Lost Change

Chapter 24

It was dark when I woke up. There was a soft buzzing hum somewhere in the distance, and there was a soft red glow coming from behind me, but aside from that my surroundings were dark and quiet.

My entire body ached. The fuzzy warmth had faded some. I felt myself flush with embarrassment at the memory of how out of it I had been then - and I was coherent enough now to feel a little worried.

Where was I?

The glass wall I remembered was in front of me, but it was much less fascinating now. Three other matching walls surrounded me, along with a glass ceiling and a glass floor, all forming a clear cage. Some sort of cloth had been draped over the cage, and the soft red glow from behind me wasn't strong enough to really overcome the material. Whatever was beyond the cage was out of sight for now.

The cage seemed to have plenty of room, and I could spot air holes along the top part of the walls. If I got desperate I could probably squeeze a claw through one of the holes and dislodge the covering, but I shelved that idea for the moment.

There was a small bowl of what smelled like water and another small bowl of what seemed like food in one corner of the cage, a small tray of some kind of reddish dirt along one of the glass walls, a soft blue blanket folded neatly to rest near the door of the cage, and the small bowl of sand that I was laying in. The door seemed to be secured by some sort of mechanism near the top, but the important parts all looked to be outside the cage beyond my reach. I didn't think I would be able to open it from inside the cage.

I glanced behind me and found the source of the red glow. An oddly shaped lamp rested just outside the rear pane of glass, radiating warmth along with the dim light. I could make out a few knobs and buttons on the side of the lamp and had the feeling it could probably get brighter or warmer, but it was comfortable enough for now. Even with it pointing up, away from the cage I was in, instead of directly at it.

I couldn't really figure that out - was somebody trying to heat up the ceiling? If the heat lamp was for me, why wasn't it pointed towards me, or maybe put on top of the cage to angle down on me? I craned my neck to try and look upwards, but I couldn't make anything out past the cloth covering the cage and the lamp.

It wasn't my den back in the park, but it wasn't exactly a bad setup for a home. The sand felt particularly nice around me. Resting on it made me feel a little sad about never coming across any out in the park.

The cloth covering the glass blocked out any view beyond the cage, but I was pretty sure it must be a Kymari building. The embarrassing memories with the medication were still fresh in my mind, and I knew it had definitely been a Kymari feeding and talking to me. The strange encyclopedia in my head had translated the meaning, but now that I was coherent I could remember that the words had definitely been spoken in the Kymari language. So it only made sense that I was in a building somewhere in their city. Maybe a zoo of some kind, where they would show off captured animals.

No, that wasn't right...

I thought back a bit more, to when I was attacked by the eagle. I had been hurt pretty badly by it. And then I had fallen to the water, and hit it hard...

I tried to focus on my body. There was still a faint tingling running through my body, but I could feel hints of pain and soreness. Both of my wings, my entire right side, my right hind leg... all of them throbbed somewhere beyond the tingling warmth.

Not a zoo. A hospital. Or rather, a veterinarian clinic - somewhere they took injured animals to help them get better.

I frowned and lifted my head up out of the sand, feeling a pain in my neck break through the tingling. How bad off was I? Either falling into the water at that speed or getting attacked by an eagle would be enough to really hurt me, but having both happen together...