Aurora’s word having been said I was a bit shaken by her words. But I knew better than poke at a hornet nest instead of focusing on lapping at my milk like a cat before drinking more of it slowly.

 

I was soon finished and thought I wanted more of the white gold, though now wasn’t the time and decided to not ask for more.

 

Aurora got hope soon enough when I was done, and the others followed while Cyriel and Leĩea took care of me as we separate because I needed my tag enchanted with an illusion enchantment to keep who I am somewhat hidden.

 

Mary slowly posed her hand on the tag and sure enough, I felt it tickle and warm up as her mana was changing some part of the tags design.

 

When she was done, the tag looked completely different and now had a paw imprint instead of my information. Which indicated me as a pet and nothing more, the tag finished I looked at Mary.

 

‘We thank u very much, both u and your mother, you both gave us a chance and a way to communicate with our family, we can’t thank u both enough.’

 

I then looked at the general and thanked her too for her relative honesty and helpfulness.

 

Mary, hugging the little girl in her lap, and her mother looked at us as the general continued to relax on the sofa.

 

‘No problem, you all stay safe!’ they both said in unison.

 

The three of us nodded as I was carried toward the market plaza, it was already night out from all the conversations we had, so I used at my own and my party’s discretion my bioluminescence spell, though it was mostly for Cyriel and me as we lacked some form of dark vision like Leĩea, her sister, and the 2 beastkin.

 

‘Thank u, little sis’ Cyriel said out loud.

 

Leĩea looked at me and Cyriel,

‘We will need some general items for Lily and Ruby, like a blanket and a comfy carrying satchel or box to use as a bed’

 

Cyriel nodded in approval, while we walked toward the market plaza my glowing form attracted a bit too much attention, but the glowing form also gave us some safety as the guard around us nodded to my 2 handlers.

 

If I was to guess the captain and the few guards that we met in the inn had explained the situation and were to watch over us to a certain extent.

 

We finally reached our destination, A shop with a massive Paw as the sign, what was even weirder is the fact both the blacksmith shop and its smithy were fused to the pet shop and the 2 upper floors, but what shocked me more was the clerk of the pet store seemed to be half deer half-elven, instead of being on 2 legs she had the whole body of a deer and her elven torso perfectly matched where the deer neck would be, it was exotic and very good looking…. It was soft and from her, an aura of calm was meaning.

 

‘Welcome, how can I help u three today?’

 

My 2 handlers froze in shock, while the clerk started to laugh softly.

‘Don’t worry, I know the captain and I’m Aquarels wife’

 

She continued to laugh at our dumbfounded expression

‘Aquarel’s husband died some time ago and we fell for each other after she healed and was ready to start anew. And when she learned of Lily & Ruby, she rushed through the door asking for my help. Luckily it gave me enough time to ready up all for u to take on the house too!’

 

My party wasn’t breathing they seemed to be taken aback even more.

 

The laughing softened and left for a face of concern. ‘Wait, did my wife forget to inform you of our decision?’

The three of us slowly nodded finally releasing a bit of the pressure we had and the worry of being found out.

 

‘Well, Lily and her sister Ruby don’t have parents, and Mary and Aquarel were both smitten, we decided to adopt the little girl too… and we taught if it was fine that we could also adopt Lily & Ruby as her adoptive parent…. We all know you are her sisters, but we thought it could be a good idea after all even if she is mature for her age…. on paper she is barely 2 weeks old’

 

Cyriel looked at Leĩea and both nodded to each other, Cyriel then scratched her right feathery ear, ‘you might want to ask that to Lily & Ruby, and if the offer also applied to our whole party, we would appreciate it…. We all suffered in the war and lost our loved ones, now we only have each other and it’s hard for our morale lately, having more people in our life would help immensely’

The generous and kind-looking elven face smiled at us. ‘I will discuss it with my wife and our 2 daughters, U already met Mary which is from before we were together.

Oh, wait I didn’t tell u my name, did I?’

 

I felt it was the right moment to speak out.

‘You didn’t …...mother’

I did force myself a bit after all I was def accepting the offer, I felt very close to my new little sister and Mary.

 

As soon as I spoke, we all heard a piece of glass break as the clerk and now my new mother looked at me in shock, funny enough so did Cyriel and Leĩea.

 

I tilt my head to the side and after looking at the 3, I ask the simplest question, ‘what?’

 

The clerk is the first to recover and with a loving smile slowly walks toward us and starts petting my head, at which I purr.

 

‘I was just surprised that all, My name is Anna, and I need to say those purrs are godly, now I can understand why they all were smitten, to continue I also have a daughter and she the blacksmith next door after all the whole 2 upper floors and courtyard are the family residence, it will also hopefully be all your home and in which, u can come rest, we have more than enough free room to turn into a personal room for all of you, plus your anatomy isn’t as big and specific as ours, oh before I forget’

 She looked at my feathery sister and gently ruffled her head before continuing,

‘Cyriel, I presume we have a free room with full access to the roof as you are a harpy, I believe it will match your preference to have easy flying access, so don’t worry we will also purchase any furniture you all need, we do have quite the amount saved up from having 2 successful shops and Mary and your other sister working together in the smithy most of the time while Aquarel works at the adventure guild.’

 

Cyriel and Leĩea had teary eyes and before I had time to express worry both hugged Anna tightly sobbing on both her shoulder.

 

Anna just gently holds them both caringly and lovingly

 

‘In my book u already my daughters, Now let’s get upstairs and get u settled up, and before u ask Aquarel wanted to offer the same offer to all, but she was worried about your reaction, but I’m glad I did.’

 

She closed her shop and set up the closed sign on the windows on the left and slowly carried us upward into our new home.

 

We entered what seemed to be a massive living room with a blanket and soft mattress on the ground for our family to relax on, there was also something akin to a big bathtub under the removable padded mattress floor. probably for Aquarel and Mary to relax with the rest of them. And surprisingly enough someone that looked exactly like my new mom sleeping under a blanket, while her head was resting on the table and her arm, as schematic and a notepad was messily on the ground next to her. Her elven ears moved to show that she was awake but decided to try sleeping more but a soft smile drew on her beautiful face.

She probably knew we were going to come, as she probably was working with Mary before she was Fishnapped by her mother.

 

Anna smiled warmly at her resting daughter

And slowly showed us the closest open room, ‘this room will be for Lily and ruby and the other little girl that is still too shaken to tell us her name…...’

She then pointed toward the 2 rooms beside it. Those are both Mary and Lestyx rooms so they will be very close in case there is any nightmare or emergency as they are the 2 youngest of all of us, they might need special care, also Lily and Ruby’s padded enclosure and blanket are already there, we made sure to also add moss, drowned wood, and a Heat stone. They’re also an area full of sand in the corner of it’

 

I looked at it happily it was an enclosure…. But in my current state it was as best and safe as it could be for a Snereloa,

‘Can I go in while we wait, for diner or the others?’ I asked gently with a bit of tiredness through my link with Leĩea.

 

‘Fine, try to get some rest!’ she smiled at me.

I purred at her word and when I was delicately put down in the enclosure I immediately slithered toward the warm sand and bathed in it and when I was half in, half out of the sand pile and felt safe and comfy I closed my eyes to get some rest from the very heavy day full of warm.

 

--Leĩea Pov—

I looked at the already asleep form of Lily as half her body was engulfed in the red scale of Ruby.

Anna looked surprised at the change and asked in a curious voice,

‘Why has her scale changed colour to be half red and white?’

I smiled happily as the change was always beautiful and enchanting.

‘Because both are sleeping, Ruby is rarely awake unless she wants to be, she seems to enjoy sleeping a lot more than Lily. or she is also probably extremely tired, as the special skill that let them be both together at once is still level 1 so it might be draining a lot especially if one of them took most of the strain to let them stay awake and alert’

I was always happy to talk about them, and even if they saved us they were still extremely weak compared to all of us, my lowest stat was at 100 and they were probably in the low 20 maybe less…

The only reason their plan worked was because of the severity of their venom nothing more. And monster strength isn’t calculated like a sentient beings the same goes-for stat related to their danger. We also were lucky the bandit she ate the eyes of was not strong physically but the shackle weakened us all even more than his own strength.

 

The girl that was asleep some minutes ago was awake and smiling at us and saying,

‘Hey welcome home, sis’

We looked at her in disbelief, how could she know?

With a knowing grin, she pointed at her ear

‘They are more sensible than your sis that’s why I heard u and mom downstairs, my name’s Lestyx I’m the smith of the family, happy to meet you all’

‘I’m Leĩea an elf as u know’

The feathery hugger beside me raised her wing with a bright grin.

‘Me Me ME, I’m Cyriel, a harpy, happy to meet you, sis’

And before I could stop her Cyriel was already mid-flight/tackle to hug her new sis for hours.

 

I sighed and looked at Lest, I’m sorry to tell u but she going to stay against u like that for an hour….’ I finished a smile growing on my face as I saw Lest slowly cuddle with her feathery sis.

 

Anna slowly raised turned toward me,

‘Want to help me prepare dinner, also let me know what you would all prefer to eat, we’re a big family now, I might need help ahahah’

 

I nodded gently and followed her to the kitchen,

‘Lily and Ruby seem to enjoy the Sun fruit and milk, me and my sis prefer vegetables, but we also enjoy meat, Cyriel prefers nuts and meat, Marriane prefers fish and seafood and milk too and to finish Nare eats everything but prefers meat or fruit.’

 

I told her each of our preferences at which she slowly nodded, ‘seafood is cheap as we’re in a Sea town, fruit costs a bit more but it’s nothing impossible, same for the rest, thank u dear, now let us ready a meal for your mom and your starving sibling’

 

I smiled as I helped and followed her instruction.