Work Text:
The forest near Grant and Alison's shared home had became his favorite place of sanctuary. It was comfortably quiet out there, and just allowed him to think in peace, especially when a piece of coding refused to work no matter how he altered the code.
Grant pulled his coat tighter against himself t shield himself against the cold air, as he traveled along the dirt path among the forest. The sky had started to turn a soft pink color. How long had he been outside now? Probably a few hours. Either way he needed to get back home.
Grant made his way through the forest, back towards the warm light of home. Normally it was quiet at this time, with the only noise coming from a cricket and a soft rustling in bushes from some animal. Tonight a noise pierced his ears. A choked sobbing noise. The noise couldn't have been from anyone older than an toddler. A pit of dread immediately settled into Grant's stomach. He hoped he was mistaken, why the hell would a child be out in the woods at this time? Yet having raised multiple of his children it was a noise that was familiar.
The sound was coming from somewhere off path. It was by no means a smart idea for him to follow it, but he did. How could he not?
As he approached, the metallic stang of blood immediately hit him. A gag forced it's ways up his throat but he stifled how sick it made him. The sight in front of him didn't help much either. There was a small creature cowering inside of a tiny cage, they could barely move due to how tiny the cage was but Grant doubted he would move much even unstuck due to the blood covering his ankle and coming from his side.
The creature, eyes lazily drifted over to him before he was resurged with energy from panic. It was an desperate attempt to escape, but only seemed to make his injuries worse.
"Hey, hey. Stop that. Your gonna be okay. I'm not going to hurt you, little one," Grant kept his voice as soft as possible, like he was talking to a wounded animal which he basically was. He was a… strange creature for lack of better words. His legs were shaped the same way a dogs would be, and it's head was a floating pair of teeth with two mismatched eyes placed inside. Weird. He had began to bang against the cage hard, sobbing out in fear.
The animal snarled at him. The snarl seemed more out of fear than of pure aggression. He couldn't even blame him if he was acting aggressive right now. He was scared and completely at the mercy of him. It would have been more concerning if he was just still and compliant.
" Your scared aren't you? God, your just a child. Who would do that to a child ?" Grant felt anger began to rise in his tone and bit it back. Getting angry wouldn't do him or anyone else any favors. " I promise it's all going to be okay, kiddo. I'm gonna get you out of there okay? "
Ever so slowly Grant closed the space between the two. The small mouth creature pushed himself farther into the cage, visabily trembling. He lowered himself onto the cold ground. The creature could barely even stretch out their legs. The cage itself seemed to be more like a trap meant for wild animals, probably set up by some hunters wanting to catch a rabbit or a bird.
As soon as the cage was lifted up the creature shakily rose up on all fours before being cut off by a weak cry of pain and protectively curling up on himself.
" Shhh, it's okay. Don't try to move, just stay still. Your okay. I'm going to pick you up okay?" Grant pulled the creature against his chest. Keeping his movements visible and slow.
The poor thing was drenched in his own sweat, it's skin clammy and pale. Almost immediately he buried into his chest.
Grant managed to carry the small child to his home. He weighed probably less than the average toddler, so it wasn't a difficult task. Blood had started to stain into his own jacket, unlike human blood the color a deep shiny black. Poor thing struggled to keep their eyes open due to blood lose or pure exhaustion Grant wasn't sure.
" Hello, Honey! I'm glad your back I was thinking maybe we cou-" Alison cut her self off with a started gasp. " What the fuck is that? Did it hurt you?" Panic in her tone as she rushed forward to assess what was happening.
" Not the time. I have no clue what he is. He's hurt and scared though! I couldn't just leave him!"
Her eyes immediately softened, as she looked closer at the bloody stain on his bare side. Her hand soft rubbed against the creature's face, who let out a barely there chatter. A sad smile contoured onto her face.
"You treat his injuries. I'll find some stuff to keep him comfy. We ought to have some stuff lying around from the others still."
Grant gave a grateful nod,kissing her on the cheek as a silent thank you before carrying the creature to the bathroom were the first aid kit was.
Softly he lowered them onto the ground, only to receive a tired moan in response. Their eyes fluttered but he refused to fully close them or let his guard down.
He opened the first aid kit and started off with the wound on his right side. On further inspection it was rather deep and bleeding heavily, the wound had started to scab over slightly indicting it was probably at least a day old. Thankfully it wasn't so bad it would need stitches, as Grant and Alison had no medical training and what would happen if they brought such a strange creature to a hospital.
A whimper came from the poor things as a towel was pressed against the cold wound. His tiny hands tried to push him off for a second, before just going back to his sides with a ragged huff.
" I'm sorry, I know it hurts. I just gotta stop the bleeding. Your doing so good." Grant reassured softly. Thankfully the blood seemed to slow down rather quick.
Alison came back in with some medicine, a water bottle, a small blanket, some clothing, and a stuffed animal. The creature seemed to visible startle, but was to tired to act on it. Kinger gave her an appreciative nod.
Coming to sit next to the creature, she would look over his other injury on his ankle. Maybe a better word to describe it was the ball of the foot due to him being a digitigrade. Who knows, she liked bugs not… what ever species this child was.
The wound in question was a lot less deep than the one Grant was tending to, but it still looked painful due to how inflamed it was. Most likely sprained. He had probably tripped on something hard enough for it to rip the skin. As gently as possible she began to clean the wound, before wrapping it tightly in bandages.
By the time she finished Grant was also mostly done. Neatly covering his wound on the side in bandages, The child seemed barely awake now, just tiredly watching the two of them. He still had the same pale complexation and clammy skin from when he found him. Thankfully it just hadn't gotten any worse.
" You did so good. Think you can drink some water and take some pills? You'll feel a lot better."
Now sagging against the wall, the creature tilted their head in confusion. Alison spoke up pushing a pill towards him. " It's for pain. You just swallow it with water,."
The child hesitantly smelling the pill before swallowing it with water then quickly downing the rest of it, earning a soft chuckle from Grant.
" Let's get you off the floor. That can't be comfortable" Grant lifted the creature into his arms gently. Him and Alison laid him in their bedroom, putting the shirt on him that piratically hung off him, before covering him with the small bee blanket, and the main blanket off the bed.
It was obvious how tired the poor thing by the way the top of his jaw-head was drooping. A small tired chirp came from him.
" Your safe. It's okay, just go to sleep," Grant kept his voice extremely low and soothing as if it could loll the child into a deep slumber.
" Oh, here!" A bee plush was placed by Alison next to the creature, who curiously poked the soft fur before burring his head in the soft fur. The creature no longer fought keeping his eyes open, almost immediately falling asleep, earning a relieved sigh from the two.
Grant had no clue what was going to happen now. Alison seemed to understand his dilemma and leaned on his shoulder, before taking his hand. There was no manual on how to raise a random creature he found in the woods, but he knew him and Alison would do it together. That's what they always did.