“Don’t let her size fool you. Inside she’s possessed by an evil tyrannosaurus rex!” Alice responded with caution. Turning to another draw Alice pulled out long handled tongs.

“Fuck Helena, here and stop laughing. I’m serious. Use these.” Alice passed the tongs to Helena and nudged her forward.

“Alice. Tongs?” Helena queried with disbelief.

“Helena, use them. It’s the safest option. OH! Wait. Let me go get her cage to move her.” With that Alice headed towards the living room to retrieve it.

Helena looked at the tiny turtle then at the tongs and with a small laugh put them to one side.

“Hello cutie. Come to Aunt Helena.” Helena smiled as she bent down to pick the tiny turtle up. “I won’t hurt you.”

“Helena!! Don’t!” Alice exclaimed loudly. Coming back into the kitchen she witnessed what Helena was about to do.

Distracted by Alice’s cry, Helena turned her head to smile assurance as she picked up the turtle when … ‘SNAP!’

Helena’s eyes went wide in shock.

Alice’s eyes went wide in fright.

Snappy’s eyes shut tight as she bit down.

“Oh.” Helena said.

“Fuck.” Alice said.

Snappy was prepared to defend and bit through the soft and giving index finger of the human that held her.

All went still for a moment then Alice rushed forward and holding the open cage beneath the turtle, smacked the top of Helena’s hand while trying to stay as far away as possible to Snappy in order to get Helena to let go of and drop the turtle into her cage.

“Let it go Helena. Let it go. I’ve got it.” Alice encouraged as Helena, still in shock dropped the tiny beast into its cage.

Needless to say, Helena was indeed bleeding from her nearly severed appendage. In a way it was lucky that Snappy was still so small. Snapping Turtles were quite capable of removing digits if big enough.

Putting the turtle in its cage on the kitchen table, Alice quickly took hold of Helena’s wrist and pulled her over to the sink with no resistance.

Turning on the cold water she pushed Helena’s hand under to wash away the blood so as to assess the damage.

“Oh fuck, Helena.” Alice muttered. “This is going to require stitches, at least.”

“Oh.” Though pale, Helena was not surprised. “Funny, it does not hurt much.” She commented and with curiosity looked at the top of her gapping index finger.

“We better get this seen too.” Taking the tea towel from around Helena’s neck Alice used it as a compression bandage, between quick looks of concern at Helena’s face.

“Yes.” Helena was not saying much, which scared Alice a little.

“Look, sit here while I grab my wallet, keys and your purse.” Alice helped Helena to sit down before gathering all afore mentioned items.

“I’ll just give the beast some food and water and will deal with getting her back into the aquarium when we get back.” Alice spoke in a soothing voice before, with much trepidation, quickly opened the cage and basically threw the items in before closing the door with a sigh of relief.

Gathering the necessary items Alice helped Helena to her feet. “You ok?”

“Yes. Lets take my car. The keys are in my bag.”

As they left, Snappy eyes settled on the assorted vegetables that had been thrown into her cage. She delicately chose a crisp cabbage leaf and with contentment proceeded to devour it.

tbc.