Page 33 of Joven's Bride
Chapter Eighteen
With Joven’s new team came a fifth member of his first team. Although Joven might take a security run through the star system occasionally, this job was supervisory. He would be monitoring his units and space from the ground.
Joven had an interstellar com system in his home, but Glasica Space Security had that plus scanners that were set to monitor the whole star system and beyond. That was connected to a satellite orbiting Glasica Prime.
So, far they had caught one dragon poacher trying to land in the Selkeres Reserve and another apprehended orbiting Glasica Six to plunder the mining operation there. The heavily armed star jumper convinced them they didn’t want to do that. With the choice of doing battle with the star jumper or being boarded and detained, both captains chose to abandon their plans and leave the star system.
When Joven was ground side, he didn’t have to stay in the monitoring station. He could monitor everything through his onboard CPU. He did, however, spend a few hours a day there watching over operations and checking in with ground side law enforcement.
Carly spent those hours working on her education projects, researching and recording a series of lectures. The school system where she was formerly employed was one of her first customers. When she wasn’t busy with that, she went exploring around their property.
One of those times, she heard what sounded like a lamb bleating for its mother in a small grove of trees about fifty meters from the house. She knew that cry. It was like the sound the baby dragon had made as the raptor had carried it away. Only this baby sounded more forlorn than scared.
Carly walked toward the copse of trees where the sound came from as quietly as possible. She stopped at the grove, looking around for exactly where the sound came from. A weak bleat came from a few meters to the right, and Carly spotted the baby lying under a bush.
It was a lot smaller than the ones she had seen in the forest. She guessed that it was probably only a few days old. Carly stopped and turned in a slow circle looking for a sign of any other dragons in the area. She looked up in the trees and in the sky.
There was a raptor soaring overhead. “You dropped it, didn’t you? Well, you’re not going to get it if I can help it.”
She ambled toward the baby lying under the bush. It was wounded and bleeding from several wounds, probably from where the raptor gripped it with sharp talons. One of the wings was twisted at an odd angle, apparently broken.
“Oh, you poor little thing,” Carly murmured and squatted down beside it.
The baby looked at her through a haze of pain but was too week to even try to get away. It hissed at her as she reached for it, but it had no teeth.
When she was compiling her virtual lectures, she did one on the dragons of Selkeres. The babies were born without teeth and fed by both parents regurgitating partially digested food into their mouths, much the way wolves fed their cubs and birds fed their young.
“Baby, I’m not going to hurt you, at least any more than you already are. I wish I could keep you and nurse you back to health. I can’t, but I will get you help if I can. Will you let me pick you up?”
The little dragon hissed at her when she reached for it again, but Carly didn’t let that stop her. She picked it up and stood, holding it against her taking care not to disturb the broken wing. She knew its blood was probably staining her tunic, but she would deal with that later.
As she emerged from the shelter of the tree grove, Carly heard the raptor cry, a sound more like a vulture than an eagle. She looked up to see it circle overhead and turn toward her. It started into a dive, and Carly began to run toward the house.
While running, she looked back to see how close the huge bird was. Her foot caught on something, and she fell hard, twisting so she wouldn’t land on top of the baby dragon in her arms. She hit the dirt hard on her right shoulder and felt her collarbone snap. The pain was excruciating, and she blacked out.
Joven emerged from the security building in time to see the raptor swooping down at his mate. He morphed instantly into his cat persona and bounded toward her roaring. That scared the raptor, so it pulled up and flew away instead of landing. With the raptor gone, Joven trotted to Carly and saw the baby dragon clutched in one arm.
A quick scan told him where she was injured. An injection of nanites would repair the damage. He reverted back into humanoid form on bended knee and carefully lifted Carly and the baby dragon into his arms. Carrying her back to the house, his mind went through the probability the raptor could have killed her and didn’t like the odds.
Of course, he knew Carly couldn’t resist trying to help the tiny, helpless dragon. With her soft heart, she would try to rescue any baby animal that was injured.
Joven carried her to their bedroom and laid her on the bed then went to the walk-in closet and opened the med drawer. Inside was a tray containing the same array of nanites and drugs that he carried with him through every combat mission. He took out a prefilled syringe of universal nanites. Crossing the room in three strides, he injected the nanites into her damaged shoulder.
Using his internal computer, he contacted the Selkeres Reserve veterinarian regarding the little dragon. They confirmed that the nanites would work on the baby and asked him to go ahead and inject it. The vet would come to get it right away.
Joven went to get another prefilled syringe and injected the baby dragon. Then he found a larger syringe and filled it with water because his scan of it told him it was dehydrated. Since it seemed content to lay on the bed beside Carly, Joven left it there once he’d watered it.
He then sat down on the bed beside Carly and took her hand in both of his, watching her, silently urging her to open her eyes. The little dragon snuggled up against her other side. Joven wished he could let her keep it, but it was a wild animal and not meant for captivity.
It was also against the law, and he was an officer of the Glasica Law Enforcement. Carly would have to understand.
About twenty minutes later, the Selkeres veterinarian arrived. Joven met him at the door and led him to their bedroom where the tiny dragon lay cuddled against Carly. She opened her eyes when the two men entered the room.
“How do you feel,meomee?” Joven asked.
“Oh, I fell. Where’s the baby?” As she said it, the little one nuzzled her arm. “Hey, little guy.”
“I commed the Reserve, and vet Honric Meksaj is here to take the little dragon to the reserve.”
