Chapter Text
There is something terrible about waking up from a bad dream and not knowing where you are.
Sometimes that happened to Nina, where she would fall asleep and when she woke up in the darkness, she wouldn’t recognise her room for a moment.
This time, Nina knew for certain she was not at home in bed. She was laying on her side, on what felt like a hard floor. Everything was shaking, it was dark, and she could hardly see in the low light.
Around her, she could hear so many noises. The little scratching noises and breathing of her father’s experiments around her, of something bigger close, but off to the side, the rumble of an engine, the gruff voice of someone speaking, muffled, like they were in another room. She tried to cover her ears with her hands and found not only did it take her a long moment to remember where her ears were, but it did little to block out the sounds.
It also smelt too, much like the little basement room where the experiments were kept. With the added, nasty smell of petrol fumes and stale smoke. She tired to breathe through her mouth, only to find she could taste the smells too.
Nina let out a whine, kicking her leg out.
Her foot hit something that was both hard and yet seemed to give a little. It made a loud rattling noise. It hurt.
But the rattling noise seemed to set off the rest of the chimeras, as they began squealing and screaming and gnashing on the bars of their own cages.
Nina whined again, curling up tightly. The bigger thing shifted beside her cage. Nina hoped for a moment that it was Alexander; but threading her fingers through her thick fur reminded her it wasn’t.
It had been at least a few days since she was separated from her father. Nina thought it had been a couple days at least, but her brain still felt muddled.
At first, she had mostly been in a little room, taken out to be prodded and poked by people in white coats, but one sleep ago she had been shoved into a cage and loaded into a big van. Nina had decided to lay down and sleep while they added more cages, pinning them down with big, thick straps. Her cage was so small she could hardly move, let alone pace around like she had in the little room.
She heard the thing next to her shift again, and a small, very human, hesitating breath, before someone spoke up.
“We’re Nearly There.” They said, their voice was a little nasally, and they enunciated every word. “We Left The Main Road About Ten Minuets Ago.” When they spoke, it stunned the chimeras nearby into relative silence. They still paced and twitched and chewed at the bars, but they suddenly didn’t seem very interested in drawing attention to themselves by screeching or screaming.
“The Worst Is Probably Behind You, Nina.” The other person assured.
Nina felt her heart swell at the sound of her own name, not having heard it in days. She rolled over carefully, looking at the other person. She couldn’t see them very well, in the dim light but she could tell they were sat on the floor, leaning on a stack of cages behind them.
“Ni-Na.” She repeated happily, and she felt her tail wag a little behind her. “Nina!”
Words were still hard to come up with, but they were easy to copy. And the feel of her own name on her tongue was a good one.
“Yes, Nina.” The other person said, with a little chuckle themselves.
Nina didn’t know their voice, but she quite liked it. The way they spoke seemed very purposeful, like they were trying hard to be understood, and that worked very well for Nina’s muddled brain. Most people she had met hadn't seemed that interested in talking to her at all, let alone giving her time to understand them.
“Wh-oo?” Nina tried to ask, cocking her head to the side. If she could have fit more than a finger through the bars of her cage, Nina was sure she could have tugged on the person’s clothes.
“Who?” The other person repeated.
“Who, No Nina.” Nina tried, before whining and shaking her head. “You?” She asked.
“Who Am I?” They asked.
“Yes!” Nina nodded eagerly.
The person shifted slightly, moving closer to Nina’s cage.
“My Name Is Oscar.” They told her.
“Os Kah.” Nina managed on the first trying, though, she tired a few times more to be very sure. “OzCar, Os car, Oscar?”
“You Got It.” Oscar confirmed, “You Can Call Me Oz. If That’s Easier.”
“Oz, Oscar.” Nina agreed, resting her head on her hands.
Oscar seemed to settle, leaning against the side of Nina’s cage, with a little sigh.
They went over a big bump, making Nina yelp, and upsetting the chimeras once again.
“Not long now.” Oscar muttered under their breath.