The Chibi Problem Part 28
Twenty minutes later I was flying across Highway 78, heading for the fire and the orphaned Chibis. The probably already crispy-crittered orphaned Chibis.
In the car with me were BabyDoll, Angel, DeathSky and an assortment of very grim heeros and duos. I had no illusions of being able to get anywhere near the house. My plan - such as it was - was to get as close as the authorities would allow, and just let the gundam work.
Angel and DeathSky had already determined that BabyDoll would stay with me. My Chibi protested vehemently, of course, but couldn't argue with the big alpha after being reminded that he was still a domestic Chibi, not a wild one, and that he didn't have the right instincts to go up against fire.
Which of course begs the question, how the hell do wild Chibis go up against a fire?
It took a couple of false turns before we finally found a place to stage from. The first road I tried was blocked by a sheriff's car. The second was impassable due to people coming out of the area. The fire, which was only a matter of hours old, had reared up and scared the crap out of everyone. The Elfin Forest and Harmony Grove fires of recent memory were still in people's minds, and something about the air that morning seemed to have tweaked everyone's startle instinct.
Usually it's not easy to get people to evacuate ahead of a fire, but in the area I wanted to be at least, no one was arguing with the sheriffs.
I finally found a road that led to a road, that led to another road, that led to still another road, that led to a pocket that I judged to be maybe a quarter mile from Ruthie and Teola's place, as the crow - or Chibi - flew.
Now, this definitely comes under the heading of "don't try this at home, kids" because it's just plain stupid to run toward a fire, unless you are a trained professional. But hell; I was on a mission and absurdly confidant in my ability to know when to stand and when to run like hell.
Everyone erupted from the car as soon as I stopped. DeathSky gave terse instructions to his troops; instructions that included the admonition to run like hell if the fire got close. I brought out the map and pointed out our current position and the place they were headed for. And I reminded them that if the sheriff spotted me; I would be forced to leave. They huddled for a moment, then broke up and the big guy nodded; they had a contingency plan for that now. DeathSky took point, with Angel and two duos as a rear guard, and they launched almost immediately.
BabyDoll stood on the roof of the car and shrieked at his mate to be careful, dammit! They were quickly out of sight, in the gathering smoke and the hilly terrain. Then he turned to me, his big purple eyes puddling up.
I picked him off the car and cuddled him close, rubbing my cheek against his soft head.
"They'll be okay, sweetie," I assured him.
"Shiiiii..." he sighed disconsolately.
I'd already soaked a kerchief in water, and had it tied over my face, and BabyDoll was wearing a similar thing as a burnoose. We paced, circling the car while I kept an eye on my watch.
From my position, I could see the flames moving quickly up a nearby ridge. I had to make sure nothing moved around behind us that might cut off the road we came up. On the road at the bottom of the pocket, a city police car roared past, lights flashing and siren warbling. BabyDoll looked at me anxiously.
"Yeah, if they spot us here, they'll make us leave," I answered his silent question. "It's their job to keep people safe, whether the people like it or not. But he didn't see us, I guess."
My Chibi began to thrum, curling his fingers into my t-shirt and leaning his head against my collarbone. Five minutes passed, and I figured they must be there by now, assuming there was any "there" left. Allow two minutes to look around, find the errant Chibis, and five minutes to fly back...
I looked at my watch again. Nine minutes.
I couldn't help myself. "C'mon guys," I muttered to myself. "Snap it up..."
I heard the police siren again, coming back. True to my challenge, the Power of Worse rose up and swatted at us. The cop turned into the pocket where we were staged.
"Ma'am, you need to get out now!" the officer yelled from his car. "It's jumped the line on the other side of this hill!"
Shit.
"Just another couple of minutes," I returned. "I'm waiting for- for someone!"
He opened his door, stepping half out of the car. "I'm sorry; there's no more time. Whoever you're waiting on, they're on their own."
"My Chibis..."
He looked at BabyDoll shaking in my arms. "There's no more time," he said again, and sounded sorry.
BabyDoll slipped out of my grasp and launched, spiraling up and up directly overhead, shrieking out his all-purpose "Shiiiniiigamiiiii!"
I looked at the cop, at the slightly startled expression on his face. "His mate, and his gundam mates. They're searching for some lost Chibis."
He started to speak, but his radio erupted in frantic squawking. He frowned, and answered briefly, then turned back to me. "It's coming. I'm sorry about your Chibis, but they'll have to make it down on their own. Let's go."
I called to BabyDoll as I got into my car and fired the engine. The cop didn't have to say it; I already knew that if I didn't go now, he'd arrest me for my own safety. And he wasn't going to drive out first.
BabyDoll signaled that he would follow the car, still watching the smoke-laden sky. I started to creep down the hill; the impatient cop almost nudged my bumper. Then I heard BabyDoll's triumphant scream and powered the windows down; there wouldn't be time for doors.
Sure enough, about five seconds later, a swarm of flyers made a kamikaze dive out of the smoke heading straight for the car from all sides. BabyDoll landed neatly on the back of my seat, while the rest did some less than graceful tuck-and-rolls through the open windows, fetching up in a large pile in the backseat.
"Is that everyone?" I demanded.
"Chiii!" replied my Chibi. I hit the window control again, and slammed my foot down on the gas. Guess I startled the cop; he was at least a couple of seconds coming after me.
He hadn't been exaggerating. I hit two places where the fire had jumped the road and was burning merrily on both sides. I got a first-hand glimpse of what the Christian hell must look like, barreling through those fire tunnels. I power slid through curves and around corners, never dropping below third gear, until we came out on the main road and were stopped dead by the stream of traffic fleeing the fire. The cop pulled around me with a wave and a grin; I guess there were no hard feelings after all.
At least we were in no immediate danger now. I took the crawl and stop of the traffic as an opportunity to see what the gundam had brought for me.
It wasn't three Chibis, as I'd expected, but four, an injured and bedraggled duo and three wufeis in undetermined condition. Angel separated the duo from the others and hopped into the front seat with him. One wing had a ragged tear, probably courtesy of a predator, and his sable feather-fur had thin spots. His little body was thinner than any duo should be; the poor little guy was obviously starving.
The wufeis were in better shape, but still not up to gundam standards. They had also missed more than a few meals. Their physical condition hadn't changed their natural wufei-ness, though. They were snapping and snarling and "Onna!" and "Injustice!"-ing all over the place, to the point that DeathSky rolled his eyes, glared at them and hissed "Shiii! Oi!" They went instantly quiet, clustering together warily.
DeathSky snorted and sat down, satisfied that he had everything under control.
In the front seat, BabyDoll gathered the duo into his arms and cooed reassurances. The raggedy little thing let out a great sob, and just... let go. That's the only description I can come up with. It was as if he'd been waiting for someone, anyone, to take the worry and responsibility from him, and now someone had, and he could finally relax. He began to cry softly, curling against BabyDoll.
Angel sat guard, occasionally stroking the crying duo's hair and trading significant looks with his mate.
I left them to their mothering and turned my attention to the backseat. One of the other heeros had the three wufeis lined up and was inspecting them for obvious wounds, scars and possibly parasites. It's hard to know what they're looking for sometimes.
"How are they doing?" I asked after a few minutes of trying to watch the rearview mirror and the traffic. "Anybody critical?"
The heero snorted and reeled off a string of chatter that ended with an uncompromising "Hn!"
Ah. The wufeis were filthy. They had an acceptable number of bruises and scrapes and scars. They were unarmed (he shook his head, possibly in amazement at the idea of an unarmed wufei) but didn't seem to have any predator wounds. They were uniformly obnoxious, loud and angry. In short, they were normal.
I snorted, and muttered under my breath, "Tell me something I didn't already know, dude!"
He apparently took that literally, for he jumped to the back of my seat, crouching to mutter in my ear.
They were also domestic Chibis. They were purebred, registered, show quality, papered dammit! Their emphasis, he clarified quickly. Not from the same gundarium, though it was interesting that they had managed to find each other. They had been bought by humans, shipped by air in crates (clearly a nasty word) and then subjected to coyotes, bobcats, human chibits, loud noise, bad food and impossible demands. So, they left.
I blinked. "Um... Could I get a translation on that one, please?" I asked the car generally.
DeathSky made a "chu!" sound then offered the translated version.
The wufeis had all been purchased, sight-unseen, by various buyers from their home gundariums, then shipped cross-country, only to become the second, third or even fourth pet in a household that had no clue of how to keep any Chibi, let alone a wufei Chibi. Conflict ensued. Eventually, each of them had been abandoned, since their respective breeders refused to take them back.
Yep; Chibi-mills.
And you thought only purebred dogs suffered that way?
I sighed. Traffic had stopped for a moment, so I turned in my seat to look at the little bundles of attitude. If ever there was a major mistake made in choosing a pet, it was choosing a wufei as a first Chibi. Wufeis and heeros are the last variety you want when you're just getting into Chibis. They are guaranteed to make you crazy, because they are just positive that they are smarter than you are. And frequently they are right about that; witness this case. Or cases.
"How long have you guys been out there?" I asked them directly. They stared at me, hardly breathing. I rolled my eyes. "Hey, big guy," I addressed DeathSky, "Would you mind giving them the skinny on our arrangement? They're gonna be staying, at least for a while, so they need to know how to act."
The alpha duo snickered and agreed.
"Oh, and tell them they're all going to the vet. I want to have them all checked out, not just this little one." I looked down at the duo in BabyDoll's arms. He might be an adult, barely. He certainly didn't look as old as Happy, but then he'd had at least a month or so of hard living.
The vet visit was... interesting. Dr. Kain had early morning duty, checking in the surgery patients, and she was more than happy to look at my group of Chibis.
The gundam Chibis all had to be there, of course, to make sure that no one was being cruel to the newcomers, even though BabyDoll and Angel had reassured them that the doctor wouldn't hurt them.
Dr. Kain was pleasantly bemused by the sudden influx of Chibis into her examining room. She likes the little critters, even though she has no more familiarity with them than Dr. Wright does. She talks to the animals she handles, though, and the Chibis like that, even talking back to her. She doesn't understand, at least not yet, but I've seen signs that she may be learning to.
None of the wufeis were seriously injured by their time in the wild, but the duo was dehydrated and starving, probably because of the limitations of his damaged wing. Dr. Kain stitched up the torn wing, saying that he should be able to fly again once it healed. Maybe not as gracefully as before, but flying is flying. Everyone got shots, including the gundam Chibis.
DeathSky looked askance at me when I told him to line up with the rest, but I reminded him even BabyDoll's chibits had had their shots with nary a protest, and he reluctantly joined the queue.
At home once again, Chibis swarmed us before we even got out of the car. Killer appeared to take the wufeis in hand and they seemed more willing to take orders from him. He herded them immediately into the bathroom, and I heard the water in the sink come on. The gundam duos clustered around the injured duo and he regarded them with something like awe. Berber appeared with his fellow quatres and gradually things returned to... well, to the usual state of mild confusion. I'm trying not to use the term 'normal' because it really means nothing. This house hasn't been 'normal' since I brought BabyDoll home.
While the Chibis proceeded to make the orphans at home, explaining procedures, rules, and assigning territory, I sat down with the phone and started making calls. Dr. Kain had discovered that the orphans were all tattooed or microchipped and she had pulled off the info for me.
I won't go into detail here; suffice to say that I received less than satisfaction from the original breeders of these Chibis, although, each of them was happy to give me the names and addresses of the disillusioned buyers. It did no good to lecture or rail at the breeders; they either knew what they were doing and didn't care or they were too stupid to know and didn't care. Either way, they were the reason for Chibi Rescue groups that were beginning to form.
Pete is involved with wufei rescue, so I gave him a call and explained the situation. He promised to get onto his contacts and see if anyone was looking for a good wufei to adopt. I said I'd keep them here for the time being. I also had to come out with the information about the gundam.
He wasn't particularly surprised; said he'd had a feeling that I was somewhat over-chibied. I even told him about my idea to train Chibis as service companions for people with disabilities. He snorted, and I swear I could hear him shaking his head.
"Only you would think of that!" he laughed.
Then I moved on to the past owners of my new guys.
Each time I was treated to suspicion, then hostility, then a great deal of justification for tossing the Chibi in question out to fend for himself.
All the past owners were pissed as hell that the breeder wouldn't take the Chibis back, they didn't want their Chibi back and only one showed any resistance to sending me their papers. That one thought she could get money out of me, belatedly realising that wufeis don't grow on trees and that she'd paid a lot of money for a creature she threw away only two months later. I told her it was no big thing to me; I didn't intend to breed or show the little guy. And since she had abandoned him, I could just report her to the ASPCA and let them handle it from there. She would put the papers in the mail the next day, she snarled, and hung up on me.
By mid-afternoon I had successfully dealt with all four owners.
I went to check on the Chibis then and found the wufeis cleaned, pressed and groomed to within an inch of their little lives. They looked quite elegant, compared to the 'before.' The duo had also been cleaned up and looked much better. He was asleep in a nest with some of BabyDoll's plushies and a couple of his favorite blankies. BabyDoll, his mates and their chibits rested not far away.
TBC...
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