Young Writers Society

"You make a good point. You wouldn't mind telling me where he is, would you now?" He fed the bird some meat and turned back to her.

"In his study," she supplied. "I came straight from there to here."

"Off I go, then! Thank you, missy!" He strode toward the door.

Ky smiled and followed him. "Thanks for letting me watch! It was interesting."

Tim dipped his head. "Any time, any time! I might not always be here; I've got about a score of apprentices to help out as well."

"Makes sense... seems like a fun job. I like Kirri."

"She'll be very glad to hear that." He grinned. "And it's a job. That's for certain! The birds are a good part of the job, if you don't mind the ornery ones." He tapped his eyepatch."

Ky's eyes went wide. "One blinded you?"

"In this eye, at least. That was Whisper. Silly fool." He shook his head and tutted. "I loved that stupid bird."

"... what happened?"

"I got too close and she got too ornery." He shrugged. "She was never a very friendly raven, but Ioved her. My own fault for getting cocky."

"I see... how long ago did it happen? Seems terribly painful."

"I was...hm, let's see, now..." He thought for a moment, frowning. "It was during Lord Septimus but before Gaius was born....erm. I was close to fifty, I think? It was a long time ago, dearie."

Ky blinked at him. She couldn't imagine that, either. But old people tended to get offended when she expressed how shocked she was by the length of time they'd been doing something. So she kept that to herself. "Ah. Huh... have the ravens more or less behaved since then? You get carefuler?"

"Got smarter, more like. The ravens are ravens, no more and no less. They've all got personalities of their own. That one, for example." He pointed to a raven towards the bottom as he opened the door. "That's Sammie, and she only eats live worms. Which are difficult to get up here, if you've ever tried digging into cold ground before."