"There," Luke said with finality as he finished wrapping another deep gash in bandages Maggie had found in another one of the abandoned warehouses. He was no doctor, but it was good enough to at least stop the bleeding for the time being.
"We should really be going now," he continued, turning to face his sister. "We'll check back in on it tomorrow."
Although she was sad to leave it, Maggie nodded in agreement. She placed a hand on its "shoulder" once again and turned to follow her brother out of the warehouse. Pausing just a few steps away from the exit, she pulled a notepad and pencil out of her coat pocket. She quickly scribbled out a note, then tucked it under her new friends claw and ran to catch up to her brother.
It was a few hours after Maggie and Luke had left that the creature finally woke from its sleep. With each movement it made, its body was racked with pain. It felt like it'd just been hit with a planet... which was pretty much the case. Finding it too difficult to stand up, the creature instead propped itself up with one of its upper extremities. Hearing the crinkle of paper under its claw, the thing looked down curiously. A note had been left with it while it slept. The painful process of looking at itself further supplied it with the information that somecreature had tried to care for its injuries, for much of its form was wrapped in bandages.
It proceeded to carefully lift the appendage holding the note up to its face.
Look, I don't know if you speak English, or if you can even read, but I hope you're feeling better.
Me and my brother will be back tomorrow to check on you again. See you soon!
Your friend,
Maggie
'Hmmm...' it thought to itself. 'What a considerate gesture.'
With its thoughts trying to sort themselves out, the chimerical being laid its head back down on the ground and returned to the restorative embrace of its chaotic dreams.
Returning that night yielded quite the surprise for Maggie and Luke. When they returned to the warehouse, they discovered that the thing they'd helped had its eyes open.
As its attention rapidly shifted over to them, Luke couldn't help but notice the unnerving appearance of the thing's eyes. Most of the disturbing qualities lay in the fact that the eyes weren't the same size. In fact, one was almost twice the size of the other. Luke shuddered at the sight. Maggie, much to the contrary, ran up to it excitedly. This seemed to be unexpected to both Luke and the chimera, for its eyes widened in surprise.
"You're awake!" she exclaimed. "Did you get my note?"
Luke stood frozen in shock as the thing nodded slightly in the affirmative.
"Yay!" was the only response Maggie had.
Cautiously, Luke moved closer to the two other beings.
"So, you can understand what we're saying?"
It nodded its head slightly once again.
"Well..." Luke trailed off, wondering what to say. "I'm Luke, and this is my sister, Maggie."
Luke couldn't help but be excited. He was talking to a creature that might be an extraterrestrial. Perhaps it fell from the moon! No, that would be silly. There must be a reasonable explanation for this thing being here.
'I wouldn't be too sure,' said a voice in his head.
"AH!!!" he cried out in surprise, jumping back from the crater.
The creature looked towards Maggie, and she suddenly laughed.
"Hahahahahahahahaha... You're right! He does scream like a girl!"
The chimera turned back towards Luke with a bit of a smirk on its inhuman face.
'Oh great,' Luke thought to himself. 'The thing has a sense of humor.'
'You're right. It is great,' said the thing's voice in his head, 'but the thing has a name, you know.'
"OK, what's you're name then?" he asked aloud, already getting annoyed at this thing's seemingly psychic abilities.
The thing picked up one of its claws and began scratching at the ground next to it.
"D - I - S..." Maggie said each letter as it was written. "O - R - D."
"Discord?" Luke asked. "As in, 'disharmony'?"
'Yes,' said Discord's voice in his head bluntly.
"Well, it's so great to finally meet you Discord," Maggie said holding out her hand.
'Excuse me if I don't shake,' came Discord's words in Maggie's head. He drew her attention to his arms, both heavily bound in bandage wraps.
'Oh, right,' she thought back, embarrassed that she had momentarily forgotten about his injured state.
"Why aren't you talking to us out loud?" Luke asked.
Discord turned his head his way.
'Because my jaw is broken, like much of the rest of me.'
A weak "Oh..." was all Luke could muster in the way of a response.
"What can we do to help you?" Maggie asked. "Do you need a doctor?"
Before Discord could answer, Luke spoke up.
"I don't think a human doctor would be able to help him," he said. "Of all the animals he has parts from, human isn't one of them."
"Well, maybe we can take him to a vet?"
"Hmmm... Well, I suppose it might be worth a shot, but in this state its not safe to move him. We'll have to bring the vet here."
'I'm liking this plan,' thought Discord to both humans.
"Shut up," Luke said.
'Hmmm...' Discord thought, this time to himself. 'I think these two are growing on me. Let's see how this plays out.'
One internet search for local veterinarians and a walk later, Maggie and Luke found themselves leading a worried-looking veterinarian through the warehouse district.
"Are you sure your pet got hurt in," the vet paused to gulp, "there?"
This was Felicity Cross, the vet at the nearest clinic the siblings had been able to find. She seemed to be in her mid-twenties, and she hadn't stopped whining about how frightening the warehouse district was since they'd gotten here.
"Come on, Ms. Cross! He's right in there!" Maggie said as she pulled Felicity further towards the warehouse in which Discord was.
"Um, what kind of pet did you say it was, again?" Felicity asked.
Of course, they hadn't told her in the first place, but she'd get even more paranoid if they refused to tell her now.
"It's, uh..." started Maggie.
"A dog!" interrupted Luke. "It's a very rare breed from..."
"Argentina!" Maggie finished as Luke trailed off.
"Oh, really?" Felicity asked, her interest piqued.
"Yeah," Luke said in response. "It's called a..."
'Draconequus,' said a familiar voice in his head.
"Draconequus," he said, parroting Discord's made-up word.
Well, Discord was right around the next corner. Felicity gently peeked her head around, and gasped in shock.
"That's one fucked up looking dog," she said matter-of-factly. Nonetheless, she still rounded the bend and began checking out Discord's medical state.