Page 10 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
When I parked at the vet’s, I checked my phone again with a sigh.
Higgins: What happened?
Higgins: Come on, you can’t tell me that then disappear.
Higgins: Talk to me, Miles.
Higgins: Fine. I’ll look into it, but no guarantees. Stay safe, Curbelo.
I grimaced at the messages, my heart in my throat. I knew it wasn’t fair of me to ignore him, but I… didn’t want to deal with it. I exited the message chain without replying. I had other things I needed to concentrate on. Like little Miss Firebird in the seat beside me.
Chapter Three
Miles
By the time I made it home, I was wiped out and ready to shower, eat dinner, and decompress. Of course that would have to wait until I set up all the bird crap I stopped at the store to buy after Indigo gave her a clean bill of health.
I wasn’t planning on keeping her, but I needed at least one safe place for her to perch on while she was in my home.
She’d been an angel at the vet, which made me think she was used to people handling her. I grimaced at the thought as those memories ran through my mind’s eye again.
Pushing them away, I turned in my seat to stare at the cage for a moment. “Alright, we’re here, pretty girl. You better be nice to my cat.”
With a sigh, I got out of the car and walked around to her side to grab her and carry her into the house. The second I walked in, I was greeted with lots of meows and a cat rubbing against my legs and trying to trip me.
“Hey there, Odin. Who’s a good boy? Huh? Who’s my good boy? Is it you, Odie?”
I set the cage down on my dining table and picked Odin up, cuddling my one-eyed orange tabby to my chest and giving him kisses while he purred. He was a rescue kitty who’d been found on the street with such a bad eye infection the rescue had to remove one eye. Luckily, his other eye was treatable, and since I’d adopted him, he hadn’t had any problems with it at all. His one-eyed-ness didn’t stop him from doing anything.
He was the cutest cat to ever live, and his missing eye only made him more adorable.
After only a few seconds of giving attention to Odin, my new friend started chirping, like she was afraid I’d forgotten about her.
With a chuckle, I walked over and removed the blanket. Those big golden-brown eyes blinked at me for a few seconds before she moved her gaze over to Odin.
My cat stared back, and I was waiting for a hiss or a growl or something from him, and I half expected the firebird to start squawking again. But they both just… stared. Neither seemed to have their hackles up.
Gingerly, I set Odin down right in front of the cage so they could sniff each other and get used to one another for a few minutes. Odin gave a sniff, and the firebird lowered her head down to him, examining him closely. They stared for a few more seconds before Odin let out a little purr, rubbed his whole bodyagainst the cage, and started headbutting it like he wanted me to let the firebird out so he could rub all over her.
The firebird surprised me by trilling happily and rubbing her cheek against the side of the cage where Odin was. She was a wild animal, yet she was acting like she’d been a pet in the past and that she liked cats. At the very least, she acted like she knew what cats were.
The cat-firebird lovefest continued as I stared with my mouth agape.
Huh. Well, I guess they like each other.That was a relief.
“I have to get your stuff out of the truck, but I’ll be right back.”
She let out a strange sound, and I sighed.
“I can’t let you out yet, but I will after I put your perch together, okay?” There was no way I was about to trust the two of them without the cage barrier while I had to run to my truck, even if I’d be gone for less than a minute. It wasn’t worth the risk because I absolutely did not want to make another trip to the vet today if I didn’t have to.
Quickly, I ran out to the truck, opened the bed, and pulled out the bags of toys, the dishes for food and water, treats, and food. Then I stared at the large perch with a frown. I could carry that too, couldn’t I? Surely, I didn’t need to make a second trip.
I pushed all the bags onto my left arm and hand, weighing me down and making it feel like my whole arm was gonna fall off. Then I tugged on the perch with my right hand.
As I pulled, I heard a strange noise, so I stopped moving it and glanced around. Nothing was out of place, so I tugged it again. The strange littlemeepsound came a second time, and I froze for a beat, my heart in my throat, before I pulled again. Sure enough, there was anothermeep.
“What the fuck?” I breathed out, disgust making me not want to look.
