Of Dogs and Dragons

The early morning sun just started to rise above the elegant town of Newberry and the lobby of Newberry Veterinarian Clinic was relatively empty. It was a fairly cool morning, and Emilia Reynolds could smell the freshness of the day. The crisp air was intoxicating, and the grass smelled newly mowed as another autumn day set in. It was a new day, and Emilia was trying to think as optimistically as possible. Though it had only been a day, there had not been any attacks since Champ was killed... at least none that they had known of.

Emilia found her boss, Dr. Kristen Baker, in the front lobby of the clinic to let her know about the night's incidences. "You look terrible," Dr. Baker said just as Emilia approached. "Did Talia keep you out late?"

Emilia yawned at that moment, as if to prove Dr. Baker's point. "Yeah... thanks," she joked. "But I'm fine."

"You better be." Dr. Baker smiled. She was trying to make light of the situation, but Emilia knew that there was some seriousness in her statement. "Anyways, Rosie briefed me about last night. That must have been terrible."

Emilia did not want to be reminded of it. She was already trying to get past another death, and she was having trouble her mind clinging to the memory of little Champ alone and afraid on the operating table. "Yeah," she said simply pushing the memory away.

"We're getting something done about it though." Dr. Baker could sense Emilia's sadness. All of the workers at Newberry Vet Clinic felt the same emotions because they cared tremendously about saving the lives of the innocent animals. "You know how I told you that someone was going to come check it out?"

"Yeah," Emilia answered anxious to hear what her supervisor was going to say.

"Well, he's coming today. He should be here in an hour or so." Dr. Baker was pleased to let out the good news. It was what her staff needed to hear. So much bad was going on that just a little glimmer of hope could lighten their moods.

Emilia felt relieved. Something was being done to help save the helpless dogs... finally.

Dr. Baker saw Emilia's smile and took that as a satisfied reply. "Well, here's your first chart for the morning. Get some coffee and start making rounds."

Emilia grabbed the chart and looked at it briefly before making any sort of move. She then took Kristen's advice and grabbed some coffee, gulping it down quickly. As soon as she finished her coffee, she went on her way to check on her first patient.

"Bailey." Emilia smiled as soon as she walked into the first room. She rushed towards a large black and tan dog with floppy ears and an oversized head. His face filled with delight and his tailless butt started to shake. "How's my favorite guy doing?"

Bailey's owner looked towards Emilia. "He's been great," he announced. "And his new diet is definitely working."

"That's wonderful Tom," Emilia answered relieved to hear some good news. She did notice that Bailey looked about 2 kilograms lighter than she had last seen him. Bailey's weight was always seemed to be the issue. "He's just here for routine shots, right?" Emilia asked staring at the chart.

"Yep," Tom answered.

Emilia crept towards the back of the room where a drawer filled with medical supplies resided. She opened the drawer and found a needle and a vaccine. She placed the needle in the vaccine, pushed it, and turned back towards Bailey.

She then squatted down to the floor next to Bailey, petting his short and somewhat prickly dark fur. Tom came to the floor as well, holding Bailey's collar and gently caressing his enormous head.

Emilia quickly inserted the needle into Bailey's neck, and then she pulled away. The shot was done before Bailey, and even Tom, noticed.

"That's it?" Tom questioned, surprised that it had been so quick.

"That's it," Emilia cheerfully responded. "Now someone deserves a cookie, don't you think?"

Bailey's floppy ears perked up and stood erect at the sound of the word, 'cookie.' His entire backside began to sway back and forth once again and his face lit up, overjoyed with happiness.

Emilia took a dog biscuit from the drawer below the medical supplies. She threw the treat up and Bailey caught it midway between the height she threw it at and the ground. She gave Bailey one more pat on the head before leaving the room to check on her next task.

After walking out of the room, Emilia approached the HR (Healing Room). There were several animals in critical condition, most of them being dogs because of the recent attacks. She checked to make sure that they were doing well and much to her dismay most of them were not.

As she started to approach one of the sicker dogs, her pager beeped. She quickly ran to the front desk, anticipating the worst. She soon noticed her boss standing next to a familiar face.

"Charlie?" Emilia questioned, staring at the relatively tall, yet stocky man with blinding red hair that she had met the previous night. He was relatively attractive, but she was not sure if she liked him very much, and she knew she acted extremely shy in front of him. She was not in the mood to deal with him, especially as Charlie stared at her that moment, looking particularly unfriendly with his rudimentary gaze and unfriendly eyes.

"You two know each other already?" Dr. Baker smiled, though Emilia was not sure why.

"Not really," Emilia answered. "We just met last night."

"Oh." Dr. Baker sighed. "So you two didn't?" she started to say, but paused.

Emilia realized what she was inferring. "Oh no," she reassured her boss, shocked by her assumption. "We just met. He left before he even explained what he did." Emilia could not understand how Baker could even assume something like that. She realized that Baker did not know her as well as she had thought.

Emilia then remembered Charlie's excuse of leaving from the previous night. He had work early the next morning. Since when was 9:30 early? That must have meant that he did not actually want to talk to them. Or at least he did not want her there, for not many people avoided Talia. She should have known.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Charlie finally spoke. "Anyways, I'm here to figure out what is happening to the poor dogs." Emilia felt like Charlie was hiding something, though she was not sure what it was. It seemed like his response was half-hearted and she figured that he did not care about the dogs as much as he let on. "Now do you think you could describe the injuries?" Charlie asked, staring at Dr. Baker, obviously hiding his eyes from Emilia.

Baker turned to Emilia, waiting for her to reply. "They usually look burned," Emilia explained. Charlie focused his eyes on her since he had to. "Like they were caught in a fire or something. But if you really want to know, we have some dogs that have been attacked in critical condition now. The injuries are just so odd that I don't think I could do justice in explaining them."

"Okay," Charlie responded. "Let's go see them."

"I'm going to leave you two," Baker interrupted. "Reynolds will be much more helpful than me and I should be getting some other work done."

The two walked in silence to the HR. Emilia was annoyed, yet nervous around Charlie, and she did not want to stir up a conversation. It's not like she would be good at it anyways. Her and guys just didn't get along very well.

Charlie seemed to be observant, but distant as they walked silently through the clinic's halls. Emilia had never been so quiet in the company of another going from one place to the next. She just did not feel comfortable around him especially after the experience from the previous night. She was not comfortable around many guys, but knowing him from outside of work just made her suppress her thoughts even more. It annoyed her that she could not speak calmly and rationally with him. Emilia was not sure if he was a decent guy, but she was interested to learn more about him. She had trouble even coming up with one word to say to him.

They finally reached the room of the injured animals, after what seemed like the longest walk in history to Emilia. In the room, there were several cages aligned in a row, each occupied with a single small animal. Some had IVs attached and most had soft pillows and quilts to try to make them as comfortable as possible.

"Do you want to see one of them more closely?" Emilia asked as Charlie's eyes glanced around the room, seeing how the Muggles took care of the sick animals. She finally found her voice again, only because it was work related.

"Yeah," Charlie replied, staring at the array of animals. "Could I see the newest victim?"

Emilia walked towards the cage furthest from the door and Charlie followed close behind. She opened the cage door to reveal a small Hound mix, curled up in a ball, shaking and trembling and attached to an IV. "Just be careful," Emilia explained fearful of Charlie's reaction. "She's very weak and even human contact can harm her."

Charlie did not say a word as he kneeled down to observe the animal. He knew exactly what it was that attacked the dogs, but he did not know why. Dogs were not natural predators of Hungarian Horntails, which made him uneasy. He would not know what to expect. Something unusual was going on. When he looked over the assignment during the night, he realized that the job might be a little harder than he first expected.

His eyes wandered over the dog's scarred skin. There were marks of blood, but he could also see faint marks of green in the wound. "Do they all have this greenish mark along with their wounds?" he asked.

"What greenish mark? Emilia asked, oblivious to what Charlie was talking about.

Charlie realized his mistake. She was a Muggle. She most likely would not see a greenish mark. Still, she came closer to Charlie, kneeling next to him to observe the dog.

"Never mind," he said, so she did not think he was crazy.

"Okay?" Emilia questioned, unsure as to what Charlie was doing. He continued to thoroughly examine the dog, though to Emilia's relief, he did not touch her. At least he was a good listener, even if he wasn't the nicest person.

"So what exactly do you do?" Emilia was suddenly curious. The question popped out of her mouth, before she even thought about it.

Charlie transitioned his attention back towards Emilia. He seemed to think about his answer for quite awhile before finally answering. "I'm an Animal Officer," he quickly thought of, referring to the Muggle Police Officer.

"An Animal Control Officer?" Emilia corrected him. "And where are you from?" She could not believe the questions flying from her mouth. It was like she knew there was something wrong with this guy, and she had to figure it out. It was for the animal's sake. Yeah, that's what it was.

"Devon," Charlie quickly answered, thinking of his parent's home.

"They sent you all the way here?"

"I'm the most qualified person, okay?" Charlie seemed annoyed. "Now do you think you could answer some questions?"

Emilia felt ashamed. There she was, questioning his intentions and he just wanted to work. "Okay," Emilia answered, feeling a bit less confident then before.

"When did these attacks first start?" Charlie asked.

"About three months ago," Emilia answered. "But there were only a few at first. Within the past week it's gotten significantly worse."

"And do dogs like that usually recover?" Charlie asked, referring to the Hound mix.

"Rarely." Emilia sighed. "Not ones that bad. Sometimes they seem to be getting better, but they break out in a fever and they..." Emilia paused. "They don't make it."

"Okay," Charlie announced. "I think that should do. I'll check it out and see what I can do."

"Okay," Emilia said. She was thinking about asking Charlie if he needed to know anything else. At the last second, she backed out of it, as her questions had already started to annoy him.

Charlie started to leave the HR, while Emilia stayed behind to see what she could do for the injured animals. As Charlie left the room, she heard Talia entering for her shift. She just happened to run into Charlie. Emilia peaked her head out of the door to listen to their conversation.

"Charlie?" Emilia could hear Talia's voice, questioning the logic of Charlie being there. "Oh, you really do work with animals?"

"Yeah," Charlie answered, with little emotion. He didn't seem to be the most thrilling of guys.

"What are you doing here?" She proceeded to question him. Emilia was grateful to hear Talia's questions. She wanted to learn more about Charlie as well and she had already asked enough questions to annoy him. There was no way that her shy self would be asking him anything else non-work related.

"I was called in to figure out what's going on with the dogs," he explained, not adding in any extra detail.

"Oh," Talia's voice was perky and enthused. "You should talk to Emilia. She's the first one that noticed this pattern. She should be able to help out."

Emilia could feel herself blush, for some odd reason. Talia promoted her all too often, and she became cheerful any time she did. "I already did," Charlie simply said. It was clear that he just wanted to get going. Talia did not seem to take his hint.

"Oh, well I'm sure she was helpful," Talia said. Charlie started to move away, but Talia spoke again stopping him. "Actually, I was hoping to run into you again. Would you like to get dinner tonight? I'm done at 7, and I would sure appreciate the company of a guy as handsome as yourself for once."

Talia was always good at that kind of stuff. There she was, after knowing Charlie for barely a conversation, and she was already asking him to dinner. Emilia was always jealous of the way she did that. She could never talk to guys like that. In fact, she had only had one serious relationship ever. She didn't think that was too usual for a 25 year old.

Charlie did not answer right away. Emilia could not see them, but she figured that he probably looked somewhat perplexed. Talia could do that to anyone. There was no way he was expecting her to ask him to dinner. "Erm..." he was trying to figure out what to say. Finally, he said, "Sure."

Emilia's heart sank down into her chest, annoyed at herself for not being able to do something as brave and bold as that. Talia put herself out there, and she was successful. Emilia wanted that. She wanted to be able to talk to guys in a mature and caring way. Unfortunately the only guy that she could talk to like that was in the furry variety. Perhaps also of the brothering nature, but despite that she could not even address a fatherly figure in a confident manner. Hers was too drunk most of the time to even acknowledge that she existed. That relationship ended years ago, as soon as she entered college.

"Well, great," the cheeky blond said. "I'll meet you at Luciello's at say, 7:30," she declared, knowing that Charlie would not have any place to suggest for dinner. "It's this great Italian place, right near Teddy's. You should be able to find it."

"See you then," Charlie answered before leaving the building.