Whiskers

Sharp Spaces

The sound of a large freight truck backing up pulled Palace out of his light sleep. He didn't bother opening his eyes, but instead tilted his large ears back and forth, then moved his head so that he could find the general direction the sound was coming from. As it grew closer, the beeping began to bounce off the metal walls, assaulting his senses with a racket of noise that brought his mixture of fur and feathers to pinpoints along his back. 

When the truck finally stopped nearby, Palace snorted and swatted at his ringing ear with a giant dirty paw. The sound of voices coming closer a few moments later made him drop his foot back down, the sound of it thumping against the soiled metal floor making another annoying echo in the darkness. 

The voice of the lion from earlier brought Palace's attention toward the door, his eyes slowly squinting open just enough to see. 

"I don't want to knock him out for this. we need to do it once we get him to the facility to check his health, and i'm not sure if he can handle it in the first place, let alone twice." 

Some of the people with him were agreeing, but others were skeptical about him trying to escape during transfer. 

So they are buying me? 

It was odd, though. They never tried to take him awake, not after the first mistake. 

The latch for the door screeched, jerking open inch by inch. Palace stepped forward, putting him at the end of his short, heavy chain. His upper lip rose as a beam of light swiped across his face, making him snarl loud enough to send vibrations through the metal beneath his paws. 

"Sorry about that, bud. Didn't mean to hit hit you with it, you're just in a different spot." The lion shifter, who Palace suddenly remembered was called Jamie by someone earlier, said as he averted the bright flashlight. The name didn't seem to really fit, but then again, he was named after a sprawling building meant to intimidate lesser people in the kingdom. 

Some palace I am. 

"Is everything hooked up and ready to go?" Jamie asked someone out of his view. 

When someone yelled back "Yes!", Palace tilted his head, curious as to what they were doing, if they weren't going to knock him out for this transfer. 

Jamie's attention returned to him as Palace sat down. The man offered him a smile and took a step inside of the container. 

No. 

Palace immediately jumped up, roaring a warning loud enough to startle the shifter into stumbling right off the edge of the container. He was lucky that he had enough people around who were paying attention to catch him. 

When he returned a moment later, being careful not to step inside, he was surprisingly grinning. "Okay, I deserved that. I should have known that you consider this your territory." 

The sound of the truck backing up again somewhere close made Palace start to growl. "I know, it's really loud in here, but this is the safest way I can think to transport you out of this place." Jamie said. 

When he got no hint of a different response from Palace, Jamie continued. "We're going to take you to mine and my brother's animal rehab facility. We got called in for this case after police had been investigating for a little over a year. They finally got a warrant, and well, that's how we're in this situation right here." 

He'd heard some pretty interesting lies over the past several years, but Jamie's didn't sound like it would make any sense if he were a buyer. Why tell him he was being taken there? He wouldn't care one way or the other, so what would be the use of the lie?