Evening
“Henmop?” I called softly. Peraginisis and Firaspatciti had different rotations. While it was afternoon on Firaspatciti, the sun was setting here on Peraginisis. “Henmop?” I called again, louder this time. There was still no answer.
Our home on Peraginisis was small and cozy. Made from local stone, it sat in the middle of a large parcel of land owned by Henmop’s family. It was the smallest of the family homes, one of the homes that had been abandoned hundreds of years ago as the family grew. Henmop had claimed it for her own use, and her family had agreed to award her the home and 5,000 squares of land as a bonding gift if we bonded.
We were still working on the house. We’d cleaned it up, purchased furniture and dug a new well to provide water as the old well had gone dry. By far the most interesting part of getting the house habitable had been when the energy collector had opened its portal near the sun for the first time in years, only to have the collector explode. The failure had taken down one of the walls of the collector building and burned a ten length deep hole in the ground in the fractions of a second it took for the safeties to shut down the portal. We had laughed about it after the fact, but that was the reason energy collectors were placed well away from inhabited structures. We’d replaced the collector and were in the process of rebuilding the collector building, but at least we had power now.
I trudged upstairs to our bedroom. “Henmop?” She wasn’t there, nor was she in the bath.
I could feel disappointment squeezing my heart. She’d probably been called away on an emergency. I started to open a communication portal, but decided to check the stables first. I trotted down the steps and out of the house.
Peragin was mountainous, green, and far cooler than Firaspatciti. Though the nanites regulated my body temperature so I wasn’t cold, the crisp cool nights made snuggling with Henmop an enjoyable experience. I smiled as I approached the stable. The lamps were on, which meant Henmop was probably inside.
I opened the heavy door that kept the gralls from getting inside and killing the animals, making sure it was securely latched. Gralls weren’t something to be trifled with. They were big, bold, animals with dagger like teeth and wickedly sharp claws. I’d tangled with a pack of them once before, but I was in the open where I could maneuver with my long blade. Even then, I’d been bitten once and had my thigh opened up by another’s claws before both animals paid for their victory with their life. I would not want to face even a single grall in a confined space.
“Henmop?”
“Tokalas! Help me!”
I hurried to Henmop’s side. She was on her knees beside a huyarah, one of the animals that the Peragins raised for its fur and meat, trying to hold the animal still. The animal was lying on its side, its eyes rolled back in its head as it thrashed and kicked. There was a deep bloody wound on its side and one of its front legs was clearly broken.
“What happened?”
“Hold her down!”
I threw myself across the back of the animal, trying to grab the beast’s rear legs to stop it from kicking. I got one, then the other, but not before it kicked me hard in the leg, making me grunt in pain.
Henmop grabbed the syringe from her mouth and drove it into the side of the animal, pressing the plunger down before jerking the syringe back and throwing it to the side. She threw herself over the front of the animal and wrapped a cloth around the huyarah’s head, covering its eyes. Gradually the animal began to calm as Henmop’s gentle touch and the drug began to work.
“That’s my girl,” Henmop whispered, stroking the animal’s head. “Everything is going to be alright now.”
“What happened to it?” I asked as the animal stopped struggling.
“Fell off a cliff,” she said as she continued to stroke the animal. “Looks like it happened a couple of days ago. The Butherat family called and asked if I could come look at her. She’s very weak, so we brought her here. I’m going to keep an eye on her for the next couple of days.”
“I didn’t know a huyarah could fall.”
Henmop smiled at me. “They’re very sure footed, but accidents happen. I’m surprised the fall didn’t kill her. The only reason the gralls didn’t get her is they couldn’t reach her. They had to lower me down on a line. I couldn’t do a thing for her at the bottom of that ravine, so we tunneled back here. It took six of us to get her up and through the portal. She came around while I was looking her over.”
“Where are the Butherats?” I asked, trying hard to keep the annoyance out of my voice. Leaving my mate here to deal with their injured animal alone? I was not pleased by that at all.
“I sent them away. They were trying to get me to put her down and I wouldn’t do it, not while she still has a fighting chance.”
I sighed. “It’s their huyarah,” I pointed out softly.
“If they were just going to kill her, they shouldn’t have asked for my help. Hold her. This is going to hurt.”
Henmop took the broken front leg and with a quick jerk and twist, snapped the bone back into position with a grisly sounding pop. The animal shrieked in pain and defecated all over me as she kicked and struggled. I held on and the animal slowly quieted. I’d been defecated on so many times in the past thirteen weeks I didn’t even mind anymore.
“There, there,” Henmop said as she stroked the animal, then looked at me. “Will you get me a splint?”
I slowly released the animal’s legs and then rose to hurry to the rack of supplies Henmop kept for sick and injured animals. I picked up three splits that looked to be about the right size and returned to them to Henmop, along with the straps to hold them in place.
“Thanks,” she said, taking the items. “Okay, girl, let’s see if we can get you back on your feet.”
I watched as Henmop quickly braced the huyarah’s leg with the splints. Once the leg was protected, she moved to look at the wound in the animal’s side. She hissed. “It’s becoming infected.”
I knew without being asked what she needed and returned in a moment with a spray what would kill the infection and seal the wound so that it could heal. I watched as Henmop trimmed away the fur around the wound. Finished, she held the wound closed.
“Treat it,” she ordered.
I liberally sprayed the wound and the area immediately around it. As the foam began to harden, forming a tough protective barrier, Henmop carefully removed her hands and took the spray from me, spraying the area where her fingers had been.
She rose to her feet and watched the animal for a moment. “I don’t like the way she’s panting. She may have internal injuries.”
She moved to the basin and carefully cleaned her hands with a sterilizer. Once her hands were clean, she picked up the portable scanner and returned to the animal. She handed me the screen then placed the scanner against the animal. As I held the screen so she could see it, Henmop slowly moved the palm-size device over the animal, a picture of the inside of the animal forming on the screen.
“I see a lot of bruising and swelling, but no bleeding and nothing appears to be broken.” She paused as she zoomed in on an area and then smiled. “She’s pregnant.”
“I thought huyarah’s only got pregnant in the spring.”
“Normally that’s true, but you can see for yourself.”
I looked at the screen, but I could have been looking at the inside of me for all I could tell. “She’s a mewu, so this is her first broot. It happens. She’ll skip a year, then the next year, she’ll become fertile with the rest of her herd,” Henmop explained.
“So you saved two lives today.”
She smiled at me. “Yes I did. I should charge Giup Butherat double.” Henmop continued to pass the scanner over the animal. “I see a lot of trauma, but nothing life threating. She’d going to be as sore as a stomped squiyt for a few days, but I think she’s going to live.” She looked me over. “She’s going to be groggy for a couple of hours more. Why don’t you go get cleaned up? You’re a mess.”
I looked at myself and grimaced. “Yes I am.”
She smiled at me then stepped in close. “You showed up just in time, and despite being covered in feces, you’re still the sexiest man in the stable,” she breathed.
“I’m the only man in the stable,” I pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said as she rose to her toes to kiss me. “Now go,” she breathed as she pulled back from the kiss. “I’m not sitting at the same table as you with you smelling like that. You can bathe while I prepare our meal.”