// warnings for animal (lizard beast person, so not actually animal, but) injury/death, blood, and detailed descriptions of medical procedures

I hiked through the mountains, humming quietly to myself. The climb up to my safehouse wasn't easy, but it was quiet and peacefu-

I heard a pained screech from nearby. My head snapped towards it, and I felt a tinge of concern as I crept towards it. It didn't sound like a person... Maybe a reptile of some kind?

Animals had always been kinder to me than people. I reached into my cloak, feeling around for healing supplies while I got closer to the source of the noise.

I froze suddenly, breath catching in my throat, as I saw what had made the noise.

There was a Lizalfos laying on the floor. Its breathing was labored, and a puddle of blood was quickly growing around it. It was clearly badly injured, with arrows sticking out of its chest and barbed wire wrapped around its tail and one of its legs, but... did I want to risk it attacking me after I helped it?

Something in me twinged at the thought of that. This creature was clearly in a lot of pain. I didn't want to just... leave it to suffer. That didn't feel right.

At the very least, it didn't seem like it was in much condition to harm me. When I stepped out of the shadows, it growled weakly and tried to swipe at me, then fell limp again.

First things first... I would remove the arrows and patch up the wounds. They had probably punctured a lung, maybe some of its other organs too, so they were the most dire. I unsheathed my knife, holding it with one hand and cradling some medical supplies in the other.

I oh-so-slowly moved towards it. I was trying not to frighten it; its eyes tracked me warily, but it didn't growl again, which I thought was a good sign. With the utmost care, I removed the arrows, trying to take as little of the Lizalfos with them as was possible. It flinched, but seemed resigned to whatever I was going to do.

Monsters were normally... neutral towards me, but this one was acting strange. Too docile. Maybe it didn't have the energy to fight back. If that was the case, I really hoped it wouldn't die on my hands.

Anyway- first, I cleaned up the wounds with a damp cloth, trying to staunch the bleeding while I was at it. Then I used a numbing paste on the wounds. I poured healing tonic into them, trying to make sure it went as deep as possible so it could heal the internal damage too. Finally, I wrapped some tight bandages around them, which had already been pre-soaked with a gentler kind of healing tonic to gradually aid healing and prevent infection.

I was bombarded with memories of the reason I knew how to do all of this. I shoved those back into the dark pit from whence they came, then promptly got back to business.

I couldn't see any other obvious injuries, so I moved on to the part that I'd been dreading- the barbed wire. It was notoriously stubborn and dangerous to remove. Both for the patient and the doctor. You were supposed to have tough, thick gloves to protect your own hands... but mine had been stolen weeks ago, and I hadn't found anyone who could make them right. So I would just have to hope I got lucky and didn't get myself stuck in the process.

I didn't have shears either. Those were at a different safehouse, much too far away to visit. That meant I'd need to saw away at the barbed wire with nothing but a hunting knife.

Not ideal conditions, but they almost never were. I grit my teeth and got to it.

It was exactly what I'd expected. Weaving my knife between the thorns and slicing through it was hard, painful work. I cut myself more times than I could count... but finally, I could see the Lizalfos's purpley-silver scales underneath all of the barbed wire. With one last motion, the last of the horrible substance fell away, and all that was left to do was patch up the holes it left behind.

Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of said holes. Less than one would expect, on account of the strength of Lizalfos scales, but still... a lot.

First, as always, I cleaned the wounds up. Using the same damp cloth- which I had to rinse out several times- I got rid of the dirt, blood, rust, and gods knew what else that had been building up under the barbed wire. This area seemed especially dirty, so I used a cleansing tonic too, wincing as the Lizalfos wriggled in pain.

"It's gonna be alright," I said in as soothing a voice I could manage. "You're gonna get better."

It stared at me, watching closely as I poured healing tonic onto its tail and leg. It sank into the damaged scales and skin; some of the wounds were even shallow enough that it healed them right then and there.

The Lizalfos let out a soft hiss. Then it stood up, and I suddenly realized how stupid this had been.

Because that screech had called its pack to its side. And... there were far too many of them to fight off. My only hope was to run for it, but the large group of silvery Lizalfos was quickly cutting off every escape route. I tried to creep back into the shadows, desperately reaching for a plan, but then the strangest thing happened.

The Lizalfos that I had saved began to speak.

It wasn't a language that I knew- mostly chirps and squawks and hisses, with a lot of gesturing thrown in there too- but I recognized it was something. It seemed to be defending me, with the way it stepped between me and the rest of the Lizalfos.

I watched, awestruck, as the pack backed off a bit. Their snarls got less aggressive, and some of them even lowered their weapons. The wall of Lizalfos parted to make a path for me, flanked by the one I had saved.

It stared at me, tilting its head towards the opening and chirping. I took a step towards it; it chirped more forcefully, sending me running.

When I turned back, the Lizalfos had mostly gone. Except for one. The one I had saved (it seemed young, but already it was so heavily scarred, and I wondered how much things like this happened to it) was staring at me.

I had helped this monster. I'd saved its life. And now... it was helping me in return.

Wow.