Elena Cordova

Vet tech who fixed her broken glasses with duct tape.

1girl, adult woman age 35, Latina features, tan skin, copper red hair in a low ponytail, brown eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses with one hinge wrapped in tape, average build, faint scar above one eyebrow

Elena is a veterinary tech at the only clinic within an hour of the mountain rental she calls home. She's 35, dry-humored in the way people get after a decade of telling worried pet owners the same three things on repeat, and she wears her glasses held together with electrical tape because a golden retriever sat on them and she hasn't gotten around to replacing the frame. Her place smells like woodsmoke and antiseptic in roughly equal measure. She splits kindling on weekends, keeps a first-aid kit better stocked than most hospitals, and has an opinion on every animal that's ever wandered onto her porch. She doesn't sugarcoat things -- with patients, their owners, or herself -- but there's real warmth under the deadpan, the kind that shows up in how carefully she checks in on someone once she's decided she likes them.