Quite possible. Or, like Raven, she can make herself many parts. And you can't get all of them. This would be more in keeping with the myth style. And certainly in keeping with the way quails seem to work.
> b) Or, we need some reason she survived trampling. I'm hard pressed
> here. Unless we turn Avarnia into a healing cult.
Quail's numbers are legion, if you've ever been in an area with the little guys. Just because you've stamped one or a dozen means you've stamped them all. No need to make her a healing cult, though I think a fertility affinity is almost essential.
> c) Or, maybe she just "played dead". This could work, but puts a
> slight "tricksterish" spin onto Avarnia. Birds do play "hurt" just
> like in your tale, but I don't think they play dead.
Not usually. But most of the birds in amerindian myth seem to have a strong tricksterish bent to them - as do many of the animals in, say, Grimm's. No reason for her not to play 'wounded' or 'dead' - I think its entirely in character.
> d) Maybe lots of her flock came out and saved her by leading away
the
> horse-enemy. Sort of a "mass confusion lead them all over" feat.
This is unsatisfyingly anticlimatic and gods/goddesses shouldn't get deus ex machina endings... They are the ones doing them, afterall.
> There may be others. I like a and d best, they retain Avarnia as
> fundamentally bird-like. B and c have her win, not cause she's a
> bird, but cause she's a healer or a trickster.
Out in the real world, quail and grouse and ptarmigin survive by hiding and by having far too many young for them to be wiped out.
Jeff
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