Talia Of Animalistic - Chapter 8

Breakfast the next morning is fresh fruit gathered the day before, moose jerky, and goat milk cheese. Talia’s tribe is one of the few tribes who keep animals. But because they are also the largest tribe in the area, keeping animals is necessary. It cuts down on the amount of hunting and trading they need to do. It makes winters easier, as well as making Animalistic very independent and successful. So they have a herd of goats, a flock of sheep, chickens and dogs of course.

Their dogs are a very versatile dog. They are descended of several different breeds including Huskies, Grey Hounds and Border Collies. They can herd the goats and sheep, watch the chickens, pull sleds in the winter, carts in the summer, provide excellent fur for winter clothes and they’re the best meat for acorn stew.

Talia pets the head of a big male dog as Squirrel ties the front of Talia’s braided hair back away from Talia’s face with a leather thong. Squirrel ask Talia, “Do you really need to go now?”

Talia stands and answers, “I’m not as anxious as I was in the city because I know I’m not far from him, but how much I miss him is an enormous weight on my heart.”

Roar tells Talia, “The Amazons will be joining us in a day or two. Zenith is due to deliver in about another month. After they’ve rested for a day, we can accompany you.”

Talia gets a pained look on her face. She would love to see Zenith. Roar has mated almost exclusively with Zenith for the past four years. Talia has come to think of her as Roar’s mate and is looking forward to the birth of her new niece or nephew. Plus, Zenith and the majority of the Amazon Tribe, including their chief, Amazonia, have not been in the habit of treating Talia like a freak. But if she stays and waits for Zenith to arrive with her tribe, it may be another three or four days before she sees Richy.

“You’re torturing her,” Wildcat tells Roar.

Roar can smell Talia’s conflicted too and tells her, “You go on to your mate. We’ll track you in a couple of days.”

Talia smiles as she throws her arms around Roar’s neck. Roar hugs her tightly.

Talia tells Roar, “It’s not hard to find. He’s on the same side of the river as us, just head south. You’ll find the path that leads to his house.”

“Don’t worry,” Wildcat tells them. “I know the way. I’ve been there to visit Cougar. Mist calls him for me when I want to see him. His wife Sheila don’t like me though, so I’ve kept my distance.”

Talia tenses up at the mention of Cougar’s wife and her scent changes to match her tenseness.

Wildcat smells her sudden tenseness and ask her, “What?”

“I’ll let Cougar explain,” Talia tells Wildcat. “I’ll just say that I’ve met Sheila recently, and it didn’t go well.”

Wildcat nods his understanding to Talia. “Well, I won’t keep ya. Skedaddle, we’ll see ya in a few days.”

Talia doesn’t need to be told twice and trots off into the forest with a wave and a smile. She plans to stay near the river until she reaches the path to Richy’s because most of her caches of food and clothes are along the river. Talia would like to make it to Richy’s by night fall and mentally runs through the list of animals she can be for not just the fastest, but the fastest with endurance.

After running through the list of animals she can become, mountain lion, deer, bear, and wolf, she decides none of them are what she needs or wants. She finally decides to use her gift and become her inner guardian. As her inner guardian, she can run all day without stopping. She’ll be famished by the time she arrives at Richy’s, but she knows there will be plenty of food and water when she gets there.

So as she’s walking, Talia draws on her gift and becomes her inner guardian. Razor sharp claws extend from beneath her finger nails and toe nails. Her arms and legs lengthen until she’s nearly as tall as Richy. Her eyes go black and her vision turns to heat vision while her nose becomes even more sensitive to scents. Her canines lengthen as her face and ears take on a feline appearance. Her tail pushes over the top of the back of her hip hugging boy-cut panties.

Not all guardians grow a tail. Each guardian’s inner guardian is unique. A tail is a rare and very unique feature. Talia’s tail isn’t very long, but the hair that grows from it and down the center of her back matches the hair from her head. It almost looks like she has hair to her knees.

With her transformation complete, Talia sets into a quick steady run. As her inner guardian, she can run without stopping for hours, possibly even days. She can keep her guardian form indefinitely unlike the form of an animal. An animal form can usually only be kept a few hours, a day at most depending on the animal and how often you use it.

As Talia runs, she wonders exactly what she looks like. Her parents and grandparent told her she was one of the most beautiful guardians they had ever seen. But it has been years since she last took her inner guardian form, and no one else has ever seen her as her inner guardian.

Then as she’s passing the halfway mark to Richy’s, a deafening crack hurts her sensitive ears as a force jerks her stumbling forward. She hears a man’s voice shout, “I think I got one.”

Hunters! They weren’t close enough to have gotten a clear look at her. And the outfit she’s wearing is nearly the same tan as her skin. He probably thought she was a deer. They’re downwind of her so she didn’t smell them. If she had smelled them, she would have altered her course to have given them a wide berth. All she can do now is put a lot of distance between herself and them.

Talia is experiencing excruciating pain, but she still pours on the speed until she reaches her next cache of supplies near the river. She doesn’t go straight to her cache of supplies. Instead, she stumbles into the river holding her side. Her tan tank top and matching skirt are blood soaked. Her hands are covered in her own blood as she steps into the river until the water is up to her groin and leans against a large bolder in the river as she clutches her side. She stares for a minute as a stream of blood is washed from her body.

Talia tries to see where the projectile entered her back on her left side below her rib cage. She slowly pulls the tank top over her head. The top is ruined. She drops it on the bolder. Next she slips off the blood stained as well as soaking wet skirt and drops it onto the ruined top. Finally, she adds her boy-cut panties to the pile. As she stands there in the cool rushing water wearing nothing but her bra, she manages to rinse the entry wound by splashing water over it.

The hole where the projectile entered is small and round. As her inner guardian, Talia is healing much faster than normal. The entry hole is already closing. But the exit wound is a huge ragged gaping hole. Talia tries not to look too closely as she rinses the exit wound. She’s afraid if she looks too closely, she’ll panic. And a panic stricken, freaked out guardian is a dangerous thing. Dangerous to everything near her or him including him or herself. Besides, she’s a little light headed from blood loss. She doesn’t want to pass out. The exit wound is large enough for Roar to put his fist in, and that’s a very huge fist.

Talia’s steps are slow and careful as she exits the river. She unties the rope holding her cache high in a mature maple tree, and lowers it slowly. She doesn’t want it to hit the ground. She’s sure bending over to pick anything up from the ground would be bad. So when the water resistant bag is directly in front of her, she grabs it with a shaky hand and unties the cache. Then she wades back out to the boulder in the river and sits the water resistant bag next to her pile of ruined clothes. She opens the bag and eats all the nuts and jerky she has stashed in the bag. A lot of energy is burned in guardian form, and Talia is a wounded guardian. So she’s burning even more energy than normal in guardian form.

Talia uses a bowl from her bag to dip water from the river to quench her thirst. The entry wound in her back while not completely closed seems to be finished leaking blood. The exit wound is definitely still leaking blood and she uses her bowl to rinse the ugly wound more thoroughly focusing on making sure the area around the exit wound is blood free. Then she takes a neatly folded towel from the bag and presses it over the wound.

Holding the towel over the wound, Talia slings the bag over her shoulder and wades back out of the river. Then she deals with the matter of putting some clothes back on. There was a time when she would of gladly shed all her clothes to run free in the forest, but that was a long time ago, and there are too many years of domestic living between then and now.

Talia looks through the bag, but there isn’t anything the exit wound is going to let her slip into easily. So she drops the bag at the base of the mature maple tree and continues to make her way to Richy’s. She manages to continue at a fairly fast yet awkward walk knowing where her next cache is located near a modest waterfall.

By the time Talia reaches her next cache at the modest waterfall, the towel is soaked with blood and she’s broken out in a fine sweat. Sweating like this means she has a fever from her body working hard to heal itself from the inside out. The entry wound has a scab over it. But the exit wound doesn’t look much better, not that she’s trying to get a good close look at it. Taking a good close look at it just seems like a bad idea to her, and it’s not hurting much at the moment.

Talia steps under the waterfall, allowing the refreshing water to cool her as she takes a long drink. Again, she eats all her nuts and jerky. She sets the blood soaked towel aside and takes a fresh towel from this cache, the last one she has this close to Richy, and presses it over the exit wound. She takes a fresh pair of panties as well as a pair of skorts from her cache of supplies. She’s too wet to put them on now.

Talia is dry by the time she reaches the edge of Richy’s territory. She steps into the underwear and starts down the path to Richy’s house. It’s dusk and she can smell the delicious aroma of fresh cooked deer. When she arrives at the spot where the path becomes Richy’s back yard, she steps into the skorts.

Talia doesn’t want to frighten anyone by stepping out into the backyard in full guardian form. Problem is she’s wounded and not sure how much of her guardian form to let go of. She doesn’t want to turn it all the way off. Turning it all the way off would mean healing at a normal, very painful, rate. Yet she feels the need to return to her normal size. She will lose nearly all of her guardian features except for her claws and teeth which will reduce in size with her. And she’ll try to bring her eyes back to normal, or as normal as possible.

The first thing to hit Talia when she turns her guardian nearly all the way off is pain. She gasps as she stumbles forward in excruciating pain, but she keeps walking. She doesn’t come across anyone as she makes it to the sliding glass doors and lets herself in. From there she heads straight up to Richy’s bedroom. But she won’t allow herself the luxury of collapsing onto Richy’s bed. Instead, she steps into the master bathroom where she takes the towel hanging on the towel rack and steps into the bathtub. She drops the nearly blood soaked towel at the drain and tucks the towel from the rack over the exit wound. She drops to her knees in the tub and falls back. She closes her eyes and tries to relax despite the pain.

That fine perspiration has broken back out on Talia’s skin. Her eyes open back up slowly and fixate on nothing as she slips into a meditative state that will aide her in healing and ignoring the pain.

Cougar is at the fire station for work for the next three and a half days. Richy hung out with him and the other fire-fighters for about an hour before heading home. He stops at the general store to buy a pack of cheap flexible straws his little cousins get a kick out of as well as a few other things: cornmeal, whole wheat flower, whole wheat pancake mix, etc.

As Richy steps into his house, he drops his bags from the general store. He’s hit hard by the scent of blood, sweat, pain and… “Talia,” he whispers. The thought barely registers as he finds himself standing over his bathtub staring down at Talia, who seems to be staring at nothing. She blinks long and slow as if she’s studying something. The rise and fall of her chest is steady, but slow. There’s a bloody towel pressed to the left side of her stomach.

Richy suddenly feels his family at his back and ask, “Do you have any idea how long she’s been here like this?”

“No,” answers Aunt Seal, “We went up to our room before dusk.”

“We didn’t come back down until we heard you get out of your sheriff cruiser,” adds Otter as she steps out of her mother’s way so she can have a closer look at Talia. She orders the four children, “Kids, go sit on the bed,” and they do as their told without any protest.

“Should we move her,” asks Bass.

A bathtub doesn’t seem an appropriate place for a wounded person to be, but Richy answers, “No. She put herself here for a reason. But we can make her more comfortable.”

Richy quickly steps out of the bathroom, grabs a pillow from his bed, returns to the tub, gently lifts Talia’s head and slides the pillow under her head. He thinks out loud, “I should call an ambulance.”

“No,” Aunt Seal and Talia say at the same time. Seal sounded near panic while Talia sounded disembodied.

Seal tells Richy, “Look at her, her eyes, her claws. If you call an ambulance to take her to a hospital, she’ll have to turn her guardian completely off. She’ll suffer all the pain; maybe spend months healing at a normal human rate. They’ll operate on her and poke and prod at her needlessly. As she is now, she won’t suffer all the pain. And a wound that should have killed her and taken months to heal completely, will heal with little scarring in a few weeks, maybe faster, with very little pain if she was her full guardian.”

Richy strokes Talia’s hair with all those little braids in it. He needs to see the wound to know exactly how bad it is. “Tali, let me take a quick look under the towel, please.”

Talia’s left hand lifts slowly from the towel and Richy carefully pulls back the towel. He exclaims softly, “Sweet Jesus… Ok, you can put your hand back.”

“What happened,” asks Otter not really expecting an answer.

But Talia’s disembodied voice answers, “Hunters.”

Richy explains for his family, “It’s an exit wound. She’s been shot, a large caliber bullet from a rifle. The entry wound in her back is just a little hole. But when it exited, it was like an explosion. It’s a miracle she’s here and not lying dead or dying out there somewhere.”

“She’s a guardian,” Seal reminds Richy as she sits on the edge of the tub stroking his head as he’s leaning over the tub, “like you are now, Mist. Guardians are hard to kill. But she’s going to need to eat and drink.

“Yes…,” says Talia, her voice sounding like its coming from far, far away, “Eat… protein.”

“Otter,” Richy request not taking his eyes off of Talia, “see what you can find for Talia to eat for me, please. And I have some of those flexi straws in one of the bags.”

“Bass, give me a hand please,” Otter request of her older brother.

Bass nods his agreement. And as he walks past the children sitting quietly on the bed, he tells them, “Be good, ok?”

The children nod their agreement. Then their big brown eyes all flick back into the master bathroom. Their little noses can smell Talia’s blood, sweat and pain. They know she’s hurt, and hurt very badly, something ever so much worse than a skinned knee or skinned elbow, something that can make you die. They understand that clearly, and their worry is easily read on their little faces.

Richy leans his head against his aunt’s knee and when he puts his hand near Talia’s small hand, she grabs it. Her grip is strong and sure and it eases his heart a little. He tells his aunt, “I love her.”

Seal strokes his hair as she responds, “Of course you love her. She’s your mate.”

“My mate,” questions Richy. “We just met a couple of weeks ago.”

Seal tells him, “That doesn’t matter. Just think of it as love at first sight. It’s a rare and precious thing. Just accept it.”

When it comes to certain things, Richy thinks more like a domesticated man than he realizes and he asks his aunt, “But what if she doesn’t want to be my mate? What if she doesn’t love me?”

Talia’s face and scent become distressed as she makes eye contact with Richy and the scent of her pain increases. Her body starts to jerk slightly as she tells Richy from her heart and not that far away safe place, “I love you… I love you… I…”

Richy hops over the edge of the tub and lands on the other side of Talia where he tells her, “Hush now.” He kisses her. “It’s okay.” He kisses her again and smiles. “I heard you. I love you. Now relax, just relax.”

Talia nods her head and closes her eyes. She lets herself slip back into that safe numb meditative state. Her eyes slide back open slowly. They’re glazed over again, not truly focused on anything, yet aware of everything around her. Richy looks up at his aunt and finds four little faces peering over the edge of the large tub at him.

“Is she ok now, grandma,” asks Beaver, the oldest boy, Bass’s son, “What’s she doing now?”

“She’s ok,” Seal assures her grandchildren. “She’s a guardian and…”

“Like Fjord,” asks Minnow scared.

“Like Mist,” clarifies Seal, “a true guardian protects people. She’s a protector like Mist… Now if Mist took her to a hospital, they would give her medicine to stop the pain and make her sleep. It’s called sedation or sedating. But being wounded makes you vulnerable. Guardians don’t like to be vulnerable, but she needs to rest so she can heal. So she has sedated herself so she’s resting without sleeping or feeling much pain. But she’s still aware of everything and everyone around her. She’s hearing everything we say.”

“So what happened, grandma,” ask Minnow. “She was suddenly in a lot of pain. I smelled it.”

“We all smelled it,” adds Beaver.

“Like I said,” Seal explains, “she can see and hear us. She can even talk to us if she needs to. But she wanted to make sure Mist knew and understood how she feels about him. So she unsedated herself for a minute to talk to him.”

Clam points to the towel on Talia’s side, “I think she hurt her boo-boo.” A couple of spots of fresh blood have started to seep through the towel.

Richy pulls his phone from his pocket and dials a home number. “Hi, Richy,” a woman’s voice answers. “Hi, Margie, I need a favor.”

Margie hears Richy’s tone and knows something’s wrong so she doesn’t give him a hard time. She simply asks, “What do you need?”

“Bandages,” answers Richy, “for a large wound. Do you think you can run to the pharmacy, find me some and bring them out here to my place? I’ld send Cougar, but he’s on duty at the fire station.”

“About how big,” asks Margie.

Richy thinks for a moment. “Somewhere between 10 by 10 to 20 by 20 centimeters.”

“I’ll find something that’ll work,” Margie assures Richy. “I’ll be quick,” and she ends the call without saying good-bye. She understands that someone is hurt and hurt badly, and it must be someone wild or he’ld just take them to the hospital.

Seal takes the blood soaked towel from by the drain and takes it to one of the two sinks where she turns on the cold water to begin rinsing the blood from the towel. Richy slips off his shoes and tosses them through the doorway into his bedroom.

Little Shell, the youngest of the four children finally just ask what’s on her mind, “Is Talia gonna die?”

Talia’s disembodied voice is back as she answers, “No.”

Shell looks as if a huge weight has been lifted from her little body as she says, “Good.”

Richy’s glad Talia answered because he wasn’t sure how to answer Shell. He’s afraid Talia may die. He’s still not sure not taking her to the hospital is the right thing to do.

Otter returns to the master bath carrying a tray. Bass is behind her carrying a tray stand and a pitcher of water. Bass sets the tray stand up in the corner created by where the over-sized tub meets the back wall of the master bath.

“What are you kids doing in here,” ask Otter setting the tray on the stand. Bass then sets the pitcher of water on the tray with the food.

“They’re not hurting anything,” Richy tells Otter.

Otter still frowns at the children.

“Do you want us to go down to the family room,” ask Beaver. “We can watch the science channel.”

Otter nods yes, “As long as you stay with the educational channels. That’s fine, no other channels without permission.”

“Yes, ma’am,” responds Beaver as he stands up. “Come on guys let’s go. Uncle Mist, Grandma, Dad and Aunt Otter will take care of Aunt Tali.” Beaver heard and understood the conversation taking place in the master bath. If Talia is Uncle Mist’s mate, that makes her their aunt.

Minnow gets the two smaller children by the hand and they follow Beaver out, who gets a proud hand on his shoulder from his father, Bass, on the way out of the bathroom.

“You feed her now, Mist,” Seal directs Richy. “She’ll eat everything you feed her.”

Otter hands Richy the plate she prepared from the tray. He looks the items on the plate over and smiles. Just like the mother she is, Otter has cut everything into bite-sized pieces and she included a fruit and a vegetable. He plucks an item from the plate. He thought he would have to say something to Talia, but she automatically opens her mouth for him. He feeds Talia everything from the plate a piece at a time. Then he trades the empty plate for a tall cup of ice water with a flexi straw. Talia sucks down the whole cup of water.

Richy hands the empty cup to Otter and ask Talia, “Is there anything else you need now, Tali?”

Talia inhales deeply through her nose and answers in her disembodied voice, “No… thanks.”

Richy hears the front door open and close. “That should be Margie. Bass, show her in here for me, please.”

Bass nods and exits the bathroom, but he doesn’t get far as Cougar comes striding through carrying an emergency medical kit with the woman, Margie, right behind him carrying a reusable canvas bag with more medical supplies in it.

“She’s in the tub,” Bass tells Cougar and Margie.

“Close your eyes,” Richy instructs Talia and she complies. He’s worked with Margie for nearly a decade. And despite the fact that he trusted her enough to call her for help, he doesn’t know her very well outside of work. He doesn’t know exactly how much Margie really knows about free people. But a wave of relief washes over Richy when Cougar walks through the bathroom ahead of Margie, because Cougar was an EMT before he was a fire-fighter.

Cougar can hardly believe his eyes as he exclaims shocked for a moment, “Holy crap, it’s Talia.”

Margie asks, “Has anyone called her uncle, Bob?”

At the mentioning of her uncle, Talia’s eyes snap open as she suddenly pulls from her nice safe numb place into her pain filled wounded body. “Don’t tell my uncle,” she pleads. “Please, don’t do that, he worries about me too much as it is.”

“Hush,” Richy says softly as he strokes her head, “Calm down. No one’s called your uncle.” Richy flicks Margie an irritated look.

Normally, Margie would say something unpleasant in response to a look like that from anyone, but tonight she holds her tongue.

“Alright,” says Cougar sitting his kit on the tray next to the tub and opening it. “Tell me what happened, Tali.”

“I was on my way here,” Talia explains as she focuses on Cougar, “I was running and making good time and I was more than half way here. I didn’t smell or hear them or I would have swung wide of them.”

“Hunters,” asks Cougar knowing the answer.

“Yes,” confirms Talia.

“Were you running as a deer or something,” asks Cougar.

Talia answers carefully as her mostly black eyes flick to Margie for a split second, “Or something.”

Talia’s answer barely causes Cougar to pause. He nods his understanding. “Otter, would you get me a couple of towels, please?”

Otter complies quickly. Cougar lays a towel folded in half twice on the edge of the tub. Then with an uncharacteristically serious face, Cougar tells Talia, “We’re going to get you out of your clothes. I don’t want the flow of blood restricted in any way.

Margie, stand over here by the kit for me.” Cougar takes the canvas bag from Margie and sets the items up that he’s going to need. He tells Margie, “You’ll hand me what I need…

Otter, grab that little trash can and stand here with it for me. We’re going to try to keep things tidy…

Okay, Richy, help me sit Tali up slowly. Tali, let us do the work. You just keep your back straight.”

Talia obeys and keeps her back straight. Her weight is nothing to either man.

“Ok, Tali, pull your legs up… Keep you back straight. We’re going to stand you up now… Good girl.” Cougar hasn’t missed the death grip Talia has on the towel at her side. He turns Talia’s back to himself and undoes her bra as Richy takes off her skorts and panties.

“Now sit on this towel for me,” instructs Cougar as he guides Talia’s hips. He gets down on one knee behind her on the outside of the tub and checks the entry wound. The scab is a perfect circle nearly the diameter of one of his fingers. What that tells him is, “That was a big bullet.” He carefully feels the bottom rib over the entry wound and determines, “Nicked this bottom rib and caused a hairline fracture… Bass, come stand behind Tali for me.”

Cougar sits on the edge of the tub with his back to Richy inside the tub, facing Talia on the same side as the wound. “Tali, keep your back straight and lean back against Bass. Let him take your weight, just keep your back straight and relax… Margie, hand me those packets of alcohol and beta-dine swabs.”

Margie complies. Cougar reaches for the hand Talia has over the towel afraid she might resist. But she doesn’t resist as he lifts her hand away from the towel. Talia’s not sure what to do with her hands. So she folds her arms over her breasts and tucks her hands under her arms. The nervous strain and pain are on her face as well as in her scent.

Cougar tells Talia as he reaches for the towel, “Now I’m just going to take a look at the damage that bullet did on its way out. A through-and-through is a good thing. That means we don’t have to dig it out.” He lifts the towel away from the wound and it’s every bit as bad as he expected it to be.

Cougar, Richy and Margie remain professional. They all have a cop-face they put on. Surprisingly, Cougar’s cop-face is a stone serious determined look. Talia hadn’t been aware Cougar was capable of being a serious professional. Richy puts on his good-old-boy smile. Margie’s face just goes blank. Except Otter’s no professional and there’s a hiss with a sharp intake of breath as her eyes well up with tears. Cougar gives Otter a stern look as he hands off the soiled towel to her mother.

Otter focuses her full attention onto Cougar’s face instead of Talia’s wound. Bass has done the same while putting a hand under Talia’s chin to keep her from dropping it so she’ll keep her back straight for Cougar. Richy is in front of Talia with a hand on each leg, his thumbs making slow soothing circles just above her knees.

Cougar takes a fat beta-dine soaked swab from its package of three and warns Talia, “This is going to be cold.” Then he begins to clean the area around the open wound. If it had been any lower, Talia’s intestines would have spilled out of the wound. Cougar works quickly and efficiently. But when he starts poking around inside the wound to clean it, remove dead tissue and put in a few sutures where necessary, Talia whimpers in pain. There won’t be any sewing the wound closed because there isn’t any extra skin to close over it.

“You’re uncle called me the other day,” Margie shares to help Talia ignore the pain. “He asked me to go to a fancy shindig with him.” She continues to hand Cougar what he needs as he asks for it without pause.

“What did you say,” Talia ask Margie.

“I said I’ld be happy to go with him,” answers Margie as she hands Cougar the gauze pad he asked for, “It sounds like fun.”

“If you think root canals are fun,” comments Talia, “you’ll love it.”

“Don’t you want to go,” Margie asks Talia. “Your uncle really wants you and Richy to go too.”

Talia sighs and shares, “I hate those fancy dinner parties and dances. All those people faking it in their overpriced designer clothes, pretending they like you, that they’re happy to see you, that they care, when they really can’t stand you. It makes me sick to my stomach, literally. I hate having to smile and be polite while I smell them lying to my face. I always end up in the ladies’ room throwing up the fancy overpriced meal that was served.”

“Have you ever told your uncle all that,” ask Margie.

Talia frowns, “No.”

“Well, it’s not like you have to stay for the whole thing,” Margie tells Talia. “Your uncle would really like to show you and Richy off.”

“Sounds like it could be fun,” interjects Richy wearing his good-old-boy smile.

“Do you own a tux,” Talia asks Richy.

“No,” answers Richy, “but they’re not a rare commodity. I’m sure I can get my hands on one. When’s this thing supposed to happen?”

“In a few weeks,” answers Margie.

Richy tells Talia, “I think we should go.”

Talia frowns at Richy. “If I’m sufficiently healed in time, we’ll go.”

Richy’s smile becomes genuine and practically screams, “I Love This Woman,” because even though Talia chooses to work in the accounting department of her firm, the attorney in her just laid out the conditions by which she would attend said social function.

“Agreed,” says Richy smiling, “but Margie gets to call your uncle and tell him what’s going on so he doesn’t feel or think we’re avoiding him or something.” Richy knows Margie’s going to call the man anyway. How much she likes the man was all over her face and in her scent as she talked about him. This way Talia won’t be angry with Margie for doing it.

Talia sighs, “Agreed.”

“There,” says Cougar applying the last piece of tape to the dressing over the wound. “Tali, I think I know why you chose the tub. You didn’t want to leak anything onto Richy’s bed. But this tub will be hard on the fractured rib. So you are going to do your resting in the bed.”

“If it can’t be washed,” says Richy as he pulls Talia to her feet and into his arms, “I can buy a new one.”

Talia feels a sudden sharp painful prick in one butt cheek. She turns lightening quick with a roar and takes a vicious swipe at Cougar. She registers the hypodermic needle in Cougar’s hand just before she falls unconscious. Richy scoops her up in his arms as she becomes unconscious.

“Woo doggy,” exclaims Cougar grinning like a Cheshire cat. He just managed to jump back quick enough and far enough to miss being clawed by Talia.

Margie exclaims with feeling, “Shit!”

Richy steps out of the tub carrying Talia cradled to his chest. “What was in the syringe?”

“Synthocillan,” Cougar answers as he puts his emergency medical kit back in order, “and a powerful sedative. With a domesticated person they’d be out for eight to ten hours. With Tali, she’ll probably only be out for four, maybe five. But she needs to sleep.”

Margie follows Richy and watches as he lovingly covers Talia with a sheet and a light blanket. He steps back and starts unbuttoning his shirt as Margie sits on the edge of the bed. He watches Margie pick up Talia’s hand and touch the white claws at the ends of Talia’s petite fingers. Richy stops what he’s doing to watch Margie lift one of Talia’s eyelids revealing a now completely black orb.

Talia’s eyes hadn’t looked right to Margie in the bathroom, but she thought maybe it was just stress and strain making Talia’s eyes look weird or possibly the angle she was standing. And while Margie is making her observations, Richy is quietly waiting on her reaction as Cougar steps up beside him as Bass, Otter and their mother, Seal, wait by the bathroom door. Richy knows what ever story he comes up with for Margie, they’ll all back him up on it. But he’s waiting for Margie’s reaction before he says anything. Margie may have her own explanation.

Margie runs a hand over Talia’s head. Then she looks over at Richy, smiles and says, “She’s a guardian, an honest to goodness guardian.”

Richy hadn’t expected awe from Margie; shock, disbelief, confusion, but not awe. But he’s still not sure she knows what she’s talking about and ask, “What exactly do you think that is?”

Margie narrows her eyes at Richy as she tells him, “Don’t fuck with me Richy…” She looks back at Talia and as she holds her hand reverently shares, “I’m a sixteenth Amazon. I know what a guardian is. But I never thought I’ld be privileged enough to actually know someone who is a guardian. After all, except for my mother and grandmother, I don’t even know anyone from my own tribe.”

“You’ve never said anything about having Amazon blood,” says Cougar.

“Explains the bad temper,” says Richy pulling on his chin, “and the bossiness.”

“You have to remember I’m a bit older than y’all,” Margie giving Richy a sour look, “and I wasn’t raised around here. It wasn’t something you talked about. The less said, the better.”

Richy nods, “That’s understandable but…”

“But,” Margie smiles, “you don’t need to worry about me. I’m good at keeping secrets. Besides, I’m not completely domesticated.”

Richy looks at Cougar, who shrugs. Neither smells a lie.

“Come on, Margie,” Cougar nods his head toward the door, “you gotta get me back to the fire house.”

Margie rises from the edge of the bed and heads for the door. She stops and looks back at Richy, “You take good care of her or I’ll box your ears.”

Richy smiles as he answers, “Yes, ma’am.”

Cougar gives Richy a two fingered salute as he exits the room behind Margie.

Otter says staring at the doorway where Cougar gave his salute as he left, “I didn’t know Cougar was skilled in any way. I just thought he was a big goofy fool.”

Richy takes off his uniform shirt and smiles at Otter as he tells her, “That’s just his cover. He says when people know you’re smart, they expect too much of you.”

“Why did he give her the shot without warning,” asks Bass.

Richy drops his shirt in the hamper. “Because Tali would have asked what was in it. Once she knew what was in it, she would have refused the shot.”

Richy spends a few minutes arranging the extra bandages for Talia’s wound. Then he sets the pitcher of ice water and the cup on the nightstand. He puts his hands on his hips as he looks down at Talia sleeping peacefully. He tells his family, “Let’s all get some sleep.”

They nod their agreement with Richy and wish him good-night on their way out. Richy strips down naked and crawls in bed on Talia’s good side and snuggles up against her. He touches one of the tiny braids in her hair, kisses her temple, then buries his face in her neck and hair and dozes off.