Upon Three Paws

Chapter 13

New Faces

Right now is one of those days where there's nothing to do. No way to entertain yourself. I lay on a blanket Fesco set up under the table of my enclosure while I was still asleep. The examination from yesterday really tired me out and I ended up sleeping all the way till sunrise, a rare occurrence.

A yawn interrupts my doze. A throb of pain stops me yet again and I hit my snout in irritation, only causing another throb to come from the bruise.

Sooo bored. I whine and get up to stretch, with Fesco busy in the kitchen, I may as well try flying again. Since the quality of my flight is worse than the credit he gives me, I'm not quite ready for him to see me flying.

Picking an easy location, my eyes fall on the smaller deformed cloud across from the one Fesco is constantly using. I trot over and spread my wings before jumping with wing assist to land on it. The material sinks slightly beneath my paws, and it receives a trail of faint claw marks.

That shouldn't have happened. Plunking down, I flip over my good front paw to see my claws as sharp messy as ever. The sight horrifies me and I yelp in alarm. They've absolutely never grown this long and sharp before. It must be because I'm eating a stable and more plentiful diet. I need to clean them up right away.

Just as I jump down from the deformed cloud, one of my right claws gets caught and jerks me back. The sudden movement gives my neck whip lash and leaves me hanging off the edge.

Growling, I try pulling myself up, but from this odd angle and my inability to move my stuck leg all my other working legs are useless. Spreading my wings, I continue to scratch at the deformed cloud to get up.

Both frustration and desperation leak into my actions. With every passing second I grow hatred for my unmoving leg and sharp claws.

I barely manage to hear Fesco walk in with the scent of food on him. He spots me within a second of walking in and hurries over.

One hand supports my frantically kicking back legs while the other carefully unhooks my claws from the material. I'm kind of glad he doesn't set me down and instead rocks me comfortingly to his chest. Like before, his body heat calms me, but I still don't want to move.

I stiffen when he grabs my paw and looks at the claws with a soft gaze. After he's given my other equally sharp claws a glance, I'm being carried through the door across the hall from his bedroom.

The dark room is lit up by the tap of Fesco's finger against the wall and I squint my eyes to adjust. What I see surprises me.

In one corner of the room a small terrain of baked sand sits beneath two of the red lights in the walls, a tall fake tree stump on the edge of the sand. The majority of the remainder of the room is made up of the same light pink bedding from my small enclosure. Various blankets, large, small, fluffy, thick, have been scattered around by Fesco, as his faint scent clings to them.

When did he have time to make this?

Thinking back, I can't find any time period where he could've done this, and it frustrates me.

Once I've studied the room to my liking, I squirm against Fesco. Thankfully, he takes it as a sign to put me down and as soon as my paws touch the ground, I bounce off to the stump. The sand is warm beneath me thanks to the red lights, but that's not my top priority right now. I turn and begin the long task of filing down my claws.