“Whauh tchoo doo eeng?” my charge asked, looking alarmed.
I chuffed at him softly in reassurance, and he looked at me, wide-eyed.
“Iz hee uh dktrr?”
He glanced around the room, his eyes landing on the jars and herbs on the nearby workbench. Seeing them seemed to make him understand what was happening as he gave a small nod of acceptance and reached for the toggles of the coat. I helped him remove it, then worked to take off his strange footwear and pull off the layers of trousers he wore on his bottom half. The trousers on his head I had unfastened earlier while rubbing his head, and they’d fallen inside the bottom of the coat hood, so that was one less impediment to his getting a proper examination. He hissed in pain as his left leg moved, and once it was free, the reason for his lameness was obvious.
Grokah moved me aside, his hands moving to palpate the angry, swollen joint.
“Dislocated but not broken,” he decided. “Hold him.”
His assistants pinned him against the bed.
“Ow! Wa shu doo een?” he demanded.
Grokah didn’t answer him, instead placing his hands so he could pop the joint back into place. One quick motion and it was done, albeit with a loud scream of agony from the strange being.
“Fuuuuk tha hoort!” he yelled, tears leaking from the corner of his eyes.
“Take his shirt off, I need to check the rest of him.”
I moved to remove the shirts, being careful to not move the arm on his right that made him hiss and grimace in pain any more than I needed to. I tried to not take notice of the strange small undergarment he wore on his bottom, which did little to disguise the outline of his cock. My guess had been right, this one was indeed male, and if his species were proportional in size, he was definitely an adult and not a kit. They were simply small and rather defenseless.
“Stahp hoort eeng mee!” he cried out as Grokah took hold of his arm.
Grokah gave him a quelling look, and the young male sniffled.
“Hoakae yew ar rahbly uh dktrr. Sahrhee.”
“Badly sprained and he’s bruised all over. He probably fell quite hard when the grak plummeted from the sky.”
I nodded. “It came down fast, hitting the ground like a starstone. It is missing its head, so its body was open to the sky.”
“It is a miracle he survived then.” He began touching the angry bruises blossoming on the male’s torso, then cupped his cock and balls through their covering.
“Hey!” the male protested.
“Balls seem heavy. Definitely not a kit. This is a young, fertile adult male, I’d say,” Grokah pronounced, withdrawing his hand. He motioned at a candle on the workbench, and one of his assistants, Lorh, lit it with a taper from the fireplace before handing it to the healer. He cupped the young male’s chin, using the light from the candle to better see into his eyes as he prodded at his head, to the young male’s dismay…
“He has a brain thump that is troubling him, but he is lively enough that I am certain he will recover,” Grokah pronounced. “He is in need of good food and water as he is too thin and appears dehydrated.” He sniffed. “He was probably too brain addled to think to eat some snow to alleviate the burning of his throat from thirst.”
“Ah,” I nodded. That was probably true.
“You are a senior warrior, so you have your own rooms. I will strap his wrist, and then you should take him to your place. You can keep an eye on him there. Feed him good meat broth for a day and plenty of water, and be certain to add extra hrangae to everything he eats. If he doesn’t reject the broth, he can have meats and vegetables tomorrow.”
I grunted my assent. “But what about my traps? I was on my way to check them when I saw the grak fall.”
“Tell one of the hunters where they are and they will bring back your catch and reset them for you,” he reminded me.
The young male’s gaze bounced back and forth as we spoke, no doubt trying to figure out what we were saying.
“I will do as you say and try to teach him some of our words, as he was not taught all languages yet.”
“Ah, must be a very young adult then, or from a people such as ours that the evil ones stole.”
I nodded in agreement. Stealing his people would be quite easy. One only had to look at how tiny they were. Even the small star demons were larger than he was. First, though, I tried once more to learn his name, to confirm that it was what I’d thought he’d said it was. I pointed at my face. “Grighri.” I pointed at him, waiting. He simply stared at me, and I wondered if he was still too brain addled to think clearly.
The healer pointed to me and said, “Grighri.” He then pointed to himself. “Grokah.” His finger moved to his assistants, one after the other, naming them. We all pointed at him now.
