A tale of Humans and Hybrids

Chapter 18

To Techno's suprise, he received more little gifts throughout the day. Tubbo made him a flowercrown, Scott and Sneeg gifted him an enchanted trident, Charlie made a cake together with Niki and Jack brought him a single netherite ingot. Even Fundy decided to come out of his den now and meet the human for the first time.

It was hard not to laugh when the small fox grumbled about another giant living with them, but he was suprisingly open towards him. He was about to say that it was because of Wilbur, but the phantom hated him until a few days ago too, so he has no clue. All that mattered was that the new hybrid accepted him.

He still couldn't believe that the hybrids even cared that he had been there for so long now, but a part of him was moved by it. No one ever cared about him to this extent, spending his birthdays alone or on the hunt. Not that there was ever someone that came close enough to him to care.

When the sun began to set, Phil and Techno retreated back into their home. It was then that the bird sat him down at the table, grinning. Techno wasn't entirely sure what had suddenly gotten Phil so happy and excited, but he had a pretty good guess. He took of his new skull mask and placed it on the table, looking back up to the bird.

"Alright. I'll come clean now, we did plan this." "I knew it." "But, I know you liked it. You were smiling throughout the whole day. And I'm glad that you were happy... I was a little worried that it will be too much." Techno smiled and shook his head. "Of course not... this was the nicest thing someone has done for me. But I still think I don't really deserve it... at least not yet. I would have understood it after a year... but a month?"

"Well, it was a good opportunity to integrate you into the group more. Get everyone to at least accept you as part of the community." Phil grinned and held a small wooden box out for his friend. "And this is my contribution to it~"

The human carefully took the box, holding it in his hand. "Phil... you allowing me to stay in your house is more than enough. I don't-" "Just take the gift. You have no idea how difficult it was to keep the crows from stealing them."

Techno huffed and opened the box. The small interior was covered in a small silk cloth, the same color as his new cape. On the silk laid two emeralds, thin golden chains connecting them to small hooks. "Earrings?" "Yup! Do you like them? I don't know if you even like jewelry, but they were so pretty and I couldn't resist."

The human laughed when Phil's feathers puffed out in embarrassment of his bird brain, but it warmed his heart regardless. "I do like them. They are beautiful. But if you love them so much, you can have them." "Nononono they are your gift. If you like them you keep them."

Alright. This little argument won't get them anywhere. "Fine. Let's do it like this then." Techno took one of the emerald earrings and put it into his left ear. The other one, he held out for his friend. "We both can have one. Then we match and your bird brain can have the 'pretty-shiny-object'." Phil blushed more in embarrassment, but tool the emerald anyways. "Really?" "Yup."

The bird grinned and carefully put the earring into his own ear, revealing to Techno that he does have somewhat human ears, but feathers grew out the end of it, forming the feather ears he thought fully connected to his head.

"There we go. Friendship." Phil laughed and hugged his friend. "Friendship emerald earrings!" They grinned at each other for a moment before they decided that it was time to make dinner.

Techno put away all his new things before he joined Phil in the kitchen, his new earring the only thing that he kept on, as it didn't get in the way. During the whole dinner preparation the two bumped into each other, either just playfully shoving or challenging the other.

Let's just say they had to do a bit of cleaning up afterwards.

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"And you're absolutely sure it was him?" The hunter nodded from his position leaned against the wall. "I would recognize that stupid pink hair anywhere. There is no way it wasn't Technoblade."

The masked man sitting on the table hummed and looked over a map, a large red circle right in the center. Everything inside the circle was blank.

"And you said he defended the hybrid?" "Yes. He shielded it from our arrows, saying nonsense like 'he's friendly' and that we should leave them alone." "What happened after that? How many of you did he kill?" "He didn't kill anyone. He wasn't even wearing armor. The hybrid grabbed him and took off into the skies before we could react."

A knife made contact with the map, right in the circle. "Why do I even bother hiring you clowns? Can't even catch a human. Get out." The hunter nodded and left, leaving the hooded figure alone with two other ones.

"Sooo... what now? We know Blade is on their side, but we knew that since the moment we saw the cut ropes." The brown haired man waited for an answer, watching as the third man paced up and down the room, angry muttering leaving his throat.

"This changes nothing. We continue with the plan. If it really was Techno, then we already won. It's prove that a human can get into this thing. We just need to figure out how." "But I thought you told us to be careful? Blade is-"

"Technoblade is a nobody. A traitor. We will kill him just like any other of those monsters. He wore no armor or attacked any of the hunters. He's weak. We have to use this to our advantage."

The blank stare of the white mask made the brunette back down, staying quiet in his spot.

"He will regret the day he decided to cut that beast free." The hunter turned and left the room, leaving the map on the table, the knife still stuck in it.

A single black feather laid on the table.