Doggy Boy Pechie

Little doggy was scared. A few weeks ago, he was separated from his family and he was locked up in an iron cage. It was the first time he was away from his family. He was scared. From what he heard from the human adults who were locked in cages like him, they were going to be sold to hufelids as slaves. Hufelids were enemies of Hucanises so he did not want to be enslaved by them.

A few days later, he was not sold to the hufelids like the adult humans said and ended up in a castle of a human. He was even given a bed and meal. But he was still frightened. All he wanted at that time was to see his family.

Then, he became curious about the master of the castle. At first, he was afraid of that man because he had an aura of darkness around him. Little doggy knew human language. He also knew the hucarnis words the scary man said even though the pronunciation was off. But he did not reply him as he was still afraid of him.

Nevertheless, that man did not treat him roughly like the people the locked him in cages. He patted his head and played with his pointed ears from time to time but he was gentle. The man assigned a nurse for him and that nurse was quite weird. He was definitely a human but he behaved like a dog in front of the scary man.

Little doggy wondered if the scary man wanted him to act like his new nurse. Although he had features and tail of a dog, his hucarnis family walked just like humans do. He did not know what to do but he sticked to his nurse.

One night, he woke up after having a nightmare. He was scared to sleep alone but his nurse was not beside him. He looked for his nurse by tracking his smell and it led him the room of the scary man. He did not know if he should go in but sleeping alone was more fearful so he opened the door. The room was dark but his hucanis eyes could see everything inside. He saw the scary man and his nurse were engaging in 'adults' activity'.

Little doggy had often seen his family members doing adults' activity before. But he had never seen two males doing adults' activity by themselves so he was quite surprised by the scene. He became relieved and sleepy again after finding his nurse so he just proceeded to enter the room and slept at the foot of the bed to not disturb the nurse's activity.

Little doggy felt kinship between him and his nurse. Ever since he saw his nurse in adults' activity with the scary man, he felt kinship with the scary man as well and he also felt that the man was not scary as much as before. He followed the man to everywhere he went to know him better but the man seemed he did not like being followed around.

While little doggy was distressed, Chance, the man's attendant, told him that the man wanted to 'adopt' him.

"Adopt?" Little doggy questioned Chance while tilting his head to the side and scratching it with his tiny hand.

"Yes," Chance replied him with a smile, "by adopting you, master will become your guardian. Although you cannot inherit master's noble title nor assets, you can enjoy master's wealth to some extent."

"I… don't understand. Why adopt me?"

"Because it is inconvenient for master if people see you around him since you are not related to him in anyway. But if you are adopted by master, it will be fine if people see you two together."

"Then, if I'm adopted, can I follow 'master' everywhere."

"Hmm? Yes."

"I want to be adopted by 'master'!"

"Alright. Then you have to call him 'father' or 'dad' from now on."

"What?" Huvel exclaimed.

"'Father'? 'Dad'? Ah, I know!" Little doggy smiled brightly. He ran to Huvel and called out, "Dadie!"

Huvel was startled by the unexpected call from the boy.

"Cute!" he cried inwardly. "As expected of a doggy boy, he is too adorable. But it feels awkward to be called 'daddy' by a child this big while my current body is only 17 years old. I did not think of adopting him like a son. What I thought of was adopting a puppy. Is it really fine to be called daddy? If people from the old world hear about this, they will definitely think of pedo stuffs! Hopefully, people of this world would not think such things, will they?"

Huvel cleared his thoughts and patted the boy's fluffy hair.

"Ahem! From now on, I'll be your guardian. And I will name you 'Pechie'."

"Pe…chi? My name is Pechie!"

Pechie ran around the room cheerfully.

"By the way," Chance remembered something and stopped Pechie to ask him something, "do you remember how old are you?"

Pechie rubbed his chin as if he was trying to recall his memories.

"Five. No, six. Pechie is six years old!"

"Seriously?!"

"Is that true?!"

Both Huvel and Chance exclaimed at the same time. They believed Pechie was at least nine years old if not ten. They thought he remembered it wrong. Huvel wondered if he should look at Pechie's memories using his Dark Prowess. But if he really was only five years old, the strain from the spell would be too much for him to handle.

"Now that I think carefully, I think he is right." Chance spoke up after a while. "I forgot that he was hucanis for a moment. Hucanises have shorter lifespan than humans. Although I am not sure about the exact age range, a five or six years old hucanis child should be as big as an eight to ten years old human children."

"Is that so? It's a relief that he does not have a problem with his memories."

That day, Chance announced to the castle servants that their lord adopted Pechie, son of travelling hucanis merchants that unfortunately lost their lives to bandits. Huvel threw a small dinner party for Pechie and allowed all the servants in the castle to participate.

Although the servants could not help but gossiped about the lord's sudden adaptation of a hucanis child, most of them were thankful to Pechie for getting a chance to eat delicious food that they could not have normally. Moreover, none of the servants could resist the charm of an adorable hucanis child. They quickly accepted Pechie as the young lord and pampered him.