Welcome to the Menagerie

All my life, I loved magical creatures. Every single one fascinated me. The idea of traveling into our big, beautiful world to find every kind out there was my greatest dream. I was even offered to join a group of great researchers on their travels to discover more of these unique creatures. The opportunity of a lifetime. My dream come true.

Sadly, not every dream gets to come true.

Not all of us are so lucky.

I wasn’t.

When a young man turns thirteen, they are free to leave home and find their place in the world. Mine was going to be to travel with the Fantastical Eye, something that was nearly impossible for someone my age. Five more days and I would be off on the adventure of my life, but someone decided to change the plans.

That someone was my father. He owned a small ranch at the time, and he needed his son to help keep it running. What kind of son would abandon his family when they were just scraping by?

Not that it should have surprised me. After all, my gift is what helped his little ranch prosper at all. As he put it, I would be wasting the gift I was blessed with if I didn’t use it. Where better than a ranch, helping my loving family keep food on the table and a roof over our heads?

Oh, did I mention I was blessed by a celestial being when I was born? It was when my parents were newly married and couldn’t seem to bare a child. One day, my father happened along an injured dragon in the woods not too far from the old barn where his ranch began. Keep in mind, dragons are exceptionally rare, so most would try to collect them for good fortune. However, my father refused to do such a thing and instead tended to the creature’s injuries. That was when it suddenly changed form into a celestial being called Elijah, none other than the guardian of our land himself.

In his gratitude to my father, Elijah asked if there was anything he could do to repay my father. Though, the only thing my father wanted was a child, and Elijah couldn’t help with that. So, instead, Elijah wished my father luck in having a child and offered his blessing on the child if they someday did have one.

A couple years later, I was born. Though, it was when I began talking that they discovered that Elijah had kept his promise of blessing me after all. It was pretty obvious I was special when I started communicating clearly with animals.

Yep. I can talk to animals. No, I don’t speak like them, I just… understand them. I can hear their voices, understand their speech, you know what I mean. Hard to believe, I know. No surprise so many people used to think I was crazy, but I really can, and it was a huge help to the ranch growing up.

However, that made it harder to let me leave. Without me, the ranch was at risk of going under. In my dad’s eyes, that was far more important than going off on some kid’s adventure. I had plenty of time later in life to do stuff like travel, even if it wouldn’t be with the Fantastical Eye, who would have to move on without me.

So, home I stayed. In resentment, yes, but I stayed all the same. For nine years in fact.

Then he got sick. How sick, I didn’t know, but I knew he wasn’t ok. Not that I really cared at the time. As I said, I was resentful, so our relationship was very… distant. I was there to help the ranch, to be a loyal and responsible son, but I never forgot how my father dashed my dreams and took my future from me. So by the time he got sick, we weren’t really talking to each other, so we never talked about how sick he was.

I did notice how he was giving his animals to other ranchers he knew. He was also selling his fields to farmers who were hoping to expand their business. Even stopped his orders from big suppliers. I was confused, but not enough to question it. I really didn’t care. My father did whatever he felt like doing, and I just learned to accept it. It was his ranch after all.

It was when he collapsed in the garden that things became clearer to me. When the doctor came out of his room, my mother and I learned everything. My mom had already known how much worse he was getting, but we got to learn how much time he had left together.

That’s when we finally sat and talked. It was just my father and I, in his room where he was now bedridden. It was the first time we had an actual sit down in nine years. The first time we really… talked.

“I know you’re still bitter about how I made you stay. Perhaps that was selfish on my part, and I’m sorry for that. I didn’t know if we could keep going without you. I thought you might one day forgive me and maybe even come to love the ranch. I know, in your own way, you did. I see how you care for the animals here, how you take such pride in your work. You truly are an excellent rancher, son, and I’m very proud of the young man you’ve grown to be.”

I couldn’t say anything. What could I say? He was right. I was still bitter, despite how I did love the ranch and I did love what I could do. I had learned strengths and skills at the ranch that most would never learn in their lifetime traveling.

And I knew my dad felt bad for making me stay, even if he did have a fair reason for it. Didn’t change how I felt though. I know that was selfish, but I was a kid. What could anyone expect from a kid who had to watch every other kid in the world follow their dreams and be told he couldn’t? It felt like some kind of punishment. My blessing had become my curse.

“I’ve sold the land to an old rancher friend of mine. All the animals have good new homes on other ranches I trust, and my gardens and fields have been sold off. All the money I’ve saved, along with the money from the land, will go to your mother to let her live a peaceful retirement in our vacation home in Taniston once I’m gone. She’ll be well taken care of, so you won’t have to worry about her.”

It was then he looked at me, his eyes softer and kinder than I’d ever seen them in all the years I’d known him.

“As for you, my son, I’ve left a fund for you to use as you wish. It’s why I sold off everything, rather than leaving the business all to you. This way, you can use the rest of your life as you wish. I will not keep you where you do not wish to be. Not anymore. I know it’s a bit late, and I hope you can forgive me for making you wait so long, but your dreams are still out there. There’s nothing here to stop you from doing whatever you want with the rest of your life.”

“And thank you, Shaun. I know you weren’t happy to stay, but you stayed anyways, and I do truly appreciate that. It means more than I can express that you stayed and helped so much. You didn’t have to. You could have turned from us and left us, but you didn’t. So, if nothing else I say means anything…”

“Know that I am so proud to have had you for a son.”

Welcome to the Menagerie