Chapter Text
The piglin was focused. Their job was basic, and calm. Gathering food for the herd. It wasn't easy, not when the food they were after was the same food angry hoglin mothers were looking. Not when those mothers are teaching their piglets how to forage. But Technoblade was trained to fight. Not only that, but they knew the ins and outs of this part of the nether. There was nothing strange about the area they were going to.
There was definitely something strange about the area they were going to. There was a frightening noise. It was like the wind, but louder and didn't carry the heat from the lava lakes to its source. There was… something, big and dark and otherworldly. Technoblade had never seen anything remotely like it before. It was dangerous, and he was sworn to protect his herd from danger.
It would have been a good idea to go back, to get reinforcements but what would that do? The only other fighters were busy taking care of the piglets. Technoblade would have to face this alone, until they knew for sure it was dangerous enough to warrant taking attention away from the piglets. There were twice as many piglets as caretakers. They needed all the help they could get, and Technoblade themself had never learned how to take care of young piglins. So they did whatever else they could.
The strange, black otherworldly thing made no sense. It pulsed with light like lava, but didn't radiate heat blocks away. It was colder, near the thing. Technoblade could see through it. They would have to go through the books at home, figure out anything they could about dark black structures with curious purple webbing.
And then they heard the sound. It was unlike anything they had heard before, high pitched but not angry. Quiet, but in the way a sick, screaming piglet got when they were too ill to be loud. It was coming from a puddle of cloth on the ground. Technoblade gently grabbed at the cloth, pulling something heavy and wriggling along the ground and away from the portal. Whatever it was wasn't smart enough to escape the fabric. Or maybe not strong enough.
Technoblade carefully unwrapped it to see something very odd indeed. At a first, quick glance, it could have been mistaken for one of the piglets back home, but up close it was far, far too small, far too pale. Its ears were small and its face was flat. It had wisps of golden hair on its head.
Technoblade hadn't the faintest idea what it could be. A monster? A curse? But that didn't matter. A piglet was a piglet, no matter the species. They carefully scooped the small thing into his hand. His arms were too big to fit the piglet like a normal one. They gently wrapped their thumb around its midsection, to secure it. It stopped its strange wailing to hold the digit. Technoblade was enamored by the strange being. It seemed too small to be alive, not to mention how weak it was.
Its eyes looked into those of Technoblade. They were the same color as the otherworldly biomes, where the dangerous endermen lingered. Or maybe they were brighter. Certainly different from the nearly-all-white eyes of piglins. Whatever this was, Technoblade had decided to take care of it. Hopefully its caretaker didn't get angry when it found its young missing.
"What in the world is that?" A passing member of the herd asked, spotting the strange creature bundled in their arms.
"No clue. Some kind of child I've never seen before." They walked to the herds nursery, and approached one of the caretakers not busy with a piglet.
"I found something. It's much smaller than any child I've seen, and much weaker. Have you any clue how to care for it?"
The caretaker looked into the wriggling thing on their hand, looking it over. They gently took it into their own. The other caretakers and piglets curiously watched.
And then the thing started screaming. Shrill sounds echoed in the room, and the caretaker quickly handed it back to Technoblade. The screaming stopped.
Uh oh. It had already bonded with them. This wasn't ideal. If it wouldn't allow another to care for it….. Well. Technoblade would have a lot of learning to do.
Technonlade had no idea how to care for infants. Especially infants of a completely new species. They had overheard caretakers talking, heard them emphasize the importance of feeding, of playing, of keeping the piglets happy and healthy. They expected it to be hard. They did not expect it to be the hardest job in the herd. Balancing helping with the piglets and keeping a fragile little thing in good health? Not an easy task.
They already had respect for the caretakers before, of course, they raised all the piglets into good members of their community, but this? Actually doing their hard work? And not to mention how their very being there made their jobs easier. More caretakers always made the jobs easier. They couldn't imagine how much they would struggle if they were on their own, even with just the little stranger they had found.
They were tired. At least the smallest had been eating. They were worried it wouldn't know how to feed, with its small size. But it ate well, and slept well. It was like one of the weaker piglets, who needed time before they could do much other than survive. Technoblade wondered how long it would take to grow. They already started to care for the child.
They had only been a caretaker for a little while, and though it was grueling, they could understand why others put up with all the fuss. They didn't plan to be a caretaker their whole life. But for now, they can find joy in the work. The little golden piglet sleeping in the crook of their arm is strange and wonderful.
The little golden piglet is a menace. It screams and it cries and they don't know what it wants yet. None of the other piglets make these noises. They feed it and it cries, they clean it and it cries, they put it to bed but it only gets louder. Technoblade tries to calm it, putting it to their chest and purring, like when piglets get hurt and need to be held, and it helps, but does not cure it. It is quieter, and it is still mad. It will not sleep.
They try singing, anything to help the child start being happy again. It doesn't work.
Another caretaker taps Technoblade on the shoulder. They jump, facing them. The sound stops, for a blessed moment, and then starts again. They gently, slowly, bounce the piglet up and down. It helps. They keep doing it and before long, the piglet is fast asleep, its little hands clutching Technoblade by the shirt, wet spots in its face already drying in the heat of their home. It is calm again. Technoblade will know how to deal with this problem next time it shows up. Hopefully it won't.
It grows slowly. It's been longer than most piglets take to walk, and its barely learned to wiggle its arms and legs, barely can hold its head up for more than a few moments. It screams less, and they have learned how to care for it before it gets angry, but they still know very little. Where did it come from, they wonder. Where did its caretakers go, they wonder. Why was it alone, by a structure almost stranger than it, they wonder.
But they don't have answers, and they have more substantial worries for now. Like when it will need more substantial food than milk from the caretakers. It had grown quite a bit since they had found it, but less than a piglet would. It might be that they couldn't eat what they needed, or they just couldn't grow as quickly. Hopefully it was the latter.
The golden piglet grew slowly, and it grew strangely. They do their best to teach it well, and show it what everything in the caretakers room is. It can't speak yet, but it tries. Its mimicry of noise is strange. It can't make all the same sounds a proper piglet would, but it gets close.
The first time it says a word Technoblade can recognise sounds strange. It's high and soft, but still words. It tries to say hello. Technoblade is so proud of its progress.
With its first words comes first names. They are named for the strange gold in their fuzz, the strange color of their eyes. They are Teme.