Jaxon

Old

     "Ardent, you should drink something. Come on buddy." Hace was doing his best to console the crying Inchoate. He must have had a terrible nightmare, this was the worst off he'd see Ardent in a few days. "Just a few sips?" He talked soothingly as he moved Ardent's head out of his shirt and placed the spout of the cup up to his lips. Thankfully, Ardent took a few sips, but quickly returned his face to Hace's chest. He could feel his shirt getting wet, but he didn't mind. If Ardent needed this, then he would let him cry it out.

     "Poor baby." He said setting the cup on the counter. "I wish I knew what would make you feel better." Hace just held him and slowly pet his head until all his crying tired him out again and he fell asleep.

     After medication, he gave Ardent a quick bath and put him in soft pajamas. Ardent slept through all of it and after putting him back in his cage, making sure a drink and his red plushie were close by, Hace went to his own room. He sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his head trying to get rid of the headache that threated to explode at any moment. It'd been a very long day for both of them.

     He pulled out his phone and quickly turned on his alarm to make sure he had plenty of time for his appointment tomorrow. While he was at work earlier, he had called the vet and confirmed the appointment. He was almost wondering now if he should put it off because of what happened.

     "No." He said to himself. "Ardent will be better tomorrow. And he deserves a chance to walk. That might make him feel better, being able to run around with Sand. He'd love that." Hace smiled at the thought of the two of them running around the house and causing all kinds of mischief.

     After checking on Ardent one more time, Hace got ready for bed himself and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. His dreams were full of him chasing Ardent around the house after he stole random objects.

     Jaxon wasn't really sure what was going on. He woke up groggy and with a dry throat. It would make sense, since he cried so much the last time he was awake. He was most likely dehydrated. He licked his lips and tried to reach for his cup, just to smack his hand against fabric. He opened his eyes, only to be meet with a strange light coming from behind him and black fabric in front of him. He was already in a sitting position and was having a hard time getting his mind to focus.

     'Where am I?' He thought as he reached out and felt the dark fabric in front of him. It felt familiar. He reached behind him expecting to feel more fabric, but was met with... plastic? He pushed himself up a bit and looked behind him the best he could to see what was back there. It was a window.

     'Oh...' It hit him as he tried to turn himself around completely so he could see out the window. 'I'm in that strange backpack thing.' He finally got his back against the other side of the bag and tried to figure out where he was looking out the window. He saw chair legs and a wall. 'Yeah. I totally know where I am now.' He chuckled to himself. He looked around inside the bag and was a bit happy to see his red fox was in there with him.

     His moving around must have alerted whoever had him in the bag. The top of the bag unzipped and Hace smiled down at him. He ran his finger up and down Jaxon's cheek.

     "Well hello buddy." Hace slowly picked him up out of the bag and brought him up into his lap. Jaxon rubbed his eyes from the light that hit him. He sighed and laid against Hace's chest.

     "Thirsty." Jaxon sighed.

     What was unexpected, was the other voices around him that reacted. There was a mix of gasps and awes. Jaxon looked up quickly and realized they were in a room full of other aliens and their pets. He was in a vet's waiting room... but this wasn't his normal vet. The room was much larger than normal and there were a lot more other humans in here than normal as well.

     At the smaller vet they usually went to, there were at least two or three aliens holding pets that, Jaxon assumed, were native to the planet. But here, it looked like it was all humans... humans with a lot of problems! Jaxon was getting nervous as he looked around at everyone.

     There were a few guys close to him that were really pale, almost deathly so. One man on the other side of the room was missing an arm! He looked across the room and his eyes caught a woman's eyes... at least, he thought they did. She blinked and Jaxon gulped when he noticed that her eyes were completely glazed over. He wondered if she was blind.

     "Ardent?" Hace had been holding his cup and was concerned that he hadn't taken it right away. Jaxon tried to give a forced smile as he took the cup. He didn't want to talk again and have even more aliens looking at them. He silently started to drink and tried to keep his gaze down. He didn't want to look at these other humans. The amount of sickness and disfigurement was starting to affect him... but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel like he was just like them.

     Not even a few moments later, a female alien sat down with one of the oldest human's Jaxon had ever seen in his life! The old man was slightly hunched over and seemed to be completely out of it. The look on his face reminded Jaxon of his C.O. when he would get angry. The amount of lines that were appearing was shocking.

     Jaxon wasn't sure if he should talk to the man or not. He wasn't entirely sure if the man would talk to him. What if he was like that creepy guy he'd meet at the vet? Did Jaxon feel like risking it? What if he was more like his C.O. that he reminded him of? Then he really didn't want to talk to the man.

     "What are you looking at?" Jaxon hadn't realized he was staring for so long. "Why are you here?" The old man gave a dirty glare and sighed. "This place is for the worst of the worst." The man's voice was hoarse and slightly laced with hate. Jaxon didn't answer right away as he was trying to process what the man was talking about. "You one of those idiot tames?" His words were laced with venom.

     "Isn't this just a vet?" Jaxon asked a bit confused, and a bit scared of the man. He felt like he should answer him quickly after that last question. He didn't want to be compared to one of those humans.

     "This is the last vet." The man sneered a bit. "This is where you come to heal or to die." He looked Jaxon up and down a bit, like he was trying to figure him out.

     Jaxon went pale at the man's words. Now he understood why everyone here looked terrible. "H-how do you know that? Maybe they'll..."

     The look on the man's face changed from slight hatred to total anger. His focus changed from Jaxon to the alien that was holding him. "This is where she brought..."

     "Ardent and Hace?" A woman's voice cut off what the man said. Jaxon felt Hace start to get up and grabbed onto him in fear. Why was Hace bringing him here? Did he do something wrong? Was it because he was scared of the rain yesterday? Did he cry to much? Was he considered broken to be brought to this new vet? Was it because of his legs? It had to be!

     Jaxon could feel Hace start to bounce him as they walked. What was that sound? Jaxon didn't realize he had been crying again. Hace handed him his fox and he gladly took it, holding it tight to his chest. This was going to be another long day.