Cherish

When you step into the cafe today, there’s no form of chaos awaiting you. Three Coatl hatchlings you don’t recognise are curled up peacefully on a pile of pillows, cuddling plushies and adorable, fluffy animals that look immensely soft and like they’d be wonderful to pet. It looks like you’ve stepped into a nursery.

… A nursery that contains books on advanced engineering and automation that one of the hatchlings is reading.

Another of the hatchlings opens her eyes and looks up at you when she hears you step up to the counter. “Oh, hi. Are you looking for Cian? I know she’s pretty much the most responsible of us, but she had to be elsewhere being responsible today.”

"Yep, it's just us today!” The white hatchling holding the book sets it down and sits up to try to look slightly more responsible. The fluffy creature at her side still cuddling her and the stuffed bunny don’t exactly help, but she’s trying. “All the younger ones ran off, there's baby rabbits to look at. Well... I really wish I could go see them too, but someone responsible has got to stick around here! The Fire Sprite doesn't count. And is making sure the baby rabbits are okay anyway, so we don't even have that supervision today..."

‘Yeah. Just us. Completely unsupervised.” The brown hatchling rolls over a little more and very carefully opens his eyes. Very, very carefully, as if only opening two eyes is an actual effort for him. From some… things you’ve heard, you have a suspicion as to why.

“We’re not so bad at it, though! Hi, I’m Meadoweclipse. You can call me Meadow.” The third hatchling, who looks somewhere between both of the others with the pretty white and brown pattern she’s got all over, gives in and sits up as well. “And we were working here today for a reason, anyway. Which is— what do you do to entertain familiars that aren’t animals at all? What kind of things will they need as enrichment?” She picks up the notes she’s looking through and holds them up to you. At least, a couple of the ones with pictures, anyway.

“See here— a giant mushroom, a giant flower, vines that act like snakes, or maybe they’re snakes that have the properties of vines, a flytrap… There’s lots of those. They act like they’re pets or companions. Some of the mushrooms are really good storytellers. The vines get along with actual snakes, especially the snakes that like flowers. The littler flowers that are so shy and follow you home are really cute, they’re not even ever hostile, they just suddenly take a liking to you— the sweetest things. With them, I’m not so worried about keeping them entertained, though of course I’d like to, but I really want to figure out how guests can keep from scaring them. It’d be so sweet if they could make more friends.”

“And that’s not all. I’m Inky, by the way.” The white hatchling pokes her head into a hole in what certainly looks like a cat tree and has plenty of platforms or holes for things to take a nap inside the cat tree if they so choose. She makes a soft little trill. Suddenly there’s a very curious squirrel at the top of the tree and a pair of mice poking their noses out at the bottom. “Look at them. They’re absolute sweethearts, but they’re made of metal and porcelain and tamed lightning. Golems. This clan’s had tamed golem companions for ages before I was ever hatched, but it’s mostly the engineers that use them. They don’t know anything about cat cafes. A lot of the others can be much more aggressive and they’re all really strong… I don’t want anyone to get hurt here.”

“Yeah, and— oh, I’m Cherish— then we’ve got the ones that are inanimate objects. Or want to pretend they are.” Cherish sounds tired just from thinking about it. “You know, mimics. They run wild here, in the Tangled Wood, and also kind of everywhere, sometimes. They’re usually super hostile and try to look harmless so you’ll interact with them and they can eat you— so I think that’s all the more reason we should include them here. How often do you get to pet a mimic safely otherwise? One of our clan leaders has beaten ours into submission. A lot. A lot a lot. She’s the true power here and they understand that, so, they’re… relatively tame for mimics.”

“But, that’s also kind of the thing. How do you entertain a cup? Or a set of restraints? Or a chair? Is it even worthwhile trying to bring those in so people can see them, or should we just get the leaders’ daughter to have a talk with them so only the ones in their… um, most natural treasure chest with fangs state show up… and then how do you entertain those?!”

“So we were gathered here today, specifically the three of us, to try to figure this part out,” Meadoweclipse nods. “It doesn’t matter so much that all the younger ones ran off. And the three of us are old enough to be perfectly responsible for ourselves and operate this sort of place well enough.”

“Besides, if we get truly lost as to how to handle something, plenty of the familiars are intelligent.” Cherish dismisses the notion of adult supervision without even bringing it up. “The Beastclan representatives— and we sure do have a lot of them— are overall delighted with this project. Something about increased social interaction and positive opportunities for interaction with dragons who might be wary of them. Ambassadors. Mission to the world.”

“And they want to help keep familiars safe and happy, of course.” Inky nods. “Especially the prince who showed up because of the care and love we show our familiars. He’s really helpful and we all appreciate him a lot here.”

“But, well, there it is.” Cherish shakes his head and closes his eyes again, cuddling more into the cat with horns at his side. “There’s a lot going on today, so we’re open to any advice we can get. None of these are animals, really, but they’re also the precious friends of everyone here.”

… Yeah, it really doesn’t look like a nursery as much now that you’ve heard the three talking in the manner of… well, not very young dragons. And seen the research notes. And engineering books. And…