by Melody Rose
“And for the record, I know you never want a cracker, good mood or not.” When the bird didn't reply, I threw my hands up with an exasperated sigh. “You’re such a prima donna! I don’t know how Susan puts up with you!” I teased. “What you do want are my world-famous peanut butter pockets, with some raisins thrown in just for you!”
“World famous! World famous!” Petunia yelped happily. I didn’t see the harm in having a little fun and hearing a compliment from my imitative little friend, even if it required a little bribery.
As Petunia nibbled up the last of her treats with innocent greed, I picked up her cage by the handle and walked to the examination room. I greeted Dr. Kerrigan and Petunia’s owner, Susan, a sweet, gray-haired older woman who could always be seen in a floral print sundress. None of us at Evergreen could figure out how such a pleasant person could have raised such a bratty parrot.
“All done, Susan. She’s relaxed and ready for Dr. Kerrigan, no sedatives needed!” I joked with a reassuring grin.
Susan scanned my arms, peppered with beak marks, clicked her tongue, then shook her head sadly. “I’m so terribly sorry, Joan! Even though I love my precious Petunia, she’s an outright nightmare! You’re an absolute angel for handling her tantrums and her picky eating. Oh! Before I forget…”
She reached into her purse and retrieved a thick recipe book complete with full-color photographs and a small jewelry box. Knowing her, I’d find a dessert-themed charm in it. She seemed to be the only local to figure out how bad my life was, and she always sought to do little things to make it a bit better. Maybe it was a special power of hers.
I blushed and nervously accepted her gifts. “Thank you, Susan, but you know I’m just doing my job, and that you don’t need to keep doing this. That being said, I’m not going to turn these down! It’s very sweet of you.”
I then excused myself and kept them in my cubby for safekeeping. Nervous of how my stepmother would react, I had taken to hiding them in a branded Evergreen tote bag to keep her from taking away one of my only joys.
Before I could sneak a peek at what I’d received, I heard some shouts drift in from the waiting room. Since I was raised to put myself to work whenever possible, I tore myself away from my little presents and headed over to see what was going on.
“Can I get some service here?!” a strangely familiar voice bellowed. “I have a noble beast that has a terrible illness of the spirit and needs to be tended to! Since his dilemma is clearly more pressing than anyone and their weak-willed… pets!… I strongly propose that you see to him first! He needs to get back in chasing form!”
My stomach dropped when I saw the handsome but painfully rude stranger from the bakery shake his fist at Olivia, the receptionist. His other arm was folded over a fluffy white dog with the demeanor of a frightened puppy. It sagged sadly as he pressed it against his chest and looked as though it didn’t have the will to move. While he seemed to carry his pet tenderly, he was rough with everyone else. The smaller animals in the lobby started getting seriously unsettled. One chihuahua even looked like it was about to hyperventilate, and its worried owner hissed at the irate man in a hushed voice. The rest of the clients in the waiting room followed suit, setting down their magazines or moving their attention from kennels to tell him to wait his turn. Did he just travel to different areas to see how many small businesses he could harass? If I could, I would’ve given him one star as a human being.
Still, as I walked over to him, I kept my posture straight and my chin up high to show that he couldn’t get under my skin. When I stopped in front of him, I crossed my arms and projected my voice as much as I could to show that he couldn’t push me around.
“Excuse me, but you need to tell the receptionist if this is an emergency or not, fill out our intake forms, take a number, then sit tight,” I explained firmly. “There have been people waiting before you with their own emergencies, and we’re seeing them as fast as we can.” I felt a couple of beads of sweat on my temple, but I wasn’t going to back down. I wanted to tell him off much more than I did, but I couldn’t afford to piss off a customer and lose this job.
“You again!?” the jerk howled. “What am I, cursed? Why are you even here, pie-slinger? I don’t even want to look at you. I have very important affairs to attend to, and I can’t be bothered by you. By the way, whatever… those… are, they’re hideous.” He put special care to be extra nasty with that last phrase as he looked me up and down, clearly knocking me for my scrubs. Even if they weren’t from the clearance section of the uniform shop, I would have found them cute. I mean, who doesn’t love smiling cartoon frogs unless they’re practically heartless?
“Yeah?!” I snapped back. “Well, this isn’t a fashion show, and you’re not going to get very far if you tell everyone in this town to screw off. Not that I care what happens to you, but your dog is cute, and I don’t want it to suffer because you’re a jerk with no social skills. By the way, I work here, so if you are looking to see Dr. Kerrigan, you’re going to have to put up with me here, too. Sorry, buddy. I guess you’re going to have to learn some manners, stat!”
After I finished my rant, I peeled my eyes off of the moody blonde to pet and coo at his dog. It was an interesting breed I’d never seen before, maybe it was a trendy mix designed for the rich and famous to show off.
“Hey, you know I’m not mad at you, right?” I assured the dog. “Just because I think your owner can shove it doesn’t mean I won’t help you out.”
“Don’t touch him!” the asshole protested. “Only the most skilled hands are worthy enough to inspect this superior creature! Attendants! Attendants! Banish this madwoman and find me someone who has mastered their craft!”
I couldn’t believe he was calling me a madwoman while he was yelling his head off like he was in some Shakespearean play. What a drama king. Dr. Kerrigan escorted Susan out with a blissfully chatty Petunia and handed her a white bottle of pills before she glanced over at our entitled client.
“You!” the drama king barked as he pointed at Dr. Kerrigan. “You look advanced enough in age to have trained exhaustively in the arts of taming beasts! What is that salve that you’ve handed to the winged speaker? It looks robust and healthy, and it certainly can howl at the top of its lungs! Can it rouse the spirits of my pup? Please bring your apprentice so we can have some fresh eyes on this matter.” He looked deadly serious, and I almost felt bad for him. Maybe he had been in such a bad mood because his dog was sick. I’m sure the whole town would be better off if we could help in any way we could.
The color drained from Dr. Kerrigan’s face as she struggled to not be offended by his comment about her age. “Those were some stress reduction pills, and they won’t work with the metabolic system of a dog. Have you filled out all the forms? There’s a procedure we have here. Joan can take you aside and get started with it.” She gestured at me, unaware of our “history” with each other, and returned to her business.
“This is your apprentice?!” Drama King seemed aghast at the notion. “Madam, surely you have more self-respect than trusting your precious beasts to the village idiot!”
I couldn’t believe he would say that about me. All the clients in the waiting room shuffled with irritation, ready to defend me. I swear, if he didn’t have that dog, I would have chewed him out myself and told him to get bent, but I had an example to set. I was known for my caring touch when it came to animals, and I wanted it to stay that way, come hell or high water.
“Look, you’re not going to get the royal treatment here, and you’re not going to be able to skip the line,” I announced to reassure the clients in the waiting room that I wouldn’t give in to his demands.
Then I leaned in a little to whisper the rest of my instructions. “And I really don’t want to be stuck in a room with you either. In fact, I can barely stand sharing the same air because you’ve been nothing but trouble since you’ve come here. You’re pretty much banned from ever eating another one of my pies in your life, but your dog
is welcome here. Why don’t we get started so we can get out of each other’s hair and move on with our lives?”
“I’ll tolerate you only as long as is necessary,” he muttered grudgingly, “and only so that I can speak to your master beast tamer.”
I grabbed a clipboard from the receptionist’s desk and then guided the sulking man into an office for a general assessment before handing him and his dog off to Dr. Kerrigan.
“I forgot to ask. What’s his or her name?” I looked at Drama King with my best customer service smile to show that this was all forced small talk. In order to be extra petty, I didn’t act curious about his own name.
It worked. I could see his face burn with irritation as he realized he’d have to make nice with me to speed along the process, even if meant having to be put in his place.
“This is a male Cav...” He paused and changed his mind. Maybe he thought I was too poor to possibly understand his trendy dog’s breed. “His name is Aurelius, and no one knows what’s wrong with him. My father told me this was an establishment of well-repute, and I had no idea you’d be here. I was hoping for an apprentice with more talent, but what can you do?”
“Well, you can place Aurelius down here on the examining table, and then I can ask you some questions and go through an initial check-up.” I laid a blanket on the cold steel surface to keep the dog comfortable. “What have you noticed about him in the past few weeks?”
He laid the whimpering dog gently down on the table. Aurelius curled up with tearful eyes and took note of the various medical tools and posters of miscellaneous animals around him. I got the sense that he was very untrusting of this new environment. Maybe he wasn’t used to city life and preferred a calmer situation.
“He’s nothing like his siblings, who are vigorous as can be.” His voice seemed to soften with regret, even though annoyance still radiated from him. “They run and hunt in the woods all day long, while he stays behind and gets spooked from the smallest perceived threat. We can’t find anything wrong with his vital signs, but he’s as slothful as an old man.”
“What if he doesn’t like hunting?” The question seemed perfectly natural to me as I petted Aurelius’ shiny white fur and searched for any spot where his muscles tightened or where he seemed especially nervous. This wasn’t part of any official veterinarian duties, but I would try to settle animals down so that they weren’t a wreck before Dr. Kerrigan saw them. As I focused on being nurturing and nonjudgmental, I could feel Aurelius’ anxiety decrease, but it was still there. I was only petting him, after all.
“Impossible,” the man claimed. “That’s what his kind was designed for. I’m just looking to get him back in proper form. To keep him from hunting would be to deny what is in his blood.”
I laughed at that. “It’s not all about our blood. I would know a thing or two about feeling out of place and different from my family, Aurelius. Sometimes life hits you square in the face, and you realize that what you thought you were meant to do is entirely different from what you first expected.”
Aurelius seemed pleased by my soothing voice and my sympathy, even if we didn’t speak the same language. He rolled out of his fetal position and exposed his belly. Even though he wasn’t smiling, he was in much better shape than he was before. I rubbed his stomach and was immediately hit with a pang of sadness… but it wasn’t from me. It felt like it had risen from Aurelius and coursed into my system and right into my heart. Without thinking, I found words rolling out of my mouth in a steady stream.
“Aurelius doesn’t want to hunt. He doesn’t enjoy chasing after others and threatening them if it isn’t absolutely necessary. Even though everyone wants him to be like his siblings, he isn’t as aggressive as them and wants to be appreciated for his devotion.”
I blinked, surprised by the sentimental language. Dr. Kerrigan would have suffered second-hand embarrassment if she’d heard it because it wasn’t exactly a science-based diagnosis. I could definitely tell that Aurelius was feeling more comfortable, though, and Drama King had actually shut up to take me seriously and listen.
That was kind of endearing. Maybe he just really wanted the best for his dog, so I tried to reword what I had felt to include some terms that sounded slightly more medical for his benefit. “Your dog has experienced some trauma from some of the training exercises you’ve put him through,” I began carefully at first, but as I felt that I had hit upon the right thing, I pressed on. “You might have wanted him to fit in with the rest of the pack, but that’s not how he operates. It seems as though he received a negative reaction to all the stress and developed a reaction like… a hernia. It’s all this pain that he holds right in his stomach.” I stroked the pained area with gentle care. “You can treat Aurelius with some low-impact walks, and you need to be sure to be gentle with him, you hear me? You can’t afford to be rude with him like you are with me. I would avoid bringing him too far into the woods, which frightens him, and to keep everything… familiar.”
My eyes glossed over with the final word as though I were struck by a powerful memory, but instead of any images or sounds, a warmth spread inside of me. Aurelius pounced into my arms as though I had taken a pesky thorn out of his paw and licked my face with enthusiasm. I guessed we wouldn’t even need to see Dr. Kerrigan, and it was this guy’s lucky day. He didn’t have to wait in line after all.
5
Theo
“So, you have a talent, after all,” I couldn’t help but blurt out as Aurelius leaped onto the pale girl’s arms and slathered her freckled face with his tongue.
She was no common lamb’s blood, and while she didn’t know how to navigate the outside world well, she certainly had her way with perplexing beasts. The creatures of our land were trained to be guarded and alert. I don’t think I’d ever seen a familiar bonded to a mage demonstrate such an enthusiastic display of affection for another, but perhaps that was due to the strict atmosphere we encouraged.
At my words, the girl’s cheeks flared up with heated annoyance, and though her eyes seemed to ignite with a glimmer of anger, they softened to a defeated fatigue but a moment later. Maybe she gained comfort from a unique bond with a Cavallian pup. Even if she didn’t fully understand what he was, she must have sensed that what she accomplished was no small feat. I took her sigh as a cue to probe a bit further, especially since she was splitting her precious will between two crafts. Only one of them served her well, as far as I could tell.
“This appears to be your calling. It seems ill-advised to distract yourself with another trade. Why do you put yourself through that? Are you oblivious to the capabilities that you possess?”
She petted Aurelius absentmindedly with a furrowed brow. I know that my question must have needled at her, and I had to admit that I enjoyed getting under her skin. I wanted to explore both her mind and reasoning, and curiously, I genuinely wanted her to speak up for herself and explain her odd lifestyle to me.
“You’re getting really nosy there, aren’t you?” the girl asked with an arched eyebrow, but before I could protest, she waved a hand wearily at me. “I’ll give you a pass for now, but you’re going to have to thank Aurelius for that because I can’t help but stay in a decent mood when he’s around. It would be much better if you weren’t here to rain on my parade.”
She sighed and shrugged. “What can I say? You caught me on a bad day. I’m known for my recipes, not my grace. You would have known that if you kept your cool and stuck around. If you didn’t blow up on me, I would have given you a free pie for my slip-up.” She cocked her hip and twisted her mouth, as though she were waiting for an apology.
I didn’t take the bait.
“I would have passed on that. I’m not really keen on sweets.” I waved dismissively at the mere notion I would enjoy such a thing. “You’re not really answering the question, though. Surely you can bake to pass the time and entertain yourself, but why are you dealing with all these needy hu… people… if you don’t have to?”
My father had
always allowed me to study in peace and devote myself to becoming the best mage I could be. He certainly wouldn’t have permitted me to lose a grasp on my powers by busying myself with a peasant’s chores.
“Why am I not surprised that you’d be a snob over a nice gesture?” she scoffed as she rolled her eyes. “I work two jobs because I literally have to. My stepmother says I’m responsible for all the desserts at the bakery, and that it’s what I’m supposed to do as part of the family… and then she makes me pay for my own room.”
Aurelius whined a bit and nudged her with his snout in some gesture of sympathy at her growing sadness. She scratched his head as she continued.
“I thought this would be a good place to work because I’ve always liked animals, but my stepsisters can’t stand them, so I have to get my fix here,” she sadly admitted.
I detected her aura, once bright golden with happiness at Aurelius’ presence, turn a dingy gray shade. Her whole situation seemed quite bizarre to me.
“What a curiously sad little life you have,” I mused. “I’ve heard of peasants carrying their own weight or contributing to the family trade, but I’ve never heard of them having to give up all they’ve earned just for the right to stay under a roof. I can’t imagine you have any time, energy, or coin to attend even a decent academy.”
I could see this conversation turning in my favor, and if she didn’t agree to the logic of what I was about to propose, I could always just drag her out of this forsaken town. I would have slung her over my shoulder like the rare bounty she was if those lamb’s blood in the waiting hall didn’t seem so overprotective of her. Every girl’s dream, right? Regardless of what route I took, she’d eventually come around and admit I knew what was best for her. Especially since she was wasting her talents here.
