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Tiny Totter Part 1

Tammy wasn't the usual adjuster for the city's account, but her supervisor was at the hospital. He was okay, but his daughter was in labor.

He'd asked her to evaluate a building that had been shot-up between the SWAT team and someone who'd misjudged the security on the bank next door.

She smiled at the memory. The man was a former cop himself, with military experience. And he was babbling like an idiot because someone he loved was in pain.

Social Services had a van on the doorstep. She nodded at a few faces she recognized. "Esme? What are you guys doing here? I was told the building had been cleared out?"

"Of people," the older woman said with a nod. Tammy looked in the direction indicated. Lots of little cages were being brought out the door. It took her a moment to recognize the contents.

They put one cage down on the ground before her as they loaded the others. A tiny little sylph was curled up in a fetal position. He was so filthy, though, she'd taken him for a mouse at first.

"Oh, my god," she said softly. "That poor thing…"

"Uh huh," Esme agreed. "You don't know the half of it, though."

"What?" She glanced at the other woman. With what SS saw each day, when they looked shocked, it had to be pretty bad.

"Bloodsports." It was pretty bad. "There was a kennel for a local ring in the basement. Only found it because the SWAT team swept the building looking for the other robbers.

"There's the usual equipment. Cages, an arena, a few training stands. A bed with two sets of restraints." She paused to rub her eyes with both hands. "The coin-operated soldering pencil…"

"Eugh," Tammy said softly. She looked back down at the caged sylph. "What'll happen to this one?"

"They'll try rehabilitation, but… It'll be a long time before they can be in the company of other sylphs. If ever."

"That's so sad…" When Tammy said that, the sylph's eyes opened up. They looked up at her and down into her soul. She felt the captive's pain like a physical blow.

And suddenly understood why Kevin couldn't form full sentences. She reached a hand out to the caged creature.

It saw her move, flinched and tried to bury itself under the wood shavings. She pulled her hand back.

"Can I… I don't know," she asked. "Can I adopt him? Who do I see?"

Esme stared at her for a long second, then looked up and down the street. "We, uh, we haven't got an official count. Not yet. There's always a chance one or two might escape before we get to the office.

"What are you….?"

"Tammy, once these things are in the system, they're going to stay in the system. If you want to help this one, you'll have to keep him out of our offices."

She shrugged. "Hell, the blood sylphs are never in the Registry, so Finders/Keepers still applies. It'd be legal for you to take this one. Probably. Maybe."

"Thanks," Tammy said. She picked up the cage and heard a whimper from inside. But that sound only made her grip the handle tighter.

------

Tammy put the cage down on the kitchen table and looked around. The Services' cages were meant for transport, not long term habitation, but she really didn't have anything else to put him in.

"Well, fellow," she said. "We'll keep you in this cage for tonight, then get something else tomorrow. What would you like?"

He crouched in the shavings, hardly moving. She thought his eyes twitched back and forth, but that was all.

"Hello?" she asked. "What's your name?" She put her head down close to the wires and looked at him. There was a collar, but it was just wire around his throat, no tags. She'd have to get that off of him. She wondered where her pliers were.

"I need to call you something," she said softly.

"Totter, Lord," he finally croaked. "I'm called Tiny Totter in the standings."

"Ah. Well, Totter, you can call me Tammy." She stuck a finger into the cage to shake it like she'd seen sylphs and humans do on TV.

Totter scurried away from her on all fours. She pulled her finger back. "Okay. Okay. You don't trust me. There's no reason you should. Not yet. So. Are you hungry?"

He nodded his head a little bit. "Do you like roast beef?" He looked puzzled. "Okay, what do you like to eat?"

"Food?" he said/asked.

"What did they feed you?"

"Food?" He started to look a little desperate. Tammy sat up, pulling away from the cage.

"Okay, okay. You haven't done anything wrong. I have some deli meat, we'll see how that goes." She got the package from the fridge and tore off a piece the size of her fingernail. In Totter's hands, it was the size of a tortilla.

He peeled it gently off of her fingertip and started to gnaw at it. Then he looked surprised and bolted it down.

She smiled and looked for something to give him a drink with. While her back was turned, he vomited his foot back up.

"Aw," she said. He threw himself into the corner and shook. "Totter, you're not in trouble," she said. "I should have known better." She grabbed some a paper towel, opened the door and slowly cleaned up the mess. She spoke soothingly as she went.

"See? No harm done. You're just nervous. Probably terrified. On top of the stress, too much food that you're not used to, too quickly." She closed the cage back up and leaned back.

"I haven't got any cups for you. Maybe I could soak a towel? You can suck the water out? Slowly?" He stared. "Okay. We'll try that." She put a corner of a wetted dishcloth through the bars and stepped away.

She'd have to get some cups and plates for him. But the best stuff would require shopping at a sylph store, and she still wasn't certain that what she was doing was legal. It didn't feel legal, anyway. Watching Totter look up at her and shake, it didn't feel real, either.

The sylph moved over and bit at the fabric. He seemed to get a drink and it stayed down. She wetted it a couple of times, then offered another tiny pinch of meat.

"Eat it slowly, Totter," she said, "chew each bite." He did and then lay down. With the stress of the day, she wasn't sure he was ever going to sleep.

But once he had food, he relaxed a bit. He watched from the table as she put together a meal for herself. Just as she sat down to eat it, he was snoring. She smiled and carefully ate her sandwich.

-----

She rummaged through her desk for the family reunion newsletter. There was a raft of names, none of which stood out to her.

And no one had helpfully tagged anyone as 'the guy with the sylph.' Or the guy with the legally obtained sylph. She called her mother.

"Mom? Aren't we related to someone who owns a sylph? In Gainesville, I wanna say?" Mom connected her through an aunt to a cousin who actually knew Annie and had Ray's number, around here somewhere.

With Ray's name Tammy found the number on her newsletter. She rolled her eyes to notice that his name had '& Annie' after it.

It was the usual Foster call, at least at the start. They had to map out their connections on and through the family tree. They determined that they'd never met, but they knew who each other was.

"Look," she finally said, "the reason I called? I have a sylph."

"Really? How long?"

"Six hours. I, uh, rescued him from Social Services. They found a blood sports ring and… Well, he looked so scared."

"I can hardly imagine," he said. "So. You want to know what to do?"

"I want to know what to get. I need a cage, I know, but what all else?"

"Ah. Well, I started with a cage, and that might be a good permanent home for him. But if you're trying to rehabilitate him, you're going to want to have him around you at all times."

"So, what, I need a cage in the office, a cage at home?"

"I'd suggest a carrier. It's designed to be portable, your sylph can decorate it… Hang on. No," he said to someone offline. "Your input is neither desired nor required. Your situation is not this sylph's situation. Well, this one CAN be rehabilitated."

There was some squeaking in the background, then silence. Tammy ransacked her drawers to find a piece of paper and a pen. CARRIER she wrote.

"And," he went on as if uninterrupted, "you can decide how secure to make it."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, Annie's pretty housebroken so I don't have to lock the carrier all the time you know sylph's faces do freeze like that sometimes? I don't have to keep it locked to keep her out of trouble.

"If this sylph is still…wild? You have more options on how securely locked it is."

"I think I understand," she said. She underlined the word three times. "And how many of those would I need?"

"We have one for the car, and general travel, and one for airline travel," he said. "For right now, it sounds like you want a small one you can take everywhere. He may need the stability of a single carrier for a while."

"Right, right," she said, writing 'Portability' and 'Expandability?' "What about clothes?"

"Well," he said in a cheerful tone, "_I_ like the pet store stuff, but I have it on tiny authority that such stuff sucks." More background squeaking and clicks. She thought something was striking the handset?

Was his sylph throwing rocks at him? She tried to imagine Totter having the confidence to do that to her. It made her smile.

They talked for quite a while. Tammy learned answers to questions she'd have never thought to ask.

When they hung up, she looked over her four sheets of notes and tried to think of priorities. Mostly, she tried to identify what she could do without going by one of the Registries.

She was still leery about official attention to her unofficial adoption. Finally, she circled Carrier, Clothes and Comfort. She could probably cover those bases at WalMart, she thought.

That's when the screaming started.

Totter was throwing himself back and forth in the cage. He was screaming something but Tammy couldn't figure out what.

"Totter?" she asked. "Totter, calm down!" He was starting to bleed. She opened the door and reached in.

She caught him between the sides and clasped him gently. Too gently, he wriggled free. She grasped him again, more firmly this time.

He kicked and struggled but she held him this time. She picked him up and stroked his hair, trying to calm him. "Totter? Relax, you're safe."

His eyes were still closed as he started to relax. He took deep breaths. Then he started sniffing. "Are you okay, Totter?"

His head shot down and he bit her. The teeth sank into the back of her thumb. It wasn't a nip, it felt like he was trying to rip meat free of her.

She screamed, in surprise more than pain, and dropped him.

For years after, she'd relive that moment in the midnight hours. The little, blooded figure twisting out of her hand, popping up slightly higher from her reflexive flinch, then falling down in front of her.

It was sheer luck that she stood with her leg forward. He bounced off of her breast, dropped to her thigh and rolled, grabbing at her pant leg as he fell. He landed softly enough that his legs took the shock, then he took off running.

It was also luck that had him pointed at the cul-de-sac kitchen, rather than the rest of the apartment. There was only one hiding place, between the oven and the counter. He shot down the narrow crevice and was gone.

"Totter!" Tammy dropped to her knees and squinted. "Totter? Are you okay?"

Her thumb throbbed but she didn't want to leave his hiding spot. If he got out, she might never find him in the living room.

He was safe enough. She'd pulled the oven out to clean it less than a week ago. There was nothing back there that would harm him, or make him sick if he ate it.

She knew it would come out easily enough, but if he got between the stove and the wall… She shuddered.

She told him that she just wanted him to come out, so she could explain that he wasn't in trouble. Then she tried to get comfortable on the floor.

She dozed for a bit. The next thing she noticed, Totter was standing in front of her. Still in the crevice, but where she could see him.

"Totter?"

"Is it dangerous back here?" he asked.

"What? No. Why?"

"You're not using a stick or anything to get me out," he said.

"I don't want to hurt you," she told him. "I want you to come out, but only when you're ready."

"What happens when I do?" he asked.

"Oh. Um. Well, what I want to do is… Clean the cage. Clean you off. Put some clean towels in the cage. Then we get some sleep." He continued to stare.

"Tomorrow, I'm off of work. We'll have breakfast. We'll go shopping. I'll get you some clothes, a carrier, a little toilet. And if there's anything you want, we'll see if we can find it."

"And then what?"

She smiled. "And then we'll come home and set up the carrier. And have some dinner. And get some sleep."

It became a lasting ritual for their relationship. Every time Totter got stressed, Tammy would map out the immediate future. And as long as she could make at least the high points come true, it gave him a sense of security.

For now, it got him to come out where she could pick him up.

"Are you going to bite me again?" she asked, hand just short of touching his body. He suddenly looked terrified. "Oh, no, look." She turned her other hand around.

She kept it close to her face rather than near him. Hopefully, the bite would look smaller against her giant, to him, hand. "See? It's not much of a wound. I just want to know why you did it."

"You smell like a girl," he said with a shrug.

"Well, thanks, I guess," she said. "You… You bite girls?"

"You're supposed to mark your quarry," he miserably. Her heart skipped a beat at that admission. "But you're not supposed to hurt the Lords. I just… I smelled you. And I just… I've never seen a girl Lord," he said.

"It's okay Totter," she said. He looked up at her. "Well, I think I may be sick, but it's not your fault." He trembled, looking ready to run. She reached over and picked him up as gently as possible.

For a moment she just held him. Laying there on the floor, she was overwhelmed by the sensation.

A whole, human life fit into her hand. Sure, the world's governments said he was a new sort of animal, not a person.

But she looked into his wide eyes and saw a soul as deep as hers. He felt fear of things outside of his control, just as she did. And he had taken a huge, huge step to trust her. She wasn't sure she could ever be that brave.

"I want you to know, Totter, that I will never, ever hurt you," she said softly.

"I hope so, Tammy," he said. He stroked her thumb with his hand.

She wiped her eye and stood. "Let's get you cleaned up."

He had never had a warm bath. When she asked what temperature he preferred, he looked afraid. "Well," she said. "Why don't we start with the temperature I like?"

"You take baths?" he asked.

"Yes," she said with a smile. "That might be why I smell like a girl." She half-filled a flat-bottomed Tupperware container with water that was slightly above tepid.

"When you get comfortable with that, we'll make it warmer." He sat and soaked for a while.

She dumped the wood shavings into a trash can.



Tiny Totter Part 2

Tiny Totter Part 3

Tiny Totter Part 4

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