A Dubious Welcome

by Maonyman

CH2: The Veterinarian

Mere moments later, he was driving across his lawn to park directly in front of his porch. He stepped out to prop his front door open, then shimmied the mare into his arms again, kicking doors shut behind him as he carried her inside. Laying her carefully on the island counter in his kitchen, he roughly shoved the small decorative basket clattering to the floor, then wrapped the piece of horn in a paper towel and buried it in his freezer's ice tray.

She made a faint noise of distress as he left the room, but time was running short and he had to hurry to fetch his medical bag. Since he was the only skilled veterinarian in this part of the country, and since sometimes an animal would be more likely to die if they moved it than if he simply operated on it out in the field, he was careful to always keep a well-stocked medical bag at home in case such an emergency came in during off-hours. He returned less than a minute later and quickly spread the bag open on the counter beside her.

"Is all that... for your healing spell?" she said, eyeing him nervously.

He gave her an odd look as he quickly swabbed some topical anesthetic on her shoulder, saying, "Uh... not all of it, no. This is just my general kit so it has a bit of everything."

She relaxed slightly, "Oh good... only really powerful magic would need that much reagent... was worried my injuries might've been worse... than you were letting on."

It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the strangeness of this creature so Anon moved as fast as he dared as he prepared a sedative injection.

"This might sting for a moment..."

Pinching her skin, he slid the needle deep into the thick muscle of her shoulder. She gasped and flinched, but soon relaxed as the sedative began to take effect. Anon immediately set to work even as the drug was kicking in, ignoring her increasingly incoherent mumbling and moving with the quick efficiency born of long years of practice. It was true she needed urgent treatment, but he also needed to keep his mind busy and distracted from the shock and bewilderment still lurking in the back of his head.

The bleeding hoof was the most urgent problem. He quickly applied a tourniquet, removed the bandage, and realized the deep gash on the frog was more of a violent tear than anything that could be called a cut. He cleaned and sterilized the wound, somewhat surprised by just how much of the gravel-like road dust had to be removed, then he used a thick suture and more stitches than usual to close the wound. It would be more painful during recovery, but it was necessary due to the pressures that would be exerted from walking on the frog, and the pain would discourage her from walking before it had healed enough.

Next he began cleaning and sterilizing the many small cuts and scrapes along her right side. This is when he realized the bruising on her flank was actually a little picture of a pink star with smaller white stars around it. At first he thought it was a tattoo, then he realized the fur itself was also colored. Anon decided to ignore that as a mystery for later.

He then examined the broken end of the horn, but was forced to admit he had no idea what to do there. It wasn't made of bone like a deer or sheep, nor was it keratin like a giraffe or rhino. The surface was somewhat similar to ivory, only it was even smoother and lacked any iridescent shimmer. Inside the horn was even stranger. There was an outer layer of porous sponge-like material that appeared to be some sort of flesh, but it was quite firm, like the gums of your teeth. However, the most bewildering part was the horn's inner core, which was entirely unlike anything he knew of. It was vaguely similar to thick optical cabling, but although the core was completely filled with a dim pink glow and did not leak, he nevertheless got the impression of a slow-flowing liquid like honey, rather than the instant transmission of light through fiber optics. He would have to learn more from her before he could reattach the broken tip, so, worried about antiseptic getting down into the spongy flesh, he simply cleaned the jagged end as delicately as he could, then loosely bandaged it if only to keep it clean.

Next he thoroughly examined both broken cannon bones and was amazed by how clean and straight the fractures were. Since the mare was much lighter than a normal horse, this meant she shouldn't need intramedullary reinforcement, which was a great relief to Anon. He replaced his quick and dirty splints with sturdy medical braces, then wrapped both legs with gauze. Later, he would check for swelling and probably switch to fiberglass casts. Hell, with fractures this clean she might even be able to walk in a day or two if she was very careful.

The wing, however, was another matter. It wasn't shattered as he'd originally feared, but it was still a compound fracture and would require at least some surgery to position the broken pieces properly. More importantly, he was forced to assume the wings were functional and that, crazy as it seemed, this mare could actually fly. That meant the bone needed to support her weight perpendicular to its length, so he had no choice but to reinforce the fracture with titanium implants. And to think, he had almost decided not to keep any rods here at home!

Anon checked he had all the supplies he needed, spent a few minutes making the kitchen area a little more suitable for surgery, took another brief moment to recollect himself, then he bent over the mare and made his incision.

* * *

Over an hour later, Anon leaned heavily against the kitchen counter and heaved a great, weary sigh. The surgery had gone remarkably well and, even after cleaning, sterilizing, and putting everything away, the sedative still hadn't worn off.

Anon eyed the small mare somewhat warily.

The intense shock of her first words had slowly faded into a persisting sense of awe and wonder. Some small part of his mind had suspected some sort of trick or that the horn and wings were prosthetic, but there was no doubting their legitimacy after his surgical operation.

He was looking at a real, live, intelligent, winged unicorn.

Suddenly realizing this was likely a once in a lifetime opportunity, he slowly straightened, approached the unconscious creature, and began to give it a thorough physical inspection. The first thing he did was pull back her lips, and he was relieved to see only herbivorous teeth, as a few legends claimed unicorns had been ferocious hunters. Upon prying open her jaw, he was surprised to find her lips, tongue, and throat were much more like those of a human than of a horse, which explained how she was capable of speech. Hopefully she would be able to explain how they spoke the same language.

He tried examining the base of the horn next, but it simply merged smoothly into her skull with no clear beginning or end. The spiral pattern along its length was not a recessed groove, as some art had depicted, but rather what appeared to simply be a colored stripe. However, upon closer inspection, he discovered there was actually a dense network of extremely fine pores contained only within the colored stripe, leaving most of the horn perfectly smooth. Another mystery for later, it seemed.

Next, he noticed her eyes were significantly larger than normal and faced much more toward the front rather than angling out to the side like a normal horse, which resulted in a shorter muzzle and rounder head overall. Anon wondered just what sort of evolutionary pressure had caused that, as front-facing eyes were almost exclusively found on predators, but her teeth were clearly those of an herbivore.

Moving on to her torso, he noticed that while her legs were relatively thick compared to her body, the hoof wall was not nearly as pronounced, and the frog was softer and less distinct than on a normal horse. He supposed that was due to her small size and weight, and perhaps her wings as well--the ability to fly, absurd as it seemed, would mean less need for the tough hooves required for long, hard galloping.

Next he massaged his fingers into her joints and quickly concluded that all the muscle groups were pretty much as expected, with the exception of the additional flight muscles around her barrel. These gave her barrel a more lean and toned appearance than the smooth belly he was used to seeing on equines, as well as a subtle increase in muscle mass just behind her shoulders which extended down toward her sternum. This bulk, he assumed, indicated her primary flight muscles responsible for the majority of the power behind each flap.

He hesitated only briefly before moving down and examining her hindquarters, deciding that even an intelligent horse was still only a horse, and that this was nothing more than a scientific and medical examination of a new, unknown animal species. There too, she was similar yet distinctly different from what he might expect. Her dock was significantly shorter than was normal for a horse, so most of her tail was only loosely hanging hair, and her genitals were even smaller than he had expected for her size, though otherwise they were entirely equine.

Finally, he turned to the strange image painted on her flank, dug his fingers into the fur, and even plucked one of the colored hairs, finding that not only did the pattern extend all the way to the root, it seemed to be embedded into the very skin.

Anon straightened and rubbed his chin, wondering what to do next. The sedative should begin to wear off before long and he didn't want the mare to wake up on an uncomfortable and cold countertop. If unicorns had gone undetected for so long even through this modern era, the mare must have some incredible ability for escaping and hiding, so he needed to do his best to ensure she woke up feeling safe and comfortable. However, just in case she still fled from him, he decided to take some precautionary measures.

First, he ran off to grab some assorted sterile containers which were not important enough to keep in his medical bag. Upon returning to his impromptu operating table, he set his phone to record a video and slipped it in his shirt pocket so the camera was peeking out, silently berating himself for not thinking of it earlier. It might not be that great a view, but at least he could still use both hands.

He decided there was just one more precaution he ought to take: he poured some raw oatmeal into a bowl, then placed a couple carrots and an apple inside as well, hoping the offering would help calm the mare if he had misjudged her sedation and she woke up before he finished.

As he prepared to take some medical samples, he realized there would surely be doubt and claims of trickery, so he checked his supplies and was relieved to find a small box of security labels designed to prevent tampering with medical specimens. He decided to take special care to keep any container he handled on camera until it was sealed and labeled.

Blood would be the most telling, so he drew a vial of that first--then realized he should take two samples of everything so he could refrigerate one to minimize cellular damage and freeze the other to maximize shelf life. Next he swabbed the inside of her mouth for saliva and tissue samples, then swabbed under her tail in the hopes of getting at least a small fecal sample which would help with dietary analysis. He briefly considered a pap smear but dismissed the idea. He could do it fairly quickly, but all the labeling had burned valuable time and he was getting quite worried about the mare waking up while he was still working. Instead, he examined her uninjured wing and gently plucked two of the smaller feathers that he hoped she wouldn't miss, then finally moved on to her most distinguishing feature: her horn.

First, he brought his phone up and made sure it got a nice, clear view of the inside of the broken tip, then he used a fresh scalpel blade to gently shave a tiny amount of dust off the surface of her horn, dropping the entire blade into the container to avoid contamination. It took Anon almost a full minute of deliberation before he decided to take samples of the horn's internal structure. He worried about doing permanent damage, but it was simply too unique to pass up such an incredible opportunity. After all, it was not every day you discovered an entirely new organ. He placed another fresh blade in his scalpel handle and, moving with the utmost of care, scraped out an incredibly small sliver of the fleshy sponge-like material, again dropping the entire blade with the sample into a container.

Finally, and with more care than he'd given anything in his life, he lifted yet another fresh blade and gently touched the oddly glowing jelly-like core of her horn.

Comments

[Jack443]

Why are you touching unknown glowy things?!

[Tech_Priest]

11644889
Monke like shiny

[Poparakelis]

Scien-cy

[Moonlight_Mist]

11644889
Probably for the same reason some people still stick forks in electrical sockets.