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They didn’t cover what to do if you find an unidentifiable species bleeding out beside the road in the middle of the night in vet school. Or at least, Maddie hadn’t gotten to that part yet. But they’d covered some basics.
It was clear immediately that the front left limb was unsalvageable. She wasn’t sure if it qualified as a compound fracture when whatever had broken the bone had also shredded the surrounding soft tissue, but she was sure that the fingers were cool and had no reflex response. She twisted a hairband around the upper arm as a makeshift tourniquet to staunch the bleeding. She called Dr. P while Tom drove them to the clinic.
She called Dr. P because he was the oldest doctor at the practice where she interned. He was an institution, working at the clinic for decades. He was beloved by all, incredibly smart, had seen everything, and could probably perform surgery in his sleep. He was also a little bit senile and a lot in denial about it.
Maddie told him her pet monkey was mauled by a coyote. He’d looked at the red, spiny creature in her arm. At the strange clothes it wore. The weird appendages hanging off its head and the protrusions from its knuckles. And he’d just… nodded. Sure, this could be a species of monkey he’d forgotten about, but he wouldn’t say as much. Likely he’d forget the finer details by morning, bless his heart.
The technician, Jade, was another story. She heard Maddie’s story and looked at her like she was crazy. Maddie looked back as if to say ‘do you have a better theory?’ But she and Jade had bonded enough during her internship that she knew she’d keep quiet if Maddie asked. Besides, while the creatures’ species was a mystery, its injuries were not.
Luckily Dr. P hadn’t forgotten how to perform an emergency amputation. He let Maddie assist so she could learn. He even let her help with the stitches. It was an incredible experience that Maddie couldn’t enjoy at all because she didn’t know what this thing was, but it was definitely not a monkey.
“I don’t want to sound like Crazy Carl,” Tom said. “But I genuinely think it’s an alien.”
He, Maddie, and Jade stood outside the open kennel. Inside, the strange creature lay recovering on a blanket, over a heating pad. An IV line connected to a bag outside the cage. They’d bandaged the amputation site as well as they could. They’d also had to shave and stitch up several deep lacerations across its face. Maddie wasn’t sure what had caused its injuries, but she’d guess it wasn’t a coyote. Maybe if she’d had Dr. P’s experience, she could make an educated guess, but he’d left surgery and promptly fallen asleep in his desk chair.
“It’s a boy,” Jade said.
“How can you tell?” Maddie tipped her head to the side, examining the patient. Another one of its (his?) oddities… it wasn’t very obvious whether it was male or female.
“I placed the urinary catheter during surgery.”
“Oh.” That would do it.
“Do you have a theory of what he could be?” Tom asked Jade.
She shook her head. “Whatever he is, he’s not from around here.”
“Like–”
“Not like an alien. Like an exotic.” Jade didn’t seem convinced though.
“He was wearing clothes,” Tom reminded her.
They’d taken the clothes off for the surgery, but they were still sitting on one of the exam tables: two ragged sandals, a pair of torn up gloves, a little green, beaded necklace, and some kind of mask made of coconut bark.
“I’ll admit that’s weird,” Jade said. “But lots of exotic owners are weirdos… Pretty much the more obscure the species, the more weird the owner is gonna be.”
“I mean…” Maddie tried. “He’s not even proportioned like anything I’ve ever seen…”
“Some lemurs have pretty big heads and eyes.”
“Yeah, but that’s not a lemur tail. And those claws?” She pointed to the creatures’ little… hands. “Those are for digging. They look like mole claws. Except with thumbs.” She looked at Jade as if Jade could conjure answers for her. “Thumbs! And a primate shoulder joint complex. But no visible ears. Covered in spines. And bright red?”
“And what are those things supposed to be?” Tom pointed to the strange, boney spikes protruding from the thing’s knuckles.
“I don’t know!” Jade threw up her hands in frustration. “But it can’t be an alien.”
The non-alien jerked upright. He opened his huge eyes wide, then scrunched them closed. He listed to the side, blinking slowly. Dr. P had sedated him as if he were a small primate, but maybe that hadn’t been the right amount. It’d made Maddie antsy, but the poor little thing would have died for sure if they’d done nothing.
“ Bi ‘e? ” The creature mumbled.
Maddie held her breath. She looked at Tom and Jade and they shared her gaze. That hadn’t sounded like an animal noise.
The little one lifted his head again and tried to force his eyes open. He blearily took in the three humans looking in on him.
“Where am I?” He croaked.
“Oh my God, I knew it!” Tom gasped.
“I think I’m gonna faint!” Jade announced, eyes wide as she stared at what was definitely not an escaped exotic pet.
“Go sit down!” Maddie urged, but she didn’t watch to make sure Jade followed her suggestion. She turned to the alien (!) and smiled. “Hey, you’re somewhere safe,” she said.
The alien blinked hard and opened his eyes wide once more. His purple (purple!) eyes flit around and he seemed to realize at the same moment as Maddie did that he was in a cage.
There was an explosion and suddenly Maddie was flat on her ass. The alien shot past her like a bullet. He hit the ground and skidded across the floor before he lost his balance. He threw out his arms to catch himself, except he only had the one now. He yelped as he toppled over and fell right onto its injured arm.
They all gasped. Before Maddie could think of how much that would hurt, the alien shrieked.
He tried to get up, but fell over immediately. A second try yielded a second failure. Maddie leapt to her feet, but how could she help?! The little alien became frantic. He was… glowing. Red electricity arced off his body as he flailed, trying to put weight on an arm that wasn’t there anymore.
Maddie ran toward him. “Oh no, hey, stop–” Everyone was doing the same: trying to talk, to calm the poor thing down, to get in there and stop him without getting too close to the bizarre lightning coiling off his body.
When the alien finally paused long enough to look and see the missing limb, the electricity stopped and he froze. They all did. Slowly the glow faded from his fur. His rapid breathing did not improve though. It grew faster. He couldn’t seem to look away from the place where his arm had been.
Maddie clapped a hand over her mouth. When they took the limb off they hadn’t thought he was a person . But he was. His expressions, so human, were easy to read as he flipped through several emotions at once: shock, fear, denial.
He looked away, then looked back at the stump again. He looked up, eyes wide and fearful, pupils darting all around, taking in the three humans, the cages, his missing arm, the humans, the cages, the exit, his missing arm again. His breathing became more and more ragged. Brows scrunched down as his lips pulled taut.
He sagged, pressing his face into the ground. Maddie made an hesitant move forward. Had he fainted? Then the little creature started to wail. The sound triggered something in her. It sounded like a child.
She looked at the tiny body with new eyes. His proportions were so extreme, she’d assumed his species was just shaped that way but… but it made sense. This was a child. A child who had just woken up surrounded by strangers, in a strange place, with one arm gone.
Maddie looked to the others. They returned her gaze, just as helpless as she was. But Maddie couldn’t just do nothing!
She slowly approached. One step, then two, then three. The child flinched at the fourth. He looked up, tear-stained fur flatted to his cheeks. He gasped to see her so close and jerked back.
That frantic look crept back into his eyes as he shifted his weight onto his remaining arm and shoved away. That got him onto his side. He kicked with his legs and pushed away from her. The glow began to grow beneath his fur again.
Maddie cast around for something–ah! Towels were never far from hand in a vet’s office. She opened a nearby cabinet and pulled out a big, fluffy one. It wasn’t electricity-proof, but it was better than nothing. She slowly approached the struggling child. He watched her with round, teary eyes filled with dread.
“Mads–” Tom said.
“Careful,” Jade warned.
“It’s okay.” Her reassurance was for all of them, herself included, but mostly for the child.
He cringed as she draped the towel over him. She slid a hand under his torso and could feel his chest shaking with suppressed sobs. Very gently, she helped him to sit up. The shaking eased just slightly. Still he kept his chin tucked so the towel fell over his head and hid his sniffling.
Maddie just let him sit for a moment. On top of all the big things he had to be feeling, he was recovering from anesthesia and severe blood loss. It was enough to disorient and overwhelm an adult, let alone a little child.
“It’s alright,” she said. Could he even understand English? He’d spoken some before, but obviously that wasn’t his first language. “It’s going to be okay,” she said, keeping her voice soft and gentle, trying to put as much comfort into her tone as she could. “Hey, it’s going to be okay… What’s your name? Can you tell me your name?”
“N-no,” the little boy sniffled.
Was ‘no’ an alien word? His name? “You can’t tell me your name?”
He lifted his head so the towel slid back and showed his teary eyes. “No, it’s mine.”
“Oh.” Maddie glanced over at the other two as if they could explain this.
“Fairy rules?” Jade proposed in a whisper.
“Oh, what if he’s a fairy?” Tom asked. The two women looked at him, unimpressed and he blushed. “I mean, is that any crazier than aliens? He speaks English and he glows. He could totally be a fairy.”
“I am a echidna,” the boy said firmly. “ Echidna .”
Maddie nodded along like this made sense to her. Really it was a funny coincidence that this alien (not a fairy, she refused to believe that was an option) shared the same name as another spine-y Earth species. She had so many questions, but she had to focus to keep the kid focused. Somewhere, someone must have been missing him.
“Where are the other echidna?” She asked.
The child said nothing, just adjusted the towel to cover his head more.
“Can you tell us where your family is?” She tried again. Maybe he didn’t understand what she was asking? “Are you lost?”
Still, she got no answer.
“Where are you from?” Tom asked. Maddie eyed him. She wasn’t sure that was an important question. But he quirked a brow at her. He had an idea.
“F-far away.”
Tom nodded. “Okay, how did you get here?” Ah, there it was. Maybe there was a ship somewhere waiting for this little guy.
“Ring.”
Or not? “What’s ‘ring’?” Maddie asked.
“Ring.” The little boy peeked out of the towel and looked around. “I…need a ring.”
The little one listed slightly and Maddie readjusted her grip. “Ring? Like… to phone someone? Do you need us to call someone for you?” How would they even do that? They would do it. She would make it happen. But how?
“No. Ring to go to a place.”
“Like a spaceship?” Tom asked, unable to hide the excitement in his tone.
“No,” the kid said very firmly. “Like a ring.” He squirmed, fishing his hand out of the towel. He held it up, his thumb and forefinger held about an inch a part, indicating something small. “Like a ring. To go to a place.”
“Like this?” Jade held up her hand and showed the little guy her wedding ring.
“Not that ring.”
“But like this?”
He nodded and swayed a little in Maddie’s grip.
“How does a ring go to a place?” Tom asked, like Maddie understood the finer points of alien travel.
“It is small.” He held up his thumb and forefinger again. “It is big after.” He held out his arm and nearly lost his balance. Maddie righted him. The child sniffled as he looked down at where his left stump hid under the towel. It took him a moment to gather himself.
“It’s big after…?” Maddie prompted. The kid needed time to process, but she was acutely aware that she wasn’t qualified to help with that. And she just kept thinking that somewhere his family must be worried sick about him.
“You go…” He moved his hand across himself. “The other side is a… a different place.”
“Okay,” Tom said, brow furrowed. “Where is your ring then?”
“I have none,” the boy said. “You have a ring?”
“Uh…” Tom shook his head. “We don’t have rings to go to places.”
The towel slid back slightly. “How... you to go to a different world?”
Maddie had a sinking feeling in her stomach. “We don’t,” Tom said. Judging by his expression, he had the same feeling. “We can’t go to different worlds.”
The towel slid back entirely. The boy looked between Tom, Jade, and finally to Maddie beside him.
Maddie winced at the fear in his eyes. “We don’t have rings like that here,” she explained gently. “We can’t go to different worlds. We’ve never seen someone like you–an echidna from a different world.”
The little boy opened and closed his mouth, at a loss for words. This close, Maddie could see the tears welling in his eyes. “Trapped?” He asked.
Maddie looked helpless to Tom, but of course he didn’t have any answers either.
“Someone will come looking for you,” she reassured. “Your family will come find you… Your mom and dad?”
The little boy closed his eyes, tears leaking free. He shook his head before pressing it down into the towel once more. “None,” he said. “I have none.”