The Bind

The Surgery

CLAIRE POV

I felt nice. I was floating on a dark cloud of fluffy. I giggled, and it came out in a chirpy trill that disappeared into the fluffy.

"She's awake. Finally." Came a gruff sound from a ruddy man standing menacingly with arms crossed in the corner. The details were all slippery. I could barely focus, and had to sink mental claws into the scene around me to keep from sliding back into the comfortable feeling of nothingness shrouded in black.

"Hello there Claire, welcome back." Another voice joined the gruff man. This one was higher, lighter and kinder. Comparatively lilting in spoken melody, like a lullaby.

Bye bye to the world with the lull. Lull of bye, by and by. I hummed, hooting gently into the nothing surrounding me.

"Can you shift for me?" The lovely voice was addressing me in my darkness again "I can't treat your arm until you are in your human again."

Shifting. I can do that. As easy as forgetting that I ever was an owl. A ripple of pain sharpened my reality for a moment, accompanied by a thunk, a crash and more bites of pain in new areas. Details around me came into focus in bits and pieces.

I appeared to be on the floor, with a broken clinic table sprawled under my haunches. I turned my head to discover a big waggy tail. It was busy knocking things - like shiny instrument tables and jugs of water - to the floor with me. The sounds were pretty and jarring, a medical orchestra conducted by my big white tail. That was funny. The tail became waggier.

"You gave her too much." Commented the lovely voice, except the lovely quality had dried out into a scathing tone. "I thought we agreed to treat her together."

"Like you had a better idea. How else were we going to calm her down and stop her shifting between all three states while unconscious? How else were we going to stop the barrage of violence she was broadcasting to the city? It is an unprecedented situation Avery." The gruff man snapped back. The tone of his voice was sharp edges with fighting intent. It scared me, and that fear provoked anger to claw its way up my throat in a growl.

"Stop her, not kill her, Shepherd." Dr Avery snapped back.

"I gave her the recommended doses for each strain of creature specific opioid." He countered defensively.

"For owl, and wolf, and human. The recommended dose does not extend to delivering all three at once. Doctor." There was so much sarcasm infusing that sentence I didn't even know how to begin making sense of it. So I didn't even try.

I did try to stand up, to face this fight on my feet...paws... and ended up nearly upending a tiny desk as I bonked the underside with my massive head. Only to fall back to the hard, shiny ground, imploring the Goddess for the black cloud again. One of my legs had betrayed me. It was the slippery one painting itself red.

I glared at it. Traitor.

"Try again Claire, maybe human this time?" I could hear the laugh weaving behind serious words.

Try again. As easy as that. Human. Huuuuuman. "Woof, growwwwwl." Came out instead of words as I attempted to tell the universe what state I wanted to be in.

Human, Claire. A deep, warm voice rumbled from the back of my mind. I froze, whipping around in my head to feel where the voice had come from. It smelt like eucalyptus and touched the hollow space between my lungs and my heart. The echo of the link bounced around my body in ever diminishing strength until I found myself alone again, fighting the urge to cry.

Come back. I tried to link, but found myself unable to grasp my own thought with enough force to render it substantial.

Human, Claire. The voice returned, and I listened, transfixed. The sound was security and longing wrapped up in mystery. With two legs, soft skin stretched out over strong muscles, white hair flowing over your shoulders, arctic blue eyes blazing in challenge at the world, and the strongest of us captivated at every word falling from your lips.