You never know how a wounded crow will react, so I looked for a way to give it a wide berth, but the hillside shortcut was rather treacherous and didn't offer a lot of room.
The crow's head twitched in my direction. "Could you get me a band-aid from the store?" it asked.
I wasn't that surprised. After all, all you have to do is fork a crow's tongue and then it can talk. Remember The Manciple's Tale, after all.
Of course, of course, I said, are you all right?
Fine, fine, it said. I just need a band-aid.
I went to a nearby Rite-Aid and looked for bandages. I didn't know what exactly to get, so I got some iodine, cotton swabs, some regular band-aids, some oversized band-aids, some gauze pads, and some elastic bandages. I asked an employee if they had special bandages for crows, but he just looked at me funny, so I ended up with regrettably "flesh-tone" bandages.
I was not looking forward to applying the iodine. "Now this is going to sting a bit, but try not to peck me. It's really for your own good."
