Lost Change

Chapter 27

I drank about two-thirds of the bowl before my thirst was quenched, then I retreated back to stretch out on the blanket.  It annoyed me that I couldn’t spread out my wings, and some of the pain and itching was making it through the fuzzy tingling sensation, but it wasn’t bad enough yet to make me want to risk putting myself back in that dazed state.

The Kymari tapped some things on the device on the table - presumably a message to the doctor to let her know I was drinking - then got up and walked down the hallway to the kitchen.  She was gone for a while, though I heard the distant sound of what I assumed to be cabinets opening and shutting, and eventually she wandered back through the living room on her way to the bedroom.

She disappeared there for a while, then re-emerged in a new outfit, one that seemed to be more in keeping with what I usually saw Kymari wearing out in public.  She sat back down on the couch and fiddled with the device some more, which caused the screen to light up and sound to come from a speaker in the back.  The Kymari flipped through a couple shows before settling for something like a cooking show, then she grabbed a tablet-like device off the table and began fiddling with it.

The day pretty much passed like that.

I kept a close eye on her, but she didn't make any sudden movements.  Aside from getting up randomly to get a drink out of the kitchen, or to disappear down the bedroom hallway to presumably use the bathroom, she seemed perfectly fine with reading whatever was on the tablet while the screen droned on.

For my part, I basked in what warmth reached me from the heat lamp and learned what I assumed was a great way to prepare some strange alien equivalent of chicken alfredo, before the pain and itching in my wings grew to be too much.  I carefully climbed down from the blanket and eyed the bowl of tainted water.  Maybe if I just drank a little bit, it would dull the pain without causing me to zonk out…

I wasn’t sure how long I had been staring at the glass wall of the cage when I heard the gentle chime roll through the room.  The Kymari lifted her head from her tablet and said 'Come in!', which led to the soft 'ding' of the doors opening.

"Hi Auntie Minna!"  An excited voice rang out from the door and I saw the young Kymari child I had grown to recognize - Lyzel - rush into the room before jumping up on the couch.  The Kymari caught her in a hug and spun the child to sit on the couch beside her.

"Hello Lyzel!  How was school?"  The Kymari looked back towards the doorway and gave a short wave.  "Hi Terron!  Come in; do you want a drink or anything?"

Lyzel let out an exaggerated sigh and sank back into the couch.  "It was boring."

The male Kymari I had also come to recognize stepped into the room, and the door let out another soft 'ding' before it closed behind him. "Thank you, but I'm fine.  I was just taking Lyzel to play in the park, and wanted to check if you would like to come with us; I know today is your day off, but I-"

"MISTER FIRE LIZARD!"  Lyzel stood up on the couch and pointed right at my cage, her eyes wide with excited surprise as she loudly interrupted the adult.

Terron blinked and looked at Lyzel, then followed her finger to look at me.

I looked at the glass wall.

"Minna…"  Terron's voice was quiet, and held a dangerous edge to it.

"It's not what you think!"  The female Kymari threw up her hands before rising to her feet.  "He got attacked while I was watching him; he would be-  Lyzel, no, he needs to rest; he's badly hurt."  I was dimly aware of Lyzel trying to run around the couch before the older Kymari caught her.

Terron walked up to my cage and stared down at me.  It probably would have been intimidating and scary if I hadn't been so engrossed in the glass.

"Dad is going to freak out.  You cannot keep him.  Especially not him.  Letting you spend a year here for an apprenticeship was one thing, and hard enough to get him to agree with even with me here to look out for you, but this?  They aren’t even allowed out of orbit; anyone who keeps one has to stay here.  Mom and Dad will not stand for that."

"I'm not going to keep him!"  The Kymari looked horrified and shook her head.  "He wouldn't let me even if I wanted to; he knows what I did."  She lifted her hand up and showed off one of her fingers.  There were tiny little marks on it, the healing marks left behind from where I had bit her.

Terron glanced at the finger, then back at me, putting together the size of the wound with the size of my mouth.  "Then why did you bring him here?"

"Because I know what I did, too."  The Kymari glanced off to the side, not facing me or Terron.

"Could the doctor have taken him in?  Or somebody else?"

"The local doctor doesn't know the first thing about them, and is too busy with other patients to bother learning.  Not for just a single one.  They had to fly in another doctor just to save his life, and she didn't think a long shuttle flight would be a good idea for him."

"Somebody else, then; there are lots of people who are interested in bonding with one of the fire…"  Terron trailed off, then flinched, as if something had just occurred to him.

The female Kymari just nodded.  Lyzel looked up at the two in confusion, then back at Terron.  "Daddy?  I don't understand; why wouldn't anybody want to be friends with Mister Fire Lizard?"

Terron reached down and picked up the child, holding her in his arms as he glanced back at me.  "It…  you will understand it more when you get older, but Mister Fire Lizard already had a close friend, the other animal he had been living with, and maybe humans who had lived here before that.  We know he must have loved them deeply because of everything we have seen him do for that animal.  Something like that can never be replaced."

The female Kymari nodded, and when she spoke she had the air of someone quoting somebody else.  "'It would be wrong to even try.’”  She gestured back towards me with one hand.  “There were a lot of people who wanted to see him when they heard he had been injured.  They kept coming into the lobby and pestering the receptionist for updates as the news spread.  But none of them were willing to take him home."

Terron just looked at my cage for another minute or two.  I thought maybe he had begun to see just how neat the glass was when he finally shook his head.  "I will break the news to Mom and Dad.  You have been getting high reviews and they said they were proud of you, which will help, but…"  He sighed again.  "How much time did the doctor say he would need?"

"She wasn’t sure on the leg but doesn't think it will be long.  The ribs will be a few weeks to heal, then they'll just be tender but not in any danger.  The wings…  she won't know for sure until the left wing is finished growing back in and she can get them in a proper cast, but given others she's worked with in the past she's guessing one month.  Plus a week or two after that to get his muscles used to working again, then he'll be ready to release back into the wild."

"That will put you out past your apprenticeship.  Dad is going to be upset about that."

"Dad needs to stop worrying.  I'm old enough to be out on my own."

"By one year.  And most of the time, 'old enough to be out on our own' means living down the street where your parents can still take care of you, not in a backwater colony lightyears away.  You cannot blame him for being worried."  Terron's eyes glanced back towards me as if he wanted to say something more, but he held it back.

"Yeah.  I guess."  The Kymari sighed and shook her head.  "Sorry.  I'd love to go with you, but I need to put more medicine on his wing in a little.  He's got an appointment with the vet tomorrow, but if that goes well I should be free again, work permitting."

"Aw…"  Lyzel pouted, then glanced at me.  "Okay.  Take good care of Mister Fire Lizard?  I'll try and find his ball for him while we're there."

Terron and the female Kymari smiled.  "I'm sure he would appreciate that."

Terron and Lyzel said their goodbyes, and the Kymari settled back down on the couch to work on her tablet.  I stared at the glass wall for a little bit longer, feeling drowsiness creeping up on me… until it overtook me and I slipped off into sleep.