This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/The_Fallen_1 on 2024-10-28 20:00:03+00:00.
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Daniel smiled as he watched Kris and Maverick playing tug of war, with neither quite being able to make any headway against the other, and at the same time he stroked Ripley’s head as she attempted to nap with her head on his lap. On the other side of the dog, Milla was staring at him with jealousy as she fought against the urge to try and get Ripley to nap on her instead.
“I want some of that cuteness,” Milla quietly grumbled.
“You had them all yesterday afternoon and most of the morning today. Am I not allowed to cuddle for a little bit?” Daniel replied.
“I mean, we can share, right?” Milla proposed.
“That’s what we’re doing. I have some time cuddling Ripley after all the time you got cuddling them both, and I can also guarantee that you’ll get more of them both later.”
“But can’t I just shift up close and get her head on my lap?”
“That’s not sharing, that’s stealing,” he pointed out. “Besides, she’s given you an end to cuddle.”
“It’s hardly the most pleasant one when the tail isn’t wagging.”
“But it’s the one you’ve got. Enjoy it, because it’s more than I’ve gotten for pretty much the entire time they’ve been home.”
“Hey, what’s with the attitude?”
“It’s not intentional. It was a poor choice of words if anything.”
“But you smell like you have a problem though,” she pointed out.
“… I just haven’t had as much time with them, and I don’t want to end it early.”
“Alright, I’ll stop then,” she apologised, followed by the doorbell sounding a few seconds later. “I’ll get it.”
Daniel watched as Kris and the two dogs all perked up and began to listen out, cocking their heads as they began to pick up on distant voices, but thankfully made no attempt to rush out of the room. Instead, they stayed put, and moments later, footsteps could be heard. He peeked out of the door to see Milla leading a collection of familiar faces towards them.
“Hello, everyone!” Celenamartra announced as she entered the room and dipped her head down to Kris. “Oh my, Kriskurven, you’re growing quickly!”
“Aaaa,” Kris replied.
“Oh, is that right?” Celenamartra asked.
“Aaaa aaAa,” Kris continued.
“Mhm,” Celenamartra nodded.
“AaAa aaaA!”
“I see,” Celenamartra replied, looking up at Daniel and Milla, who both looked at her hopefully. “He can’t speak yet.”
“Nan…” Milla sighed.
“You know you don’t always have to mess with people, Celena,” James told her as he followed her into the room.
“You know how she is, Grandad,” Milla replied.
“Yes, I do. As for Kris, he is trying to speak in a sense, but he doesn’t know how to speak. All he knows is that words are made from different sounds, so he’s trying to mimic other people without knowing what actually goes into speaking,” James explained.
“Oh, I see,” Milla told him.
“Kris, look at me,” Celenamartra told him, opening her mouth she he could see in. “Ah, lah, pah, wah, mah, dah.”
“Atamawada?” Kris replied, attempting to mimic her mouth shapes.
“Ah, lah, pah, wah, mah, dah.”
“Alamamada?”
“That’s closer, good boy. Once more. Ah, lah, pah, wah, mah, dah.”
“Alapawamada?”
“There we go!” Celenamartra congratulated him. “This is what you want to try, Milla. Speech doesn’t come easily for Dragons, so while we can pick up languages faster than most, producing the right sounds can be difficult. You need to teach him how to make certain sounds, as well as other sounds like ‘ck’. I recommend pointing to different parts of your mouth and neck to encourage him to replicate the sounds.”
“I will, thank you,” Milla replied as she walked over and picked Kris up with her wings and began to nuzzle him.
“So, to what do we owe the honour?” Daniel asked as he noticed Ordos pad in behind the pair.
“We’ve yet to properly pay our respects as Deities,” Ordos explained. “When we visited with everyone else, there were people present that we didn’t want to reveal our identities to.”
“The day he hatched was a long and busy one,” Daniel agreed. “Didn’t you make that public though?”
“Our existence as Deities is public knowledge now, but our original mortal identities are not,” James explained. “We don’t have any plans to make it public either before you ask. More Deities in the family would just draw attention and cause accusations to be made about favouritism and stuff. Most of it was just because of how the whole process works and how it’s drawn to strong people and whatnot.”
“Is now the time you offer to make us Deities?” Daniel joked.
“No, neither of you are good candidates,” James replied as he sat down with Maverick. “You don’t have the right mindsets, mainly due to military conditioning. The option of force is too instilled into your minds.”
“I don’t want it, but what about Meriath? She’s been in the military for… I don’t even know how many thousands of years,” Daniel pointed out.
“Her conditioning was different, and she also trained herself out of a lot of it. If you really did want it, there are paths to become candidates.”
“But if we pursued them, we would invalidate ourselves as candidates, correct?”
“If you pursued them with the intention of becoming Deities, yes,” James confirmed. “The conditions for becoming a Deity are quite strict so the wrong people don’t get way too much power.”
“Fair enough. People with far less power than a Deity have done terrible things.”
“Back to lighter topics though. Kris is pretty cute, isn’t he? And smart too, with quite a unique colour.”
“He’s the best!” Milla replied with a prideful smile.
“Alapawamada!” Kris exclaimed in reply.
“Can you say muh, uh, muh?” Milla asked.
“Alapawamada!” Kris shouted excitedly.
“No, muh, uh, muh,” Milla repeated.
“Amaaama?”
“Almost. Muh, uh, muh.”
“Amaaama!”
“He needs to be taught how to make the ‘uh’ sound still,” Celenamartra warned her.
“So what about dah, ah, dah?” Daniel asked.
“Adaaada?” Kris asked.
“Dah, ah, dah,” Daniel repeated.
“Daaada?”
“So close! Try 'dad,” he told him
“Dah ad? Daad? Dad?”
“You did it!” Daniel exclaimed, lifting Kris up into the air. “Your first word!”
“Dad! Dad!” Kris excitedly repeated.
“And now you’re going to be called whenever he needs anything,” James laughed. “Trust me, it’ll happen.”
“Experience?” Daniel asked.
“Yep,” James confirmed, looking at Celenamartra. “Isn’t that right? If a baby can only call for me, I have to deal with them, but if they can call for you, we both have to.”
“I answered when they called for you plenty of times,” Celenamartra countered. “They just call for me more than they call for you.”
“Uh huh. What you say is plenty might not be plenty to everyone else though, right?”
“Let’s not haggle over definitions, especially not now,” Celenamartra told him as she gestured to their hosts.
“Ok, Kris, can you say uh?” Daniel asked, rubbing his neck slightly as he asked
“Ah,” Kris replied.
“No, uh,” he repeated.
“Ahu?”
“So close. Uh.”
“… Uh?”
“There we go! Good job, Kris!” Daniel congratulated him. “Now try muh.”
“Muh.”
“Good job! Now, muh, uh, muh”
“Mumuh.”
“Good job! You’re almost there! Now try mum.”
“Mumuh. Mummm. Mum.”
“You did it,” Daniel congratulated him as he lifted him up into the air and passed him to Milla. “Say it again.”
“Mum,” Kris repeated, looking at Milla.
“Yes, that’s me,” Milla replied as she began to hug Kris tightly with her wings.
“Is that our job here done?” Ordos asked Celenamartra.
“We didn’t come here only with the intention of helping Kris to start speaking,” she quietly replied before clearing her throat and speaking up a bit. “Milla, Daniel, how would you feel about having a Deity officiate your wedding?”
“Well, I guess it’d be nice,” he replied as he looked at Milla to find her too distracted with Kris. “I’ve certainly got nothing against it, so I guess it’s her decision when she’s no longer busy.”
“We’ll figure something out later then,” Celenamartra assured him. "We’ve still got a few weeks after all.
“I guess I’m making some new friends now then,” Ordos commented as both Maverick and Ripley finally began to investigate him.
“They’re very friendly and quite curious,” Daniel assured him.
“I know, but I’m hoping to avoid… that,” he sighed as both Maverick and Ripley invited him to play with their toys, before dropping down on his two front legs. “Alright, fine, let’s do this.”
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