smiling critters

chapter 30 - an odd question

“Theeeeen go get it!” he shouted as he threw it to the other end of the park. Dylan immediately went tearing across the grass to catch the ball before running back to kai with the ball and gave it back, only for kai to throw it again. They kept doing that as neil watched them from the tree he chose to perch himself in. all of a sudden. He heard something clunking below him and to his left. He looked down and saw camila setting up her easel.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” she waved her hand at him before ducking back behind her easel. Neil turned up his muzzle in confusion before going back to people watching while camila did whatever she was doing. He saw bobby looking for bug drones with bryson, hollie and penny were playing tag with a bunch of 4th graders, kai and dylan were still playing fetch, there were a bunch of older yokai playing bingo under a canopy, there were a few kids playing at the playground with some adults, maybe their parents. As he people watched, he heard a yar beside him. He looked to where the sound was coming from and saw a dragon on the branch beside him.

“Oh, hey. What’cha doin’ here?” he asked. The dragon yarred again as it climbed into his lap. He smiled and slowly started petting it while it snuggled into his fur. He started purring as he pet it while camila kept sketching him in the tree. After a while the dragon’s owner came to collect it and neil was back on his own in the tree.

“Ok nini, i’m done!” camila exclaimed, prompting neil to leap out of the tree and go to look at what she drew. It was him relaxing in a tree petting the dragon that came up to him a while ago.

“Sooo, i’m planning to submit this for an art contest at the museum, and i was wondering if you’d be ok with that,” camila asked, leaning towards him.

“Yea, go for it!” neil smiled back, rubbing his scent on her. They spent a little longer at the park before having to go home. Once he got home, he had to help malachi make dinner. So he was in the kitchen washing the carrots and potatoes while malachi was chopping meat.

“Hey, neil, i know this may be a bit of a sudden question, but how do you feel about your parents?” malachi randomly asked.

“What do you mean? Like you guys orrr?”
He saw malachi smile at him a little, assumedly happy that neil saw him and donna as his parents.

“Your biological parents, angel face.”

“Oh. i dunno, indifferent, i guess? i never really met either of them. And considering my mom is dead and my dad is across the atlantic ocean, i don’t think i ever will. But i mean if you look at it technically, i did meet my mom, but she died when i was 3, so i wouldn’t really remember any interaction i had with her.”

“Alright, thank you for answering.”

“No problem, why’d you ask in the first place?”

“Just curious.”
Neil hummed and they went back to cooking as PJ kept swearing at Little Nightmares shadow children.

“Another odd question, if you had the opportunity to meet your parents,would you take it?”

“Sure, why not? i’d be nice to meet them.”

“Kay, thank you.”
They went back to cooking in silence. Once they were done and donna was home from work, everyone ate and talked about their days before going to bed for the night.

Malachi POV-

Donna and malachi were in their room getting ready for bed. A few days ago at work, donna had gotten an odd email from someone claiming to be neil’s biological father saying that he just learned about the whole situation with godfrey and elliot and wanted to see if neil would be open to him paying a visit. They exchanged emails for a while and donna had learned that due to a family emergency, neil’s dad, Anders, had to go back to his home country, belgium, while godfrey and neil’s mom, Grace, stayed in the U.S. because she didn’t want godfrey to have to be uprooted from his environment. Then one thing after another kept pushing him going back to america farther and farther until he eventually he lost contact with his american family for unknown reasons and was blind to what was going on until he went out of his way to look for answers and found out what his eldest son was doing while he was away, all the while wondering why he or his mother wasn’t contacting him. Donna said she’d ask neil if he’d be up for it, but due to work, had to use malachi to ask him.