-One week and five days, after returning to Airship Mauled, Fizzle-
“Excuse me, but I need to check my patient.” At Dr. Patch’s words I carefully pulled away from being carefully snuggled up against Jade, as did Maries who slowly took her weight off the bed so as to not jostle Jade. “It’s always good to have people who understand that they need to be careful around someone who is injured.”
I thought about asking the doctor something and eventually came up with a quick question.
“Can you check my head first?” My head injury was on my mind at the moment.
“Oh right, that won’t take very long at all Ms. Berrytwist.” What followed was the Dr. Patch lighting up his horn and telling me to track the tip with my eyes, he undid the bandages and checked my head and made me answer a few questions. After all this he diagnosed me. “You’re doing well, you’re head injury has cleared up and I’ll give you the go ahead to use magic again. If you feel any pain from using magic, stop immediately and wait an hour before trying anything again.”
The good news was met by Maries pulling me into soft a hug, they were somewhat happy to hear I was feeling better personally. Somewhat, because we were both unhappy that Jade was still comatose.
The cracks and skeletal damage had been fully fixed by Dr. Patch, along with an uncomfortable amount of internal hemorrhaging he quickly fixed with surgery and help from both Fresh and Cheery.
“Right, now to check on my most troublesome patient.” Dr. Patch looked over Jade’s form and perform a scan and checked on how her body was healing.
The damage was mostly healed and now we were waiting on Jade to wake up. Why is it that my cuddle cat is always getting injured? Well it’s not to say that other people around here don’t get injured, they just don’t get injured badly enough like Jade almost insistently does.
Badly injured like mom, who was waiting on her arm and muscles to heal. She did transform into a griffon for an hour to cook some meals for the construction crew building up the hospital as she was getting tired of being stuck in bed all day. Like me and Jade, she was stubborn about sitting still and resting.
Mom barely made it back to bed in time and she got a few extra griffons feathers out of herself. Once she reverted back to being an Abyssinian, her injuries were still quite clearly where they were before her transformation.
It was useful to know that the griffon transformation puts you into a completely healthy state at the start of the limited time duration every time it is used. So plucking feathers before the transformation ended means there was a decent surplus on feather falling and double jumping for Magical Alchemy users, of which there were only two. Jade and mom must get a lot of mileage out of those griffon masks when they cast them.
I started to think on other things as I allowed myself to be held by Maries. Glancing over to mom, whose arm was in a sling, she sat at the edge of her bed sending sad looks to her kitten.
The hospital was still a long way from being finished. The construction crew was making good time though and were even donating money towards helping the town grow, which was rather nice of them. That or they enjoyed Kuril’s cooking far too much and wanted to see her back in action.
Thanks to Dr. Patch’s referrals and the Ratatoskr high speed mail delivery, we had several doctors of various races coming in. With that in mind, I was a little wary of the incoming diamond dog named Dr. Bones. Diamond dogs didn’t exactly have the greatest history of being friendly or even intelligent enough to even have doctors. Not only that, Abyssinians and diamond dogs tended to dislike one another on sight.
“Well now, she should wake up any day. Her injuries are healing perfectly, though she might be in a bit of pain upon waking. Otherwise she’ll be fine.” Well that was reassuring, but why hadn’t she woken up yet Dr. Patch. “As for why she hasn’t woken up yet, well these things take time and I’ll be here until she does to perform muscle therapy to make sure she doesn’t atrophy. This is the longest I’ve ever had to work with a patient, I’m more about quickly fixing up medical issues and letting my patients handle the rest.”
“To be fair you’ve already done more than enough for us Mr. Patch and I would like to say thank you for that.” Mom was right, he was going a little above and beyond to help us all out.
“Yes, but there’s nothing I can do for Ms. Chickadee. She’s chronically unlucky and most of her body will turn into a callus, well once her seemingly terminal bruises harden somewhat.” This was when Dr. Quick Patch turned to Maries. “While I’m here, I would like to give you a quick check up if you don’t mind. I do try to find the time to meet interesting biological challenges and a chimera would be a bit of a feather in my cap.”
“Oh we don’t mind, it’s just that chimera probably aren’t the easiest beings to be in charge of medically.” Mara was always the one to start off, which stemmed from her aggressive outgoing nature specifically. This was followed by Marie who hissed slightly at what Mara said. “Mostly because each chimera almost always have a completely different biology from birth from their progenitors. So what would work for once chimera wouldn’t work for all chimera. It would be more of a case to case basis for a doctor and would require specialized training per chimera under their purview. I’m not even sure what a blood test would look like from us, but I can guarantee you it would definitely be full of mixed results.”
“What they said, even if our race were to progress out of barbarism we would have a lot of problems in medical fields given the general variety of chimera there can be.” Maria just shook her head.
“How much of a variety?” Dr. Patch, to my understanding, didn’t quite see how bad a case could get.
“A cousin of ours is one part honey badger, a mongoose and a giraffe.” Now that was a disturbing combination for Maries to bring up. What Mara said next confirmed my thoughts. “You’d think the giraffe would be the tail end, but no… it’s actually the mongoose.”
“Yeah, they are considered to be mostly immune to bodily poisons and if they aren’t… well they become immune about five seconds afterwards out of sheer stubbornness. They have an insane immune system that could take platypus venom without batting an eye, but the problem with that is if they ever got sick for any reason…” Trailed off Maria only for Marie to finish the though. “Well medicine wouldn’t be able to help them, since some medicine can be a form of poison to help the body. Their biology would naturally resist medication out of principle. If you need another example, bear, shark and lamb.”
“Okay, I think I get the gist of it.” Here Dr. Patch shuddered violently and shook his head with his eyes closed, trying to imagine a bear, shark and lamb chimera hurt my brain too. He eventually opened his eyes and his horn started glowing, I guess he was going to check over Maries anyway. “Still, it wouldn’t hurt to give you a physical and learn about your biology specifically. Just in case you need any help down the line.”
“We already agreed to it, but be sure to have every part of a chimera in full agreement before doing anything with them.” It didn’t seem like Mara had a problem with being examined by a medical professional. Maria quickly threw her two bits. “If you ever end up in a situation where a chimera won’t eat you out right… aside from us that is. Other chimera are not as friendly as we have turned out to be.”
“I’ll keep that in mind on my travels. Do all chimera have two meat eating heads and a plant eating head?” Okay Dr. Patch was just making idle conversation now, I went to look at Jade again.
Jade looked so peaceful just lying there, I nuzzled her neck and left a gentle kiss on her cheek before I turned back to the conversation. I put one of my hooves over her right paw and squeezed it lightly. Please wake up soon, we miss having you around you weird cat.
I looked up at mom, she just smiled at me and nodded in understanding.
“… which is why most of our race is omnivorous, with leanings towards carnivorous. Rare are the occasions where chimera find an interest in partners that are more or less the gentlest beings you’ll ever know.” With that bit of information rattled off by Marie, Maries continued through a series of tests that Dr. Patch thought would provide good information on them.
I moved over to mom and put my face to her chest and she held me with her good arm.
-A day later, Kuril-
“You know Jade, if you don’t wake up soon you just might miss eating potato stew… funny I thought that would have worked.” I received a glum look from Fizzle, mentioning potato stew would always get my kitten up and moving. She must really be out of it.
“Maybe you have to actually make it and use it as smelling salts.” That sounded like a particularly good idea Fizzle, but I still wasn’t in a good enough shape to make the food unless I transformed into a griffon again. It’s a good thing we recently bought some griffon masks in bulk, but I wasn’t about to overdo it on the casts. I didn’t want to be a griffon for the rest of my life, even if the wings would be nice to have.
Maries was out helping Fluttershy care for sugar again, so it was just me and Fizzle. Well Dr. Patch was still around and was currently giving Mango a checkup.
“A good idea, let’s wait until I get the go ahead from Dr. Patch.” It was soon after I was done saying this that Sekhet decided to make an entrance into the room.
“An interviewee is here, it’s one of Dr. Patch’s referrals by the name of Dr. Zen Bones.” Reported Sekhet who looked kind of interested to see how I’d react to a diamond dog seeking a job in a town run by an Abyssinian.
I’d actually give the dog a fair chance, even if our races didn’t generally get along very well. My little tom cat and I came to Equestria to start something inclusive, what we started doesn’t have any room for bigotry or general racial issues.
If this diamond dog started something, you can be assured we’d toss them out for their actions and it would have nothing to do with their attitude. We’d be hypocrites if we did otherwise, especially since we let Wary Berry live here.
“Send them in Sek.” I decided to start calling her that since I heard Jacky doing so. Sekhet didn’t seem to care and basically gave us free reign to keep calling her that by not saying anything against it.
My first impression of Dr. Zen Bones was that she was a bit… short, in size at the very least. Diamond dogs could grow as big as Abyssinians, but she look a bit small for someone who was a doctor.
She had red fur, darker red for her fluffy ears, a moderate size tail with the usual diamond dog spikes on it and she was wearing a lab coat and stethoscope. She looked to be of a setter breed of diamond dog and had bright, if fierce, blue eyes. She looked better than most diamond dogs at least.
Abyssinians and diamond dogs had a lot of similarities, but fought like literal cats and dogs at times. I know for a fact that cats and dogs can get along, but there’s a stigma between our groups given that Abyssinian’s are usually more sophisticated or uptight.
Her first actions upon entering the room was to look towards Fizzle.
“Are ye’ Mayor Kooril?” Her accent was atrocious and she sounded Scoltish.
“Nope, I’m Fizzlepop, that’s mayor Kuril.” Fizzle pointed to me and rolled her eyes, the diamond dog looked at me and then seemed to wilt. It was kind of sad to watch her ears drop and her mid-length tail flop to the floor.
“I’m Mayor Kurilian La Perm and you are Dr. Zen Bones I take it?” I held out my left paw in a show of good faith.
“Ay’, that I be. Ye’ be not what I be expecting when Mr. Patch be sending meh’ a referral about a new hospice being built right over yonder and be needing doctors.” She shook her head in disbelief after we shook paws in a friendly gesture without any hidden or subtle aggression happening. “Whit’s fur ye’ll no go past ye’.”
“Excuse me, but what?” I didn’t understand what she said there.
“Ach, I forget that ye’ be not of me old glen or kin. It be meaning if I am to be a doctor here, then I will try tah’ be so. What will be, will be.” It seems doctor Bones wasn’t too put off by my being an Abysinnian. “Ye’ seem like quite the right sort lady, running fair pass for many a walk.”
I actually understood that one.
“Yes, we’re open to all walks of life here at Airship Mauled. Dragon, chimera, griffon… that right there is my little filly Fizzle and that over there is my slumbering little tom kitten.” At my words, the dog made her way over to Jade and looked at her. “She’s been out for more than a week.”
“I think I might like it here, ye’ be open hearted to kin even if it not be of blood.” She started to examine my daughter and I began to worry that Jade might have had a subterranean adventure without anyone’s knowledge judging by the scrutiny the doctor was giving her. “About yer wee one, does the lass happen to be a lazy git at times? Just humor meh will ya’ now?”
“Yes, Jade is sometimes lazy, but she’s been in a coma for a week at least.” I watched as the diamond dog start physically checking Jade over gently, she gave her a few sniffs and then nodded to herself about something.
“She be recovering well enough to be waking, but hasn’t done so yet… Oy, you, lass with the busted head lamp, come over ere’.” What did Dr. Bones think she was doing? She whispered into Fizzle’s ear before turning to me. “We’ll wake up this one soon enough Lady Kooril, with a bit of incentive.”
Fizzle gave the doctor a slightly disturbed look before approaching Jade, she kissed Jade and put her tongue into it. Bones didn’t seemed surprised by this.
After a few seconds of kissing Jade, Fizzle pulled back and slapped her face. Jade’s eyes flew open.
“Ow… why is pain...?!” My kitten was awake now.
“You’re hired!” I stated instantly much to Bones amusement.