Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Birds on a Wire ❯ Chapter 2
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Oreana Date 
Non Anime: Sonic Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Hentai / Fantasy / Romance | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.27.2013 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.0K | Visits: 199 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Sonic Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Hentai / Fantasy / Romance | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.27.2013 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.0K | Visits: 199 | Status: Completed
“Can I hold her?” Lola-Na asked, eagerly reaching for the swaddled Lily-An when Matsu-Na had offered for the family to come over for dinner.
Elli-An smiled at the young child’s eagerness, but she couldn’t help but feel nervous all the same as she sat there in the wheelchair with her daughter. Quill gave a reassuring nod to his wife with an added squeeze to her shoulder to let her know it would be fine before Elli relented. “Just be careful, sweetie; be sure to cradle the head.”
Lola-Na opened her arms to accept the newborn. Looking down at the tiny child, she watched as the small Lily-An moved her fingers just a bit to show she was dreaming. “She’s so cute!” she squealed, sitting down on the sofa next to Elli-An’s wheelchair.
“We appreciate the offer for you inviting us over for dinner, Matsu-Na and Bronze,” began Quill with an appreciative smile, “but, you really don’t have to go through this much trouble for us.”
“Don’t be silly,” Matsu-Na insisted with a wave of her hand from where she was in the kitchen. “You just had a baby, and, since that midwife was incapable of even arriving on time, I don’t think I’ll trust her to continue to check in on you and the little one.”
Bronze chuckled to himself at how irritable his wife sounded about the ordeal. “You know it wasn’t her fault. One of her patients was giving birth a bit earlier than planned. She couldn’t be two places at once.”
“Still, she could have sent somebody—anybody,” Matsu-Na grumbled as she started chopping away at the mushrooms and carrots she was going to put in the salad. “Anything could have happened without you there, Bronze.”
“And we thank you for that,” said Quill as he stayed by his wife’s side, since she was still recovering. “I do owe you a favor, that’s for sure.”
Hearing his friend say such a thing, Bronze raised his brow slightly as his thoughts went back to Syrup. “Actually, now that you say that—I do have something I could use help with before dinner, if that’s alright?” Seeing Quill look to his wife, Bronze waved him over. “Elli-Ah will be fine. My wife is here in case anything happens.” Walking over to the coat rack, he grabbed up his coat and scarf before tossing Quill his. “It shouldn’t take long.”
Following behind Bronze, Quill made his way out through the snow and to the barn. He remained a bit baffled about what it was his friend needed from him. “You know it’s been years since I last worked with chocobos, Bronze,” Quill felt need to remind him. “What exactly can I help you with?”
Stopping at Syrup’s stall, Bronze pointed at the maple colored bird. “Syrup has been acting funny lately, and I am assuming it is because she is pregnant.”
Seeing a chocobo and hearing the word ‘pregnant’ in the same sentence made Quill flinch. “You’re not going to make me get in there…are you? She trusts you more than she does me.” When Bronze didn’t answer right away, Quill continued in his defense: “My aunt nearly lost an arm to one of those birds when she was dumb enough to get close to a pregnant chocobo!”
“Sorry, I just wanted to see your reaction for a moment,” Bronze teased only to have Quill slap him playfully a few times with his cowboy hat he had on. “Alright, alright,” he chuckled, raising his arms to stop the assault. “What I need for you to do is slip something in her feed for me while I keep her occupied.” Walking down to his workbench, Bronze hunted through the cabinets to find the pills he would need to knock Syrup out for awhile as well as his rubber gloves that were there nearby his lamp. He hurried back to Quill’s side to hand over the bottle he carried. “Just pop in five of those into her feed bucket. She’s such a glutton that she’ll gobble them down in no time at all as long as she doesn’t notice you doing it.”
Quill nervously looked back at Syrup to notice her big, black eyes staring right at them and her feathers separating with an irritable hiss. “Are you…sure it is safe to go in there? She could still attack you.”
“Just stand back,” Bronze insisted as he opened the door of the stall a bit to let just himself squeeze through. “I’ve gotten enough injuries in my time to learn how to approach these chocobos regardless of what physical and or mental state they are in.”
The bird, staring at her master closely, let out a low, territorial sounding imitation of a growl. Bronze knew one wrong move would cause the bird to snap with that powerful beak of hers, and he could easily get hurt from it. “It is okay, Syrup,” he said softly, keeping his hands for her to see. “I am not going to hurt you.” Bronze watched her territorial stance carefully. She kept it for a few minutes until he was able to finally place his palm upon her beak to stroke it gently. “See? I’m not going to hurt you,” he reassured her.
Quill watched as Bronze moved the attention of the bird away from her feed bucket so that he could slip the pills into it without her noticing. He knew birds were no dummies. If they saw someone messing with their feed, they would peck away at it carefully and find what was put into it.
“That a girl,” Bronze cheered, rubbing her neck gently to ruffle up her maple colored feathers. Shifting his attention to Quill for a moment, he asked: “Did you finish? Did you bury it deep enough?”
“Yeah, it’s done,” said Quill as he backed away from the feed bucket. “Now, hurry up and get out of there. She’s making me nervous.”
As Bronze did so, he thought for sure he could wait for the medicine to be consumed and take affect, but the sound of his wife’s voice beckoning the two to dinner halted the idea. “Well, dammit,” he muttered mostly to himself, but Quill could obviously hear him as well. “I guess I’ll have to come back and check on her.” Removing his gloves, he tossed them in the trashcan near the entryway of the barn. “Remember to wash your hands, or my wife may very well take your head off,” Bronze teased.
“Will that medicine still be in her system when we come back?” Quill asked as he followed him back towards the house.
Opening the door for Quill, he allowed him in first before coming in behind him. “It should. It’s pretty strong stuff. It doesn’t just wear right off.”
Overhearing the conversation as Matsu-Na helped wheel Elli-An to the table, she scoffed. “So it was Syrup you were checking on? I should have known. You both need to wash your hands though before you dream of touching my food.” When she heard her husband about to retaliate the idea for himself, she shot him a disapproving look that made Bronze quickly swallow his words. “Gloves or not, I want you to wash them,” she ordered, as if to read his mind.
Quill couldn’t help but laugh to himself at how easily Bronze followed his wife’s orders (not to mention the look on the breeder’s face). If anything, it only rewarded him with a playful smack upside the back of his head.
When dinner was over and Quill and his family had returned to their home, Matsu-Na found her husband gone from the house. “Lola-Na?” she called to her daughter. “Can you go to the barn and check on your father? I am sure he’s out there looking at Syrup again.”
“Okay, mommy!” said Lola-Na eagerly as she slid off of the sofa to hurry to the coat rack to grab her warm, wool coat and mittens before heading out in the snow to make her way to the barn.
Sure enough, just at Syrup’s stall, she could see the oil lamp hanging in place of where the empty feed bucket usually was kept. Her breath upon the air, she called out to her father as she hurried down the long row of stalls on either side of her. “Daddy! Daddy!” Making it to the stall her father was in, Lola-Na looked at the large bird lying down in such an awkward way. Syrup was resting upon her side, and she had never known birds to do that—even when sleeping, as they usually just craned their head under their wings with their legs buried underneath them. “Daddy…?” she said, a bit confused.
Bronze looked over at his daughter with a warm smile that could be seen in the dim lighting. “Hey, sweetheart.” He was stroking the bird’s long neck gently to sooth the drugged chocobo hen. Seeing the concerned look on her face, he reached out to her. “It’s okay. She’s just sleepy.”
Lola-Na stepped onto the straw carefully as she came closer to her dad. “Why is she sleeping funny then? She looks like she’s sick…” Three years ago, Lola-Na remembered when one of their older chocobos was getting too old to even handle staying on his legs, so he started resting on his side. Her father had told her if the old bird wasn’t back on his talons come the next day, he was probably saying he was ready to go.
“Neh, she’s not sick,” Bronze assured her. “She’s just on medicine that made her drowsy, and she’s not used to it, is all.” Seeing her still unsure, he reached for her wrist to gently guide her to the long neck of the chocobo. “You can touch her. She’s just groggy.” He watched as Lola began to slowly pet her neck to where Syrup released a small chirp at the feeling. “See? She’s okay.”
“Why did you give her medicine?” Lola-Na asked as she kept petting the chocobo’s feathers.
“I had to check and see if she had babies in her. Good news is, she finally does,” said Bronze with quiet cheer in his tone.
“She’s going to have babies!” said Lola-Na excitedly at the idea there would be more baby chocobos. “Can I have one?” When she assumed her father might be against the idea, she brought her hands together pleadingly. “Please…? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease!”
Bronze laughed as he raised his hand to prevent her from continuing with the begging. “Alright, alright—when Syrup has her babies, you can pick out one—.”
“—Thank you, daddy!” Lola-Na interjected as she hugged him tightly before kissing his cheek several times.
Kissing his daughter on her cheek with his arm around her in a half hug, he smiled at Lola before nodding towards the stall door. “Let’s get you back to the house. It’s far too cold outside for you to be out here.” Brushing the straw off of his backside, he escorted his daughter out of the stall before closing and locking it behind them. Removing the oil lamp from Syrup’s stall door as well, he followed Lola-Na back to the house, so the two of them could retire for the day.
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As the months past, Elli-An watched as Lily-An grew and became curious about everything around her. The innocent look in her big, soft, violate eyes accompanied by a grin only accompanied by a few teeth made her relieved that the small child was alright. Lily’s white fur had grown in just fine as well, showing small black marks of her father on her wavy dreadlocks, arms, back, and bits of her hair. Quill had often insisted that they get a healer to check over their daughter and make sure she was fine, but Elli-An insisted she was just perfect and there appeared to be nothing to fret about.
“The last doctor to check her over said she was merely premature,” Elli-An reminded her husband, upon him insisting once more. “She’s gained weight, and she’s acting just fine—just like any other puggle.”
Quill couldn’t help but be nervous. Not only was it in his nature, but he worried about his daughter and his wife’s health over anything. “At any rate, Bronze and Matsu-Na invited us over again for dinner,” he reminded her as he knelt down to get a better look at Lily-An. He picked up her rattle to shake it for her to watch as she got that excited look as if she hadn’t seen the thing four thousand times before.
“They are sweet people,” Elli-An praised with a giggle at Lily’s wide mouth and eyed react to the rattle and its alluring sound. “I wish they wouldn’t go through the trouble, though. They already have all those chocobos and their own daughter to fret over than concern themselves about what we’re doing.”
“You know that’s how they are,” Quill reminded her with a smile. “If we even try to refuse, Matsu-Na, especially, will come over here and drag us to their house by our tails.”
When dinner had approached, Elli-An wrapped her daughter tightly in two layers of blankets before braving the constant, harsh winter of the Icicle Inn area to make it over to Bronze and Matsu-Na’s house. Upon knocking on the door, Matsu-Na was the one to answer and greet all of them before stepping aside to allow them quickly inside. “How are you two doing and the little one?” she asked, pointing to the fire she had going in the other room.
“We’re all just fine, thank you, Matsu-Na,” Quill greeted, hugging her tightly before he took notice that Bronze and Lola-Na weren’t nearby. “Where are your other half and one and a half?”
Matsu-Na gestured back out the door as she turned back to dinner. “Back at the barn. Bronze is waiting for Syrup’s eggs to hatch and since he agreed to let her have a bird, Lola-Na is right there with him.”
Syrup had been carefully watching her three eggs with Chester right there beside her. “That one, daddy!” Lola-Na said eagerly, pointing to one of the eggs in the group.
Bronze chuckled with a raise of his brow. “That egg? Are you sure?” he asked, as she noticed she was pointing to the one in the center.
“Yeah!”
As soon as she had agreed upon it, Bronze noticed that the egg started to shake and crack. “Well, look at that, Lola! It knew you were waiting for it to hatch!” he chuckled, stroking his beard. Bronze knelt down to his excited daughter with a smile. “Do you want to get in there?”
Lola-Na almost couldn’t get over her excitement of the idea that her chosen egg was finally hatching. “Yes, please!”
Picking Lola-Na up, he gently placed her on the other side of the stall door. “There ya go. Just remember, don’t get too close. I have Chester and Syrup harnessed down so they cannot snap at me should I have to get in there to help any of their babies. They’re very territorial of their young right now.”
Squatting near the stall door, Lola-Na watched as the egg continued to shake until the beak finally poked through the shell. Her mouth ajar in awe and her eyes wide, she watched as the little baby chick finally crawled (more like, squirmed) from the egg with a few brown feathers on its body. “It has brown feathers!” Lola-Na pointed out excitedly, hearing the harness of Syrup jingle as she craned her mighty head down to her baby to clean it and welcome it into the world.
“Yup, it sure does,” Bronze said, leaning against the stall door with one leg slightly crossed over the other. “Looks more like Chester, it does.” Hearing the little bird chirp and seeing it move close to its mother, Bronze knew that it would be just fine, and he would have no reason to intervene. When the barn doors slid open, he turned his attention to them to notice Quill there. “God, what time is it?” he asked, unaware that it was probably that late already for Quill and Elli-An to be over.
“Close enough for dinner,” Quill answered as he made his way to the stall Bronze was standing at to notice the little chick that was already begging its mother for food. “Well, I’ll be. They’re hatching already, eh?”
Bronze stretched a bit, as he admittedly was tired from staying up at odd hours of the night to make sure they didn’t hatch without him nearby incase there was problems. “Appears so. Just the one so far, as the others haven’t moved yet. It makes me nervous, admittedly.”
Quill rubbed his friend’s back supportively. “Neh, they’ll be fine. Syrup rarely moved from them, and if she did, it was probably because she thought they were hatching. This one might just be an early riser.”
“You’re right,” agreed Bronze as he scratched an annoying itch on his muzzle before pulling his daughter from the stall. “C’mon, you. Let’s let the little one enjoy time with its mommy and daddy. We’ll come back and check on them after dinner, yeah?”
“So, is that the one that you picked, Lola-Na?” Quill asked, as he was aware she was allowed one of the eggs.
“Yeah, that’s the one!” she said excitedly.
Quill held the house door open for Bronze and Lola-Na as he asked, “What do you plan on naming it?”
“I dunno yet,” Lola-Na admitted as she ran to find Lily-An. “I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl!” Finding Elli-An, she looked into the woman’s arms to see the little girl wrapped tightly in her embrace. “Hi, Lily-An!” Her green eyes shifted back up to Elli with a smile. “Hi, Elli-An! Can I hold her?”
Elli-An stifled her laugh at the predictable question. He had become the norm with Lola. “Alright, Lola-Na—there you go.” She knew telling the young girl to be careful was something Lola-Na expected as well, so Elli-An refrained.
Lily-An’s curious eyes shifted to Lola-Na and that little smile graced her muzzle at being held by that familiar face she had seen almost every week. Since Lily was still getting a handle on walking, Lola didn’t mind setting her down to hold onto her hands and help her stay balanced. “Just like that!” Lola-Na cheered between them as Lily-An slightly wobbled as she stood.
As soon as dinner was over, Bronze retreated quickly back out to the barn. He was more than relieved to see the other two eggs had hatched just fine as he was dining. With the parents firmly harnessed and prevented from moving much, Bronze worked on earning Syrup’s trust before touching the baby that Lola-Na had claimed as her own bird. He heard that unmistakable warning growl (mostly from Chester), and he did his best to act as nonthreatening as possible.
“It’s okay,” he soothed, touching Syrup’s beak sweetly while looking up at Chester on occasion. “I just want this one for now.” Bronze was aware they both probably weren’t sure what he meant. If anything, he figured it would be a big responsibility for Lola-Na, but he wanted her to understand what it meant to be a breeder at least.
When Syrup and Chester didn’t make anymore aggressive noises or sounds, Bronze slowly began to cradle the partially, brown feathered chick into the blanket he had in his arms. Each disagreeable movement or sound they made, he would stop and try to sooth the idea before continuing till he finally was able to leave the stall with the small bird in his arms. It was about the size of a small dog and still getting used to its big talons by wiggling them about. “Easy there, little one,” he grunted as the chocobo would continue to squirm about.
Since Elli-An and Quill decided to stay the night, Bronze was careful of the chocobo chick as he made his way inside of the house with it. Matsu-Na instantly had to take a double take at the creature in his arms. “No…Bronze, what are you doing with that thing!” she exclaimed, not used to chocobos of any size in her home.
“Relax,” he insisted as he fixed the squirming bird in his embrace once more. “It’s not going to do anything, and this is Lola-Na’s bird.”
Lola-Na was in her bedroom with Lily-An lying in the bed with her for the time being, as she read one of her chapter books to the nine-month-old. When she heard her door open, she put the book away quickly when she saw her bird being held by her father. “Daddy, you got my chocobo!”
“Yup!” he put the little bird down at the foot of the bed. “He’s still a bit skittish and just getting used to his surroundings, so don’t make too many sudden movements around him.”
“Is it a boy?” Lola-Na asked, noticing the use of the gender.
“He sure is,” said Bronze with a smile as he worked on removing the snow from the chocobo’s body.
“It looks like cocoa with marshmallows on it with the snow on its body,” the young girl laughed as Lily-An crawled closer to the chocobo with an interested look in her eyes.
“Maybe that’s what you should name it then,” Bronze teased, continuing to pet the chick to settle it. “Now, Lola-Na, this is your bird—nobody else’s, okay? It’s not mine, and it’s not mommy’s.” His tone was serious as he spoke, wanting his daughter to understand what it was he was offering. “I will help you when you need me to, but only if you need me. You’re going to be the one to feed him, water him, clean up after him, and play with him. I will write up a schedule for you, so you’ll know when to feed him and take him outside, okay? I’ll let you keep him in the house, but only until he gets too big.”
“Thank you, daddy!” Lola-Na praised, hugging her dad tightly.
Lily-An reached her little hand out across the covers to touch the big animal resting there on the covers. She liked the feel of the feathers more than the skin that was mostly showing. She giggled when those big, black eyes of innocents landed on her with a small chirp.
Lola-Na saw that the bird was fine with both her and Lily-An touching him. “We’ll be one big, happy family with Cocoa!”
Elli-An smiled at the young child’s eagerness, but she couldn’t help but feel nervous all the same as she sat there in the wheelchair with her daughter. Quill gave a reassuring nod to his wife with an added squeeze to her shoulder to let her know it would be fine before Elli relented. “Just be careful, sweetie; be sure to cradle the head.”
Lola-Na opened her arms to accept the newborn. Looking down at the tiny child, she watched as the small Lily-An moved her fingers just a bit to show she was dreaming. “She’s so cute!” she squealed, sitting down on the sofa next to Elli-An’s wheelchair.
“We appreciate the offer for you inviting us over for dinner, Matsu-Na and Bronze,” began Quill with an appreciative smile, “but, you really don’t have to go through this much trouble for us.”
“Don’t be silly,” Matsu-Na insisted with a wave of her hand from where she was in the kitchen. “You just had a baby, and, since that midwife was incapable of even arriving on time, I don’t think I’ll trust her to continue to check in on you and the little one.”
Bronze chuckled to himself at how irritable his wife sounded about the ordeal. “You know it wasn’t her fault. One of her patients was giving birth a bit earlier than planned. She couldn’t be two places at once.”
“Still, she could have sent somebody—anybody,” Matsu-Na grumbled as she started chopping away at the mushrooms and carrots she was going to put in the salad. “Anything could have happened without you there, Bronze.”
“And we thank you for that,” said Quill as he stayed by his wife’s side, since she was still recovering. “I do owe you a favor, that’s for sure.”
Hearing his friend say such a thing, Bronze raised his brow slightly as his thoughts went back to Syrup. “Actually, now that you say that—I do have something I could use help with before dinner, if that’s alright?” Seeing Quill look to his wife, Bronze waved him over. “Elli-Ah will be fine. My wife is here in case anything happens.” Walking over to the coat rack, he grabbed up his coat and scarf before tossing Quill his. “It shouldn’t take long.”
Following behind Bronze, Quill made his way out through the snow and to the barn. He remained a bit baffled about what it was his friend needed from him. “You know it’s been years since I last worked with chocobos, Bronze,” Quill felt need to remind him. “What exactly can I help you with?”
Stopping at Syrup’s stall, Bronze pointed at the maple colored bird. “Syrup has been acting funny lately, and I am assuming it is because she is pregnant.”
Seeing a chocobo and hearing the word ‘pregnant’ in the same sentence made Quill flinch. “You’re not going to make me get in there…are you? She trusts you more than she does me.” When Bronze didn’t answer right away, Quill continued in his defense: “My aunt nearly lost an arm to one of those birds when she was dumb enough to get close to a pregnant chocobo!”
“Sorry, I just wanted to see your reaction for a moment,” Bronze teased only to have Quill slap him playfully a few times with his cowboy hat he had on. “Alright, alright,” he chuckled, raising his arms to stop the assault. “What I need for you to do is slip something in her feed for me while I keep her occupied.” Walking down to his workbench, Bronze hunted through the cabinets to find the pills he would need to knock Syrup out for awhile as well as his rubber gloves that were there nearby his lamp. He hurried back to Quill’s side to hand over the bottle he carried. “Just pop in five of those into her feed bucket. She’s such a glutton that she’ll gobble them down in no time at all as long as she doesn’t notice you doing it.”
Quill nervously looked back at Syrup to notice her big, black eyes staring right at them and her feathers separating with an irritable hiss. “Are you…sure it is safe to go in there? She could still attack you.”
“Just stand back,” Bronze insisted as he opened the door of the stall a bit to let just himself squeeze through. “I’ve gotten enough injuries in my time to learn how to approach these chocobos regardless of what physical and or mental state they are in.”
The bird, staring at her master closely, let out a low, territorial sounding imitation of a growl. Bronze knew one wrong move would cause the bird to snap with that powerful beak of hers, and he could easily get hurt from it. “It is okay, Syrup,” he said softly, keeping his hands for her to see. “I am not going to hurt you.” Bronze watched her territorial stance carefully. She kept it for a few minutes until he was able to finally place his palm upon her beak to stroke it gently. “See? I’m not going to hurt you,” he reassured her.
Quill watched as Bronze moved the attention of the bird away from her feed bucket so that he could slip the pills into it without her noticing. He knew birds were no dummies. If they saw someone messing with their feed, they would peck away at it carefully and find what was put into it.
“That a girl,” Bronze cheered, rubbing her neck gently to ruffle up her maple colored feathers. Shifting his attention to Quill for a moment, he asked: “Did you finish? Did you bury it deep enough?”
“Yeah, it’s done,” said Quill as he backed away from the feed bucket. “Now, hurry up and get out of there. She’s making me nervous.”
As Bronze did so, he thought for sure he could wait for the medicine to be consumed and take affect, but the sound of his wife’s voice beckoning the two to dinner halted the idea. “Well, dammit,” he muttered mostly to himself, but Quill could obviously hear him as well. “I guess I’ll have to come back and check on her.” Removing his gloves, he tossed them in the trashcan near the entryway of the barn. “Remember to wash your hands, or my wife may very well take your head off,” Bronze teased.
“Will that medicine still be in her system when we come back?” Quill asked as he followed him back towards the house.
Opening the door for Quill, he allowed him in first before coming in behind him. “It should. It’s pretty strong stuff. It doesn’t just wear right off.”
Overhearing the conversation as Matsu-Na helped wheel Elli-An to the table, she scoffed. “So it was Syrup you were checking on? I should have known. You both need to wash your hands though before you dream of touching my food.” When she heard her husband about to retaliate the idea for himself, she shot him a disapproving look that made Bronze quickly swallow his words. “Gloves or not, I want you to wash them,” she ordered, as if to read his mind.
Quill couldn’t help but laugh to himself at how easily Bronze followed his wife’s orders (not to mention the look on the breeder’s face). If anything, it only rewarded him with a playful smack upside the back of his head.
When dinner was over and Quill and his family had returned to their home, Matsu-Na found her husband gone from the house. “Lola-Na?” she called to her daughter. “Can you go to the barn and check on your father? I am sure he’s out there looking at Syrup again.”
“Okay, mommy!” said Lola-Na eagerly as she slid off of the sofa to hurry to the coat rack to grab her warm, wool coat and mittens before heading out in the snow to make her way to the barn.
Sure enough, just at Syrup’s stall, she could see the oil lamp hanging in place of where the empty feed bucket usually was kept. Her breath upon the air, she called out to her father as she hurried down the long row of stalls on either side of her. “Daddy! Daddy!” Making it to the stall her father was in, Lola-Na looked at the large bird lying down in such an awkward way. Syrup was resting upon her side, and she had never known birds to do that—even when sleeping, as they usually just craned their head under their wings with their legs buried underneath them. “Daddy…?” she said, a bit confused.
Bronze looked over at his daughter with a warm smile that could be seen in the dim lighting. “Hey, sweetheart.” He was stroking the bird’s long neck gently to sooth the drugged chocobo hen. Seeing the concerned look on her face, he reached out to her. “It’s okay. She’s just sleepy.”
Lola-Na stepped onto the straw carefully as she came closer to her dad. “Why is she sleeping funny then? She looks like she’s sick…” Three years ago, Lola-Na remembered when one of their older chocobos was getting too old to even handle staying on his legs, so he started resting on his side. Her father had told her if the old bird wasn’t back on his talons come the next day, he was probably saying he was ready to go.
“Neh, she’s not sick,” Bronze assured her. “She’s just on medicine that made her drowsy, and she’s not used to it, is all.” Seeing her still unsure, he reached for her wrist to gently guide her to the long neck of the chocobo. “You can touch her. She’s just groggy.” He watched as Lola began to slowly pet her neck to where Syrup released a small chirp at the feeling. “See? She’s okay.”
“Why did you give her medicine?” Lola-Na asked as she kept petting the chocobo’s feathers.
“I had to check and see if she had babies in her. Good news is, she finally does,” said Bronze with quiet cheer in his tone.
“She’s going to have babies!” said Lola-Na excitedly at the idea there would be more baby chocobos. “Can I have one?” When she assumed her father might be against the idea, she brought her hands together pleadingly. “Please…? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease!”
Bronze laughed as he raised his hand to prevent her from continuing with the begging. “Alright, alright—when Syrup has her babies, you can pick out one—.”
“—Thank you, daddy!” Lola-Na interjected as she hugged him tightly before kissing his cheek several times.
Kissing his daughter on her cheek with his arm around her in a half hug, he smiled at Lola before nodding towards the stall door. “Let’s get you back to the house. It’s far too cold outside for you to be out here.” Brushing the straw off of his backside, he escorted his daughter out of the stall before closing and locking it behind them. Removing the oil lamp from Syrup’s stall door as well, he followed Lola-Na back to the house, so the two of them could retire for the day.
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As the months past, Elli-An watched as Lily-An grew and became curious about everything around her. The innocent look in her big, soft, violate eyes accompanied by a grin only accompanied by a few teeth made her relieved that the small child was alright. Lily’s white fur had grown in just fine as well, showing small black marks of her father on her wavy dreadlocks, arms, back, and bits of her hair. Quill had often insisted that they get a healer to check over their daughter and make sure she was fine, but Elli-An insisted she was just perfect and there appeared to be nothing to fret about.
“The last doctor to check her over said she was merely premature,” Elli-An reminded her husband, upon him insisting once more. “She’s gained weight, and she’s acting just fine—just like any other puggle.”
Quill couldn’t help but be nervous. Not only was it in his nature, but he worried about his daughter and his wife’s health over anything. “At any rate, Bronze and Matsu-Na invited us over again for dinner,” he reminded her as he knelt down to get a better look at Lily-An. He picked up her rattle to shake it for her to watch as she got that excited look as if she hadn’t seen the thing four thousand times before.
“They are sweet people,” Elli-An praised with a giggle at Lily’s wide mouth and eyed react to the rattle and its alluring sound. “I wish they wouldn’t go through the trouble, though. They already have all those chocobos and their own daughter to fret over than concern themselves about what we’re doing.”
“You know that’s how they are,” Quill reminded her with a smile. “If we even try to refuse, Matsu-Na, especially, will come over here and drag us to their house by our tails.”
When dinner had approached, Elli-An wrapped her daughter tightly in two layers of blankets before braving the constant, harsh winter of the Icicle Inn area to make it over to Bronze and Matsu-Na’s house. Upon knocking on the door, Matsu-Na was the one to answer and greet all of them before stepping aside to allow them quickly inside. “How are you two doing and the little one?” she asked, pointing to the fire she had going in the other room.
“We’re all just fine, thank you, Matsu-Na,” Quill greeted, hugging her tightly before he took notice that Bronze and Lola-Na weren’t nearby. “Where are your other half and one and a half?”
Matsu-Na gestured back out the door as she turned back to dinner. “Back at the barn. Bronze is waiting for Syrup’s eggs to hatch and since he agreed to let her have a bird, Lola-Na is right there with him.”
Syrup had been carefully watching her three eggs with Chester right there beside her. “That one, daddy!” Lola-Na said eagerly, pointing to one of the eggs in the group.
Bronze chuckled with a raise of his brow. “That egg? Are you sure?” he asked, as she noticed she was pointing to the one in the center.
“Yeah!”
As soon as she had agreed upon it, Bronze noticed that the egg started to shake and crack. “Well, look at that, Lola! It knew you were waiting for it to hatch!” he chuckled, stroking his beard. Bronze knelt down to his excited daughter with a smile. “Do you want to get in there?”
Lola-Na almost couldn’t get over her excitement of the idea that her chosen egg was finally hatching. “Yes, please!”
Picking Lola-Na up, he gently placed her on the other side of the stall door. “There ya go. Just remember, don’t get too close. I have Chester and Syrup harnessed down so they cannot snap at me should I have to get in there to help any of their babies. They’re very territorial of their young right now.”
Squatting near the stall door, Lola-Na watched as the egg continued to shake until the beak finally poked through the shell. Her mouth ajar in awe and her eyes wide, she watched as the little baby chick finally crawled (more like, squirmed) from the egg with a few brown feathers on its body. “It has brown feathers!” Lola-Na pointed out excitedly, hearing the harness of Syrup jingle as she craned her mighty head down to her baby to clean it and welcome it into the world.
“Yup, it sure does,” Bronze said, leaning against the stall door with one leg slightly crossed over the other. “Looks more like Chester, it does.” Hearing the little bird chirp and seeing it move close to its mother, Bronze knew that it would be just fine, and he would have no reason to intervene. When the barn doors slid open, he turned his attention to them to notice Quill there. “God, what time is it?” he asked, unaware that it was probably that late already for Quill and Elli-An to be over.
“Close enough for dinner,” Quill answered as he made his way to the stall Bronze was standing at to notice the little chick that was already begging its mother for food. “Well, I’ll be. They’re hatching already, eh?”
Bronze stretched a bit, as he admittedly was tired from staying up at odd hours of the night to make sure they didn’t hatch without him nearby incase there was problems. “Appears so. Just the one so far, as the others haven’t moved yet. It makes me nervous, admittedly.”
Quill rubbed his friend’s back supportively. “Neh, they’ll be fine. Syrup rarely moved from them, and if she did, it was probably because she thought they were hatching. This one might just be an early riser.”
“You’re right,” agreed Bronze as he scratched an annoying itch on his muzzle before pulling his daughter from the stall. “C’mon, you. Let’s let the little one enjoy time with its mommy and daddy. We’ll come back and check on them after dinner, yeah?”
“So, is that the one that you picked, Lola-Na?” Quill asked, as he was aware she was allowed one of the eggs.
“Yeah, that’s the one!” she said excitedly.
Quill held the house door open for Bronze and Lola-Na as he asked, “What do you plan on naming it?”
“I dunno yet,” Lola-Na admitted as she ran to find Lily-An. “I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl!” Finding Elli-An, she looked into the woman’s arms to see the little girl wrapped tightly in her embrace. “Hi, Lily-An!” Her green eyes shifted back up to Elli with a smile. “Hi, Elli-An! Can I hold her?”
Elli-An stifled her laugh at the predictable question. He had become the norm with Lola. “Alright, Lola-Na—there you go.” She knew telling the young girl to be careful was something Lola-Na expected as well, so Elli-An refrained.
Lily-An’s curious eyes shifted to Lola-Na and that little smile graced her muzzle at being held by that familiar face she had seen almost every week. Since Lily was still getting a handle on walking, Lola didn’t mind setting her down to hold onto her hands and help her stay balanced. “Just like that!” Lola-Na cheered between them as Lily-An slightly wobbled as she stood.
As soon as dinner was over, Bronze retreated quickly back out to the barn. He was more than relieved to see the other two eggs had hatched just fine as he was dining. With the parents firmly harnessed and prevented from moving much, Bronze worked on earning Syrup’s trust before touching the baby that Lola-Na had claimed as her own bird. He heard that unmistakable warning growl (mostly from Chester), and he did his best to act as nonthreatening as possible.
“It’s okay,” he soothed, touching Syrup’s beak sweetly while looking up at Chester on occasion. “I just want this one for now.” Bronze was aware they both probably weren’t sure what he meant. If anything, he figured it would be a big responsibility for Lola-Na, but he wanted her to understand what it meant to be a breeder at least.
When Syrup and Chester didn’t make anymore aggressive noises or sounds, Bronze slowly began to cradle the partially, brown feathered chick into the blanket he had in his arms. Each disagreeable movement or sound they made, he would stop and try to sooth the idea before continuing till he finally was able to leave the stall with the small bird in his arms. It was about the size of a small dog and still getting used to its big talons by wiggling them about. “Easy there, little one,” he grunted as the chocobo would continue to squirm about.
Since Elli-An and Quill decided to stay the night, Bronze was careful of the chocobo chick as he made his way inside of the house with it. Matsu-Na instantly had to take a double take at the creature in his arms. “No…Bronze, what are you doing with that thing!” she exclaimed, not used to chocobos of any size in her home.
“Relax,” he insisted as he fixed the squirming bird in his embrace once more. “It’s not going to do anything, and this is Lola-Na’s bird.”
Lola-Na was in her bedroom with Lily-An lying in the bed with her for the time being, as she read one of her chapter books to the nine-month-old. When she heard her door open, she put the book away quickly when she saw her bird being held by her father. “Daddy, you got my chocobo!”
“Yup!” he put the little bird down at the foot of the bed. “He’s still a bit skittish and just getting used to his surroundings, so don’t make too many sudden movements around him.”
“Is it a boy?” Lola-Na asked, noticing the use of the gender.
“He sure is,” said Bronze with a smile as he worked on removing the snow from the chocobo’s body.
“It looks like cocoa with marshmallows on it with the snow on its body,” the young girl laughed as Lily-An crawled closer to the chocobo with an interested look in her eyes.
“Maybe that’s what you should name it then,” Bronze teased, continuing to pet the chick to settle it. “Now, Lola-Na, this is your bird—nobody else’s, okay? It’s not mine, and it’s not mommy’s.” His tone was serious as he spoke, wanting his daughter to understand what it was he was offering. “I will help you when you need me to, but only if you need me. You’re going to be the one to feed him, water him, clean up after him, and play with him. I will write up a schedule for you, so you’ll know when to feed him and take him outside, okay? I’ll let you keep him in the house, but only until he gets too big.”
“Thank you, daddy!” Lola-Na praised, hugging her dad tightly.
Lily-An reached her little hand out across the covers to touch the big animal resting there on the covers. She liked the feel of the feathers more than the skin that was mostly showing. She giggled when those big, black eyes of innocents landed on her with a small chirp.
Lola-Na saw that the bird was fine with both her and Lily-An touching him. “We’ll be one big, happy family with Cocoa!”