Chapter Text
The golden-furred cat pranced through the roads. It weaved and swerved up and down, eventually making its way up to the top of the wall where a potato farm was located. The cat that was much too large to be a house cat climbed atop one of the avocado trees. It got to the very tippy top before it started jumping from tree to tree as if passing the time by entertaining itself. The golden cat’s eyes seemed a reddish brown, fixed on every little thing it noticed.
The cat paused to stretch on top of one of the trees. It arched its back and yawned, going into a pose that is commonly used in human toga. The cat shook his fur slightly before preparing for the next leap, planting its paws into the leaves and getting into the pouncing stance for a further jump. It pushed off with its hind legs, leaping off of the leaves. It flew through the air, catching its front claws onto the next tree’s branch but the momentum wasn’t enough and the jump just fell short of the tree. The golden cat dug its claws into the branch, shaking the entire tree as it held on to not fall. The cat slowly dragged further down the branch until there was no branch lower and he plummeted down onto the rock floor of the wall.
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The blonde-haired crow stretched his black feathers as he yawned. He looked over to the beds of his children. Both seemed to still be asleep for now. He stretched his neck side to side. He’ll make them breakfast before they get up. He got off of the chair he fell asleep on yesterday after reading the stories to the little ones and made his way towards the kitchen. He opened the door into an almost empty kitchen. Only one corner of it was actually the kitchen but he hadn’t come to decorating it yet. He grabbed his apron from the hook next to the fridge and put it over his head, tying it around his waist with a bow in the back. He tucked his hair into his large hat that somehow stayed on his head as he slept.
Phil admired the fridge door that was covered with photos. The photos from Festa Junina of all the members that attended. Photos of Chayanne, Tallulah, and him during Festa Junina. A photo of Chayanne with a raccoon. A photo of Will and Tallulah together on the wall… how long ago that was now. He smiled bitterly looking over the images. A photo of Chayanne building the potato farm. A more recent photo of the remembrance Tallulah made for Techno. A happy reminiscing tingle crept over his body as he continued staring at the photos. His eyes traveled further to the drawings his kids made, pinned up on the fridge with handmade magnets. He traced a finger over the badly made potato magnet and the poppy magnet. He’d made the magnets to mark who made what drawing but it was quite obvious who made what.
Phil smiled to himself, finally opening the fridge, being careful not to smack his hat with it. Most of what made up the plant were fruit and vegetables, all of the meat being stored in the freezer. There were some nuts, eggs, berries, and even some cat food. With Wilbur who previously lived in the house with them, the cat food held its place in the fridge, ‘for the crunch’ as he put it. Over time Phil sometimes found himself trying out a chip or two. It didn’t taste bad surprisingly, like crackers with an aftertaste of meat. That was only when he felt like really reminiscing. He opened the other door of the fridge, revealing the avocado heaven.
That side of the fridge was strictly the avocado and avocado toast side. His latest count of avocado toasts was approximately reaching two thousand so he hypothesized that they’d need a second fridge. For now, he grabbed four avocado toasts and placed two on each plate. The plates he placed them on were special too. Chayanne and Tallulah had both painted each other and exchanged them as gifts. Those kids. His, kids. It was the best thing that happened to him. Of course, Wilbur was too but he was grown now, he even had a job. A musician, currently on tour. It saddened Phil to see his son leave for so long but he knew he would be back. That fluffy brown cat could never stay away for too long. He will be crawling back onto his favorite place on the couch, groaning and mewling for Phil to scratch his ears.
He chuckled at the memory, positioning the plates on the table. He grabbed two eggs out of the fridge. He prepared the stove, turning the flame on and placing a pan on top. He spread some olive oil in it, letting it warm up before cracking the egg with a knife and pouring it into the pan. He repeated with the other egg, pouring it into the same pan.
After a few minutes, he turned the heat off and scrapped an egg onto each of the children’s plates, next to the avocado toast. He placed the cooking equipment into the sink to wash later, washing his hands. He ruffled his feathers and listened for a second to the equal breathing from the other room. Both kids still seemed to be asleep. He went back into the fridge fetching some walnuts, popping them into his mouth like candy, pouring them into a bowl, and placing it towards the center of the table.
He turned to go and wake up the kids but not before checking the allotted tasks for the day. As the responsible parent of dragon(oids) that he is, Phil has made an allotted task schedule for each week. Just to make sure that they are getting everything required for a fulfilling life despite having no dragon parents.
His tasks for this week were, to take a ride with the kids on bikes. He could definitely do that after breakfast. He decided to leave the other tasks for later in the week. Maybe he would go out and find more turtles for Tallulah (even if she was causing turtle overpopulation) or some raccoons or axolotls for Chayanne.
He walked through the door back into the bedroom. He walked between the beds and chose to wake Chayanne up first. He knelt down on one knee and gently placed his hand on his son’s. “Chayanne, it’s time to wake up.” his voice was sweet as ever, never aggressive towards his children. He saw the dragon; still in humanoid form;’s face twitch as he groaned and stirred. Phil chuckled and ruffled his fingers through the blonde hair identical to his, although with the dyed roots to match his sister's. Chayanne blinked his blue eyes as he woke up, vision still blurry as he sat up and rubbed his eyes with his hands. The young boy stretched his arms out high as he yawned, his black feathery draconic wings stretching along. As he untensed his still asleep joints he looked up at Phil with clearer eyes. “Morning Dad!” wasn’t this upbeat child just the sweetest.
Phil chuckled again, regarding his son with a smile. “Now wake up your sister, I made breakfast, and don’t forget your items and backpack!” He could see Chayanne visibly pout at the mention of him making breakfast. “I’ll wake you up to help me cook next time, promise.” His son visibly brightened at that and hopped out of his bed, still in potato pjs. Phil stood up from the floor and made his way back into the kitchen.
He set up the forks and the tableware as he heard the other little dragon wake up as well. He finished setting up and grabbed another avocado toast from the fridge for himself, sitting down and waiting for his kids to come into the kitchen.
After a while, the door to the kitchen finally opened. First stepped in Chayanne, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, black-feathered dragon in his dragonoid form, already wearing his skull mask that sat perfectly on his feathery horns, black feathery tail behind him, his duck floaty was in his hands but not yet on. Chayanne held the door as another little dragon stepped in. This little dragon had brown hair and was significantly shorter than Chayanne. She had brown eyes, a darker shade than her hair. Her fluffy horns, wings, and tail all matched the brown fur coat of the father, almost blending into her hair color but slightly lighter. Her red beanie was already on top of her head, slightly drooping to one side.
Phil watched as they instinctively came to sit at the table at their designated spots. Phil reached over the table to Tallulah, carefully adjusting the beanie and tucking a hair strand behind her ear. Though still asleep Tallulah gave him a big happy smile.
“Now, eat up kiddos.” Phil dug into his own food, glancing up to see Tallulah munching on the avocado toast first while Chayanne nibbled the egg. He really loved these peaceful moments. A moment of pure understanding, a moment where they didn’t have to say anything to understand each other, they ate in peaceful silence until all three were done with their food. Phil got off his chair and collected the dirty plates and cutlery. He placed it into the sink, turning to see Tallulah helping Chayanne fasten the floaty around his waist. Chayanne in return tied the wooden flute necklace around her neck for quick and easy access.
He walked back over to the kids, placing a hand on both of their heads and shuffling their hair slightly. “Today, we are starting the day productively with a bike ride!” Phil saw both kids light up as they laughed in their wholesome voices and began sprinting out of the house. He sighed which was followed by a chuckle before following the kids out and to where they kept to bikes.
When Phil got up to the bike parking, both Chayanne and Tallulah were fastening their helmets (Well, Chayanne was fastening his own and Tallulah’s). He picked his bike up from the ground where it lay, shaking some dust off of it. He realized how long ago they had taken a ride, they needed to do this more often. He grabbed his own helmet, he needed to set a good example regardless of whether the children were already doing the right thing. He fastened it around his head, hopping onto his bike. He watched as Chayanne helped Tallulah onto hers and as Chayanne got onto his own.
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Phil drove slightly in front of the children, glancing behind him to make sure no one was going to end up tumbling into the potato farm or that no one was going to take a free dive off of the wall. It was a peaceful morning, no rain, warm sun, and it was very pretty. He heard Tallulah and Chayanne talking behind him and decided to let them have their time, driving slightly ahead. He glanced over the automated farm. The amount of potatoes they had was plenty but getting them was less for the actual potatoes and more for the concept of the potatoes, if that makes any sense. Phil continued pedaling, checking the leaves above for any ready avocado though he didn’t see any.
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Phil turns his gaze back onto the road. He noticed a large creature lying in the road. He slowed his pedalling and stuck a hand out back telling the kids to stop. They saw the signal immediately and broke. Phil soon stopped his bike completely as well. “Stay back,” he whispered to the children as he slowly inched towards the animal. As he got closer to it the more it looked like a lynx or a bobcat, although it had a unique golden fur coat.
Finally, Phil was towering just above it, examining the seemingly asleep or unconscious animal. It didn’t look like a bobcat or a lynx up close. More like a house cat sextupled in size. He crouched down next to the cat and stared at it before bringing up a thumbs up to let the kids know it was okay to come near.
Chayanne is walking in front of Tallulah, still cautious. They circle around to where Phil is crouching next to the animal. Tallulah’s breath hitches. “Can we keep it?” she practically mewled out as she was on the verge of happily bouncing up and down at the new furry friend. “It has such pretty fur!” Tallulah looked over the cat.
Phil sighed, there was no getting out of this one since it was already up on the wall. He took his backpack off of his back and dug through it, bringing out a special mob trap. He placed it on the ground. Walking closer to the animal didn’t seem to wake it up, alert it, or even stir it. Phil continued testing the waters. Running a hand into the silky fur. It felt heavenly like actual silk or peacock feathers stacked row after row and shining a bright golden hue. Finally, after experimenting enough, he hoisted the large cat by its body carefully picked it up, and placed it in the trap.
To Phil’s confusion, the trap didn’t activate. He glanced at Tallulah and Chayanne who also seemed confused. Phil turned back to the golden cat. He looked over it more closely this time. His eyes scanned its body until they landed on its front left paw. Compared to all other paws, it looked slightly bent out of shape to an extent and extended further. Inspecting the cat even further he noticed the amount of dust in its fur and the build-up of oil. Maybe it hadn’t bathed in a bit. Phil glanced at Tallulah again who was giving him puppy dog eyes with those deep brown eyes.
He sighed. Never could he be defeated by anything but a child’s pleading look. He looked over the cat for the best way to carry it back home. He carefully knelt down, back to the animal, and dragged it onto his own back. His wings wrapped around the cat as best as they could. He caught his breath as he stood up. He didn’t expect this animal; even though it was larger than him; to be this heavy. “Chayanne please grab my bike and walk it back with yours, Tallulah you walk yours.” Both kids nodded, Tallulah a lot more excited. He chuckled and huffed at the same time as they began walking.
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Phil drew a breath in, he panted another breath out. This was like lifting two sets of 40 in a row. Maybe worse. But this cat was incredibly heavy. They finally managed to get it inside the house through much struggle with the door frame. Phil immediately headed for the bathroom, assuming that Chayanne and Tallulah would park the bikes and follow behind. He opened the bathroom door with a struggle and managed to get inside somehow. Walking into the large shower area, he placed the cat down on the floor. It was lucky they had a large bathroom with a tub and a shower area. It was better to wash this kitten (definitely not a kitten) before looking at the wounds.
He grabbed the shower head, still fully clothed, and turned it on pointed at the ground, away from the animal. He switched it on. Steaming hot water poured out but soon evened out. He turned the shower head towards the cat, but there was still no reaction even as the water dripped onto the feline except for the rising and falling of the cat’s chest. Phil crouched next to the animal, making sure every bit of fur ended up wet, covering its ears as he went over that area making sure no water made it inside somehow. The cat’s golden fur was soon soaking wet and turned a darker and duller shade of gold.
Finally, Chayanne and Tallulah came into the bathroom. “Tallulah mind bringing the soap?” Phil asked, to which Tallulah responded by immediately placing the soap into his hands, except it wasn’t soap. It was the shampoo that Wilbur used, a special cat fur one. “Oh- that's actually better, thank you Tallulah.” he gave her a reassuring smile before turning back to the cat. He placed the shower hose down letting it continue running as he spread the shampoo onto his hands and rubbed them together until it bubbled. He carefully applied the shampoo to the fur of the cat, rubbing it in carefully. The way his hands glided along the wet fur was almost satisfying, a very nice experience overall. He shampooed the entire cat, making sure he missed no spots, putting more on the spots that were more dirty. He grabbed the shower again, rinsing the cat off. The shampoo flooded off of the fur and down into the shower drain. Phil who has been having to hold onto the cat to be able to turn him to all sides, is very soaked. He’d have to wash all of his clothes too. “Chayanne.” he turned to his son. “Mind getting two towels?” Chaynne just nodded, grabbing Tallulah’s hand and leading her to come with him too.
Phil flipped the water off and Chayanned came back with towels, he used one to wrap himself along with his soggy clothes that he would pull off later. The other he wrapped the large cat in. Again he hoisted it onto his back with the help of his kids now that the cat was safe to touch. He carried it all the way to his own bedroom, where the medkit was located. Phil placed the cat onto his warm bed/nest and took out the med kit under his nightstand. Due to Wilbur, being a quite chaotic, and expressive child, he would get hurt. A lot. He would often get hurt in his cat form as well. Phil took the pain-numbing medicine out of the medkit along with an ice pack.
He stared at the cat contemplating for a moment before carefully opening its mouth with one hand and placing the pill onto his pointer finger carefully placing it towards the back of its tongue. He closed the cat's mouth again and gently rubbed it under its chin and neck. Usually, Wilbur would swallow if Phil did that. A soft purr exuded from the cat. Phil smiled, placing the ice pack onto the cat’s paw. A job well done, now all they needed to do was heal the cat up and welcome it into the family as with all other animals of Tallulah's.