"Come here, little one." Keeland
Fagon squatted down close to the bushes on the side of the road and
tried to coax the small kitten out. The poor thing was so small it
was all big blue eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. Just
come out."
The white fur ball of hissing fury
just growled at Keeland and cringed back further into the thick
prickly bushes. Keeland sighed, knowing that the kitten was so
scared that he wasn't going to be able to get it out of the bushes
the old fashioned way. He'd have to use stronger measures.
For a moment, Keeland considered
just diving into the bushes after the darn thing, but knowing his
luck, he'd just end up with an ass full of pricklies, and that
really didn’t sound like fun. True, he liked pointy things in his
ass, but bushes didn't even come close.
Keeland closed his eyes and
concentrated on the kitten. He could feel its overwhelming fear
almost immediately. The poor thing was terrified. Keeland sent waves
of calm toward the kitten, hoping that it would settle down and come
to him.
He couldn't just leave the thing out
here to survive on its own. It would die for sure. Keeland wasn't
sure what had happened to its mother, but it was obvious from the
moment Keeland drove around the bend in the road and saw the kitten
crossing in front of him that it was alone in the world.
Keeland hoped to catch the kitten,
take it back to his veterinarian clinic, check it over, and then
maybe find a good home for it. But leaving it out here in the middle
of nowhere to fend for itself just went against everything Keeland
believed in.
Gods, he wished people would learn
to spay and neuter their pets. There would be a lot less abandoned
animals in the world, and it would make his job a lot easier.
Keeland continued to send waves of
calm toward the small kitten until he felt a little sandpaper tongue
lick the palm of his hand. He opened his eyes in surprise and
glanced down to see the kitten trying to curl up in his hands.
"Well, aren't you just the cutest
thing," Keeland said as he picked the kitten up and cradled his
furry little body to his chest. Well, not really. The kitten looked
like it needed a good bath and some food, lots of food.
But he was still cute. And he was a
she.
Oops.
Keeland kept the kitten cuddled to
his chest as he stood and started back across the road to his car.
"It was a good thing for you that I decided to take the back road to
town. You could have been out here for days, maybe even months."
He knew that the kitten couldn't
understand a word he was saying, but she would understand the soft
tone Keeland used. Keeland found in his line of work that keeping
calm usually meant his patients were calm, looking to him for
direction and help.
It made him an effective
veterinarian.
Which was good considering that he
didn't like people much. People were nothing like animals. Animals
didn't go out of their way to stab other people in the back. They
hunted, but only for food or defense. They cared for their young,
and they didn't try and destroy everything around them.
Humans were the exact opposite in
Keeland's experience. They did whatever they had to do to make it
ahead, including stabbing others in the back and destroy everything
of beauty around them. And what they didn't understand, they killed,
and people didn't seem to understand much.
Most of them were idiots in
Keeland's book.
Just as Keeland reached the center
of the small two lane road, a motorcycle came flying around the bend
in the road. Keeland barely had time to jump out of the way before
the motorcycle was on him.
He dove for the side of the road in
front of his car, wincing when his body crashed into the hard,
unforgiving ground. He kept his arms tightly wrapped around the
kitten as he tumbled across the ground and came to rest in the ditch
just beyond the edge of the road.
He heard a loud squealing noise and
raised his head just in time to see the large motorcycle go
careening off the opposite side of the road. As much as his body
ached and told him not to, Keeland jumped up and ran to his truck.
He dropped the kitten into the front seat and grabbed his medical
bag out from behind his seat.
It was a good thing he had been on
his way back from a house call. He might not be a human doctor, but
he still had medical training, even if it was for the four legged
variety of patients.
Keeland ran to the other side of the
road where he had seen the motorcycle go down. It was lying on its
side, the engine still running and its tires spinning slowly to a
stop. Keeland hurried over and dropped to his knees beside the bike
and the rather large man pinned beneath it.
He reached over and turned the
engine off, thankful that he had once dated a guy into bikes so he
knew where the ignition switch was located. Once the engine stopped
roaring, a sudden silence filled the area.
It was almost eerie.
Keeland turned his attention to the
man on the ground, lying half under the motorcycle and half on top
of it. He wasn't moving.
"Mister?" Keeland called out softly.
"Mister?"
Nothing.
Damn.
Keeland didn't want to take the
guy's helmet off until he knew whether there was a neck injury or
not. But he was glad that the man was smart enough to follow the law
and wear the damn thing. It had probably kept him from suffering
massive head trauma.
Keeland carefully checked the rest
of the man's body, giving a cursory examination. There didn't seem
to be any broken bones, at least not on the side that Keeland could
reach. The side under the motorcycle would have to wait until either
the man woke up or medical personnel could arrive.
Keeland was also mildly surprised at
how well formed the man was. He was tall, much taller than Keeland's
own five foot five inches, and he seemed to be rather well built. As
Keeland traced over his body, looking for injuries of course, he
could feel the massive muscles under his hands, and there were a lot
of them.
Keeland stopped examining the man
and quickly glanced up when he heard a small moan. He leaned up
closer to the man's face. It was kind of hard to make out his
features since the man was wearing a helmet with a dark face shield.
"Mister, can you hear me?"
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