Four and Twenty Blackbirds

The birds moved together like a sentient mass, swarming through the sky before they began to shrink into the distance. He blinked rapidly as he realized Valkyrie arrived and he turned to face her, grinning sheepishly. "Oh, sorry Valkyrie.  I didn't realize the tree was full of birds. It was like the tree had hundreds of eyes and was looking right at me. I thought it might've been a spirit or a monster." Gods, how embarrassing! He wanted to crawl under a bush and die.

A call rang out and he looked up into the sky to see a familiar dark form come swooping down out of the sky. "Askr!" The raven did not reply. In his beak he held a rabbit skin, the corners pulled neatly together to hold in whatever it was that the bird was carrying.  The bird landed with a thud, clearly exhausted from traveling with such a burden. Éldi pranced over to him. "What do you have there, Askr?  Oh, Askr, you remember Valkyrie, right?"

The bird bowed his head deeply in greeting. "Of course! Éldi has enthralled me with the many stories of your great battles. I could scarcely forget. As to what I have here, it is an assortment of odds and ends. Mostly items to teach Éldi here how to make snares." Éldi stuck his nose into the rabbit skin and started rooting around in it. He was ready to get started!