Baatar grabbed Su by the arm and held her back as she turned on the farmer.
"Su. Su!" He shouted desperately, trying to calm her down. "It's not your foxcrow. He said it was caught the other day, not last night. And look. Look!" He pulled her back towards the body. "This one is much younger. It doesn't have any silver fur. It doesn't have the mark under its eye. It's not your foxcrow!"
Such strong emotions could not be dispelled that quickly and Su had to force her voice to remain low and calm, but it still shook as she said "You will take me to every single location you laid such traps, and I will destroy them. And you will never use them again or you will leave Zaofu!"
The farmer shrank away from her rage and nodded obediently. The other farmer joined them, assuring Su she would report any use directly to her in the future. Su crumpled each and every one they came across, giving the flattened metal to the farmer to carry, acknowledging that the material was his.
It was the one positioned deep in a small wood beyond the neck of the valley, that made Su cry out. The trap was mangled, surrounded by black feathers, and stained with blood.
The farmer stared at it in confusion. "It must have caught something. But it's been-" he gingerly held the twisted shape of the trap closer.
"-bent open again." Su finished for him, her voice steely.
He hastily bent the trap into a sheet of metal, but she ignored him, peering closely at the ground to follow the spots of blood that trailed away from the area. Signalling them all to remain still, she stamped down, sensing desperately, finding all kinds of small fauna in the undergrowth. There was something. She stamped again, focussing on the small curled up body with the faintest heartbeat.
She ran towards it, heedless of the thorns and branches pulling and scratching at her. "Foxcrow!" she cursed suddenly that she'd never given it a name but hoping that it would recognise her voice at least. There was blood staining the nettles in the area she'd sensed it. She pushed them aside, heedless of being stung and knelt down to gather the small broken body to her, holding it pressed close in a way that it had never allowed her to, even after months of familiarity.
"There's more." The farmer admitted awkwardly. "But I'll get them." He promised, seeing the expression on Su's face as she walked back towards the group.
"I'll go with him." Baatar squeezed Su's shoulder, and they left the two women behind.
The other farmer approached her. "I don't know much about healing but there's an animal healer who lives on my farm."
Su accepted the offer gratefully. "Hold on." She whispered in the large, pointed ear. The eyes were half closed and gummed, the muzzle was bloodied where it had tried to bite the trap, its head lolled against Su's shoulder. She walked as swiftly and smoothly as she could back through the woods, desperate to reach the animal healer, her own heart beating double time in fear of the weak pulse fading.
The animal healer assessed the foxcrow as it lay on a hay bale in the farmer's barn. "This leg is too badly damaged. It'll need amputating. And that wing will never bear its weight in the air again. It's flying days are done." He explained as he bent water into a sharp edge and completed the severance of the leg, smoothing the water swiftly back onto the wound to heal it. "In addition to that it's in shock, dehydrated and probably hungry. Keep it warm and rested for a few weeks. At its age, shock could kill it, even a while after the event." He finished healing the wing, wrapped a bandage to bind it to the foxcrow's body and started on the muzzle. "This should heal fine, but I'll get you some liquid food mixes, in case eating solids is an issue."
Su could only nod in reply as she watched on.