Chapter 14 – I Don’t Like Pain!
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“Ow, my head hurts…” I aroused myself from my slumber due to an intense migraine. Yawning and moving to stretch my legs, I soon found that such actions were impossible to perform. “…Eh?” Feeling that mesh material on my mouth and legs, I rapidly raised my head and opened my eyes to assess my situation.

 

“I’m tied up?!” It seemed that between the time I had fallen unconscious under that net, and dreamed about goodness knows who that person was that kept slipping inside my mind, I had been unceremoniously bound in place. “This is abominable! I demand you release me at once!” I tried to bark but couldn’t…because my loquacious mouth was gagged.

 

Examining my surroundings, I glanced upon my current residence and concluded that I was in what my mind was recalling as a cage. Expanding my horizons past my humble – and frankly uncomfortably tiny – abode, I chanced upon the image of my siblings in not so serendipitous situations. In other words, we were captured creatures caught in the chaos of conflict.

 

As for my splitting headache, it was only being exacerbated by the throngs of people milling about around us; all shouting, talking, babbling, bartering, you name it – if they opened their mouths, voluminous voices bombarded my poor delicate ears. I thus hastily lowered them and pressed them flat against my head to better muffle the sounds. I have to admit, I was finding this scenario truly dizzying and vomit-inducing...or maybe that was an after-effect of whatever drug they’d used on us earlier.

 

Observing our situation in more depth, it would appear that we were being transported on some strange contraption of human undertaking. From taking a through view, there were symbols scattered along the entire vehicle with a glowing white crystal centred amongst the densest of text present. I began to wonder if the crystals were used to power the device but did not experience any epiphany to formulate an accurate conclusion within the time I was given.

 

It then occurred to me, during my musings, that there was a very significant thing that I had failed to encounter within my initial observations. To be more accurate…three significant things. “Mother…? Father…? Sibling No.3…? Where are you all?” I started yipping through my gag to call out to them, but received no response in return. Siblings No.1,4 and 5 heard my calls and responded as best they could through their muzzles, which brought some comfort to my panicking heart.

 

Having no chance to worry more than I already had, I noticed how our cages were being transported to a large den very similar to the one from my dream: a Crystal Beast Ranch. As I recalled the many beasts stored inside the large den in my dream, I began to wonder if my siblings and I were to experience the same fate as them. As two large doors in the back of the ranch opened, the vehicle we were carried in entered before halting in place.

 

With the closing of the doors, my headache lessened from the reduced impact of cacophonic noises. It wasn’t very long before my cage was lifted out of the contraption and carried by a human towards another door. “Hey! Try to be more gentle with your movements! I am delicate, I tell you! Delicate!” I attempted to order them while getting dizzy and nauseous from the rough movements.

 

Eventually, my cage was placed down on a desk that seemed different from the ranch owner’s in my dream. Instead of tons of oddities placed haphazardly, there was nothing. It was completely clear of everything, except for myself occupying my tight-fitting container but I digress. Within the small den I was in, there were three adult male humans looking at me, so I silently stared back.

 

“Oh? It seems this one is calmer than our usual catches. Let’s be extra gentle with it so it stays that way.” The one in white clothes said.

 

“Yes, Doctor.” “Understood, Doctor.” The other two responded.

 

From my awkward viewpoint, the one called ‘Doctor’ slid something aside outside my cage before swinging the door of it open. “This thing had a door?! Why didn’t I realise?!” Lamenting in my poor observations, I felt the human’s hands gently slide beneath my body before slowly pulling me out of the cage. “Eh? What are you going to do?” I inquired with my eyes as I continued to stare at the ‘Doctor’.

 

“Easy there, little one. I’m only going to give you a medical examination.” He said while scratching behind my perked up ears. “Ah, that feels so nice.” I leaned into his hand as he spoke to the adult male wearing green, “Get the scanning device charged up while I do the preliminary checks.” He then looked at me and smiled before scratching under my chin. “Ah! Even better! Scratch me more!” My tail began wagging in content at Doctor’s movements.

 

Of course, such lovely feelings ended soon when he ceased his scratching and unbound my legs. I was unsure about what he was doing until I heard his invasive rhetoric as he spread my hind legs and stared:

 

“No prominent male genitalia present; must be a female.”

 

“Eh?! D-D-Doctor…what are you doing…?” My mind was swirling in spirals as I tried to comprehend what the adult male was doing to me. However, my chaotic mind was not given respite as the doctor continued his medical examination.

 

“Has stripes along the back, with a very fluffy tail.” He grabbed my mouth and ungagged it before pulling back my lips and rubbing my teeth. “Teeth are in good condition and don’t seem designed for herbivorous diets.” He then grabbed my front paws and spread my toes apart before pulling at my claws, “Wide paws with long, thick claws – most likely for digging.” He released my delicate paws before stroking my head, “Good girl, you’re doing great.”

 

“Doctor, what species is she?” The other adult male wearing very colourful clothing, and standing close to the door, asked.

 

“From my initial observations, I would say she’s an aardwolf pup. Sam, is the device charged up?”

 

“Yes, Doctor. Here you go.” The adult male in green responded as he placed a solid cage on the desk. “What? Am I being locked up again?” I began to squirm a little in apprehension at being put into a small, tight space again and couldn’t hold back the whimper in my voice.

 

“Easy now, girl. This won’t hurt you at all and will be over very soon.” The doctor stroked down my back before scratching under my chin again. “Ah, keep stroking, that feels nice…” Fully distracted by the soothing strokes, the other adult male carefully picked me up and placed me inside the solid cage. “I was deceived!”

 

Whilst inside the weird cage, a white light flashed all around me before a strange humming sound was emitted. Outside, I picked up on the doctor’s words as he muttered his observations that this device was most likely revealing.

 

“Organs seem healthy. Bone structure isn’t malformed, or damaged. Jawline seems perfectly functional and likely to have some power behind it. Sam, enhance the output around the eyes and legs, please.”

 

“Yes, Doctor.”

 

The light seemed to intensify exponentially as a tingling sensation thrummed within my eyes and legs. “What’s happening? Why do I feel tingly? What are you doing to me?!” I began to whimper again as panic swept through my mind over what was occurring. However, the doctor seemed to ignore me this time and didn’t give me any comforting strokes. “He’s abandoned me! Left me to my fate!”

 

“There appears to be some light crystallising around the eyes and the bones in the hind legs seem to have some initial crystallising, too. If I am to be correct in my assumption, then this aardwolf pup has recently been consuming some crystal substances.” The doctor stated monotonously.

 

The colourful adult male queried: “Crystal substances?”

 

“Don’t be concerned, Leonard. I heard the area she was captured in had a variety of crystal termite colonies living there. Her parents probably fed her some crystal termites. That, or the water in that area flowed from the crystal mountains further up North.”

 

“Oh, I see. Well, as long as it doesn’t hinder the merchandise.”  Leonard replied with a sigh of relief.

 

“No need to worry, she’s in perfect health and has great potential – if a little on the docile side. I’m sure there’ll be lots of girls who will want her for how cute and fluffy she looks. Sam, turn off the device.”

 

“Yes, Doctor.”

 

The light stopped flashing before my eyes and I opened them to see I was still alive. I poked my head out of the solid cage to find the doctor smiling at me as he reached out to pull me out.

 

“Good girl, you were very brave. Now we’ll just give you some vaccinations and then you can relax.” He scratched under my chin and behind my ears again for a few seconds before stopping to get something. “What’s a vaccination?” I tilted my head as I pondered over that strange word – having a vague sense of foreboding without understanding why.

 

Watching the doctor take out a thin object with an even thinner attachment in front of it, I stared at it in curiosity. As it neared my thigh, I heard the adult male in green and the colourfully dressed adult male both sharply intake their breaths anxiously – almost as if something bad was going to—“OUCH! THAT HURTS!”  I felt a sharp thing enter my thigh, startling me and making me instinctively want to get away from the object.

 

Sam hastily grabbed hold of me and pinned me down, while the doctor shoved another sharp thing into me, then another…and another. By the end of this torturous experience, I felt like a pincushion violently stabbed with thousands of needles by a child – bearing malicious intentions. “Pincushion? Needles? What are these words and why are they forming now of all times?!”

 

A few minutes later, I had completely forgotten about the damage to my soul the doctor had dealt as he was feeding me some delicious mushed up crystal termites. As I was engorging myself on food, the doctor lifted my legs and put a flimsy thing along them before doing a similar thing to my back, tail, paws and snout. When all of that was done, I found myself sporting a hard collar attached to a chain before being led out of another door to who knows where. “Oh! Will there be more crystal termites?” I wondered as I wagged my tail in anticipation.

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