Doctor Soofolu blinked his wide cat eyes behind a pair of enourmous spectacles, staring alternately at the little creature before him and at the balance pin on the wooden scale. Grandpa watched attentively over his shoulder.
"Hold still, now, little guy� almost gotcha�"
The pin suddenly jumped to zero - Klonoa had jumped off the scale again and was halfway across the room before the doctor or Grandpa could do anything about it.
"WAHOO!"
"Little rascal� well, I give up," Soofolu sighed, "he's somewhere in the vicinity of thirty to thirty-five pounds. I wouldn't be so picky about weighing him if it weren't for the fact that he's so malnourished."
"Malnourished?" Grandpa started in surprise, "he looks alright to me�"
The doctor motioned the elder to sit down in a nearby chair, then sat himself on the examination table.
"By all indications except size, he's six years old. Regardless of species, he should weigh at least twice as much as he already does. I know he looks fine right now, but that's all fur� he's got the thickest fur I've ever seen. You get him wet and you'll see what I mean - he'll look like a skeleton. I bet he's been eating raw wheat from those fields all summer."
"Well, all he needs is a little more food, then," Grandpa said, watching as Klonoa reached into a canister of tongue depressors and pulled out a fistful, "he's not starving or anything."
Doctor Soofolu leapt lightly off the table and swiftly removed the canister from the child's grasp. Klonoa dashed to the other corner of the room with his spoils and sat on the floor, chewing on one and laughing.
"It's not really a matter of starving, no," the doctor said, returning to the table, "but he's permanently stunted. With luck, he might get two feet taller than he is now, but that'll be all. He's going to be kid-sized his whole life."
"Well, if that's all that's wrong with him, we owe the spirits a great deal of thanks. Are there any other problems? Mentally..?" Grandpa felt a little embarrassed asking this, but it was an important question. A six year old who couldn't speak Phantic was a curious abnormality, at best.
The doctor shook his head and smiled.
"He's very bright, actually� in a survival type of way. He's been raising himself out there, apparently without any help. That takes a heck of a lot of skill at six years old."
Grandpa looked at Klonoa, worriedly. Klonoa looked back, blinking, a wooden depressor still wiggling in his mouth as he gnawed it.
"Will he ever be able to talk?" Grandpa asked hopefully, turning back to Soofolu.
"I can't say for sure," the doctor said, raising his eyes to the ceiling and leaning back against the wall, "but if his drive to explore things is any indication, I'll bet my tail he'll pick up on the language."
The doctor smiled again, this time at Klonoa. Leaving the table, he pulled a small, homemade jellydrop out of his pocket and put it on the little boy's knee. Klonoa picked it up, examined it, then quickly put it in his mouth. The chewed tongue depressor was left on the floor with the others.
"Let me tell you something, Grandpa," Soofolu said, now in a softer voice, watching Klonoa wistfully.
"Something about this kid haunts me� I don't think he just got lost, separated from his parents or anything like that. He's� he's alone. REALLY alone. A mystery. It's like he was blown in on the wind from a whole different world."
Klonoa hopped up off the floor and approached Soofolu cautiously, watching the doctor's hands and pockets. Soofolu cracked the tension with a quick smile, tossing Klonoa another gumdrop.
"Look at that, he's learning already. Little bugger," the doctor cleared his throat and resumed the serious discussion. "I meant to ask, have you ever seen his kind before?"
"No, to tell you the truth. I was hoping you might now something about it," Grandpa said quietly.
"Well, he's completely new to me, too. Looks a little like a rabbit, but that's a cat's muzzle, and the rest of his frame is dog-like. I asked the Balalu's if he might be one of their sort - he looks like their youngest son, Balue, you know? - but they tell me no bear ever has golden eyes like that�"
Grandpa watched the doctor silently.
"We both know, elder, that a kid with no family isn't going to have an easy time in a village with none of his kind around him. The adults will accept him, sure, but the kids� his own generation is going to look at him kinda funny. Doesn't look right, doesn't talk - yet, anyway - acts wild. They might label him a freak. And damned if childhood labels are easy to change� he might grow up here, then go back to being wild like he was before because society never quite clicked with him."
"He needs a guardian, then. Someone to raise him and teach him the norms of Breezegale. Just to help him, of course, until he can fit in on his own."
"Yes, but you know everyone here. They're all young couples� everybody's got kids of their own. Klonoa will really suffer if he's stuck into a family of 'normal' children, right at the start. I can just imagine the terrible things an older brother could do to his ears� knots, string, glue�"
"I'll take him."
"What?" Soofolu looked up sharply.
"I'll take him," Grandpa repeated, breaking into a smile. "I'll be his guardian."
"Elder, not to be rude, but you're pretty old� and a kid, well�"
"You said yourself he can't be raised around other kids, and I'm currently the only person in this village without any."
The doctor scratched his head.
"And besides, I've always wanted one. Ever since Granny left to be elder of Forlock, I've been alone� always regretted not having kids when I had the chance."
Soofolu looked at Grandpa, then at Klonoa (still chewing his second gumdrop with delight), then at Grandpa again.
"And on top of that, I� he's... well, damnit, he's cute," Grandpa faltered, stretching for more reasons.
"Grows on ya, doesn't he?"
Soofolu jumped to his feet again with his usual feline grace, startling Klonoa. The boy had focused all of his attention on the task of getting the gumdrop off of the roof of his mouth and was unprepared for a sudden movement behind his back. He ran to Grandpa and hugged the elder's knee, mumbling "wahoo" and looking back at the doctor nervously.
"Soofolu, you ARE the doctor of the village, which means I can't keep him unless you sign an adoption contract," Grandpa said desperately, looking down at Klonoa.
"And YOU are the ELDER of the village, which generally means you're in charge and I can't go against your will." The doctor broke into a grin. "Therefore� he's yours."
With a flourish, Soofolu produced a block-printed sheet of paper and a charcoal pencil from one of his many pockets, and handed them to Grandpa for his signature.
"After all, who could teach him about life in Breezegale better than the guy who's been here the longest?"
Grandpa handed the paper and charcoal back to Soofolu, who signed it, folded it up, and put it back into a new pocket. Both men smiled and shook hands. Klonoa watched curiously, burbling a little.
"Take him home, give him a bath, and start him on a diet of whatever he'll eat the most of," the doctor advised. "Time to let him be a kid."
* * *
