"A new shipment of creatures came last night!" Srox chirped happily over the noise of the caged creatures, her orange frills trembling a bit from excitement.
"And," her voice lowered in a dramatic whisper as she leaned in closer to Kotrox's ear, "I heard that they found a new species from a crashed poacher ship along with a bunch of other usually smuggled breeds. Apparently one of the more dangerous ones got loose and slaughtered the whole crew. Only the other caged creatures survived."
"Oh really now?" Kotrox said, his own frills waving in interest. He had no idea how Srox had managed to sniff out tidbits of news like this.
"Yes!" she exclaimed, eyes shining, "And guess what?"
She didn't even wait for him to reply before continuing, "The new species they found on board? They had no idea where it came from so they couldn't possibly return it to it's planet. So they brought it here instead."
Well, that was news. Kotrox couldn't have cared less about the creatures in this shop. After all, he only worked here because his partner was here, and she absolutely loved taking care of the creatures. Seeing her happy was enough for him.
But he couldn't deny that he was rather curious about this new creature. They might be one of the first of their kind to lay eyes on it after all. Srox flicked her tongue at him, amused at his rising curiosity.
"Oh we'll see it soon enough, it's just a few crates down from here," she flicked her tail in the general direction and turned around, pressing her hand onto the scanner. It flashed green and the cage door clicked open, revealing the animal inside. The furry creature waited expectantly, it's six eyes trained on the empty bowl Srox was holding.
Kotrox looked over the food containers in his cart, pulling out the generic nutriec pebblets they use to feed almost every creature in the shop. Packed with nutrients, it's the staple for the animals in this store. Only a few creatures needed additional supplements ranging from live feed to vitamin tablets. This stuff would probably be fine for the new creature as well. He filled the bowl with the brownish green feed and watched as Srox carefully placed it into the cage.
As they made their way down, they finally stopped in front of the new animal's cage. It was funny looking, with a tuft of fur covering the top of its head and what seemed like loose animal skins covering its body. It didn't seem to have any natural defenses, it's pale skin looking soft and fragile. It stayed still and watched their every move. Kotrox flicked his tongue out at it, intrigued.
Srox opened the cage door, and the creature shrinked back as far as possible from them.
"Aw, poor little guy," Srox cooed after she put down its bowl. She peered at it, continuing calling out to it gently and mixing in some other sound effects in hopes of a response.
It made a noise back. Kotrox tilted his head at the sound. It wasn't like anything he heard before. It was a short noise, but sounded a bit like the song of an Aviea, an adventurous beaked being known for their song-like language and vicious fighting style. They were covered in colorful short fur, their venomous spurred leg their trademark of attack. They often joined cargo crews for interplanetary distribution of goods, their reputation of quick one-sided fights keeping plunderers away.
In fact, one of the captains for the cargo ship supplying their shop for pet food and pet items is an Aviea. It seemed to be a family-run business, with most of the crew being the same species. Kotrox had even seen some of the Aviea's offspring help unload the ship.
The creature's call was a bit similar, except it was in a lower pitch and instead of flowing smoothly, ended in a brief pauses.
Srox's frills fluttered in delight at the creature's response, but she never stopped cooing at the thing. She cautiously reached out towards it, a bit hesitant. The creature made a even softer sound, lasting longer than the first.
"Oh, it's friendly!" Srox said, surprised, but still keeping her voice gentle. She reached out closer towards it with more confidence this time. Kotrox opened his mouth to tell her to be more careful, but before he could get a word out, the creature suddenly attacked.
It sank it's little teeth right into Srox's hand, and she screamed in surprise and pain. She pulled her hand back, accidentally nicking the side of the creature's face. It bled red.
Srox looked down at her hand with a grimace, purple blood welling up from the small cut before looking back up at the creature in shock. It seemed so friendly before. What happened?
"Srox!" Kotrox yelled, immediately by her side. He held her hurt hand and inspected it thoroughly. "We need to get that looked at. Who knows what pathogens that thing carries?"
Kotrox's tail twitched in suppressed rage, his tongue flickering out in concern for his partner. Did that thing blatantly feigned friendliness to draw her in? It was so cunningly vicious for something that looked so fragile.
The creature made some more noises, this time louder and more threatening. Kotrox's head snapped up, seeing a trace of Srox's blood smudged on its chin. It bared its little teeth at them. Was it... challenging them?
The anger Kotrox suppressed came flooding out and he bared his teeth back at the vile creature, his red tail lashing behind him. This thing was aggressive, and possibly too dangerous to keep as a family pet.
His short temper clouded his judgement, and all he wanted to do in that moment was to hurt this creature back. His clawed hands shot out towards it, fully intending to slash and maim.
"Kotrox no!" Srox shouted, grabbing his arm with her good hand and wedging herself between him and the creature's cage.
"Srox, get out of the way," Kotrox snarled, eyes fixed on the creature, which was now cowering in the back corner. He tried reaching past her, but was just short of the creature's body.
"Stop it, I'm alright! It's just a small bite! I probably startled it."
Kotrox released a frustrated hiss, but backed off. Srox was right. Not about that nasty thing being startled, he truly believed it had done that on purpose. No, she was right on not letting him harm an animal in their own store.
They had delt with far more dangerous creatures, but it was just the fact that this thing had harmed his partner after deliberately drawing her in that had set him off.
"Fine, but that thing," he glared at the creature, "needs to be muzzled. And clearly labeled as not family friendly."
Srox flicked her tongue out in agreement. They would need to do some measurements for a custom muzzle. "I'll place it under the guard animal category in our systems. Do you think we can get some training in before-"
"Absolutely not, we are not training that thing. It's new owner would have to deal with that themselves," Kotrox interrupted, taking Srox by her shoulders and turning her around.
His voice was now softer as he spoke. "Come on, you need to get to the med bay."
He turned back to close the cage door and his eyes landed on the creature's water dish. He may have an idea on how to get the thing fitted for a muzzle without too much of a hassle. He reached out and took it with him, before locking the creature back in.
It made some loud calls at him, seemingly agitated by him taking its water dish away, but he paid it no mind. He didn't bother to look back as he steered his partner out of the creature room.
---
Oh shit, oh fuck, I messed up big time. Red was hella pissed.
I tucked myself as far back into my corner as I could possibly go as Red's hands shot out towards me, those sharpened claws flashing.
Was this my fate, to be gutted like a damn fish? 'Cuz I ain't going without a fight. I balled up my fists and bent my knees to dodge Red's swipes if he came closer. Hopefully I'll manage to give him a taste of a knuckle sandwich before I die a glorious bloody death.
To my surprise, Orange suddenly stepped in, grabbing Red's arm and putting himself between Red and me. The two seemed to argue a bit in raised voices before Red reluctantly gave in and stepped back.
Oh ho, Red must have really wanted a piece of me. But more importantly, I think that meant I get to live a little longer.
I looked at Orange thankfully. My dude might have just saved my life. Now I felt kind of sorry for biting that poor bloke, but to be fair it was partially self defense.
Red steered Orange away, prompting the smaller lizard person to leave before Red turned back to shut me in. The cage wasn't too high and I'd have made the jump down if I didn't land wrong. I would have attempted to leap out and escape when Red was distracted if not for the whole scanner situation. It seemed that even doorways were opened by the scanners. There were no doorknobs on the doors leading out, I only saw the same black panel of the scanner on the wall next to the doors.
And so I decided to sit tight and not cause myself or the two lizard people more grief. I really did not want them to up the security around my cage over a failed escapade.
And then that damn bastard took my water.
"Hey, I needed that!" I yelled through the closed door of my cage as he left, his scaly hand on Orange's shoulder. He didn't even bother to look at me. Did he really take that away purely out of spite? Real petty.
That was just swell. I might actually die of thirst here.
Muttering a few more curses under my breath, I shuffled over to inspect the "food". Did they really expect me to eat this shit?
I picked up a pellet. It was hard and ovular, about the size of half my thumb. I sniffed it. It really didn't smell like anything, which really didn't help me from seeing it other than a literal piece of old shit. It's brownish green color did not help.
I stared at it, contemplating if I really wanted that anywhere near my mouth.
Eventually, my stomach decided for me. It let out a loud plaintive growl and a pang of hunger shot through me.
Welp. Here goes nothing. I reluctantly popped the pellet in, trying not to think about it too much.
My teeth nearly broke. It was hard as a damn brick. I'd have to gnaw each pellet to powder to ingest that shit.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, the horrid, offensive taste seeped in.
I promptly spat it out and gagged, and I think I would have puked if my stomach wasn't empty.
God, that shit was nasty.
And as hungry as I was, I physically could not bring myself to put another one of those disgusting things in my mouth.
Dying of thirst never looked more appealing.
I glanced over at Sad Toad. Dude was literally sitting in a pile of massacred grub bodies and splatters of purple goo. At least it looked content.
"Hey, you want some of this?" I picked up a pellet and waved it at Sad Toad. Might as well if I wasn't gonna eat it anyways.
It's goat-like eyes flicked towards the motion, and it made that sad balloon noise again.
I took that as a yes.
I tossed the pellet into it's cage. It came rolling to a stop against Sad Toad's slimy paw. Sad Toad seemed to look down at it balefully. And then its tongue shot out, smashing the pellet into smithereens.
My jaw dropped. Holy shit. Sad Toad is fucking powerful. And lowkey terrifying. How many daily tongue workouts does it do? That pellet was harder than a damn brick the last I checked. I shuffled over to the corner near Not Dog and made a mental note to stay the hell away from Sad Toad from now on. At least the death by tongue option was now available.