Chapter Text
Sunset bathes the jungle in warm orange light, sparkling off the raindrops on the leaves from the recent storm. Parrots sing and soar over the treetops, swooping around the avians flying above the village below. Even above the jungle canopy, sounds of the evening life of the village can be heard, hybrids of all kinds mingling together and enjoying each other’s company. Above the village, Techno, a piglin hybrid, sits on a wicker chair on a platform wrapping around a particularly tall tree in the center of the village. Enjoying a moment of peace from the activity of the village- his village- he idly pets his dog, Apollo, behind the ears as he watches the post-storm sunset.
Apollo’s ears perk up moments before Techno hears the sound of frantic avian wings flapping towards their platform. Looking off to his right, he spies Tommy, a parrot avian and one of the original residents of the village, flying swiftly towards him. He can hear Tommy calling out his name as he approaches. “There goes the peace and quiet.” Techno internally sighs as Tommy comes in for the landing. Tommy flares his wings out to rapidly slow his descent, extends his legs to catch the platform, slips on the wet jungle wood, and promptly falls onto his back with a shriek. The snow-white hound barks once and rises from Techno’s side to lick Tommy’s face, tail wagging happily.
“Apollo! Apollo, buddy, stop it! Ew!!” Tommy laughs as he tries and fails to push the hound’s face away. With a short whistle, Techno calls off Apollo, allowing Tommy to sit up and wipe the dog slobber off of his face with his red shirt sleeve.
Gesturing to the ground to command Apollo to sit back at his side, Techno asks, “What’s so important that you just had to crash in here?”
Getting up to his feet, Tommy begins to ramble, “Okay so I was hanging around the human’s castle town-”
“I told you to stay away from there.” Techno cuts him off disapprovingly.
“You’re not my mum.” Tommy snaps back, “Anyways, I was hanging around there, I had my cloak on so no one could see my wings, and those funky boots Puffy made to make my feet look like a human’s, and I had found this street food vendor, he called them ‘corn dogs’, I don’t know what a corn dog is but they were so fucking good I ate seven of them-”
Techno puts his head into his hands, “Get to the point.”
“Get to the point.” Tommy snarks back in a mocking tone, “I AM. So I was eating all those corn dogs and I overheard some people talking about something the King had in the castle, a me-an-jerry? Meanjerry? Meand-”
“A menagerie?” Techno offers.
“Yeah! That! So apparently the King already has critters like polar bears and camels and other animals that don’t live around here, but these folks were saying that he’s got something special and new in there. They were talking about this hybrid he had just caged up and put on display in the... menagerie.” Tommy looks to Techno for approval on his pronunciation. Techno nods at him. “Like. An avian. A person. I wasn’t able to go snooping around but if that’s true, we gotta go save them.”
Techno’s expression shifts to that of thinly veiled anger. “Go find Niki and Ranboo, tell them to meet me in our meeting room. We need a plan. And Tommy?” Techno looks Tommy dead in the eyes, “You can skip the whole corn dog part of the story when you’re telling them what you’ve learned.”
Tommy just nods and takes off back into the air, much more gracefully than his landing a few minutes earlier. Techno stands, makes a small ‘come here’ gesture to Apollo, and the hybrid and the hound proceed down the stairs that loop around the massive tree trunk, heading off in the direction of Techno’s home to drop Apollo off. Along the way, children pat Apollo on the way by, and many of the adult village residents greet Techno. He gives a polite but quick response to each of them, walking briskly away with purpose in his step. The sky quickly grows darker, the birdsong begins to quieten, and the number of people walking around outside dwindles. More and more lights turn on inside people’s home windows, and laughter and chatter of happy friends and families begins to replace the birdsong on the air. Techno can’t help but let himself smile at the sounds, pride swelling in his chest at what he’s created for these people, hybrids like himself.
When Techno was still a child, he lived in the Nether in a bastion with other piglins and piglin hybrids. They were happily living there, not bothering anyone, until one day a group of humans came along, stole all of their gold from the bastion, and slaughtered almost everyone inside. Techno, to the best of his knowledge, was the only survivor. To this day, he’s still unsure if the invaders were explorers or hunters. From that moment, he swore to create a new home for hybrids and to protect them from the kind of tragedy that befell him years ago.
Expression souring at the memory, Techno’s pace swiftens to a jog now that the pathways have begun to clear. Apollo’s tail wags at the change of pace and his tongue lolls out happily. Not too long later, they arrive at Techno’s home. Stepping inside, he turns on the switch for the redstone lighting. Upon ensuring Apollo has food and water in his bowls, Techno turns to leave. Apollo whines and flops down to the floor with a dramatic thud. “Oh don’t be like that, I’ll be back soon.” Looking at Apollo’s sad little face, he pulls a dog treat out of his pocket. Wiggling it in the air, he offers, “Will this make you feel better?” Apollo’s head and ears perk up, and Techno tosses the treat across the room, which the hound skillfully catches. Techno closes the door to the sound of Apollo crunching on his treat.
Outside once again, Techno takes the shortest route to the jungle floor. Now without a dog in tow that could easily trip down the stairs, Techno begins to take the stairs two steps at a time, practically flying down the curved staircases. The instant his hooved feet touch the grass, he runs off in the direction of the lava pool and the ‘neighbourhood’ of the more fiery hybrids’ homes. Grass turns to paving stones as he approaches the lava pool, stones acting as a fire barrier around it to protect the rest of the jungle village.
Three hybrids that Techno can’t recall the names of are lounging in the lava pool as if it were a hot tub. They glance in his direction as he comes to a stop nearby, and one of them gives him a friendly wave before they return to their conversation. Once he’s sure they’re not paying attention to him, Techno enters a nearby supply closet. Inside, he presses a specific stone brick three times in quick succession, causing a hole in the floor to open up, revealing a staircase. He descends the stone stairs, and moments later the door closes behind him. Stepping onto a pressure plate in the middle of the stairway, redstone lighting flickers to life along the walls, revealing the shift from normal light grey stone bricks to blackstone halfway down the hallway. Techno’s hoof steps echo throughout the otherwise silent hallway as he proceeds towards the secret meeting room.
Entering the meeting room, he takes a seat at one of the dark oak chairs around the circular table made of an odd off-white stone and unidentifiable green metal that were already there when Techno begun construction of the meeting room, and green warped wood gathered from the Nether. Not too long later, he hears more footsteps coming down the hallway, accompanied by light chatter. Tommy enters the room first, followed by Ranboo, some kind of enderman hybrid cross, Niki, an axolotl hybrid, and Kristin, a void crow hybrid and new resident of the village. They each begin to take a seat.
Confused, Techno gestures to Kristin and asks, “What’s she doing here?”
“She was baking with Niki and Ranboo when I found them, so she heard what’s going on and wanted to help.” Tommy responds, now in his seat.
The expression of Kristin’s face is almost desperate. “When I arrived here last month, my husband and I were running away from some human hunters.” Kristin says to Techno, “I was able to get away from them, but he wasn’t. The hunters were wearing the royal crest, and he’s a void crow just like me. The captured avian in the menagerie could be Phil, I want to help. I need to help.” Niki puts a comforting hand on Kristin’s shoulder as she finishes her plea.
“That’s understandable.” Techno nods to her. “Alright, Tommy, tell us again what you know about this menagerie?”
All eyes turn to Tommy. He clears his throat, and says, “So, I heard that the King has a menagerie of animals in the castle. I believe, from what I heard, that it’s closer to the top of the castle, near the royal living quarters, so the King can look down at the kingdom while looking at the exotic animals he’s got trapped. He’s got an avian with really pretty wings in a cage, and the King got him recently. As far as I’m aware, everything in the menagerie is just kept there, they’re not really taken out for anything. That’s all I know.”
Kristin says quietly, “I’m sure that’s Phil trapped in there then. He was captured less than a month ago, and his wings sparkle like the night sky, like mine. I could see the King wanting to put wings like ours onto display.”
“We’ll get him out, I promise.” Techno says to her. To the rest at the table, he says, “Since we don’t know exactly where the menagerie is, we’re gonna need to do some recon. I’m thinking I’ll go in alone, assess where the menagerie and Phil are, and come back so we can make a proper escape plan. We’ve broken into the castle before without getting caught, so I’ll probably go in through the sewers and use the maintenance tunnels to get further in the castle again. That should work.”
“What about us?” Niki asks. The glass necklace fitted snuggly around her neck with water and a redstone contraption inside makes a small, barely perceptible gurgle noise, aerating the water being pushed along her gills.
“You guys should just wait here for now.” Techno says, “It’s a three-day ride to the castle, so if I’m not back in eight, assume I’ve been captured and assemble a rescue party. Once I’m back, we’ll go to the castle together for the rescue. I’ll leave in the morning for recon.”
Ranboo speaks up for the first time this meeting, “That sounds like a good plan. Maybe you could take a sketchbook or something with you? If Phil’s wings are sparkly, he might need a disguise. We might need to get something tailored for him, so we’d need his like. Body dimensions, and stuff.” Ranboo gestures his hands around in front of himself as he speaks.”
Gesturing a finger point in Ranboo’s direction, Techno says, “Good idea. In lieu of someone standing there, a drawing would help Puffy make something.” He looks around the table, “Any more ideas, anyone?”
The others gathered around the table sit silently in thought for a few moments, before one by one each shakes their heads ‘no’.
“Alright, then we should get some rest.” Techno places his hands on the table, about to get up. “Let’s meet at the stables just after sunrise.”
Murmuring with acknowledgement, the other four rise along with Techno. Leading the way, Techno proceeds down the hallway back the way they came. Stepping on the pressure plate in the middle of the stairway once again causes the lights behind them to turn off, and the plate remains pressed down as the others walk over it. A button juts out from the wall just below the hidden door, and once Techno presses it the door slides open. Now inside the supply closet, Techno slowly sticks his head out the door, and upon seeing the coast is clear, waves to his friends as he steps outside. Ranboo, being the last one out, closes the door behind them.
By now, sounds of nighttime insects has filled the air. The air is comfortably cool, and all of the clouds from the earlier storm have gone away, revealing the night sky speckled with countless stars. Each of the quintet wish each other a good night, and scatter off in their own directions, heading back to their homes for the night. Tommy takes off in flight, towards the tallest trees where most of the avian homes reside. Kristin walks off with Niki towards the river, as she’s staying with the aquatic hybrid while the construction team builds her new home. Ranboo teleports and vwoops away, presumably in the direction of the cave system below the jungle village, safe from any sudden rainstorms. And Techno, he walks back to one of the spiral staircases in the center of the village. Despite being a Nether-originating hybrid, Techno decided to take up residence in the core of the village, more or less equal distance from each border in the event something terrible happens that he’d need to help defend against (which, fortunately, hasn’t happened yet).
Techno’s walk home is peaceful, only passing a few village residents on the way by. Fireflies glow all along the treetop pathways, a few of which decide to land on Techno’s shirt, lighting up in soft yellows and reds and blues and greens before departing once again. Upon reaching his home, Apollo howls the instant Techno’s hand touches the doorknob. Before he’s even able to fully open the door, the hound shoves his nose through the barely open gap, tail audibly thumping against the jungle wood door in excitement. Laughing at his precious dog’s antics, Techno body blocks the doorway as he enters, Apollo jumping up and putting his paws to Techno’s chest. Scratching Apollo behind the ears, he closes the door behind them.
“Alright buddy, let’s get some supper.” Techno says as Apollo finally decides to drop back down to all fours on the floor, following right along at Techno’s side. In the kitchen, Techno pulls some chicken and vegetables out of the redstone powered refrigerator. Apollo stares at him with the widest puppy eyes imaginable as he cooks, and Techno eventually relents and tosses him a piece of chicken once it’s done. Happily biting pieces off of the chicken, Apollo ignores Techno as he takes his own food to the dining table, also made of jungle wood, much like almost every wooden item in the village.
Once his meal is done, Techno cleans the pan, and goes off to his bedroom to change into pajamas. The instant the piglin hybrid’s climbed into bed, Apollo’s practically flown in and has draped himself across Techno’s torso. Idly running his fingers through Apollo’s soft, snow-white fur distracts him just enough from the anger towards the King for caging a person like a prized parakeet to be able to drift off to sleep.