Chapter 36: Community Service Came With Teeth

Dante confirmed the voice but had never met Mara. Professor Vale sent his answer to Senn, then asked him to keep his plans. He abandoned the dangerous address forming in his imagination. A rescue required knowing where someone was, however inconvenient that was for his entrance.

Jett met him outside the clinic with their volunteer forms, complaining that resting required an unreasonable number of appointments. The nurse had approved light supervised work after checking their dressings; flying, experiments, and swimming remained off the list.

"Watching other people swim remains legal," Jett said as they left, "which is fortunate because half my interest in physical fitness comes from supporting women through difficult stretches."

Rhea caught the door with her tail, threatened to mention Jett’s dedication at debate, and left for her lab.

Dante and Jett brought their forms to Professor Helena at the sanctuary. The beast instructor stood taller than Martin, with a dark braid and bare arms that could probably carry Dante under one of them. His imagined rescue scene needed an immediate change of personnel.

She checked their restrictions and assigned towels and feeding bowls, warning them that the last volunteers had taught a burrowing pig to open a refrigerator. Jett asked whether it had worked, earning a place well away from the feed.

They sorted dry stacks beside the warm hay while Professor Helena explained which gates stayed latched. A wet nose stole Dante’s top towel through the fence, and Jett announced that their first client had rejected his folding.

Dante saved the next towel from the fence. He and Jett put bowls at the back and towels by the latch, where Professor Helena could reach them without abandoning an open gate. Organizing a base came naturally, he decided. Jett asked whether their elite towel unit needed uniforms.

Dante suggested pockets for the feeding notes, which disappointed a man clearly expecting suggestions about the attendant. They tested whether both could reach the stacks without blocking each other. It worked until Jett turned with a bowl and Dante had to step aside. They moved the bowl stack again, accepting that practical genius sometimes needed a second shelf.

A little horned animal refused food whenever its carrier’s brass label clicked. Professor Helena moved the carrier away and fed it from her hand. Dante watched its ears lift. He had expected to impress a mighty beast; apparently a nervous breakfast customer had been assigned to assess him first.

She checked the paperwork, then asked the attendant to bring the arrival photograph. The label described an adult animal trained for transport, while the creature hiding behind her boots could barely step over its own feeding dish.

Dante held the arrival photograph beside the return order. The carrier number matched, but the curved stripe beside the animal’s horn didn’t. He pointed it out to Professor Helena. He had wanted the theater photograph checked before trusting it; this creature deserved the same chance before someone carried it away.

Professor Helena stopped the pickup after confirming the wrong animal appeared on the order. Dante wanted the little creature to approach him, preferably with instant loyalty, but it stayed behind her boots. Fair enough, she had brought breakfast. He finished the towels instead of competing.

When the little animal finally returned to its dish, he checked that Jett had seen. His friend had, and neither mentioned the important work they were supposedly missing. Dante liked that they could share a small success without needing anyone to announce it. He still intended to mention the photograph at breakfast, provided the creature stayed safe enough for him to brag.

"You noticed before they put it back," Jett said. Dante considered claiming he observed everything, then nearly stepped in the feeding bowl. "I checked because it looked scared," he admitted. Jett passed him another towel, treating that as reason enough.

Professor Helena sent him both pictures at his request, then offered another light shift once medical approved it.

Dante accepted while Jett considered the attendant’s dimples, until Rhea arrived and announced that volunteering didn’t include flirting overtime.

Anika and Posey joined them at the path beside the sports center. Posey had her tennis bag but had skipped practice after the morning check, while Anika said her afternoon had been spent answering questions that other people’s employees should have handled.

Dante asked whether she was feeling better, and Anika answered that she had survived changing clothes without him supervising her fingers, thank you.

They spotted Martin at the pool windows, waving them toward the spectator entrance after a floating ball escaped him. Rhea agreed to a brief stop as long as the patients kept their clothes on, which Jett claimed ruined his recruitment strategy.

Martin asked whether Dante’s practice had hurt, then explained the yellow fork again without making him feel stupid. He climbed out for his towel when Dante asked to see the underwater field through the adjoining glass passage. ℴ

Beyond the cyan Breakers banner, a swimmer caught the blue fish and passed before its countdown ended. Another launched from the floor and slammed it into a glowing cage, drowning out Jett’s claim that he could do that with better knees.

Martin offered to watch the next match, admitting he forgot the positions. Dante claimed the next seat. Jett would explain, Martin would find seats, and Dante would bring snacks. Three men planning around a violent fish sounded like a respectable beginning for something important. He saved the arrangement before Jett added a bet.

"Does the fish get paid?" Dante asked as it burst from another player’s hands in a cloud of blue light. Martin laughed and said he hoped so, because its working conditions looked worse than his own. They stayed for one more play, arguing over which player should have passed sooner until Professor Helena’s feeding instructions finally left Dante’s head. For a few minutes, he could be another student wasting time with friends.

Anika’s hand found his sleeve. Dante rested his good hand over hers and quietly asked how she felt. Better after resting, she said, then asked whether he would question every staircase. He promised to watch only the suspicious ones, hoping she understood that he liked having her beside him.

On the walk home, Rhea asked the women to record meals, sleep, spells and tiredness. Dante offered his exercise times and checked they were using the same clock, while Jett tried adding snack-related disappointment as a symptom.

A message arrived from Professor Helena before they reached the dorm doors. The sanctuary had filed a formal hold and locked the animal safely inside, but its transport charm had started counting down to collection anyway, with nineteen minutes remaining on an order nobody there had authorized.