A tale of Humans and Hybrids

Chapter 13

The next morning came way too soon and with it came a grumpy teenager waking at sunrise. "I'm hungry..." "We're working on breakfast. It would be faster if you help." Tommy groaned and his had made contact with the table. Phil flinched and turned to check if his child was okay while Techno was trying his best to not start laughing. Ah yes, one of the reasons he never had kids of his own or even considered adopting one.

"Honestly Phil, if he hits his head like that, it's his fault. Don't baby him like that." "I don't want him to get an actual concussion." "Again, his fault." The bird just shook his head and went back to placing a cold rag against the teen's forehead. He chirped at the younger, either scolding him or comforting him. He wasn't quite sure.

Since Tommy was 'bound to veganism', as he put it, their breakfast was just baked potatoes, apple slices and bread with self made chocolate cream. Seeing the sugary treat apparently made Tommy immediately feel better as he almost devoured half of the entire bread, while Phil and Techno shared the other half.

"So... what's the plan for today?" "Flying lessons!" "Apart from that." The teen pouted and went back to eating. "I was planning to go mining... I need more iron for some projects. You can come along if you want? I'll give you my spare armor set." "Sounds good to me." "Can I come?" Both men looked at the teen, who had chocolate at the corners of his mouth and still messy bed hair.

"Wasn't there this thing you wanted to do with Charlie? Something about building something for Sneeg?" Tommy frowned and Techno could practically see the gears in his head turning. "Wait... that's today?" "I'm pretty sure..." "I'll go ask him!" He grabbed the last slice of bread and half a potato before running out the door.

"There he goes..." "Hurry. Let's disappear before he gets back." "Techno what the fuck." "Do you want to babysit him so he won't fall into a hole and dies?" For a second the bird just stared at him, then he rushed to a chest and pulled out armor and pickaxes. Techno grinned and took the items handed to him, quickly putting on the iron armor.

Without wasting a second, Phil grabbed his human friend and flew out the house and towards a large cave entrance in the mountain. "Didn't you guys already mine here?" "Yeah, but we stripmine a lot and find new cave systems." He set him down at the entrance and neatly folded his wings behind him. "Alright. You've been mining before, right?"

Techno actually seemed offended by him even thinking that the human has no experience. "Of course I have! I mined most of my materials myself before I became a full time hunter." "Just making sure." He grinned and leads the way into the cave. The main path was lit up with lanterns, the smaller side mines only had torches.

"We mine at a higher level, since I only want iron. Not that a certain fox boy didn't just steal a bunch from me too..." He chuckled to himself and walked down a small tunnel. "Fox boy? I haven't seen a fox hybrid around. You never even mentioned one."

"Well... I kinda forgot. He barricaded himself in his little burrow a few days before you came into the sanctuary. Wilbur said that it's nothing serious, something about mating season I think? Not sure, something personal that he didn't tell anyone. He's fine though, the crows heard him talk to Tubbo the other day."

While they chatted about this new hybrid, they made a new tunnel and mined all the iron they could get. "His name is Fundy. Wil kinda found him and took him in as his own, even with him being a teenager himself at that time. It was cute though... seeing him taking care of a small kid." "I can imagine... he'll probably freak out when he meets me for the first time." "Nah he'll be fine."

They mined for only an hour, but managed to find quite a bit of iron. It was enough to satisfy the bird for his future project, so they made their way back up to the surface. "Do you think I should talk to him...?" "Who? Wilbur?" Phil nodded and stared ahead while walking.

"Maybe... I don't know. I don't want you two to have an even bigger argument." "But he had to accept the fact that you live here now." "I mean... he's not the only one that doesn't like me." "It still seems unfair." Techno sighed and shielded his eyes when they climbed back out of the cave.

"Phil. Right now, I don't matter. Your relationship with him matters. I don't want you two to hate each other just because I got in the way." "But-" "Phil!" Tommy came running towards him, Charlie and Wilbur in tow. "You didn't even wait for me!" "We assumed you'll be busy with Charlie." The teenager crossed his arms and was about to protest, but Charlie stopped him.

"Hey... Um... sorry about yesterday. We didn't mean to look like we don't care... We kinda just froze in shock and didn't know what to do." Techno knew Phil wanted to say so many things about that, but instead he just smiled. "It's fine mate. Don't worry about it." Charlie smiled, before not so subtly elbowing Wilbur.

Said phantom groaned from the impact before glaring at the slime. Then he sighed and turned to Phil. "Look... I'm sorry. I know I said something wrong... but you can't blame me for being mad." "I know, I know. Humans evil. I understood that the first time." The Elytrian crossed his arms, wings puffing out a bit. "You're shit at apologizing."

"I can just not apologize at all if that's better." "For Prime's sake, just say sorry and leave it at that. You're mad at me, not Phil. We both know that." Wilbur glared at Techno, glowing green eyes trying to intimidate him. Obviously that doesn't work.

"Okay. Before things escalate here, let's just forget about all of this. I don't need an apology, but at least pretend that you tolerate him. That's all I want." Wilbur stayed silent, then nodded. "I can do that." "Finally. Thank you."

Awkward silence hung in the air as Tommy nervously shifted from one foot to the other.

"So... flying lessons?"