Page 14 of Ahelno
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small animal crawl outof the satchel, sniffing the cushions and then coming towards me. Its green fur was mottled with purple stripes. Its face was squished in, but it had two large, black eyes, a black nose, and two large teeth descending from its upper lip like a sabre-toothed tiger. It actually looked like a green tiger with a pug’s face.
“Your pet is escaping,” I said to Karelch.
He turned to look. “He’s not a pet. That’s aGranthorcub. Someone found him in the wilds beyond the village. His mother had been killed, and he was next to her, probably only two weeks old. I have to hand-feed him fairly often, so he stays with me for now. When he’s old enough, we will release him back to the wild.Granthorare dangerous predators, but important to our ecosystem,” he said, as he finished the scan. “Give me a second to review the results. You can play with him if you like while you wait. He’s not very dangerous yet, and play is important for the cubs.” He handed me a stick with a fabric flag attached. I swear it was just like a cat’s feather toy. I missed my cat.
I waved the stick to see if the fabric would grab the cub’s attention, and it did. He started pouncing immediately. Gah, it was so cute! I wished I had my phone so I could record it.
“What is a phone?” I heard.
“A phone is a communications device. The camera takes an image of something so you can see it again later,” I replied.
“What?” Karelch asked.
“You asked what a phone was,” I said.
“No, I did not,” he said, and peered at me. “Are you feeling well?”
I realized that I also hadn’t said anything about wishing for a phone out loud. Crap, I was hearing voices, wasn’t I?
The Granthor cub put his paw on my knee and peered up at me. “New mother?” I heard.Wait, what? I thought. “Can you hear me?” I ‘thought’ at the cub.
“Of course.” I heard. “Are you new mother? Different from first mother.” He licked my hand. My jaw dropped open in shock as I stared down at the cub.
“Um, Karelch,” I asked. “Are Granthor telepathic?”
“What an odd question. No, we don’t have any telepathic animals on Ptekennan. Why, are Earth animals telepathic?” he asked.
Now he was going to think I was a lunatic. “Some of them are,” I lied. “I was curious if any here were.” Hope that false factoid never made it into the human information database.
“How interesting,” he replied.
“Can you speak to Karelch?” I asked the cub, looking meaningfully at the veterinarian.
“No speak to gray-skins. Gray-skins not hear. New mother hears!” the cub replied excitedly. My mind was reeling as I took this in.
“Your scans indicate your health is unchanged since your first arrival. Your pulse and blood pressure are lower, but I presume that the pressure upon arrival was probably elevated given the stress you were under at the time. These readings are probably closer to your baseline. Do you have any physical ailments that require treatment?” Karelch asked.
“No, I feel fine,” I said as the cub rubbed his head into my hands. In my head, I could hear him begging to be petted, and I was trying not to get distracted. He climbed in my lap and I stroked down his back. It really was like having a cat. I had missed that.
“The cub has taken to you. It’s time for him to be fed. Wouldyou like to do that?” Karelch asked.
“Yes, I would love that! I had a cat back home as a pet, and he reminds me so much of her.”
“I would remind you that this cub is not a pet, but I can understand the sentiment,” Karelch replied. He handed me a bag of some sort of stringy sticks. “Break these into small pieces for him.”
I broke the sticks into small pieces and fed them to the cub a few at a time. “More!” the cub exclaimed. He growled and snuffled, generally delighting in eating, and I smiled at him.
“You are good with him, and he seems to like you. Would you like to foster him for a time?” Karelch asked.
“Oh, could I? I would love to!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, it is surprisingly time-consuming, and I have other duties, so this would be a great favor to me,” Karelch replied. “You would need to commit to at least eight more weeks of feeding him, then he should be ready to be released.”
“I can absolutely do that,” I replied. I knew the cub wasn’t a pet, but I absolutely adored animals, and he was so cute. It was going to be hard to let him go.
Karelch handed me the satchel. “I will have his sleeping crate and food delivered this afternoon, and I will send his care instructions to your communications panel.”
“Wonderful! Thank you so much,” I said.
