Melly

“Hehehe!” Cloud giggled excitedly.

Canvas shushed him but giggled a little too. “You know we’rwe gonna get in soo much twouble if we’re caught! So quiet down,” she said softly. “Twy not to dwaw a lot of attention to u--”

“HEY CASSY!! WE’RWE DOING ILLEGA-- I MEAN FUN, yEAH FUN THINGS! WANNA COME?” Cloud yelled as he ran over to Cassiopeia. Canvas shook her head and sighed as Cassy nodded. Cloud leaned in and whispered to Cassy what they would be doing. The imperial hatchling’s eyes lit up and they both ran back over to Canvas. “This is gonna be so much fun! Let’s get goin,” Cloud said. The three hatchlings ran off toward the gardens, something in Cloud’s satchel clinking the whole way.

“Hi Mrs. Demeter!” Cassy said excitedly as she walked up to a green coatl surrounded by butterflies.

“Hello there Cassy!” Demeter looked up. “Oh, hello to you too Canvas and Cloud. What brings the three of you to our garden?” she asked.

“We were wondering if we could get some snacks?” Cloud said.

“Oh of course! There’s some berries over there, you could go grab some honey from Aurelio and Emmet, Alder and Vaelyn are with the fruit trees, and I was just tending to these cantaloupes!” Demeter said.

“What’s a c-cantewope?” Cloud asked as Cassy went to get some honey and berries and Canvas went to get some fruit.

“It’s a type of melon. They’re orange on the inside. Quite tasty,” Demeter answered as she plucked one off of the vine and handed it to Cloud. “You can have one. They’re about ripe anyways,” Cloud carefully put it in his satchel and closed it again. Canvas came back with some apples and Cassy came back with 3 small jars of honey and some raspberries.

“Thank you Mrs. Demeter!” Cloud said as the three hatchlings ran off.

“Come back anytime!” She yelled. Her mate Emmet walked up to her.
“Wait, isn’t that Orifan’s satchel that Cloud has?” Emmet asked.

“Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Cloud, Canvas, and Cassiopeia stopped running and entered a little cave hidden by some trees in the clan forest. This was what the hatchlings called their, “secret hideout”. They put down all their snacks and sat down on their little leaf rug they had made. Canvas was about to start eating when Cloud said, “Wait! I have one more ting!” Cloud opened the satchel and gasped.

“Sooo, you know how I took Aunty Orifan’s baag and how it was full of potions? I kiiinda maybe put a cantawope melon thingy in there and it smashed some bottles,” Cloud said as he carefully reached into the satchel and pulled out the dripping cantaloupe.

“Awww. The potions were gonna be the funnest part,” Cassy said sadly.

“Sowwy. I guess we can’t eat this cantawope any more,” Cloud said as he walked to their tiny makeshift trash can, took off the lid, and dumped the rest of the contents of the satchel along with the cantaloupe into the trash can. He put the lid back on and walked back over to where he was sitting before.

“Now, let’s eat some snacks!” Canvas said excited.

Once the three hatchlings were done snacking Canvas got up to put what they didn’t eat away in a little chest they had. Cloud and Cassiopeia were playfully arguing about if raspberries were better than seaberries when they heard Canvas yelp behind them. They both turned around and Cloud bolted up and ran next to Canvas. “What’s wrong?” he asked Canvas confusedly.

“T-t-the trashc-can,” she said standing completely still. Her eyes wide open in fear.

Cloud and Cassy both looked at the trash can. It was shaking violently. Glass clinking together could be heard. Cloud put Canvas behind him. The trash can was shaking more now. Then the lid popped up, a little orange coatl hatchling poking its head out.

“H-Hewwo?” Cloud said cautiously. The hatchling looked at him with curious eyes. It opened it’s mouth and squeaked. “Did, did it just squeak?” Cloud asked.

“I tink so. Maybe it can’t talk?” Cassiopeia said as they watch the hatchling try to get out of the trashcan and knocking the it over, falling down with it. It squeaked again and tried to stand up. Canvas suddenly unfroze and walked over to it, helping it stand up. Cassy peered inside of the trash can. “The cantawope or whatever you called it, it’s gone,” she said. Cloud looked inside too.
“That’s weird.. Do you think.. All those potions combined and transformed the cantawope into… into them,” he said pointing to the hatchling.

“That makes sense. Kinda. Didn’t you just grab a bunch of random potions and put them in your bag?” Canvas asked. Cloud nodded in response. “Also, I guess it needs a name so we don’t keep referring to it as “them”

“I don’t want to keep saying cantawope all the time either,”

“Mrs. Demeter said that cantawopes are a type of melon. So what about Melly?”

“That’s a good name! I like that and I think they do too,”

Squeak!

“Also, are we going to tell Aunty Zerabon and Aunty Orifan about how Melly appeared?”

“Nope!”

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Thank you so much Decaf for eternal youthing this cantaloupe.