9:27

“Hi.”

The girl stared at him like he was an alien. “Did you… Did you… say something?”

The beaver squeezed his eyes closed and tried to clear the sawdust from his brain. He’d spoken without thinking, but now was not the time to be engaging in conversations with strangers. Now was the time to regroup, figure out where Gareth was, confirm that this was indeed his female friend and get everyone the hell out of here.

He opened his eyes again and slowly blinked.

“Umm, hi. Did you… ” The girl paused and waited. “No. No you didn’t, did you. No. No, you shure did not.” She shook her head and pulled the hair back away from her lean face. “Well hi anyway my furry fella. I’m a going to guess that you’all are Gareth’s mysterious beaver friend. So jess you calm down and I’ll take good care of yus.”

The beaver let his eyes close and he worked on controlling his breathing. He’d come to consciousness fresh from a vivid, panic-filled dream and he needed to start processing quickly because he was running out of time. The last thing he remembered was slipping in the front door of the apartment building. He must of made it upstairs and somehow attracted the attention of this young lady.

It looked like he was partially swaddled in an old blanket, that must of been he suffocating part. As a rule, the beaver didn’t like much being trapped; probably a result of his genetic place on the old food chain. But now that he recognized his predicament he just settled back and focused on taking in his surroundings.

There was a lot of blood in his fur and even more soaking into the coarse weave of the blanket. That would account for this annoying light-headedness and likely the lack of memory of that last little bit. Speaking of that, just how long had it been since he arrived at the building? How much time had he lost?

The beaver frantically thrashed his head around trying to spot a clock and the girl’s face started to look alarmed again. Taking a deep breath, the beaver slowed his movements and tried again. There was a glowing digital display on the stove; after a few tries, he finally made his eyes focus and sank back into the blankets in relief. It had been less that an hour. Too long, not not a disaster. Yet.

He had to find Gareth, and quickly.