The waiting room was fairly cozy. Rosie sat in the blanket pile, attempting to ignore the throbbing in her foot. The urge to lick it was strong but she knew it wouldn’t really help to do so. Tanim had brought her pain medication on his way out but it had yet to kick in as it was. The pink Bele shuffled from side to side in impatience and discomfort.

After what seemed like ages, Rozwel poked her head out of the back room. “Come on Back Rosie. Maztik and I can see you now.” Rosie gratefully stood up and made her way over towards the blue Bele, painstakingly aware of the throb in her foot with every step. “Sorry you had to wait so long, we needed to re-sterilize the workspace after Isaac.”

“How is he?” Rosie asked immediately. She’d been incredibly worried about her friend whose injury seemed so much worse than hers. Maztik answered her as they entered the back. “Don’t worry about Isaac. He’s got a mild sedative on board and some heavy duty pain medication, he’s just resting over there in a clean and cozy area. He’ll be just fine. The stalactite missed anything vital.”

Rosie nodded. “He was really lucky then. That looked so bad. I can’t believe he was able to walk back to camp.” Rozwel shook her head. “You guys need to be more careful while mining, I much prefer when I have nothing to do around here. That injury could’ve been so much worse if that boy didn’t have insane luck.”

Rozwel patted on a slightly raised counter. “Could you hop up here please? We can give you a boost if need be. This is a scale and our primary table. It’ll be easier to look at your paw closer to eye height.”

Rosie eyed the counter and requested a boost up. Maztik and Rozwel obliged, taking place on either side of her and then carefully lifting her up. Once on the counter Maztik took note of the weight once again for calculations.

Rozwel set about examine the hurt claw. The claw was torn halfway out of the socket and halfway hanging on by a thread. The bleeding had long stopped but dried blood remained around the area. It looked like the claw would require cutting at a rather painful spot near the quick to allow healing.

“Maztik can you grab a local for me?” Rozwel began the process of treating the injury. “Now Rosie, I’m going to talk you through what we’re going to do, okay?” Rosie nodded, nervous to hear what the verdict would be. “Maztik is getting a local anesthetic nerve block. It’s going to be a shot. I’m going to give it here on your leg.” The curly Bele lightly tapped a spot on Rosie’s leg out of the painful area. “It’ll be a quick poke and then your leg and foot should start to feel numb within a couple minutes. It’s very fast acting. If we touch your foot after giving the anesthetic and you can still feel it, I want you to tell me. There’s an odd phenomenon with red coloration that makes anesthetics less affective so we may need to give you a little extra if you can still feel.”

Rosie nodded along. A single shot didn’t sound too bad. Maztik finished drawing up the local block and handed it to Rozwel to double check the calculation before giving. Satisfied, Rozwel continued.

“After everything is numb I’m going to take these claw clippers and cut off your claw very close to the point of your skin. This will make room for new growth to occur and won’t be painful to walk on. Because of the sensitive area with nerve endings though, I’m going to advise you stay off your feet for about a week, and prescribe you a strong painkiller to take home. The end should stop being sensitive after just a couple days, but keeping the area clean and resting is very important. Now. Are you ready?”

Rosie nodded. Maztik stood by her side and placed a paw steadily over her. “It might help to not look at your paw while the procedure is going on” the spotty Bele cautioned. “How about you focus on me and tell me about the mining expedition. Hopefully you found something that was worth all this trouble?”

Rosie gratefully shifted her gaze to focus on Maztik and started recounting the beautiful cave they’d found with the blue stones. She paid no mind to Rozwel injecting her with the anesthetic. It hardly stung, and wrapped up in her tale as she was, she didn’t even notice.

Rozwel waited a few minutes, happy to see Maztik was distracting Rosie. She tapped the injured paw near the wound and watched for a reaction. Rosie didn’t even flinch. The block was working perfectly and the removal of the claw could begin.

Rosie would be right as rain in no time.