[ Bernadotte ‘ s eyes hesitantly fluttered open as he felt an uncomfortable , shifting , squawking weight struggle about his now strewn sheets ; too weak to do anything about it , he rolled over in an attempt to return to rest . His nose , however , betrayed his body ‘ s bed bound state . The second it found the scent of blood , he snapped up as straight as an almost sickly , starving man could and scavenged pathetically for the source
Though significantly softer , they were still enough for Bernadotte to lock on to and blindly reach for
After enough time for sharp pains to settle in his stomach - the very pains he was sleeping to avoid - he felt warm , wet , feathers
Not wasting any time on questions , he sank his teeth into the unidentified feathered figure in the manner of that of a feral beast of gluttony
Sokolov took a step back from where they had stood by Bernadotte ‘ s bed , narrowly avoiding the few squirts the raven they had … gifted … their general had in it before its circulatory system was drained dry
Calibrating himself to the newfound consciousness he hadn ‘ t felt in months , Bernadotte rubbed his eyes and wiped his face , although failing to clean anything and in fact making matters worse for himself
He turned his attention to Sokolov , ignoring the carcass sitting limp in his lap atop his once white sheets and nightgown . Sokolov didn ‘ t even want to think about how long it would take for them to rid them of the red … ]
… Do you know what day it is ?
[ Bernadotte cocked an eyebrow at his aide , flitting his eyes between them and the … mess … he had made , clearly confused ]
It ‘ s the twenty sixth . of January . what would be the year twenty twenty five for the living …
… Otherwise known as your two hundredth and sixty first birthday and also multiple months after the event of which your former colleagues had ever so graciously invited you to
[ Bernadotte groaned at the recital of his old age and missed meeting , flopping back onto his bed ]
And so you … throw a bloody bird at me ?
[ Sokolov stared at him with eyebrows furrowed and a mouth agape in disbelief at his lack of gratitude as if to ask how else to wake him up and make sure he didn ‘ t die again , if it was possible ; which Sokolov did not want to have to deal with finding out ]
Well yes ! But next time you fall in to one of your little blood starved slumbers I won ‘ t bother with hunting for you and let you wither away instead
[ dragging a hand across his face , Bernadotte grunted and ungracefully rolled himself into a somewhat standing position ]
Right . sorry . thank you for getting me up , Karp
