Chapter 19: 18 – Growing Family

In the middle of sleeping, Ailine and I suddenly got a telepathic message, waking us both up.

(Lia! Ailine! Hurry! It's blooming! My daughter's coming! Hurry and see!) our fairy companion shouts directly in our minds.

Like someone yelling directly in our ear, we shoot up in our bed. Upon hearing the message, Ailine and I both grabbed a shadow cloak and ran outside to the garden. I'll forgive her for waking us up in that way since we're all excited for this. The cloaks helped tremendously with the sun, and when we channeled mana into them, we still kept our same stats thanks to our Nightstalker racial skill.

Arriving at the garden, we look at the giant flower that has petals slowly unfurling. Standing there, we watch as over the next few minutes, the flower slowly opens. It reveals a little fairy curled up and sleeping inside.

As we look down at the foot tall fairy, the little girl blinks and rubs her bright green eyes before yawning and stretching her arms up, in front of her green, nearly transparent wings. Her green hair was just past her shoulders in length, and layered with side swept bangs.

At that moment, the new fairy got attacked by another fairy.

Navi picks up the green fairy and inspects her by lifting her arms, spinning her around, grabbing her wings, even looking in her mouth. The poor thing seems a bit overwhelmed by the overenthusiastic fairy that keeps rattling off questions and comments during this inspection. 

"Oh, you are just too cute! Do you know me? Do you recognize me? I'm your mother! Do you want a name? Let's give you a name! I love you so much! You are just the best little fairy ever! I have so much to show you! Let's get you some clothes. What would look nice? Dumb question, everything! We can make you more too. Then let's practice magic and go to the dungeon! Mommy will take care of you, so don't worry. I love you, I love you, I love you! We're going to have so much fun! Let's start some fires! They are so nice to dance around while they burn!"

Her green eyes are just darting around with her mouth opening and closing, trying to keep up with what was happening.

"Navi, give her a second to breathe! We know you're excited but your daughter is overwhelmed!" I interject as the new fairy looks about ready to pass out.

At that, Navi comes to her senses a bit and backs away from the overstimulated newborn. "Right. Sorry, sorry. I'm just so excited to get to meet you! I love you already."

There is a very brief pause and the new fairy speaks. "Um…" She sweeps her bangs to the side a bit and looks at Navi with slightly upturned eyes and tilted head. "I… love you too… Mother."

She then blushes, looks down to the side, then peaks at Navi through her bangs with a small smile. Looking over at Navi, she's frozen stiff with her eyes and mouth wide open. Floating without  flapping her wings, however that works. Then she drops like a rock and faceplants into the dirt.

I'm pretty sure that extremely cute confession just landed a critical hit on Navi. If this wasn't real, she would probably have a heart shaped arrow going through her, and a spontaneous nosebleed. That's how much damage the adorable new fairy did. Almost as fast as she fell down, Navi was back on her feet and jump-hugged the poor fairy once again.

"Omg, omg, omg, you are just so, so, so cute!" she squeals while squeezing the life out of her poor child.

I glanced over at Ailine and also saw that the new fairy landed a critical hit on her. I could almost see a nosebleed and fake hearts over her eyes. I knew we would be here until evening at this rate.

I had to interject when I saw the new fairy's eyes unfocused again. "Navi, why don't you introduce yourself and us, then give her a name."

"Right!" Navi releases the girl and looks at her. "Good idea. Okay, my cute little daughter! I'm your mommy. Queen Navi…"

Then she freezes again.

(LIA! I need a last name!) she shouts in my mind.

(What? Why?)

(I'm a queen! What queen doesn't have a last name! Give me a last name! Hurry!)

(Fine. Gator.) I say dismissively.

(No, you poop head! A real last name!) she shouts back.

She did have a point. I just had never thought about it all these years. Hmm… What could be a last name for a fairy, that won't get my face drawn on while sleeping… I could always just steal the fairy queen's name in Greek mythology and go with Titania. My naming sense isn't the best, but I feel like I would get drawn on for that… Ah, screw it, I'll just go with one I think flows with her first name. 

(How about Nikita?) I offer.

(Navi Nikita? Hmm… I like it!)

She clears her throat, then continues. "Yes, like I was saying, I'm your mommy, Queen Navi Nikita! These two are my humble servants—"

"Friends!" I yell.

"—my very good friends, Queen of the Vampires, Dalia Midnight, and her lover Ailine."

"Hello, Ms. Fairy," Ailine says softly while blushing.

Hmm... I guess, after about five years, this is the first time we were ever introduced. It seems that calling her my lover was another hit.

"How about a name!" Navi says, oblivious to the red-faced vampire. "For a daughter as amazing as you… Lala! How about the name Lala! It's adorable, just like you!"

Like a magnet, Navi gets sucked back into hugging the little fairy, Lala, while rubbing their cheeks together. After a few minutes of this, Lala is finally let go and looks at Navi.

"Um. Thank you for the name, Mother. I will cherish it always."

"Kawaii~!" Navi latches onto Lala once again.

This continued a while longer before I spoke up. "Hey, Navi. Shouldn't you get her some clothes?"

Her eyes open wide at the revelation. "Right! Clothes! Ailine here is an expert fairy tailor. It's no exaggeration to say she is by far the best and most popular tailor for us fairies. In fact, besides one dress, everything else I own is from Ailine's brand. I choose to only wear Ailine!"

Lala turns and gives a tiny bow. "Um. Please take care of me… Aunt Ailine."

"Yes! Leave it to me, Lala!" Ailine pumps her fist.

Where did this burst of enthusiasm come from? 

After more hugging, we head back inside our nice and dark home for Ailine to work on clothes for Lala. Taking off our shadow cloaks, Ailine and I are back in only our panties. Somehow, Navi is the most clothed of us all, and none of us care in the least. It's a good thing that fairies can only be girls. If we ever had a male companion, all of us would have to be reminded what modesty is.

Since I have absolutely no input on fashion, I work on creating a fairy sized spear and sword for Lala. They spent the next few hours trying different designs, altering some and scrapping others. Once they finally had clothes for Lala, a sleeveless white A-line dress with green diagonal stripes, we had to make a decision on what to do.

"Navi, do you want to power level Lala some and explain about the Tutorial Dungeon and Abyssal Dungeon?" I ask once I see they were done playing dress-up. "You can probably just take her on a slime core run for a bit, so she can get used to her spear."

"Yeah! And I can teach you all about magic!" she says as she grabs Lala's hand.

"Um. If I can be with Mother. I would be happy with that." 

It's like every time Lala speaks, she gets a critical hit on Navi.

"Ailine and I will stay here and continue clearing trees. Let us know if you need anything." A thought just came to mind. "Oh! Is Lala on the fairy mental chat thing yet?"

"Right! Okay." Navi grabs Lala's other hand and looks at her face. "Now, Lala. Try speaking to us all in your head. Just focus on mommy and her slaves—"

"Friends!" I yell.

"—friends, and try thinking what you want to say."

(Hello everyone. Can you hear me?)

((Yes.)) Ailine and I reply.

(Yay! Mommy is so proud of you!)

Lala looks back towards us, a look of determination on her face. "Thank you for all being there for my birth. I will work hard to grow big and strong, just like Mother."

What a good little fairy.

As the two fairies flew away with one trying to constantly hug and cling to the other, we got back to clearing trees.

=====

POV - Lala

It has been a bit over a week since I was born. I am having a lot of fun playing in the dungeon with Mother. 

"Good evening, Lala."

"Hello, Lala."

I hear my Aunts say from behind me. Stopping my work tilling the garden, I turn around and say "Good evening, Aunt Ailine. Aunt Lia. I hope you slept well."

"Yup!" Aunt Lia says, looking around at the freshly tilled ground. "Looks like you're getting better at your mana control. You're learning fast."

I always love when my family praises me. "Thank you. It's because Mother is such a good teacher."

"Speaking of which, where is the flying bundle of chaos?"

"Mother said she was going to look deeper in the forest for different flowers. But she sent a message a while ago saying she would be late and that she has a surprise for us to look forward to."

"Huh. Wonder what the little thing has going on. Anyway, Ailine and I will be clearing the courtyard. Let us know if you need anything, Lala." My aunts turn and wave as they walk back.

"Take care!" I wave back.

As I see my aunts off, I get back to my work. When I was born, I already knew some things. Like where we were, what magic was, and who the people we live with are. I was still ignorant of a lot of things, and Mother has been helping me a lot by teaching me everything I don't know.

She said that they will be working on some things for the larger dungeon. When they are done working, they will go away for a while and I will stay to guard the garden. That makes me sad. I love my aunts, just like I love Mother. Even when she makes my brain go poof sometimes. I know they all care about me. 

Mother's magic practice has been fun, too. When my aunts are awake, Mother and I go to the dungeon behind the castle. I don't know how it normally is, but Mother said that Aunt Lia changed it for me to train.

At first, I just fought slimes. They weren't scary and went pop when I poked them with my spear. Mother also showed me how to shoot rocks at them with magic. Then Mother took me to the next place, and we fought naked green people. She showed me where they were weak, like their eyes, neck, and the dangling thing between their legs. Mother always laughs for some reason when she stabs them there.

After I got used to fighting them one at a time, Mother taught me more magic, like how to burn them or cut them with air. Then there was a room with a whole lot of the green people. Goblins I should call them. No matter how many I beat, they just kept appearing! But Mother and I just floated above them as she showed me more magic. She is really good with magic, and I want to be helpful to her, so I will work hard.

When my level would go up, Mother would help me assign the points. She said that we are good with flying and magic, so we should focus on AGI, INT, and WIS. She taught me that even if we raise our STR to be the same as my aunts, we will still be a lot weaker since we are much smaller. When she helped me test my talents in magic, she said I was really good at earth, fire, water, and air. Bad at light, dark, and space-time, and medium with arcane. 

She started showing me how our magic doesn't just work to attack, but can heal too. She would take a goblin and tie it up. Then we spent a long time where she would cut it and I would heal it. After cuts I learned to regrow fingers and toes, then even hands, arms, and legs! I enjoyed learning but the first goblin died after a while and we had to use a couple.

Once I was higher level than the goblins and ate all their cores, we moved on to the next monsters. These were a bit scary. They were big dogs with sharp teeth. Like the other areas, Mother teaches me things while we fly above them and they try to jump at us. We kept doing this, and then Mother started showing me how to fight monsters that can fly like us. The big bats would attack, but Mother just zips and zooms around them.

After a while, and healing some cuts on me, I got better at cutting off their wings or stabbing them. Aunt Ailine was a bit worried when my clothes were all cut up, but she seemed happy to make me new clothes too. I think Mother and Aunt Ailine like dressing me up. Mother will tell her what to make while they giggle, then have me try on lots of things.

Aunt Lia lets them dress me up and works on other things. Mother and Aunt Lia seem to argue back and forth sometimes, but it's very easy to see how much they like each other, and how good of friends they are. Mother said they are like sisters. Aunt Ailine taught me that it is just how both of them play together and show that they care. I don't really understand, but she told me it's best to just smile at them when they argue about silly things. Like Mother trying to make Aunt Lia wear a 'cosplay.' 

For the past couple days, Mother has been showing me how to take care of our flowers, while also practicing magic. Right now I am using my earth magic to make the ground go topsy-turvy and mix together. I also add just a teensy bit of water to it when mixing it around.

She also showed me how to take a goblin and turn it into blood meal and bone meal to help the plants when they need a little bit of it, and to never put too much. It was hard using my fire magic for making these since I couldn't make it too hot. Mother says it will help me train my control.

When Mother flys around the big wall during the day, she brings back flowers and other plants that we put in the garden. Sometimes she brings back floating ones that we put in the pond. She is excited and says in the future the whole garden will have flowers and plants. That would be nice to see.

Aunt Lia says my magic is growing really fast. I hope it is. She showed me some books that I can read to learn more. They even let me practice magic to help with bath time! I really enjoy the bath. I can't fill it all by myself yet, but they always cheer for me. 

Mother helps wash my back and between my wings and then we get to float around in our smaller bath inside the bigger bath. Mother will usually grab and hug me while rubbing our cheeks and laughing like, 'hehehehe.' It's kind of embarrassing, but I like that she loves me so much. One time, Aunt Lia called her a 'lolicon' and Mother called her a 'gender bender.' Then for some reason they agreed to never call each other that again.

After we dry off, Mother and I will leave the room and fly around so that my aunts can go to sleep. Sometimes I hear noises coming from the room after we leave. When I heard Aunt Ailine yell, I was worried and asked Mother. She chuckled and said to, 'leave the love birds alone,' and that she would tell me later, but that neither of them was hurt, and actually feeling good. I hope so.

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Mother and Aunt Lia think that in a week or two, I might be ready to go to the larger dungeon. They said that I will probably go with just my aunts, and Mother would stay here with our flowers. That way they could show me more how people who can't fly, fight.

They also want to power level me, but want to do it in parts. That way, if they aren't able to protect me from an attack, I will still be alright.

I really love my family, and I want to get stronger as fast as I can to help them even more. However, I'm not looking forward to when they will all have to go to the dungeon and leave me alone.

(Hey everyone! Meet me at the castle entrance!)

Oh! Mother's coming back!

=====

POV - Dalia

(Hey everyone! Meet me at the castle entrance!) Navi said telepathically.

Wonder what she's up to. Lala said she had a surprise. Coming from Navi, I'm not sure I want to know.

"Let's head over, Ailine."

"Right behind you." She reaches out and I take her hand.

When we got to the castle entrance, Lala was already waiting.

"Any idea what your mom is up to?" I ask her.

"I don't." She answers, looking a little anxious at what it could be.

"Well, I guess we'll find out." I turn to look out over the courtyard for any sign of the red-headed fairy.

About a minute later, we saw a little fairy flying, carrying a goblin cloth with something in it.

(Everyone! Check out what I found!) she said.

As the fairy fluttered to a stop in front of us, she lowered the goblin cloth to the ground, opening as it was released.

"Navi…What the fuck did you do?" I ask, staring in shock at what she brought.

"Pii! Pii!"

Sitting in front of us was a small animal. No, a baby monster.

It was about the size of a cat, and it had the head of an eagle. The front two legs were feathered down to its scaled yellow feet with talons at the end. There are brown feathers growing in on the front half of the monster, that fade into down, and then sleek brown hair on the back half. Its hind legs ended in black hoofs, and had a long black tail. From the shoulders, it had two long brown wings that folded against its body. None of the feathers looked fully formed yet, and like most babies, its head looked too big for its body.

"I got a pet!" Navi cheerfully says as if she found a kitten in an alley.

"Did… Did you steal a fucking baby hippogryph?!" My confusion turned to outrage. What is she doing stealing baby monsters?! What about when its parent comes for it?!

"Rude!" She places her fists on her hips and stares at me like I just called her mom fat. "I didn't steal it. It was orphaned," she says as she returns to her normal, sugar-high self. "Listen to this! From the looks of the area around, some ogres attacked their nest in the forest a couple days ago.

"Seems like one parent died fighting them, but took out a bunch. The other parent was in the nest with a couple ogres that seemed to have died either in a stalemate or the parent died after.

"I flew down and took out some goblins that were scavenging the ogres and the parents. I was just gonna dig around and find some free cores for Lala, and then I got to the nest and found this poor little thing underneath the wing of its parent. I decided to feed it a fresh goblin steak, give it some water, and it started to follow me around! And here we are!"

Damnit, I can't say I would've done anything different. Plus, looking at Ailine, I can tell she wants to hold it. She's doing her absolute best to not rush at it right now.

"Go ahead and try picking it up, Ailine." I lightly nudged her forward.

"Really? Is that alright?" she says, already moving towards it.

With wide eyes, she carefully picks up the baby hippogryph, cradling it in her arms.

After watching her gently pet it and rub its head, I turn back to Navi. "What now? It's still a monster, isn't it?"

"Duh, but hippogryphs are smart. Monsters are just animals with mana cores. Like their cousin, the gryphon, hippogryphs can understand people to a degree and aren't mindless trash like goblins."

This is news to me. "Wait. Do other races have monsters as pets or companions, or even fight with them?"

If we have to fight fucking dragon knights or some shit...

"Nah." She waves my growing anxiety away. "The smarter monsters are all out in the far western part of the continent. First, someone would have to go farther west from here and find them. Then, get rid of the parents without scaring the baby. Animals and monsters are pretty sensitive to the intentions people have. I got lucky finding this nest, even half a day flight deeper in the vampire lands from here. Not sure why the parents were this far east.

"Chances of other races having gryphon knights, cockatrice chariots, or other cool fantasy things like that, are zero. To most of them, even a baby monster is just a monster that needs to be killed."

Seems like a huge missed opportunity. I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth though.

Wait. "If most people here all want to kill even baby monster, then what's up with Ailine?"

We both look over at the vampire that's now making baby-talk and little tongue clicks at the hippogryph.

"Easy. Your girlfriend is a cute-ophile. Has adorable-pox. Would've bought all of the Beanie Babies. Is a kawaii-otaku. She'd have had plushies clipped onto her backpack. Heck, her backpack would've been a stuffed bunny toy. Her room would be—"

"Alright, alright. I get it." Changing subjects from my girlfriend who's now rocking the baby horse-bird on its back. "How do we even raise a baby hippogryph? Where will it stay, what will it eat, all of that?"

"Don't worry! Lala and I will take care of her! Besides, taking care of a pet builds strong character in a child."

"...That's with, like, hamsters or fish. Maybe a cat or dog. Not a fucking hippogryph."

Why do I feel like a parent whose kid just brought home a stray? Actually, that's not a terrible analogy. I guess I'm more like a roommate whose friend found a stray for their kid.

"Lala! Do you like what Mommy brought you! You can both be friends and play together and it will be adorable!"

"Then… Can we keep her, Mother?" Lala asks, eyes pleading. "I don't know how to take care of her, but if you tell me what to do then I'll try my best!"

"Of course! There isn't a fairy alive who knows more about hippogryphs than me!" Navi places her fists on her hips and puffs out her chest.

"You're the greatest, Mother! Thank you!" Lala flies and is the one to initiate a hug before flying over to Ailine and the hippogryph.

I have to bite back a retort about them being the only two fairies alive. They set the baby down and begin playing together while Navi and I watch.

"What're you planning on feeding it? Goblins? Do those even taste good?" I ask.

"I doubt it," she says. "It didn't look like it ate for a while, even with an ogre right there… Oh! What about your ménage à trois plan!"

"Uh… What the fuck you talking about?"

"Getting a bunch of animals for the ménage à trois you wanted them for!"

The fuck type of shit do you think I'm doing! Before I could yell at the perverted fairy, something came to mind.

"You mean menagerie? You know those are completely different, right?"

"Whatever! You know what I mean. We hunt down a bunch of critters, and release them inside the walls! This whole area is greening up again after the fire, so without any predators, they'll just explode in numbers after a while!"

"I mean… that's not a terrible idea." I admit. "As long as we can catch them without killing them, and get them back here. That will still take a while. What about until then?"

"I have that whole pouch full of deer, wolves, bears, rabbits, racoons, and other animals! You both didn't like animals as a meal, so I've just been keeping them," she says.

"That's true. Do we make her a nest or something?"

"Their nests are big and on the ground, so we can just use a bed with some soft furs and she can live in the castle! If we give her your room, open the doors to the garden and the castle, then she can roam wherever she wants!"

"Also, are they nocturnal? She seems to be doing fine right now."

"Nah, they're diurnal, but she still has eyes like an eagle, so she's not blind in the dark. She's just excited right now! She slept a bit on the way and will probably pass out after this."

I try to think of any other questions. "Won't it trample your flowers or something?"

"She isn't a dumb beast!" Navi looks at me, appalled. "I'll just build a steel bar fence around them until she understands not to mess with them. It'll be like having a guardian, protecting the door to the legendary Fairy Garden! We could even play, 'adventurers searching for the sacred sword,' or something! It will be so cool!"

"Then did I just lose my room to a monster?"

"Yup! Don't complain. We finished building the collapsed master bedroom. You're the Queen of the Vampires! If you don't sleep in the master bedroom, you'll lose face!"

"Just who the fuck will I lose face to?"

"Posterity!"

I heave a sigh. "...Fine. Whatever. I'm just giving up here and accepting this now. But you're in charge of cleaning her messes and looking after it. Can't seem to fly yet either, so I guess that's fine, but what are you naming her?"

"Lala! Hey, Lala!"

"Yes, Mother?" Lala replies as she comes over.

"This little one will be your new friend. So, what would you like to name her?" Navi asks.

"Me!?"

"Of course! I'm definitely not letting Lia name her."

Hey! … I guess you're not wrong. My naming skills suck.

"Then… How about…" Lala squinches her tiny face in thought.

She and the baby hippogryph both look at each other for a few seconds.

"...Talon," she offers. "What do you think? Would you like the name Talon?"

"Pii! Pii!"

It... seems happy enough? Also, that'll be a badass name if it grows up to be strong. Good name, Lala. I'll have to consult her if I ever need to think of a name again.

"Welcome to the family, Talon!" Navi shouts as both fairies fly over to Ailine and Talon.

Just like that, our family quickly went from three to five.

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