275 Boring Summer [#4]: Strange Family

"Son." Lifting his head, Stiles looked towards his dad, the man had his hair completely disheveled and there was a very large hickie on his neck, Stiles had to resist the grin that was fighting to grow on his face: "Morning dad, morning Chris." His dad froze before he turned back to see Chris as he awkwardly walked down the stairs right behind him, he also had a large purple hickie on his neck. "I was making breakfast, wanna some too? I bet you two are hungy after everything." The way his dad grew red was amazing and Stiles couldn't help the grin that grew on his face: "Well, let's get this over with okay?" Stiles pointed directly to Chris and said in a clear voice: "You break my dad's heart, you spread my secrets around- Specially to the Hale Pack, and I'll set fire to your house with you and your daughter inside like i promised before." Chris just nodded as his dad muttered a "what the fuck" making Stiles grin widely: "Ah, right, Erebus and Nana are coming for breakfast too, maybe if you're good i won't let Nana eat you." As if by magic, there was a knocking on the door that lead to the garden, Stiles grinned and his hand moved before the door opened itself to reveal the large mountain lioness and small little dark bird on top of her head. 

"Alpha!" Erebus greeted him as he flew towards his shoulder, Nana simply walked in without hesitation- Chris Argent tensed up just as John placed a hand on the other man's shoulder: "Don't worry, she's nice." He tried to make Chris relax a little, but Nana did not make it easier for him as she walked up to John and threw herself towards him- Why? She was hugging him of course! Chris almost made to get his gun, but he didn't have it with him, but he just saw how John laughed and hugged the huge mountain lioness with a happy grin, making him feel weirded out a little. "Hey Erebus, have you found something?" The raven on his shoulder flapped his wings and cawed, but Stiles understood what he said: "Oh yeah, saw a bunch of weird shit! Like, a lot of animals are running around crazy, there's a storm coming apparently- Also, found something about that illegal hunter guy!" The reaction he got from Stiles was instantaneous, Stiles snapped his head to look at the raven with wide eyes before asking: "You remember where you saw it?" And seeing the bird nod, he threw the pan towards the table before his finger twitched as he casted [Gust] and [Air Cushion] to control the descent of the frying pan to land perfectly on the table so nothing would fall off. 

That got both his dad and Chris' attention, on the pan stood a bunch of egg and bacon, Stiles turned to look at his dad before telling him: "I'm following Erebus on a lead he found, feed Nana and your new boyfriend, see you later." Before his dad could even answer, Stiles' body seemed tk twist and turn inside out before a white fox ran after black raven flew away with a caw. Chris just looked at that, and since his brain was trying to process everything he saw so he just attached his attention to the last thing he heard; "Boyfriend?" John blushed heavily before looking at him with a small smile making Chris smirk with a snort, yeah, boyfriend's fine.

Maybe they were right to put love in the book- Maybe, it couldn't live anywhere else.

Derek never understood that phrase before when he was young, but as he grew older and experienced love, he understood it. He felt it deep within his being, how bad he felt it, he thought that once was enough- But twice it did happen, thrice would not he told himself every day for six years, until whiskey colored eyes stared into his own, passion and love reflected the deep desire within his soul that had Derek's wolf hooked in a simple breath of fresh scent- Vanilla, caramel, burnt strawberries, rain and thunder, things Derek loved to smell. He was foolish to let him in, he was foolish to believe Stiles was different and would not hurt him, but the moment he felt those claws dig on his back and forced him to shift from the shock, the moment his foul blood fell on his tongue as his teeth sank into that disgusting flesh, Derek knew- Stiles was the one who planned this, because Scott McCall is dumb.

Scott McCall is stupid.

Derek had to clean his mind from those things, so he decided to just run through the Preserve to calm his mind from going crazy- And here he was, crying where his tears would not be heard, seen, or smelled. Here he was, in a place he could be vulnerable without anyone ever judging him since there were no eyes to judge him, no ears to hear him, no noses to smell him. 

A white blur ran by the corner of his eye and he looked towards it, just to see a fox as white as snow dart by, it was a beautiful fox that had Derek's instincts going wild and extremely wired- He did not notice until he was already running after the fox, but his feet were not feet anymore, but black furred paws, he felt free from burdens and the terrible of complicated emotions because the only thing he needed right now was to catch the white fox, catch and mate with the fox- Wait, why does he want to fuck a white fox!? He isn't into bestiality! I mean, fuck, he never knew he could take the Full Shift and here he is running after a white fox! 'Wait, where is he?' Derek's eyes darted around as he looked for the white fox but did not find him, the little thing simply vanished! Derek took a whiff from the akr around him and the scent of 'goodhappyplaymate' flowed to the east, so he simply followed it without a thought.

'What the fuck?' Stiles couldn't believe his eyes as he saw the black wolf with red eyes flow his scent- He loves the spell [Gust] even more now! A combination of [Prestidigitation] to separate his scent from his body for a small moment with the [Gust] spell to push the scent as far away as he possibly could while casting [Druidcraft] to make him smell like the forest and dirt around as much as he could was his saving grace! 'When the fuck could Derek Hale turn into a large black wolf!?' Stiles never knew he'd think a wolf is hot, but the moment he heard yipping behind him and turned around to see the large black wolf, he knew it was Derek, he saw those red eyes sparkle with joy as he chased Stiles' own fox form, through the forest ground- He admits, it was fun while it lasted, but he has more pressing manners to deal with right now. 

Such as followig Erebus. 

The black raven cawed at him as he followed it deeper into the Preserve, due to the spell [Know North] he knew he was going south-east into the deeper parts of the Preserve. He jumped over fallen tree trunks, he darted beneath roots, he met a few animals that simply looked at him as he passed by while some even tried to chase after him, specially a coyote that kept calling him little fox in a feminine voice. He did tell her he was following his friend, so of course she started to follow him too, but not before getting a weird doll she called her own friend! "So, what's her name then?" Stiles' own voice left his fox mouth as the coyote happily told him, her voice a bit muffled from having the doll on her mouth: "Her name's Kylie!" Stiles hummed at the name of the young doll, his mind quickly searched for the name around his head before he came to the realization that the coyote might be someone who he read about before... But he needs to know more. "So, Kylie's her name then, what's your?" The she-coyote huffed annoyedly before she tried to jump him, playfully he knew, but he easily dodged her! "Don't kno'!" 

Well, he remembers reading the file about the Tates, it was a closed case now seeing as they were marked off as animal attack after car accident, their corpse were probably consumed by really hugry to the point of starvation coyotes, but what if one of them turned into a coyote? I mean, Stiles can do it, why can't others? Even Derek can do it! "Well then, i guess I'll name you Malia." The coyote simply yipped as he kept running, faster and faster, until they were playfully trying to jump on each other. Stiles did, however, jump high to avoid a few fallen trees and even casted the new cantrip he had learned before going to sleep- [Thorn Whip] created a 10 feet long whip made of thorny vine that he could use normally to attack, but he could easily use it for other things! Such as playing spider-man, or rather, spider-fox by swinging from tree to tree using the vine as a role to swing himself! When he was ready, he threw himself to the ground and before he fell he used [Air Cushion] to break his fall and not be hurt. "Wai' up!" The happy coyote followed him along and soon they reached a large tree stump? Yeah, a really large tree stump that had Stiles feeling like dread, like there was something deeply wrong with the poor tree stump. 

Like it was bleeding, crying, and dying. 

"Oh, you poor thing." Erebus landed right on top of the tree stump and Stiles followed by using [Druidcraft] to push as much energy the cantrip allowed, he needed a stronger spell, maybe it he knew [Plant Growth] he could try? But [Plant Growth] is a 3rd level spell and he can only cast level 2 spells for now and he barely knows any! He has a few theories he is working on, so he is going to try and learn from nature by simply observing it and trying to immitate nature with his magic and see if he can stimulate nature somehow! The stump greedily swallowed as much energy Stiles gave it, which wasn't much seeing as [Druidcraft] was just a basic spell that wasn't meant to be used like he wanted to! "Maybe if i?" He casted [Cure Wounds] on the stump and watched as a green glow emanated from his fingertips for a few seconds before the stump absorbed the healing light: "Seems like I'll need to buy that book in healing magic..." Yeah the [Healing With Nature, Spells and Potions by Eleanco Everygone] will be useful not only to heal others but to help nature, seeing as this big green friend is suffering. 

"Why hasn't Deaton helped you?" Stiles felt something aking to dislike at the mention of the druid, he sighed as his fox form laid down- Only after a moment because he soon dodged out of the way from the playful coyote that jumped after him! "C'mon, let's play!" She let go of the doll and started trying to play with him, but Stiles' attention was on something else- He slapped his paws on the ground as he focused on the spell he had only read about once, trying to cast it- [Tremorsense] was a spell that allowed him to have about 60 feet of being Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender! He quickly felt the wave of magic scan the ground around him and he felt the roots of the large stump come to a stop and bend around something, a cellar beneath the tree stump? Huh, interesting. "Erebus, where is it?" The raven pointed towards the side and Stiles raised his head to see a man with a rope around his neck, being hung from a tree, his neck was cut and there was blood dripping down his chest- This was certainly a Darach! "Fuck." Stiles had to get rid of this corpse, or he could try and speak to it? Wasn't there that spell called [Speak with the Dead] on Dungeons and Dragons or something like that? "Need to get rid of this." Stiles also saw a bent and broken rifle beneath the man's body, now is the Darach doing the Three Fold Knot or the Five Fold Knot? 

Because this old guy doesn't scream 'virgin!' To him- But hey, who is he to judge? 

"Fire? No, burrying it would be better." Stiles focused on the earth and he used the cantrip [Move Earth], which was a spell that allowed him to move about 5 cubic feet of earth! With some effort Stiles made a nice hole on the ground and cut off the rope holding the corpse with an [Air Slash] with a 360° turn of his whole fox body to wave his tail towards the rope, which was cool and did help him cast the spell! To drag the corpse to the hole he used [Thorn Whip], and soon he was done with it! "Well, guess we did find the hunter... Now, where would Nana's cubs be?" Stiles approached the corpse of the hunter and took a big whiff while casting another cantrip called [Scent], which would temporarily grant him a higher scenting ability like werewolves! Stiles closed the hole before following the trail of the scent, he did follow it for about half an hour before he found a camping site at the end of a trail that lead into a military truck? Yeah, animal trafficking was really the thing here, or rather, supernatural trafficking! 

I'll explain.

The moment Stiles approached the truck, he saw that it was locked with a padlock, he tried to bite it to break it, but it did not work: "Maybe..." Time to cast another spell! Channeling magic through his paws into the ground beneath, Stiles imagined the spell working and in a burst of energy a spike of sharp crystal rushed out of the ground and impaled the padlock! "Fuck!" It did damage, but not enough damage, so Stiles began hitting it again and again with more castings of the cantrip [Crystal Spike], each time he did it the previous crystal spike went back into the earth, after casting the spell multiple times, the padlock did break apart! "Could've done this differently? Yep, totally Stiles, congratulations." He transformed back into his human form, which earned him a confused whine from the coyote behind him which he promptly ignored as Erebus landed on his shoulder. With all his strength, Stiles pulled the doors of the truck open and- 

"Holy shit." Inside there were several animals, some he clearly knew were supernatural in nature. A small litter of mountain lions stood at the end of the truck in a cage, in fact, every single creature there was in a cage, some with collars around their necks. "Fuck, this isn't the work of one person." 

[Quest Updated!]

[Rescue/Revenge + Mistery: Rescue/Revenge: Save or avenge the cubs of the mountain lion while stopping illegal hunting! - Rewards: 1 Dilver Coin, 1 Minor Magic Item [Completed!]

Bonus Objective: You've found it! Someone is ritually sacrificing animals for something, discover what is and stop it! - Rewards: 1 Platinum Coin, 1 Powerful Magic Item

Bonus Objective: You've found out the work of a mysterious organization of people who capture wild animals and supernatural beings, for what purpose? You don't know. Find out! - Rewards: 5 Gold Coins, 1 Feat Point, 1 Very Rare Magic Ring]

"Shit-" Stiles quickly went inside the truck and looked at the cages, the things inside were various and he could recognize a few of them- there was a doe with an electric collar on one of the cages, a parrot in a smaller cage, a capybara, a small crocodile, a large black panther, a few doves and pidgeons in a tight box, and a lot of other animals. "Erebus, use this metal wire and try to open the bird cages." He gave his raven a metal wire who flew right towards the birds with an "On it, boss!" As Stiles focused on the other cages, he breathed in before breathing out: "Okay, time to work." His hands moved quickly as he worked on unlocking the cages, he could've done that with the padlock for the truck? Not exactly, because it was a heavy padlock and looked quite complex from the design, it was intentionally made so it cannot be picked on. "Don't worry guys, I'll get you out of there-" There was a clicking noise from behind him and Stiles sighed as a cocky voice rang out: "Oh, i don't think so." Turning around, Stiles saw a large man holding a pistol right in front of him. "Now, why don't we get to talking huh? Who the fuck are you punk-?" Stiles didn't even get to speak because the man had made the mistake of giving his back to Malia, the coyote jumped behind him and Stiles took his chance! 

He used [Thorn Whip] to pull the gun out of the man's hand and grinned when he screamed in pain, but he couldn't let him die yet! "Don't kill him yet Malia, i need him alive!" The screaming did stop, he rushed over and touched the guy's chest as he casted [Cure Wounds] to keep him alive for now! He checked his body and found it, keys! "Well, this was easy!" He used the keys to unlock the cages and casted [Speak with Animals] with his [Wild Speech] feat. "So little guys, wanna tell me what happened?" There was the look of surprise from the animals with collars and he saw the glint of intelligence behind their eyes, which could mean only one thing- The doe, the capybara, the white dove, and the black panther were all shifters weren't they? Or magically sentient animals. "Hello?" A soft-spoken tiny voice called out to Stiles as he opened the doe cage, the little thing was but a child Weredeer! Stiles cut off the collar around the doe's neck with a meticulous and controlled use of the [Air Slash] cantrip! He was getting better at this. 

"Oh you poor thing." Stiles used [Cure Wounds] again since the poor doe was hurt, he had now only 8 SPs and he ought to use them well: "There, are you alright now?" There was a now from the tiny doe before he began to shift into a small brown haired little boy with big green eyes that melted Stiles' heart. He was adorable, and something Stiles knew lived in his heart called out to him- The reason why he was obsessed with his dad's diet, the reason why he befriended Scott, the reason why he is so concerned with his friend's health. He is a mother at heart, when his own died he was there to fill the space, he grew up to be a mother and now it was part of him that he couldn't and didn't want to get rid of! "Thanks." Was all he said and in a single word, he had Stiles' hooked on his little finger forever! He wants to adopt him. "Let's get the others, okay? Can you stay here for a moment?" The boy nodded and Stiles moved on to help the beasts, once freed they ran out, the birds flew out and the animals ran, Stiles knew that some of them were not from here but he conversed with them and they would be fine here. 

Who knew horses could live in a forest? Well, they assured him they would be okay, so he let them go. Malia was inside the truck with him now, looking around as he freed a couple of wolves who clang to him, not really wanting to leave him. Well, they were small little cubs who had lost their mother, the corpse in the cage was enough proof of that after all! After freeing the animals, Stiles went to the supernatural ones. "Huh, a Calandrius?" The giant white peacock-like bird bowed to him and Stiles bowed back, this earned a "Marvelous, champion of the forest." From the bird, which had Stiles smiling! Calandrius are birds of the Roman Mythology, they are believed to heal diseases and injuries with their presence and feathers, which is amazing. Stiles freed the bird and received a feather from the Calandrius that flew away with a promise of visiting in the future! "Well, he was interesting." Stiles soon freed a Kelpie, the blue horse looked at him up and down before bowing and asking him: "Would you accept me as your steed, my lord?" Which Stiles did accept- Why? Because C'mon! It's a Kelpie! Stiles asked questions about the water horse who basically told him the majority of the mythos are fake.

They do indeed have sticky skin, but they don't eat children, they eat kelp and seaweed, the myth that they eat children comes from their cousins- The Each-uisge, a similar water horse who has horns and red eyes who do in fact eat children. "So basically, the majority of your species are now going extinct due to that?" The horse sadly nodded and Stiles could only shake his head, the appearance of the horse was very eye-catching, with blue fur, green mane and bright yellow eyes. Stiles freed next a large fox with a single long tail that was purple? It seemed to be a fox spirit, when freed the trickster little thing licked Stiles before fading into the shadows and dissappeared. Stiles did also free a large black owl whose feathers curled on the top of the head that reminded him of a Devil-Owl, so when he asked the bird spoke in a brief, calm, and collected voice: "I am an Ulama, also known as Devil Bird, and i can predict death- Like a Banshee." And that's how Stiles made friends with Avalon, the Devil Bird! The calm and collected owl was very polite, contrary to Erebus who poked at the owl to try and get a reaction out of the guy. 

His mighty steed, Nalunod- Which is the Philippine word for drowned -was a dear and helped the others to get out of their cages, in total there were abiut 105 cages, some had more animals than it should while others were too small for big animals that were shoved inside. They all thanked him and left soon, Stiles helped the shifters at last while bringing the passed out hunter into the truck, the moment he got rid of the collars around the black panther, the capybara, and the white dove, they all shifted back into their original forms- The black panther turned into this small teen, the white dove turned into this gorgeous lady, and the capybara turned into a small little girl with big brown eyes. "Hello, I'm Stiles and i am here to help." And help indeed he did! He casted [Cure Wounds] on the trio, dragging his SP to 5, he did turn to Malia and asked: "Can you shift back too?" She only shook her head and Stiles nodded- He isn't going to ask why she didn't want to shift back, but he did help the shifters. Their names were Alejandro for the teen, he said he was captured in Mexico, the white dove lady gave the name Azalea to identify herself even though Stiles felt like this wasn't her name, she said she was captured by a witch and forced into her animal form, which happened to them all, while it helped them unlock their Full Shift it also made them vulnerable. 

The collars were enchanted to not let them shift back to their human form, Stiles took them to analyze the markings on them and maybe reversd engineer it later. 

The little girl only gave her name, Ammy, she did not speak again and Stiles decided to simply adopt her alongside the doe boy whose name was Eli, adorable little baby. "Now i need to get you all clothes..." Stiles sighed heavily, he turned to the four people in the truck and said: "Can you follow me to my home? I can get you food there, i reccomended shifting into your full shift, but if you can't or don't want to, i think Nalunod would be happy to give you a ride- You see, he can make his fur sticky so you don't fall off." The two kiddos did not want to shift back into their form so Stiles helped them into Nalunod who was happy to help, Malia followed him while Stiles picked the three little mountain lion cubs and carried the box in which they were by transforming into a large mountain lion himself: "Follow me." He said before leaving at a reasonable pace towards his home! They stopped regularly to take break, so they arrived at his house 3 hours later through the backyard, thankfully Stiles had made a large amount of bushed to grow on the backyard to hide the fact that they received regular visitors in the form of animals. 

Specially mountain lions. 

Stiles called out to Nana and his dad, thankfully Chris was not here! Well, neither was his dad but he could deal with that! He helped them get adjusted and fed them, Nalunod did eat meat but Stiles had a solution for that! He rushed up to his room and found the book on cantrips before casting a ridiculous one: [Summon Steak]! A spell that summoned a piece of meat from the multiverse to him, the type of meat was random, but the meat was always safe to eat. Eli and Ammy settled down on the kitchen where he made them cookies, Alejandro knew where his family lived and knew their phone number so Stiles let him use the house phone to call them, he came up to Stiles crying and thanking him profusely after, the 14 year old teen was so grateful and relieved that he didn't know what to say or do to repay him, which Stiles simply told him: "Live, live and do good in the world, that is how you can repay me- by being the best person you could possibly ever be." His parents were coming to get him, they'd arrive at the Sacramento Airport in about 3 hours, Stiles offered to take him there after he eats and wears nice clothes! 

Azalea was very grateful to Stiles, he gave her clothes that could fit her (He almost cried when he saw hear wearing one of his mother's dresses) before giving her money and food, she left soon after promising to never forget what Stiles did for her. With Alejandro and Azalea already leaving, Stiles was left with little Eli and Ammy, both kids he was enamored with and wanted to keep them because his motherly instincts were screaming to take care of them because they seemed to need it! Both looked to be about 5 or 6 years old, which did not make anything better to his motherly self. Nana was crying and cuddling with her cubs, she profusely thanked Stiles, he fed them and promised them they'd always have a place at his house, she left after she and her babies were fed and he got to name each and every one of them! He gave them the name of Naer, Noel, and Niin.

Nalunod and Avalon ended up joining Stiles' pack, as did those two little wolf cubs who followed him crying "Mama!" To him all the time. They clung to him and he couldn't help but answer their cries with raw beef for his babies, they were both male do he named them Skoll and Hati, and with Erebus, Stiles' pack was complete. 

He finally had the large family he always wanted! Also, Malia was there too, play fighting with Hati while Skoll was by Stiles' feet as he sat down on the couch holding onto Eli and Ammy, who were both crying. Stiles held onto them until they went to sleep, Nalunod was also inside the house, since Stiles still doesn't know how to hide a blue horse! Maybe he'll work on it, but for now he still has to find a lake in which he can live on- "Maybe i should make an artificial lake?" He remembers the spell called [Create/Destroy Water] so he might as well try? It is a Lvl 1 Spell after all! "Later." He closed his eyes and went to sleep a little, Nalunod and Avalon did the same, and soon, Stiles was covered in two kids, one blue horse, one devil bird, one raven, two wolf cubs, a temporary black panther, and one coyote.

What a strange family!