Stable 83 Collection

Each day began with tending to the garden. Dandelion had been living the same routine, day after day, since beginning an apprenticeship under Clary Sage. It may have seemed a boring life, but it was good for her. She enjoyed the monotonous repetition.

After watering the plants, nurturing the seedlings, and harvesting the herbs, she would clean the examination room. The name made it sound more formal than it really was; the room really only contained a medical bed, a storage cabinet, and a small table. Spiderwebs hung in every corner. No matter how many times Dandelion dusted them away, they would just come back.

There was a beauty in that, she secretly thought. Resilience. Determination.

While she was in the middle of laying out the freshly-gathered herbs to dry, a bell rang from the front room to announce someone had arrived.

Dandelion frowned in confusion. The office wasn’t open for the day yet, and Clary Sage wouldn’t be arriving for at least another hour. Who would be here so early?

She trotted out from the back to greet the visitor, but stopped when she saw him. He was a buck -- but of course he was, a unicorn wouldn’t dare set hoof in a deer medical office -- with a startlingly blue mane and a coat the color of chocolate. Dandelion had only ever tasted chocolate once before, when Clary Sage had been kind enough to share with her, but the rich brown color of his coat reminded her of the delicacy.

“Hello,” she said nervously.

The buck looked up at her and smiled. “Is the doctor here?” he wondered. When their eyes met, Dandelion’s fur stood on end.

Dandelion cleared her throat and looked the buck up and down for signs of injury. He was holding one of his hooves strangely, keeping it from touching the ground. “Not yet. Are you injured?”

He glanced around nervously, obviously embarrassed to be causing any sort of worry. “It’s just a sprain, I can wait.”

She shook her head. “Sprains are simple, I can take care of it for you.” Without waiting to see if he followed, she turned and trotted back into the examination room. What was she doing? It was always Clary Sage that tended to the patients. This was a mistake.

The buck trotted into the room and sat on the bed. “Do you work for the doctor?”

Dandelion opened the cabinet and pulled out the necessary supplies; bandanges, splint, and herbs for the pain. “She’s my mentor.”

“I’ve never heard of the doctor having an apprentice.”

She stood and brought the supplies over to the bedside table. “I try to keep a low profile.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “I can understand that. I’m Jaybird, by the way.”

Dandelion looked up to find that he was watching her intensely, those blue eyes of his focused only on her and nothing else. She wasn’t used to this much attention and found herself wondering, again, why she had volunteered to help this patient. “Um...Dandelion.”

Jaybird smiled. “Dandelion. That’s pretty.”

Her cheeks flushed and she quickly looked away. “Yes, well, the root of the dandelion flower has been known to ease digestion. It’s very useful.”

He laughed, though she wasn’t sure what exactly he found funny.

Dandelion took his injured hoof in both of hers, to examine it more closely. “It isn’t too bad. I’ll send you home with something for the pain, but it should be fully healed in a few weeks. Let me wrap it for you, and you’ll be good to go.”

He held still while she bound his hoof and didn’t complain, not even when the wrap slipped the first time and had to be redone.

She stepped back to look over her work, then nodded in satisfaction. “Try not to put too much pressure on it. If it gets worse, you should come back right away. Clary Sage would do a better job.”

Jaybird slid off the bed and tested his wrapped hoof, tentatively putting some of his weight on it. “I think you did a great job, the doctor couldn’t have done better.”

Dandelion shook her head at the praise, but said nothing.

“Maybe I can come back even if my hoof does get better?”

She frowned and looked up at him. “Why would you do that?”

Jaybird shrugged with a nervous smile. “I don’t know, I thought maybe I could see you again.”

“I’m not supposed to take care of patients,” Dandelion admitted. “It would be the doctor that would look you over.”

He sighed disappointedly. “Oh, alright.”

“But I get off work at 6.” The words tumbled out of her before she could stop them. Dandelion wasn’t sure where they had come from, or why she wanted this buck to know. He looked so saddened, perhaps she just wanted to see his blue eyes light up again.

Jaybird’s ears pricked up and his smile returned. “6. I’ll stop by tomorrow.”

She found herself blushing. “Now, you should really leave before Clary Sage gets here. I’ll get in trouble if she finds out I treated you without her permission.”

He waved goodbye with his good front hoof, then trotted out of the office with a slight limp and an excited grin. The bell rang again as the door closed behind him. This time, the sound was more pleasant than usual.