The spirit of Devfronds

2. Calvin Meets A Bird Fugitive

Previously :

It was then, that a man tumbled into his house through the balcony. And he wasn't just any man either. On both side of him, from his shoulder to his waist, brown long feathers erupted, like that in a bird. His arms were pressed on a part of his shoulder blade, where blood was trickling down from.

His wings too looked like a hurt bird's wings. Calvin's eyes widened, and the man smiled at him and said, "If you can see me, you must not be a human. Now help me with this wounds, will you?"

The more Calvin observed him, the weirder he got. His feathers were brownish, like that of an eagle. His nose was slightly long. Not long enough to look weird, he would probably not have given it a second thought if he saw it anywhere but compared with the wings, it looked distinctly beak-like.

As Calvin made no indication to move, mostly out of fear and disbelief, he said, "Ah yes! Mama raised you right. We must not let strangers into the house. But I am a demon patrol officer."

He took out a card from his pant pocket, which he realized was not at all pants. His thighs were covered upto the knees by the tunic he was wearing, below which there were two sets of leather coverings tied together with threads like hiking boots. His knees were covered with leather pads too making his legs look like they were covered in armour. 

Surprisingly, that was all the armour he had on. His upper body only had a cotton tunic covering it. 

'Probably the reason he's bleeding out.' Calvin thought, 'So irresponsible.'

Calvin looked blankly at the card he was showing, and said, "Parents these days! So irresponsible."

"Excuse me?" Calvin said incredulously. He had often been told his parents were very responsible and reliable people. Who was this random man coming to his house and insulting his parents

"Oh, so you do have a tongue on you. Okay fine, explaining will take too long. Get me the first aid kit, at least. I am bleeding." He said, exasperated. Calvin noticed that the hand with which the guy was covering the wound was getting distinctly red.

Calvin frantically nodded and rushed to get the first aid kit, but not before locking the 'demon patrol officer' in the balcony. Dude had the audacity to roll his eyes. He may not know the guy, but he was not going to let him bleed out in his house. 

After he gave him the first aid kits, and he got to work to wrap his own shoulders, his fingers flying smoothly but gently on the wound, wrapping a gauze expertly around his shoulder blade, beneath his armpit and a little over the part of his wings that connected to his shoulders. Calvin found himself impressed by the show. He couldn't even put on his own band-aid. 

After watching for three minutes in silence, his homework now stood forgotten, he couldn't resist himself, "Are you a bird?" He asked. 

The man chuckled, "Yeah, you could say that. I am a hybrid bird. An eagle, best for demon patrollers, I tell you! So, tell me, what are your parent's names? I might have heard of them somewhere. Goodness know, ours is a small world." 

"Really? How many people like you are there?" Calvin asked with interest, all the while avoiding giving away his parent's name.

"Don't think I didn't see what you did there, kid. There are about a thousand of us in air kingdom. Same amount in aqua, I suppose. Never got to verify though, awful enemies, air and aqua. And about double that on the land." 

"That's...not a small world. I mean four thousand people is rather small,  compared to total human population but there's no way you know all of them." Calvin reasoned.