Thread by @tomatovesper

🐉🦊 #zhongchi #foxtaglia ; fantasy au; hybrids

"Mister Tartaglia! What's that brown creature doing in your garden?"
The fox hybrid cast his gaze out of the window, noticing something that looked like a brown plushie of a dinosaur.
He blinked.
It was breathing!

He yelped, turning off the stove and getting out to pick the poor creature up. It wasn't a plushie, but he also had no clue on what could it possibly be. It was a horned creature, a brown reptile with a funny, orange tuft at the end of its tail.
It was sleeping, apparently.

Yet, the creature's slumber wasn't peaceful at all.
It was after a more careful ispection, that Childe knew that he was holding a little dragon.
He hurried back into his house, preparing warm blankets and some water for the sleeping creature.
Was it sick? Was it hurt?

"Little ones, you better go back to your families." The fox said gently to the kids that came visiting him that fine afternoon. The little hybrids were saddened, but they always listened to Mister Tartaglia.
As a prize, they all got a whale-shaped cookie.

When the last kid left his house, the fox was alone with the little dragon, that was still asleep, probably having a bad dream for how he softly whined.
"Poor creature. What happened to you?" He sighed, wondering how a dragon ended up in his garden.

He was a retired soldier, enjoying his life as a simple, friendly neighbour.
Dragons weren't rare to find on the mountains, but it was weird to find one laying in such a tiny form. Usually dragons in their animal form were really large creature.

Tartaglia wasn't stupid and he knew everything about dragons. He could tell that this specific one was a Liyuan one. Probably a hybrid that lost control of his full form and somehow fell in front of his house. He had experience.
He...killed dragons, in the past. The bad ones.

He couldn't imagine himself laying a hand on such a cute little chonker, of course. Yet he was brought to imagine that behind that softness lied an hybrid just like himself, so respect was required.
The creature eventually stopped whining, now properly sleeping.

The little dragon didn't wake up for another couple of days, until one morning, Childe woke up to something wet and ruvid lapping at his face.
He opened his eyes to see the little dragon looking at him. Golden eyes.
"Good morning, kind sir." Childe chuckled.

The dragon chirped at him. It acted like a child, hinting that somehow, he was still far from recovering all of his strenght and mind.
"I wonder how you ended up in my garden..." Childe stroked his back. "But we can be friends, what do you think?"

It was after a visit to a library that Tartaglia finally discovered some kind of hint.
Liyuen dragons were at risk of extinction, so the ones alive were ancient and rarely traveled too far. This little fella was an exception, since they were in Snezhnaya.

The little dragon poked with his snout toward on a book written in liyuan. Good thing Childe could translate it.
"Rex Incognito." The story of an ancient Liyuan general and his several identities through the centuries.

Between Liyuan hybrids, it was common knowledge that the dragons were old figures from history. So when Childe connected the dots, he understood who was the figure in front of him.
And, the shock it was.
"Are you really telling me that this little guy is Morax himself?"

He lifted the dragonling, that now looked really grumpy. His belly obviously full of food. He had been spoiling that ancient Liyuan general for a week now.
But how to help him recover his old form?

What he discovered after, made his face red like his fur.

There were...rituals when it came to courting between dragons.
When a dragon was interested, he would act protective and gift trinkets and jewels to his mate.
Between dragons, they coupled only between soulmates.

A third book discovered that it wasn't only between dragons. A dragon's soulmate was often of another species.
A dragon and a phoenix, a dragon and a mermaid... A dragon and a fox.

Liyuan dragons never traveled too far, except when they understood that their soulmate wasn't in Liyue.
"Oh lord... does that mean that you were looking for your mate?" He asked, finding Morax nodding with a cute, yet sad face.

Dragons died while looking for their mates. Either from the cold or for the loneliness.
And the hunters.
"Do you know that I hunted dragons?" One day, Childe dared to ask. "I feel like I should be honest and tell you..."

Dragons were hunted because of many reasons, in the past. Childe, as a member of the Tsartsa's army, one of his tasks was to defend their camps from the attack of vicious, evil dragons.
In that world, hybrids weren't the only living things, of course.

Childe couldn't swear that all the dragons he killed were 100% evil, but he was sure he never killed hybrids.
And... of course his hunting was sometimes involved in getting into the lairs and do the killings inside the caverns.
Tsaritsa's orders.

And Childe would have done anything for his commander. Even working with humans.
Humans hunted hybrids for fun, sometimes.
There weren't records of humans surviving hunting Tartaglia, though.

That was another story and he found himself waiting for the little dragon's reaction.
Morax just walked closer to him, using his nose and paws to bring out a third book.

"Rex Lapis, The dragon god that loved a dragon hunter."

// continuing this later

"Rex Lapis..." Childe stroked his own chin. He knew the fairytale of the father of all dragons. "Isn't that another name for..." He started to feel extremely dizzy, the room spinning around him.
He closed his eyes, passing out soon after.

The fox's ears twitched, his eyes slowly opening. He wasn't in the library anymore.
But he was home, safe.
"Mmmh..." His eyes snapped open, he franctically looked around the room, finding himself alone.
No little dragon on sight.

Panic filled his heart, all the information acquired coming back to his mind.
Morax, the general and the god--
The third book...

/Thud./

He turned toward the sound.
The book was there. On the ground.

He picked it up, sighing.

It was about a love story, but one that never blossomed.
Rex Lapis loved a dragon hunter, but he had to fake to be someone else to approach him and once revealed himself, the hunter left.

Not a good ending, uh...

His hand moved after, taking the knife out and sending it against a throat.
Strong hands stopped him and Childe gasped. A pair of golden eyes were staring at him.
A hybrid. Golden horns, a white hood.
Black hands.

"You're not real." Childe sank the knife inside the illusion.

The dragon hybrid disappeared, the book in his hands felt a little warmer.
What the fuck was happening?
"Dragon magic." He replied to himself. Of course. Dragon were magical creatures after all. Childe was familiar. "And a weird book..."

When he walked back to his bedroom, a man was sitting on his bed.
He was the same dragon hybrid, of course. This time dressed with an elegant brown jacket and a fancy tie. One that could be called a "Distinguished Gentleman" after all.
"Good morning, Childe."

A smile. Not an illusion.
"Morax--"
"Please, call me Zhongli." The gentleman replied. "I owe you an explanation and a rightful payment for all the time you spent taking care of me." Zhongli took out a little bag filled with coins.
Childe accepted them, a little hesitant.

"What happened? Why am I back here?" Childe started firing questions before Zhongli could open his mouth.
"For a moment I thought you were gone... Without even saying goodbye." His ears flopped down. "Now you have more than an explanation to give me."

They moved to the garden, on the exact point where Childe had found the small body of Zhongli's little draconic form.
"You're a smart man, Childe. Nothing that you found out about dragons truly surprised you." He started with a praise, but the fox was waiting for much more.

"Part of my job." Childe sat down, hugging his own tail. "My old job."
Zhongli nodded.
"Hunting dragons is something remarkable. You are not just a mere soldier, I assume. A talent like yours belong to prodigies that are rare to be found." The dragon stroked his chin.

"A young, fox hybrid slaining creatures bigger than mountains. That's how your tale arrived in my country."
"It did?"
"Can I ask you a question, Childe? Do you think that Rex Lapis' story in that book was real?"
"Mmmh seemed more like a fairytale, to me."

"All you guessed until now was correct. I am Morax, I was traveling to find my fated mate... but I am not Rex Lapis."
Childe blinked.
"I was born from him."
"Your...your father?"
Zhongli nodded.

"The hunter and the god..."
"It was before I was even created." Zhongli had brought the book with him, looking at it with fondness. "And it's the only true story of my sire that survived through the centuries. A story of... love and pain, I'm afraid."
"Right... no happy ending."

Childe felt a little uncomfortable, not because of the dragon hunting, but because Zhongli was the little dragon that woke him up all mornings by licking his face. The chonker that he had learned to live with... it felt a lot to suddenly know everything (and nothing) about him.

At the same time, Childe felt sorry for him. What a long life was for, if fated to witness the parting of loved ones? The thought of outliving his siblings terrified him.
"My sire brought a only egg to his nest. He was gone when I hatched. The egg was...from another world."

"Rex Lapis came from another world. He descended from the clouds with his only egg. It took centuries for me to hatch and my sire believed I was dead." Zhongli observed Childe's reaction at that news.
"From another world?!" The fox gasped.
"Yeah... He was a... 'Descender.'"

Childe knew what a Descender was. A being from another world, fated to be the protagonist of many stories.
"So...you're..."
"Yeah. You could say that."
"So many informations all of a sudden...but please, continue."

Zhongli oblidged with a smile.
"His legends continued on the realm of the skies and after the Traveler from Afar cut down the era of the gods, the world as we know now started to rise as well."
"Wait--You never met your papa?"
"Only in my dreams."

Childe's ears flopped down again. That was sad. Childe couldn't think about living without his family!
"My father had created a city and a lot of dragons existed at the times. Humans and other hybrids started to flood Liyue Harboor. So many happy memories..."

//dinner break

The story continued with Morax's heroics deeds and battles. The wars and the disappearing of many other legendary beings.
He finished talking when the sky was as orange as Childe's fur.
The story left Childe...overwhelmed in a way. Yet, Zhongli was a man that made a decision.

The decision to finally rest and go build his family.
What he needed was...a mate.
"Every Liyuan dragon receive a prophecy. My mate is somewhere in the cold lands of Snezhnaya. I will be able to recognize them as soon as our eyes meet."
Zhongli looked at him.

"I believe I did. I saw you while you were playing with the children, but my energies were at their limits and I've found myself...trapped in my little form." He sighed.
"But... It can't possibly be me, Mister Zhongli..." Childe was so confused.
"And why not?"

"I cannot possibly... be anyone's fated someone. I... don't think I can, I am convinced that person is out of there. It's not me."
Zhongli placed his hand over Childe's knee.
"You don't have to love me back, Mister Tartaglia. But I am afraid that I was born to love you."

Childe opened his mouth just to be interrupted again.
"I did not come here to take you away from your family. All I had was to see you. I've been waiting for 6000 years for you to be born... you that, no matter what, will always be the center of my universe."
"But--"

Zhongli moved his hand, from Childe's knee to his chest.
"And I have found a being that deserves so much love, to make me fear that I will never be able to give you enough of it. The soulmate thing... it is but a legend, our fated mate...is not bound to love us back."

Childe was speechless. He never had a man telling him so many sweet things all of a sudden! He wanted to feel the weight of that confession, but all he could hear was his beating heart.
And puff... in place of the tall young man, a red fox appeared.

Childe placed his head on Zhongli's knee, looking up at him. The man stroked his head.
"Such a precious little gem." He smiled, while Childe was facing several stages of self questioning.

***

Years later, Childe was still in Snezhnaya. Still with... his dragon.

He fell in love with Zhongli much later. Learned to love such a stubborn hybrid. When he realized his feelings, he traveled to Liyue to confess to him.
(Of course Zhongli wanted a wedding.)
(Of course Childe accepted.)

They were back in Snezhnaya months later.

---

"My love, you're so cute." Zhongli kissed one of his ear, while Childe was keeping a raw fish between his teeth, just fished from the river.
The fox spitted his pray, hugging the dragon hybrid with a big smile.

Finally, a happy ending.

// I am sorry for the long thread. Sadly I gave up in the end bc i am a little tired, but this is for #FoxtagliaWeek, the prompt chosen was "garden" @foxtagliaweek

thank you!