Soon, Dr. Doe returns with a bowl of hard candies and suckers. Taking one, I open it from its wrapper and show it to Sky.
“This, is candy. Hard candy to be exact; blueberry flavored.”
Her eyes lock onto the shiny blue jewel of crystalized sugar and artificial flavoring. She can’t look away as it shines under the light.
“Sky, open your mouth for me and stick out your tongue. Don’t swallow this, and do not chew it. Just keep it in your mouth and suck on it. Understand?”
She nods her head frantically, doing as I tell her. Gently, I place the candy on her tongue and her face lights up in surprise and delight before clamping down her mouth on her new treasure.
“Don’t swallow it, don’t chew on it. It will last longer.”
“Hmmmmm!” She happily enjoys the flavor filling her mouth and kicks her legs happily. Refusing to open her mouth lest the sweet little treasure should try and escape.
I wave for Dr. Doe to bring the bowl of candy forward. And Sky’s eyes lock onto it.
“Now then Sky, the good Doctor would like to offer you a trade.”
Sky grows deadly serious with those words. If there is one thing that a Kobold holds most important, it is the trade. I have to hold back a laugh as she tries to look serious while simultaneously having a foodgasm over a piece of candy.
She nods her head and gives the Doctor a bow. Dr. Doe tries to make her offer, but I interrupt her.
“You have to bow first and then present your offer. Kobolds take trades very seriously. Don’t forget to haggle.”
“Oh, I see…”
She gives a bow to Sky and then holds up a vial and one piece of candy.
“I will trade you one piece of candy for each vial of blood that you let me take. Is that alright?”
Sky shakes her head and holds up three fingers. Still refusing to open her mouth lest the candy escape.
“Three candies per vial? I can do that. So, if I were to take three vials of blood, I will give you nine candies.”
Sky shakes her head and holds up ten fingers.
“Three vials are too many. She wants an extra candy in exchange.” I translate for her.
“Hmm…” The Doctor pretends to think over it for a bit and then agrees, holding out the bowl for Sky.
“Very well, pick out your ten pieces. But then I need you to be good and let me collect three vials of blood.”
Sky looks ecstatic as she picks her ten pieces of delicious treasures. Looking over each one before squireling them away in her pockets. She ends up taking exactly ten pieces, no more, no less, just as agreed, not even considering trying to take an extra and hide it, as that would go against the honor of the trade.
“All right Dr. Doe, if you could bow that will end the trade. She should be much more cooperative now.”
“All right then…”
She bows and Sky happily follows suit. Looking rather smug and probably thinking that she walked away from that trade as the winner.
What follows is pretty simple. Sky lets her take three vials but is clearly not happy about having a needle in her arm. She doesn’t complain or fight though, as that would go against the trade. I spend the entire time petting her head and giving her complement to keep her happy, and soon it is finished. The needle is taken out, her arm is whipped clean, and a Band-Aid is placed on her arm.
I give her a hug and thank her for being brave, which makes her happy. With Sky all taken care of finally, Dr. Doe records some last notes before packing up the samples and leading us out of the room. Handing off the samples to another person in a lab coat, she asks us to follow her to some other tests.
What follows is an eye exam and hearing test. I score as being a bit higher than most humans in both areas. Nothing superhuman, but certainly good. Talking Sky through the tests isn’t too difficult; she is smart and gives her answers by simply raising her left and right hands when necessary. Her eyes are average for sight and look healthy, while her hearing is much more sensitive than that of humans. Which makes sense considering that she has dog ears.
After that is done comes an x-ray, followed by an MRI and a CT scan.
Sky doesn’t want to sit still for those last two as she finds them to be rather scary. A trade deal is struck, and she cooperates. As a result, she walks away from those tests being six candies richer and the Doctors finally get their scans along with a promise to return after her changes are finished. Sky will be having more candy to look forward to in the future.
“Alright, that should be it for the medical tests. I know that these can be quite a drag to go through, but we are finally done with those for today. Next, we will be heading to the gym where we will be documenting your physical abilities. If you will follow me…”
She turns around and leads us to an elevator and then to another room in the facility. The best way to describe the room is, well, a gym. They have an assortment of weights and work out machines, treadmills, and apparently a pool further back in a separate area.
In the gym is a few soldiers doing work outs, but they stop and watch as they see us come in.
“Alright Miss Dixon, I have a list of exercises I would like to see you perform, and I will record the results. How about we start with a bench press?”
“Eh, sounds good to me…”
I walk over to a bench and start loading up the bar as much as I can until it is full of weights; all 45’s.
“Uhm… Miss Dixon, are you sure that is safe? That’s quite a lot of weight there…”
“It’ll be fine.”
Stolen novel; please report.
I definitely have the soldier’s attention as I lie down on the bench. They are probable worried that I will hurt myself, considering how small I am. Deciding to help, one of them comes rushing over to spot me behind the bench before I grab the bar.
“Alright, I’m going to start.” I say before lifting the bar from its rack without an issue.
The guy behind me tries to help me hold the bar but quickly realizes that he isn’t really needed as I start doing reps, pushing the maxed-out bar up and down without much issue. Everyone is stunned to silence as they watch a girl almost half their size, pump weights that a body builder would be working with.
“Miss… Miss Dixon, is that not heavy…?” Dr. Doe asks.
“Not really… the heaviest thing that I have lifted was a Humvee. Although that was just me flipping it back onto its wheels, not actually lifting it…” I say, finishing twenty and returning the bar to its rack.
“A Humvee!?” One of the soldiers speaks up in shock, “Ma’am, a Humvee is easily five to six thousand pounds of weight, and you are saying that you flipped one!? Where?”
I sit up on the bench, “Hmm? While I was heading south. One of your convoys left a damaged one behind on the road, it got mauled by a giant black bear. I found it and then I flipped it so Sky and I could search it for stuff. Thing was cleared out though...”
Another of the soldiers, sitting at another machine, gives me a look. “You found that Humvee? I was part of that convoy. Hell, I was the gunner in the turret of that vehicle. Did you see the bear while you were there. Please tell me it's dead!”
“Holy shit, you were in that thing!? It was shredded when I found it!” I say as I look at him with open shock.
“And to answer your question, yes, the bear is dead. I killed it myself. It got pissed because we were playing with the Humvee and came tearing out of the woods with only three legs and looking about half dead...” Standing up, I go over to Sky and grab my sledgehammer to show him the tooth hanging from its handle.
“We took its claws and teeth as trophies, even ate its meat and took some of its hide.” I tell him.
As I tell him about what happened with the bear, he starts to cry with a serious face, teeth clenched tight, his breathing growing shaky.
“You killed it… Good! I wish I could have been there to see it happen!”
“Are you ok?” I ask worriedly.
“Ah, I’m much better now that I know that damn bear is dead! The fucker killed my best friend! Swatted him aside like he was nothing and sent him flying… Sometimes I can still hear the sound of him screaming in the air, of him hitting the ground…! It’s dead… It’s dead……..”
He covers his face and cries. We all give him some quiet to let it all out.
Shakenly, he breaths in deep and pulls himself together before looking to me, “Thank you…”
He stands to leave but I move over and stop him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “I don’t know if it will help, but… If you’d like, I can give you one its claws. Physical proof that it is dead. You can do whatever you want with it. You can break it, burn it, put it on the mantle as a trophy or gift it to his family. Anything that you think might help you and the grieving feel better…” I say, honestly not know how else I could help.
He looks at me for a moment and sniffs back some tears, “I, I would like that. Thank you…”
He pats me on the shoulder and then leaves the room.
The other soldiers soon file out of the room and give me their thanks, “Don’t worry about him. We’ll take good care of him. Take him to a tavern and let him cry it out over a beer, surrounded by friends. Thank you for what you’ve done. We will pay back this debt.”
I wanted to argue back and say that they don’t owe me anything, that I just killed the bear because it attacked us; I didn’t even know that it had killed a soldier. Hells, I don’t even know any of their names. But when I see the look in their eyes, I know that I should just keep my mouth shut and accept their thanks. They are serious and even if I refuse to accept it, they will pay me back.
I don’t really have any choice but to nod my head and accept their gratitude.
They leave the room, and it is only Sky, Dr. Doe and I left. After a moment of letting it sink in, I turn back to the Doctor.
“Apologies for the interruption Dr. Doe. Let's get back to finishing your tests…”
“There is nothing to apologize for Miss Dixon. Thank you.”
…
…
I look at her and give her a smile, “Please, call me Lain.”
----------------------------------------
The rest of my trip to the gym ends up being rather unhelpful. Simply put, I can max out all of the machines in the gym. Eventually, Dr. Doe decides that they are going to have to find a different way to figure out my limits. Especially after I ended up destroying a punching bag with one hit and accidentally ripped up a treadmill’s track with my toe claws.
Deciding to call it a day, Dr. Doe calls for a soldier to escort Sky and me to our new home. She lets us know that all the researchers assigned to our case are very excited to study everything we provided and that she is looking forward to going over their finding with me in the future.
I let her know that I am looking forward to it, and then we part ways.
The soldier that is escorting us is quiet, but respectful. Introduced himself as Private Lance. Apparently while we are living here, he and others will be responsible for escorting us and answering our requests. Something of a bodyguard to keep people from just barging into our home uninvited. Of course, his main purpose is to make sure that we don’t go where we aren’t supposed to. They don’t want us to go wandering into restricted zones or civilian areas and stirring up a riot after all.
Leaving the facility, we walk across a courtyard to pass another facility, which apparently is where those on top do their work, and over to what looks like a fortified apartment building. Being waved inside by the guard outside, we enter the building and are directed to head up stairs. The building has an elevator but, it isn’t being used as all power has to be saved for necessary facilities, like the hospital and the research facility. The elevator is only turned on in the case of someone with a disability needing to get up or down stairs, and then it is immediately turned back off again.
Apparently, this building is for high-ranking officers and VIPs to stay in so that they are but a quick walk away from work at the other nearby facilities. In case they need a place to sleep on busy nights, or if they don’t already own a place of their own on base.
Heading up to the second floor of five, we are shown to our room at the end of the hall.
Opening the door for us, Private Lance tells us, “Miss Lain, Sky, this will be your home for the near future. Inside you will find all of your possessions waiting for you along with a freezer for all of that monster meat that you brought with you. It is powered and the meat has already been packed away for you. Should you require anything at all, please come and ask me. Should you have the desire to stretch your legs, we have a park that is restricted from civilians where you can get some fresh air.”
We walk inside to check the place out as he stands in the open doorway.
Inside, the apartment opens up from a hallway with a bathroom which leads into the kitchen and living room. Off to the side is two doors that lead into two separate bedrooms. Along the outer wall is a sliding door that leads out onto a balcony with lines for drying clothes. The view from the balcony shows the park the private was telling us about and is honestly a nice view.
While Sky stands on the balcony and takes in the view with a happy face, Private Lance speaks up and gets my attention.
“In the bathroom, you will find that the plumbing is working just fine. Hot water is limited and the hours for it are listed by the shower. We ask that you keep running water to a minimum to help conserve power and resources. Laundry is on the ground floor and is run weekly following a listed schedule. We do not run the dryers, so please wash your clothes and then hang them out to dry. If you have anything that is dry-clean only, we do have a drycleaner available.
“While you are staying here, you will be responsible for maintaining your own cleanliness as we do not have a cleaning staff. You also have the special privilege of having a working gas stove for cooking food, please try to keep its use to a minimum. Lastly, you can find a solar charging station for devices over there by the balcony. Please feel free to use it to recharge your lanterns and any other devises as necessary.”
He turns to head to the door, remaining curt and serious the entire time with a straight back. As he is about to close the door, he leans in and says, “Ah, one last thing. Your family is being notified that you are now out of quarantine and will be escorted here to see you shortly. There might be a small delay, as someone had to go and get your sister from her job. Be expecting them to show up within the hour. Please enjoy your stay ma’am.”
He gives a small salute and them shuts the door behind him.
My family is already on their way!? I haven’t even had a chance to prepare. We aren’t even unpacked yet! Wait… Did he say something about a sister…?