Lost Change

Chapter 96

I spent a few minutes just resting in the hug before the door opened again. I stirred and lifted my wings, expecting that the doctor had returned and that I would need to move for the blood draw, but Minna just pressed gently against my back. I settled back down and let her resume the slow stroking over my back.

"Are you ready to go?" I recognized the voice of Minna's father from the door. "I can call an automated shuttle for us; you've been up too long to try flying."

Go? I felt my ear tufts droop at the idea Minna was going to leave. I knew I was supposed to be pretending not to understand the Kymari, but I was still very groggy from the lack of sleep. It was dark. I was weak. I didn't want to be left alone in the clinic without Minna.

I dug my claws into her shirt as I clutched at it.

"I'm not going anywhere." Minna spoke softly and pressed her hand against my back again. I felt myself relax. "He isn't ready to leave yet."

I heard a sigh from near the door. "Minna... you've been up for almost forty hours at this point. I just spoke with Senica; she said he is not in any danger. You can leave him here and go home to get some rest. You need to sleep."

"I got some sleep here."

"A few minutes of napping in a waiting room chair isn't the same as actual sleep. You also need to get some real food."

"Senica gave us all some meal bars a few hours ago."

Another sigh. "The emergency rations at an animal clinic do not count as food any more than the nap you got in that chair counts as sleep. Come home."

Minna's hand relaxed from around my back and started stroking me again. "No, dad. He isn't ready to leave yet. So I'm staying here with him. It's as simple as that."

"If you're worried about him, you don't need to be. There are three other bond handlers here, and two others keep stopping by to check on everything. Not to mention the guards the Elders assigned when they heard that over half of the creatures they had in captivity had become sick. This is probably the most heavily defended building on this entire planet at the moment. You can leave him here; he'll be safe."

"Safe? Nate will be trapped in a cage while strangers put him through treatments, all by himself, in the pitch black darkness. That's hardly what I would consider safe."

Yet another sigh. "At least come stay in a hotel. I checked at the spaceport here; they have rooms open. You won't even be half an hour away. You can get some real food and some real rest, and be back before you know it."

I felt Minna's body shift as she shook her head. "I will know it. And he will know it. That's the important part; I won't put him through that." This time Minna sighed. "Dad, don't you know anything about bond handlers? I can't leave him. I can't."

The older Kymari went quiet for a moment. It was too dark to see him, but I got the strangest impression that he was watching me. And watching his daughter.

When he finally spoke he sounded... resigned. There was a little bit of sadness in his voice, like he had just come to realize something he hadn't wanted to accept. "I do know about bond handlers. But I also know you. You've never cared this much about anything else before; I can't remember any time you missed out on sleep for something. If I hadn't woken you up you would have slept through the flight to this planet in the first place, and your brother said you kept that habit most of the time you lived here." He went quiet again. "But you're really going to stay here with him. Even if it means you miss out on sleep, even though you miss out on food? You are going to do that? He already means that much to you?"

Minna's hand moved from my back to brush lightly over my ear tufts. "Yes. He does." She shifted again and looked towards the door. "I will not leave him alone like this."

Her father went quiet again. I started to drift off to the feel of Minna's relaxing pets, and had almost forgotten he was there before he spoke again. "I'll talk to Senica about letting me bring in something for you to sleep on. Maybe I can get some food for everybody while I'm out."

I felt Minna shift subtly beneath me. I glanced up at her face. It was still much too dark to see, but somehow I knew she was smiling. "Thanks, Dad."

The other Kymari didn't say anything else. After a few seconds I heard the door open, then shut again behind him.

I drifted off again after that. I think I fell asleep - I just felt groggier the longer I stayed awake, and being held by Minna was incredibly comforting and relaxing - but at some point I was jolted back to alertness by something sharp piercing into my side.

I hissed in annoyance and started to struggle, but Minna's hands tightened and pulled me closer to her chest. "Shh. It's okay." Whatever had stabbed me vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind only a dull soreness beneath my shoulder.

"It's time. We need to start the treatment again. I'll check this sample to confirm how much longer he needs, but he's been off the medication for long enough." The vaguely familiar voice of the doctor spoke from somewhere in the darkness, on the same side of me that the pain had come from.

I hissed at her just on general principle - whatever she had used to draw blood from me had hurt, and I wasn't happy with her - but Minna just gave me a few more pets to calm me. She pulled me a little closer into a hug, then slowly stood back up and lifted me away from her.

"It's okay, Nate. I'll be right here the whole time." Minna sat me back down on the padding, and a moment later the curved glass panel expanded around me into the same dome shape. I made out a hand somewhere above me in the darkness, tapping something on the glass, and the air around me grew hazy again.

The air took on the faint metallic scent that I had noticed when I first woke up, but it also became much easier to breath again. The grogginess faded a little and it became slightly easier to think, even though I still felt very tired.

"There. I'll come back in an hour to check up on him again, but I'll still be in this wing of the building if you notice any problems before then."

"Thank you."

I heard the door open again somewhere out in the darkness, and the sound of a Kymari walking through it before it closed again.

It was completely dark around me. I was already feeling myself growing calmer with each breath I took, but I still felt a slight panic growing at being left in the dark. I lifted my ear tufts and tried to look around me, hoping to see anything out through the darkness.

"It's okay, Nate. I'm still here." Minna's voice came out of the darkness, gentle and reassuring.

I walked towards the side of the dome her voice had come from and stretched out alongside it. I heard the sound of someone shifting out in the darkness... then a scarred Kymari hand pressed against the outside of the glass.

A familiar sense of guilt welled up in me as I looked at the barely visible scars covering the hand. I stared at it for a half second, then moved against the wall and curled up by Minna's hand, with only the thin glass dome separating us.

A few minutes later I was asleep.