“Fara have you seen the case file for the klipkaer that Dyl brought in? The one with the broken foreleg?”

The sound of the voice woke Fara from the light doze she had fallen into, face down in her textbook. She peeled her face away from the diagram on jexer anatomy, and looked up into the amused but slightly disapproving gaze of her training supervisor.

“Up all night studying again, were we?” Dr. Qyl Fekgras asked, crossing her arms of her chest and shaking her head resignedly. “I’ve told you before that studying until the late hours of the night won’t do you any good if you pass out during the middle of the exam.”

Fara groaned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and tried to hide the stain where she’d drooled onto the pages in her sleep. “I know, I’m sorry doctor, it’s just… this is a big test coming up.”

“And you know the information perfectly well, Fara.” The young veterinarian assured her. “You just have to trust yourself.”

Fara nodded.

“Now, as I was saying… have you seen the case file for the klipkaer that-” A sudden crashing noise interrupted her and both women suddenly turned to look towards the source of the noise, which was coming from the examination room at the back of the clinic.

“What was that?” Dr. Fekgras muttered, even as the two of them rushed towards the source of the noise.

“I hope one of the animals didn’t get loose…” Fara gasped. They ran down the hall and into the examination room.

The first thing they saw was a small pile of shattered glass on the floor, intermixed in a puddle of clear liquid that left the room with a chemical, antiseptic smell.

“I thought that’d bring you all running!” A small voice called out from above them. The two women looked up towards the source of the sound and found a dark haired female human sitting on top of one of the cabinets, next to a row of jars similar to the one she’d obviously sent crashing to the floor.

Dr. Fekgras sighed exasperatedly. “All right, now how did you get up there?”

“I climbed up here, obviously!” The human spat back, before pushing another jar from the cabinet. After a moment of freefall it smashed to the tiled floor below, releasing another wave of chemical scent into the air. “You didn’t think that stupid cage would actually hold me, did you?”

The young veterinarian sighed and turned towards her student assistant. “Fara, meet… well, she doesn’t really have a name yet. I mostly think of her as being a pain in my-”

Another smashed jar interrupted Dr. Fekgras before she could finish the sentence.

“I told you they called me Shaar!”

Fekgras pinched the bridge of her nose. “All right, that’s enough nonsense for one day. Let’s get you down from there.”

The veterinarian dragged over a small step stool and clambered on top of it. She smiled at “Shaar’s” expression as her head rose above the cabinet that the human had been standing on. It took a moment for the little creature to realize she’d trapped herself up there. The human gave a valiant effort to avoid Dr. Fekgras’ grasping hands, but after a few seconds, she felt her fingers close gently over the small form.

The veterinarian lowered Shaar into a small glass enclosure and closed the hatch in the lid with a snap. Then, for good measure, she placed a heavy reference book on top of it.

“There.” She muttered in satisfaction. “That ought to hold you until we can figure out a more permanent solution. First we have to clean up this mess that you made.”

Brushing her hands on her lab coat, Dr. Fekgras turned and walked from the exam room.

Fara watched Shaar slump against the back wall of the cage and chewed her lip in thought. After a moment of hesitation, she turned and followed her mentor.

“Doctor…” Fara asked when she’d caught up. “What’s her story anyway?”

Fekgras sighed and shook her head. “I’m not really sure… She just sort of appeared in the clinic one day and started causing havoc. I’m not sure if she’s just stray or someone abandoned her here. She obviously has issues with socialization and temperament. I’ve tried to do what I can for her but she doesn’t listen terribly well…”

“I see…” Fara brushed a lock of hair from her eyes contemplatively. “Um… how about if I give it a try?”

“You?” Dr. Fekgras asked. “I don’t really see why not… if you’re sure you really want to…”

“I’m sure.” Fara nodded. “I think I have an idea that might work.”

“Hmm. Okay. If you say so. She’s already been chipped, it’s just a matter of transferring ownership.”

Several hours passed before Fara had the chance to leave the clinic. On her way out she ducked into the examination room where Shaar was being sequestered and lifted the cage from where it sat on the countertop, jolting the occupant awake, despite her best efforts.

“Sorry.” Fara whispered as Shaar grumbled at the rude awakening.

Fara informed the Doctor that she was leaving for the night, and taking Shaar home with her.

“Good luck!” Fekgras responded with a wry smile.

Soon, Fara was outside and walking towards home, which was fortunately within alking distance to the clinic, since she didn’t have a form of transportation handy. When she’d gotten a fair distance from the clinic, she stopped and sat on a nearby bench, before lifting the cage to her face and peering in at the human trapped inside.

“Hello Shaar.” Fara spoke softly, and smiled warmly. “My name is Fara.”

Shaar pulled her knees to her chest and crossed her arms over them, refusing to look at the Titan in front of her. Fortunately, Fara had expected that sort of reaction and wasn’t fazed by it.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk, but I have a deal for you.”

Again there was only silence in response, but Fara got the impression she was at least being listened to, so she pressed onward.

“As long as you decide to act like a person, I will treat you as one.” Fara told her. She couldn’t help but smile when Shaar suddenly turned to look at her in surprise.

“That means no cage, and clothes, if you want them.” She continued. “But the other side to that is, if you act like a savage little animal, then that’s how you get treated, so that means no breaking things and no being rude to people.”

Fara bit her lip as something occurred to her.

“Or at least no ruder than Daz is, anyway.”

Shaar was silent, seemingly lost in thought. After several seconds of no response, Fara was just about to give up when…

“No more cage?”

Fara smiled. “We can leave it right here, if you want.”

Shaar nodded and stood up. “Okay.”

“So no more breaking things.” Fara reminded her, even as she set the cage on the ground. “Symponas?”

Shaar rolled her eyes but nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Fara gently reached into the glass cage and wrapped her fingers around Shaar’s body, then carefully lifted her out before depositing the human on her shoulder.

“Come on then, let’s go home and introduce you to everybody.”

*.*.*.*

Shaar tugged experimentally on the fabric that Fara had wrapped around her body. The “clothing” the titan had provided was little more than a wrap, but it was all she could do under short notice.

Still, Shaar had never worn clothing before, other than the occasional rag or bit of detritus used to keep warm and stave off the weather, and she found the feel of the material quite nice.

“Later on I’ll be able to get you something a bit more suitable, like what Pierce wears, but this should do for now.”

“Who are you talking to, Fara?” Myona asked as she walked into the room.

“Oh…” Fara stood up suddenly. “Um, Myona this is Shaar. She found her way to the clinic and now she’ll be staying with us for a little while.”

Myona’s eyes widened and a grin split her face as she spied the little woman on the table.

“Oh wow!” She whispered excitedly, pulling Fara away so she could whisper conspiratorially in her ear. “This is awesome! Fara, do you know what this means?!”

“Um… that we have a second human in the house now?” Fara whispered back, confused.

“No! Well… yes. But more than that, maybe she and Pierce will fall in love! Oh and then maybe they’ll have a ton of babies! How awesome would that be?! They’ll be all cute and little! And we can play with them! It’ll be great!”

“Oh uh… Myona… I don’t think…”

“We have to get the two of them together!” Myona gushed happily.

“But they might not like each oth-”

“That’s possible.” Myona shrugged. “But there’s no harm in introducing them, is there?”

“Well… no.” Fara admitted. “But I really don’t think…”

“Great. I have to go, there’s work to do!” Myona bounced excitedly out of the room and up the stairs.

“Who was that?” Shaar asked when Fara had walked back over to the table where the human still stood, adjusting the cloth wrapped around her body.

“Oh… that was Myona. She um, had to go take care of something. I can introduce you to her later.”

Shaar turned towards the doorway that Myona had disappeared through.

“She seems weird.”

*.*.*.*

The door to Daz’s room opened and she looked up from her data pad. She caught a brief glance of someone standing in the doorway before her backpack was thrown onto the middle of her floor, where it landed with a thud.

“Hey!” She cried, leaping up from her bed. “That’s my stuff! What are you doing throwing it around?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t leave it in the middle of the floor where people, like me, might trip over it.” Rhionne responded with a shrug.

“Yeah well, you still shouldn’t touch my stuff!” Daz snapped irritably rising from her bed and snatching her bag from the ground where Rhionne had dropped it.

The princess blinked, taken aback. “Okay, fine… didn’t realize you’d get so upset about it.” With a shrug, she left the room, closing the door behind her.

Daz tossed the bag onto her bed with an annoyed sigh. Part of her realized she’d overreacted, but the rest of her felt she was completely justified in her anger. Just because Rhionne was a princess didn’t give her the right to fling Daz’s stuff around.

She looked around her room and her gaze settled onto her computer. Daz stared at the screen and a hollow feeling developed in the pit of her stomach. The blank surface seemed to stare back at her, like a disapproving parent. Which, Daz reflected, was somewhat ironic.

With a sigh she flopped into the chair. She was putting what she needed to do off, and she knew it. Daz tapped one of the keys on the console and the screen blinked to life. Daz saw Pierce’s face staring out at her from one of the photos she’d pulled from his phone, which she’d been looking through earlier.

She closed the file and opened up the communications software, dialing in a code that she hadn’t used in months.

The loading pattern swirled on her screen for a moment as the signal connected, across the vast cosmos, to its intended recipient several light years away. The connection established itself and Daz was left to wait for the person on the other end to open the link. A not insignificant part of her was hoping it would be ignored.

All too soon, however, the screen opened again and Daz found herself looking at the curious and amused smirk of her sister, Vasha.

“Well!” Vasha gushed, smiling brightly- an expression that did not reach her eyes. “Daz! I don’t think I expected to be hearing from you today, have you decided to stop this silly nonsense and pursue a life more in keeping with your station?”

“Hardly.” Daz snapped back, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Too bad.” Vasha clucked. “But I still have faith that you’ll see the light someday. Your family needs you, dear, and you’ll do your part… one way or the other.”

Daz frowned but waved the veiled threat with an irritated hiss. “Stop trying to distract me.”

Vasha chuckled and folded her hands on the desk in front of her. “I’m sorry Daz. What did you want to talk about?”

Daz sighed and scratched the back of her head. “Look, Vasha… I…” The young woman bit her lip and stared into the infuriating smirk that graced her elder sister’s face, and tried not to lose control over the anger that rose in her chest at the sight.

Vasha stared back with false politeness, waiting for her sister to begin.

“I’m calling to ask you to stop what you’re doing.”

“And what exactly am I doing, little sister?”

Daz’s eyes narrowed. “You know exactly what I mean. I know what you’re doing to those humans and I’m asking you, because you’re my sister, to stop it before it blows up in your face.”

Vasha’s eyes narrowed. She knew they were on a secure channel and that her sister was not recording the conversation, so she was free to speak candidly.

“I had hoped that some time away from home would show you how foolish you’ve been, Daz. I can see that, regretfully the opposite seems to have happened.”

She leaned forward and stared directly into Daz’s eyes.

“Listen well, little sister. You can say whatever you want, to whomever you want. I’m a respected pillar of the community, and you are my bratty little sister who abandoned her family after a temper tantrum. No one is going to believe you, especially since you don’t have any proof to back up your claim.”

Daz bit her lip, but that infernal smirk did not leave her sister’s face.

“Do you?”

Daz sighed and shook her head. “No. I don’t.”

“And I know you won’t say anything, because you’re just as guilty as I am. After all, Daz, you’re part of this family whether you want to admit it or not.”

“I don’t care what happens to me!” Daz spat back.

“I think you do, Daz.” Vasha responded. “Because I know you. At heart, you’re a coward. A scared little girl.”

Daz let out a growl of frustration. This was why she didn’t talk to her sister very often. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Vasha.” She snapped as she cut the connection.

Daz stared at the black screen in front of her, furiously wiping the angry tears that appeared in the corner of her eye.

She hated talking to her sister.