Archive of Our Own ^beta

He doesn’t remember a lot, he just is lost, cold and hungry. He only gets flashes of what he can assume is his past. A tall Enderman, setting him down on the damp grass, he remembers how he didn’t quite like the feeling on his skin. He remembers warbles, but he couldn’t remember what they were saying, only getting some keywords like “disgrace” and “hybrid”. He may be young, but he doubts those words meant anything good. Then he remembers being left to fend for himself as his Endermen brethren left him, teleporting away to someplace he couldn’t follow. He was young and a hybrid, not so keen with his teleporting skills as the others, so he couldn’t teleport with them. Instead, he was left in the forest alone, with the moon shining high above the trees. His family left him and all he could do was cry.

On the first night he was left alone, it rained all night. He found shelter in a little outcrop of a mountain, too shallow to be called a cave. Some water did misfortunately land on him, causing him to scream in pain and his skin to sizzle and steam. He was lucky he found the cave. Otherwise… well, he didn’t want to think about it.

The next day, he was chased by some hunters who found a young Enderman hybrid wandering around and thought they scored an easy pearl. That was the first time he successfully teleported away from the danger. Afterwards, he clinged to that experience and used it to teach himself to teleport better and faster as he wandered, lost in the woods.

On the second night, he started getting hungry. He tried to search for food, but the Elder Endermen never really taught him anything about survival. He only remembers them telling him to rely on the others to help him survive, but now he was alone, so that advice was as useless to him as a pond of water.

On the second day, he got too close to a village, amazed by their fire and buildings. He could only think of a home, warmth and shelter as he made his way closer. While the young hybrid brought no harm, the villagers did. They chased him away with pitchforks, torches, swords, axes and buckets of water. One lucky villager was able to get the hit on him, tearing the skin and clothes on his right arm and causing purple blood to ooze out.

On the third night, he tried to heal his wound. He didn’t know much about medical procedures, the Elders once again telling all the young to rely on each other. Luckily, he knew to at least cover it up, not that it helped all that much, but it made him calmer. He took a leaf — quite large for a leaf — and tied it to his wound with the help of some vines.

On the fourth day, he was growing quite tired. His body hurt to move and he just wanted to sleep, so that’s what he did.

On the fourth night, the hybrid slept through all his worries, tucked away in the safety of a cave for the night.

On the fifth day… that’s where his story really begins.

---

Dream glanced out the window at the beautiful landscape surrounding his home. It’s a nice meadow where his home was located, surrounded by a surplus amount of trees. Dream loved to explore it all everyday he could.

“Mom!” he called, hoping he was loud enough so Puffy could hear him from the kitchen where she was most likely making something sweet. Her cooking was always the best. Him and his brothers would eat anything she made like a pack of ravenous wolves who haven’t eaten in weeks. Puffy would always try to teach them manners, but they never learned.

“What, duckling?” Puffy yelled back from the kitchen.

“Can I go outside?” Dream hopped up from where he was seated on the couch, bouncing up and down albeit Puffy telling him countless times not to.

“I guess duckling. Just be back before supper!” She added the last part before Dream could dart out the door knowing how reckless and forgetful the child could be.

Dream hummed in response and was out the door within a second. He just couldn’t help it, being outside was the greatest thing. Everyone in his family loved to explore. Puffy was even a captain! She would tell them adventures about her on her ship, sailing the seas and finding treasure while fighting off the evil monsters. Maybe that’s where both Dream and Tubbo found their adventurous spirit. Foolish though, that man was just in love with the water. Being half shark will do that to you. He would disappear for hours at a time just to explore the water and would come back with fish to show to his adoptive mother. Of course, Foolish could breathe on land and in water, but didn’t know that fishes weren’t the same. Puffy freaked out the first time Foolish brought home some fish for her to see. She tried to save them, but it was too late. She explained that fish can only breathe in water and the very next day, Foolish came home with more fish, this time, in jars of water. They ended up getting a fish tank to house all the fish Foolish caught.

Dream can’t really blame him for bringing home animals from his adventures. Dream and Tubbo were the exact same. Dream once found a stray cat with pretty green eyes like his own. The cat was friendly and Puffy fell in love with it immediately, so they kept her. Dream named her Patches due to the white patches of fur on her coat and loved her so much. She would always sleep on his bed and he would cuddle with her and mom when he was scared.

Tubbo, on the other hand, would just insist that the bees he brings home are just as kind as Patches. The first time he brought some home, Puffy turned pale at the sight at her front door. She told Tubbo he couldn’t bring bees into the house and while they had a conversation, the bees chased Dream and Foolish. Foolish ended up grabbing ahold of Dream and plunging into a pond near the house to escape the evil stingers.

After that , they made a bee enclosure so Tubbo could take care of all the bees and even bring them there instead of inside the house.

All in all, Dream questioned how Puffy stayed sane with all of them.

He wandered deeper into the forest, enjoying the chirping of the birds and swishing of the leaves. It was always so calming to journey through the forest. Once, Dream lost all track of time and wandered through the forest late into the night. He was terrified of all the mobs there were, but luckily Puffy found him before a skeleton could take the final shot, but not before a creeper blew up, but luckily he got far away for it to not be that deadly, just some burn marks. Dream learned his lesson about going out after sundown.

He climbed over a log and passed by a little stream of water, little landmarks he set for himself so he could get back to the house.

He found the one tree that was sturdy enough for him to climb. He grabbed a hold of the footholds on the tree and climbed his way up. He loved to parkour his way across the trees and swing from the branches and vines. There was something about the adrenaline that rushed through his veins whenever he would race across the treetops. Dream ran across the trees for hours before he heard the quiet sniffling from the forest floor. He stopped his running and crept down to get a view of the ground. He didn’t see anything right away, so he climbed down the tree he was on and surveyed the area below.

His sheep ears were more accustomed to hearing, so he followed the crying until he came upon a clear meadow in the forest. In the middle of the meadow sat an Enderman hybrid, clearly younger than Dream, but he couldn’t have been much older than Tubbo. He was crying and obviously injured.

Dream slowed down his jog and slowly walked up to the hybrid to ensure that he didn’t spook or scare him.

The hybrid looked so cool. Half his skin was white while the other half was charcoal black. His hair was divided in the same way. He had some torn up clothes on, covered in dirt and mud.

“Hey, are you okay?” Dream asked as he knelt down next to him. The hybrid jumped up and turned to face Dream with a look of fear, but it melted when he looked into Dream’s soft eyes.

Dream opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when the hybrid leapt forward and wrapped his arms around Dream. Dream’s ears perked up in surprise and his eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything otherwise. He only wrapped his arms around the child and embraced him. He seemed in quite some distress, so who was Dream to refuse him a hug.

The hybrid cried and cried for the better part of the hour and when it seemed all the tears had left the hybrid, Dream lifted the hybrid up to look it in the eyes. The Enderman hybrid didn’t shy away when he looked up at Dream like he expected him to, he only cracked a small smile and warbled.

“What’s your name?” Dream asked. The hybrid looked up at him and warbled something in Enderman that Dream had no idea how to translate. To Dream’s ears it sounded like he said “Ranboo”. That probably wasn’t his actual name, but Dream wanted to call him something other than “Enderman hybrid”, so Ranboo it is.

“Uhm, I’ll just call you Ranboo. What about that?” Dream asked, fearful of how Ranboo would react. Ranboo looked up at him with wide eyes and warbled something and Dream just smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Dream chuckled.

He helped Ranboo stand up and was shocked by the height he had. Why were Endermen so freaking tall?

“Want to come home with me?” Dream gave a warm smile. “I’m sure Puffy would love to have you there and she can help heal you up!”

Ranboo’s ears perked up at that and he smiled and nodded.

Dream grabbed onto him tightly so he wouldn’t lose him and led him towards his house. Why Ranboo would trust Dream without knowing much about him, he had no idea, but it seemed that Ranboo clinged to Dream as if he was his last hope. Maybe he was.

“My name’s Dream by the way.” he greeted and Ranboo warbled back to him. He would need to have Puffy help Ranboo with his speech so he could learn English, but until then, he would just comfort him on the way home.

They talked —the most that they could— on their way home. Dream talked about his parkour and adventures and Ranboo just showed him some flowers and blocks of grass he picked up. Dream was amazed by the skills Ranboo possessed. He’s never gotten close to an Enderman before so he didn’t really know what they could do. Anyway, he was sure he and Ranboo would get along perfectly with the fact that they both loved nature.

They made their way back to his house where he could smell the sweet smell of dinner. Ranboo apparently smelled it as well because he sniffed the air and his stomach rumbled shortly after. Dream assumed he hasn’t eaten in a while.

“Come on! I’m sure mom would love to have a guest!” Dream grabbed onto Ranboo’s arm and pulled him towards the house. They ran through the meadow and towards the front door. Dream rapped his knuckles on the door until his mother opened up.

“Hey, Dream. What are you doing-” she stopped herself when she took notice of the tall Ranboo standing next to Dream.

“I brought a friend. Maybe even a brother?” Dream smiled at Puffy and she just stared at Ranboo before looking down at Dream. Dream loved the idea of having a new brother and it seemed like Ranboo didn’t have a home to go to, so it should work out fine. “I found him in the forest, hurt and alone. I thought I could bring him home.”

“Of course you could, duckling.” She turned back to Ranboo. “You’re welcome to stay…”

“Ranboo.” Dream whispered.

“Ranboo.” Puffy smiled warmly at him. Ranboo warbled at her and she just smiled hopefully.

“He doesn’t speak English.” Dream shrugged, leading Ranboo into the house.

Puffy smiled at Dream’s antics and followed him inside, closing the door behind her. “Luckily, I made enough dinner for all of us. Ranboo should stay for a bit while he heals up. I see how bad his arm looks.”

Tubbo and Foolish appeared from their rooms when they heard talking downstairs. They took notice of Ranboo and Tubbo immediately jumped from the top of the stairs onto Ranboo who caught him with ease.

“New brother!” Tubbo yelled, hugging Ranboo tightly, not even questioning where the hybrid came from, just immediately accepting him into the family.

Foolish also darted out of his room and wrapped all three of them in a tight hug using that inhuman strength he seemed to have. “I love new family members!”

Puffy joined the hug and after a while, she pulled them towards the dinner table to eat. Ranboo’s face lit up at the sight of food and he ate it all like the rest of the boys, like a pack of ravenous wolves that haven’t eaten in weeks.

Oh yeah, Ranboo would get along with this family just fine.