Chapter Twenty-Eight
Miles
Going to a pet shelter was an exercise in resistance. Because I wanted to bring home every single pet we passed, even the grumpy ones.
“Oh my god, look at that one,” I said, pointing to a tiny dog that couldn’t even weigh five pounds. “He’s soooo stinkin’ cute!”
Lyric moved closer to the little dog, and he started barking and growling like a maniac. Lyric looked at me. “Yeah, I don’t think he likes me.” They sighed. “I’m not sure. There’s, like, too many choices, and I feel guilty picking one over all the others.”
I nodded, completely understanding. “I know, but you can’t save them all. But you can save one. So think of it as saving one, not as leaving the others behind.”
Lyric took a deep breath, squared their shoulders, and charged ahead toward a door we hadn’t gone through yet.
It was labeled as Specialty Pets, but I had no idea what that meant. Did they keep pets with special needs in a separate area? That seemed… like a bad idea because then they wouldn’t get seen as easily. Plus, they deserved to be treated like all the other animals here—with care and love.
Win and I followed Lyric into the room, and I almost ran into them because they stopped so suddenly. Win bumped into my back and grabbed my hip so I didn’t tumble down and knock Lyric over. He left his hand there for a few seconds, so I leaned back against him while we took the room in.
There were a variety of cages, crates, and other habitats all around. The room, which I’d expected to be smaller, was actually the same size as the large dog room with all their kennels—so huge and filled with a ton of animals.
Inside the cages here, they had a bunch of faeries, the kinds that were legal to keep as pets. There were pixies, sprites, a few dwarves, and some gremlins.
And then there were a bunch of rabbit-like animals that people needed a permit to adopt.
A jackalope, which was a rabbit with antelope antlers.
A couple of almirajes, which were horned bunnies, like unicorn rabbits.
A few wolpertingers, which were large rabbit-like creatures with antlers, duck wings, and fangs.
And oh my god, ewwwww, gnomes. So many gnomes.
Who in their right mind would invite any of those into their home? Like… I got it if you wanted to attract some garden pixies to your outdoor garden, but to keep them inside in a cage? That sounded cruel.
I was surprised this shelter, or any shelter, even allowed it.
We walked farther into the room, and to my surprise and horror, there was a tiny griffin in a cage.
Griffins had the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, only they got to be about the size of a medium dog. So not nearly as big as some fantasy pictures would have you believe. Although, like dragons, they used to be a lot bigger in ancient times.
But this little guy must’ve been a baby because he was only the size of a small chihuahua.
“What in the world is a griffin doing here? They’re so protective of their young. How the hell did they get him away from his family?”
“I dunno,” Winter said, stepping toward the griffin’s cage. “There’s a card on the cage, so let’s see if his story’s there.”
All of the pets had a card with their basic information on it—name, breed, age—but some of them also had their story, how they’d come to be at the shelter.
Winter knelt down and cooed at the little griffin who was curled up in a ball in the far corner of his cage. He looked terrified, the poor baby.
“Okay, he’s male, his name is Kuki.” He gasped.
“Oh no, this poor baby. Apparently, his parents were killed by poachers, but there were forest rangers in the area. They heard the commotion and came running in. The poachers were trying to catch the poor baby, but the rangers were able to scare them off. The poachers got the parents’ bodies, but the rangers saved the baby griffin.
He’s been here for three weeks already. They had to hand-feed him at first, but luckily, he’s been eating food, but he still drinks from a bottle. ”
“Oh my god,” Lyric said. “He’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” They dropped to their knees beside Winter and held their hand out against the cage.
The griffin slowly lifted his head, and to my surprise, he made his way over to Lyric, giving their hand a sniff.
After a few seconds, Lyric started petting him through the cage, and I could tell right then that Lyric had found their pet.
It was unusual, and they’d need a special license to keep him, but they were clearly in love.
“Ahhhhh! He’s so stinkin’ cute, I could die.” Lyric was so excited, they had tears in their eyes. “I have to hold him. Like, I fucking have to!”
I snorted at that. “I’m sure we can get someone to let you.”
“Eeekkkkk! Yesssssss. Let’s do that.” They leaned in and spoke in a baby voice. “That’s a good boy. Who’s a sweet baby? You are. Yes, you are. Sweet, sweet baby.”
Winter slowly backed away and came to stand beside me, draping an arm around my shoulders and kissing my temple. “I think we found the right one.”
“Me too.”
“You doing okay?” I knew exactly what he meant. There were a lot of gnomes in here.
“I’m… just not looking at them, and they’re locked in cages, so they can’t get to me anyway.”
Win smiled softly at that. “Yeah, true.” He kissed my hair and whispered near my ear. “Even if they got out, I’d protect you.”
I snorted and lightly smacked his belly. “Yeah, okay, Mr. White Knight.”
He chuckled, then rested his forehead against my temple with a sigh. “You okay with helping Lyr set up their home for the griffin? They’re gonna have a lot to do over the next couple of weeks before an inspector comes out.”
Before they got the griffin license, an inspector would come examine their home and ensure it was griffin-safe and griffin-proof. Which meant they’d have to have a net put around their entire yard, among other things.
I nodded. “Yeah, sure. I think the shelter probably has someone, so hopefully they won’t have to wait a long time for an inspector to come out.”
He nodded. “We’ll figure it out.”
With a smile, I wrapped my arm around his back, pulling him closer. “Yeah… yeah, we will.”
“Uggghhhhhh!” I cried out as another volley of pixies came flying at me. “Good god, asshats! I’m trying to save your lives, you ungrateful little turds.”
Winter cracked up behind me, then swooped in with his net and managed to snag a big chunk of the mischief.
I already had a net full of them, so I hadn’t been able to defend myself against the onslaught.
“We’ve had a lot of pixie jobs lately.”
I sighed and followed him to the gate. “Tell me about it. They always go a little nuts in the fall.”
“I guess they have to store food for the winter, so it makes sense, but this year seems especially bad.”
I couldn’t argue with him there. We’d dealt with pixies every day for the last nine work days in a row. Usually, it was only gnomes I saw daily. “Yeah, agreed.” I huffed out a breath as we made our way to the truck, carrying our pixie burdens.
Once we made it there, we added them into the other two pixie crates that were slowly but surely filling up, then turned around and faced the house.
It was a nice-sized single-family home with a lot of plants in their front and back yards.
The owners had asked us to come collect the pixies in their yard because they were getting aggressive and hurting the kids who lived there.
“Alright, I guess we gotta go back in there,” I said with a sigh, stretching my back out for a few seconds and shaking out my arms. I felt eyes on me, so I turned to Win and asked, “What?”
Even though I couldn’t see his mouth, I could tell by the way his eyes crinkled at the corners that he was smiling. “You’re adorable.”
I blinked at that, then glanced down at myself. I was wearing the pixie gear, looking like a spaceman in a HAZMAT suit, and he thought I was adorable? “I look like I’m about to fly off into space.”
He laughed at that. “You’re not wrong.”
I shook my head, walking away from him and his ridiculousness. “Adorable, my ass.”
“Your ass is definitely adorable, sugar butt.”
“I thought you thought it was sexy?”
He chuckled, following behind me into the backyard. “It’s that too. In fact, I kinda want to bite it.”
I couldn’t help the snort that came out, and I swatted at him with my net, making him laugh and jump out of the way. “You are such a weirdo.”
“Yeah, but you like me.”
“Probably because I’m a weirdo too.”
He laughed again and shoulder-bumped me as he stepped up beside me. “I like you too. A lot.”
With a chuckle, I waved him off. “Ready? They’re going to come at us even harder now since there’s less of them and we’re getting closer and closer to their nest.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I’m ready. We’re gonna have to use a ton of bruise cream when we get home.”
He had somehow come across this cream made by a practitioner that helped soothe and heal bruises at least ten times faster than on their own. It was a lifesaver with all these damn pixie jobs. They really liked to use themselves as tiny bullets, or they flew at us with sticks.
I nodded in agreement. “I’ll put it on you, if you put it on me.”
He shot me a wink. “As long as you’re naked.”
I laughed at that and shook my head, walking back into the garden.
It took us four more net-fulls to get nearly all of the pixies in this mischief.
I knew there were a few stragglers, so I’d leave behind a handful of traps and come back in a few days to get the rest—mostly because I didn’t want them to be separated from their mischief.
Leaving a couple behind wouldn’t be a big deal otherwise, since they’d hide from the humans in such small numbers.
They really only attacked people when they were in big groups.
Although, even that was very unusual. It was strange that we’d now had two mischiefs attacking people—here and at the museum. Before this year, I was pretty sure I’d only ever had one in the five previous years.