I now have a new one." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair and sipping at her coffee, before explaining the night's events to Baatar.