Chapter Text
Scott breathed deeply, trying to hold in his excitement long enough to eat breakfast. He'd been waiting for this for months. He had been so certain he wouldn't get the job, but he'd applied anyway, just out of sheer hope that maybe the stars would align.
Apparently they did.
He'd been practically vibrating out of his seat ever since he'd signed the contract. This was what he'd always wanted. Ever since he was tiny he'd known he wanted to be a vet who specialised in magical creatures. He hadn't changed his mind on that through the years, not even when university tried to kill him off or when his family members tried to tell him horror stories to get him to change his mind.
This, despite the downsides and the dangers and the hard work, was his purpose in life. He just knew it.
He'd graduated this summer, and had been ready to work in his family's store while he searched for employment. He'd been willing to move across the country for the right opportunity, and while he'd especially wanted the magical vets he'd also been applying for normal vet practices, figuring that he might need more experience before he could go into his real dream job.
But then this one had popped up. Positioned in a small town only an hour away from where he'd grown up. They specialised in magical creatures and mega fauna, both by appointment and emergency.
He'd applied on a whim, not even daring to dream about getting the role, and here he was four months later. A cute apartment in a new town, a ten minute walk to his new job, and enough nerves that he felt like he might hop out of his own skin.
He almost threw up, both due to how his insides were squirming with excitement and nerves and everything and anything in between, and quickly he shovelled the cereal into his mouth. He kind of felt like if he stopped for even a second he might just explode. He really didn't want to throw up though, as he'd probably make a mess of his shirt and he'd picked this outfit ages ago. He really didn't want to have to decide on a new one, as he was fairly sure it would take him longer than he had.
He smoothed his shirt down for the tenth time that morning, checking himself in the mirror and adjusting the waistband of his trousers to pinch at his tail less. Normally when trying to make a good impression Scott draped himself in jewellery and chains from the antlers to the waist. It worked wonders for his self confidence, but wasn't exactly ideal for working with animals so he'd had to go without today. He couldn't wear his best unless he wanted it all to get ruined - he knew how starting a new job worked. He would almost definitely be cleaning out the cages - but he wore as nice clothes as he dared.
He ended up arriving at work about fifteen minutes before they expected him, anxious excitement lengthening his strides and shortening his journey. He was pleased to see there was already light on inside, and he took a gamble to head inside anyway. He would sit in the waiting room until they were ready for him, if necessary.
"Hey! Are you our new guy?" The pink haired phoenix at the front desk asked. Scott hadn't met her during the interviews, but he knew she'd been mentioned. The third vet at the practice, who mostly worked with the smaller animals. Scott couldn't remember if he'd ever been told her name.
"Yeah, that's me!" Scott agreed brightly, hoping that he looked excited and friendly and not like he had indigestion. "Sorry, I'm a bit early."
"No, this is perfect. Scott, right? I'm Lizzie. How willing are you to jump straight into it?"
Now that was exactly what Scott had been hoping to hear.
"What do I need to do?"
Lizzie led the way as she hurried through the practice. She called for Scott to leave his bag in what looked like a staff room, and then gestured for him to enter one of the consultant rooms.
Inside they found the two other vets - Scar and Pearl, if Scott was remembering correctly. Both of them were trying to wrangle several guinea pigs, Scott could tell straight away that they were young mega guinea pigs, and they would be growing much larger very quickly.
"Ah! The new guy!" Pearl, a kitsune who was as tall as Scott was—minus his antlers, which technically gave him another half a foot of height—and took up twice as much space in the room thanks to all the tails swaying happily behind her. "We need all hands on deck to give these critters all their jabs." As she said that, the pig Scar was holding managed to wriggle out of his hands and launched itself off the exam table.
And took flight.
"Oh my god," Scott breathed, grabbing onto his own wrist to hold back the urge to start hopping in place. These guinea pigs weren't just mega fauna, they were cross breeds. Mega pega-pigs.
"I know right!" Scar, a griffin who was seemingly always cheerful, agreed brightly, his tail flicking like a cat on the hunt as he slowly moved closer to where the escaped pig was swooping. "Exciting! Hope you're good at holding on."
Pearl gestured him closer and he confidently took a hold of the pig, pinning it's wings to it's back with one hand while the other one held it in place. Pearl made the most of her now stationary patient to grab one of the trays of needles and start administering them. The little guy tried to wriggle away, but Scott had anticipated that and kept a careful hold so that Pearl could give it all it's jabs.
"One down!" Pearl cheered. Lizzie and Scar had managed to catch the escaped pig while Scott was distracted, and Scar was holding it down while Lizzie used the next tray. It wasn't another moment before Lizzie was done and a second critter was finished with.
The finished pigs went into a separate pet carrier, and then another two were extracted and pinned. They fell into an easy routine, and Scott couldn't stop himself from smiling the entire time.
This was what he'd always wanted.
"Welcome to the deep end, Scott. Good job!" Scar said warmly, patting his back before turning his attention to the slightly grumpy guinea pigs.
"I'll take you back to the shallows," Lizzie assured. "Get you settled in properly and actually give you a tour of the place before throwing any more wriggly animals at you."
The tour went well. Scott was sure he'd forget where half of the things were stored, but he at least had an idea of the important rooms and knew enough to get stuck in. He only hit his antlers against one doorframe, which was enough to turn him bright red but thankfully Lizzie didn't say anything about it.
"I need to put our supply order in. Scott, if you come with me I'll show you how the computer system works. We can do that before we start the rounds." As expected, Scott was going to be joining Lizzie cleaning cages. He didn't mind procrastinating that a little with learning the computer system.
"Yeah, that sounds good. I hope your computer system isn't as complicated as some of the ones I came across during my placements."
"It's as simple as possible, I can promise that." Lizzie assured, which really didn't mean much when it came to corporate computer systems—they all tended to be about 900 years old and have the processing speeds to prove it.
"I'll take it!"
The computer system was in fact much easier to use than some of the previous ones he'd seen. It would still take a little while to get used to, and Scott was fairly sure the UI hadn't been updated in the last five years, but he was fairly sure he could do it.
"Oh, I think you've got a typo." Scott pointed at the screen, where it said that Lizzie was ordering 100 rolls of bandages. She was putting a lot of different values in, so he wasn't surprised that she'd put a wrong number in somewhere. He was feeling pretty proud of himself for noticing it actually. He was making himself useful already!
"No, that's right." Lizzie hummed after checking it carefully.
100 rolls of bandages? Scott knew they were working with megafauna, but even considering the size of some of their patients, that was still a lot of bandages. Like, a hell of a lot of bandages.
"Really?"
"We get through them quickly." Lizzie sounded exhausted. "Would you say you have self preservation instincts, Scott?"
"I… certainly think so." Scott's nose twitched in confusion, trying to figure out why Lizzie was asking. Was this why they needed a lot of bandages? That wasn't a good sign, if Scott was completely honest.
"We'll find out I suppose."
Well that wasn't ominous at all.