Page 14 of My Orc Has Big Tusks
“Which is why this is going to be a problem,” Krem said.
“I’ll prepare the isolation room,” I said. “We’ll figure out the rest after it gets here.”
“Also,” Traig added, glancing at his tablet, “we’re getting low on funds for the medical supply budget. I’ve been putting off ordering some of the more expensive equipment, but if we’re going to have a full-time veterinarian?—”
“If she accepts.”
“She didn’t say no, did she?” he asked.
“She didn’t say yes either.” I bumped off the counter I’d been leaning against. “If she accepts, I’ll make sure the funds are there. Let’s finish rounds.”
Traig and Krem handled the main building. Drogar headed out to the east pasture to deal with the juvenile hearthmaw he’d mentioned. Greth went to the behavioral observation room where we kept creatures that needed extra attention.
After they left, I stood in the empty hallway, my reflection faint in the window glass. I was seven feet of green skin and tusks and hands that were good with frightened creatures but a ridged tongue that was clumsy with human words.
Laina hadn’t looked at me like I was too much last night. She’d looked at me like I was exactly the right person to be standing next to her while she worked.
But humans were good at being polite. I’d learned that. It didn’t always mean anything more.
I returned to the medical bay.
Cooper still hadn’t eaten.
I changed his water and food, adjusted the cloth over his kennel, and sat down in the chair beside him.
“She’ll probably call,” I told him. “She said she’d check in. That’s what humans do when they’re being professional.”
Cooper made a soft chiming sound from inside the kennel.
“I know. I’m overthinking it.”
He chimed again.
“She was good at this. Really good. And the creatures need someone who understands them. Someone who’s willing to learn.”
The clatterwing shifted, his feathers rustling.
“And maybe I want her to take the job. Not just because we need a veterinarian. Because?—”
I stopped. Saying it out loud felt too big.
“Because she looked at you the way I look at you,” I finally said. “Like fixing your wing wasn’t just a job. And I don’t know how many humans think that way, but I know she does.”
I’d met plenty of people. They adopted our strays and wounded creatures. Some were kind, others only curious. Most were fine. But Laina had stood in this room with rain dripping from her coat and talked to Cooper, not just me. She’d wanted him to know he was safe.
This,I’d thought.This is what we need here.
Cooper went quiet.
I sat there for a while, listening to his breathing and the faint chime of his feathers every time he moved.
The medical bay felt less empty with him in it, but it still felt bigger than it had last night.
By midmorning, I’d checked on every creature in the facility twice.
The bloomback in the south enclosure was shedding flowers again, which meant he was stressed about something. I spent twenty minutes sitting with him, talking in a low voice until his petals stopped falling.
The mossnibbles in the communal room had rearranged the furniture again. They’d built a nest out of someone’s jacket and what looked like three of Krem’s clipboards. I left the nest alone. They’d dismantle it when they were ready.
