Love and Family | Port Orthos 4

chapter 5: fern loves animals

chapter 5: fern loves animals

~fern~

       One of my favourite things to do after school is to go to the animal sanctuary in Port Orthos. My dad would take me here all the time when I was younger, and once I was old enough, I started coming here on my own. Growing up with a bunch of animals definitely helped me find a love for animals.

       Even now, my family still has a lot of different pets. Most are rescues since my dad has a passion for giving unwanted animals a home.

       I try not to have a favourite animal at the sanctuary since I love them all, but I normally find myself in the enclosure of a tripod fox named Luna, short for Lunatic. She's a very crazy and hyper fox, but she's also very sweet. She absolutely loves people, unlike most of the foxes at the sanctuary.

       It's not like the other foxes are mean towards people. They typically just hide in their enclosure wherever they feel the most comfortable. But these ones are newer than Luna, so she got used to being around the workers.

       And while people can come to the sanctuary to see the animals, the workers don't let just anyone around certain animals. If it's clear that an animal gets nervous around people, visitors won't be allowed near them. Even some volunteers need to be careful around which animals they be around.

       For me, I lucked out because I basically grew up volunteering here, so all the animals are used to me and seem to enjoy my company.

       I'm spending time with Luna right now. I sit on the ground as she runs circles around me, climbs onto my lap and sits for a bit, then runs in circles again as it sounds like she's laughing. Her behaviour is definitely how she got her name, but I love her for it.

       I normally don't like going out in public alone, but the animal sanctuary is one of the places I don't need a family member or Kiro to be with me. Sure, I appreciate it one someone is with me, but I don't need them to be. Right now is one of those days I'm on my own, and I'm totally okay with it.

       I already told Dad and Poppa that I'm going to be at the animal sanctuary after school, so I stay here until Dad texts me to tell me that dinner will be ready soon. As much as I want to stay, I know I can't stay all day, so I say goodbye to Lunatic and tell the manager on shift that I'm leaving. She thanks me for coming her to volunteer.

       I make my way home and as soon as I walk inside, Harlow looks at me and says, "Thank goodness Kiro isn't here with you."

       "Kiro said I should text him to come over whenever you say something like that," I say.

       "Don't listen to him," Harlow says. "I mean, who would you rather listen to? Your best friend or your twin sister?"

       I think for a bit. I don't know if I have an actual answer for that. Would I rather listen to Harlow or Kiro? Do I even have to choose?

       Apparently, Harlow doesn't like the fact that I didn't say her name right away, so she says, "Wow. I see how it is. At least I know Forest would rather listen to me than his best friend?" She looks at Forest. "Right, Forest? You would choose your older sister over Aleks? Right?"

       "I would choose whoever is the least annoying," Forest says.

       "So me?"

       "No. Aleks."

       "Wow, some brother you are."

       As Dad and Poppa are plating up our dinners, I go around the house to give dinner to all of our animals that need to be fed dinner. By the time I'm done, dinner is ready for us to eat, so I go to the kitchen and sit down at the table with my family.

       "I have a question," Harlow says. "Can we ban Kiro from this house? He's always--"

       "No," Poppa says before Harlow can even finish her sentence.

       "You don't even know why I want to ban him from the house," Harlow says.

       "It probably has to do with you thinking that he's always here," Poppa says.

       "Because it's true," Harlow says. 

       "I don't think it is," I say. "He's not here right now."

       "I bet it's because he's at work," Harlow says.

       "No," I say. "He only works on the weekend and it's only Thursday. He's not working until tomorrow."

       "I still think we should ban Kiro from the house," Harlow says.

       "Kiro also said I should invite him over whenever you say he should be banned."

       "You know, I think Kiro would absolutely love this dinner," Dad says. "And we have enough to feed another person. Maybe we should invite him over for dinner."

       "Fine, I'll stop asking if Kiro can be banned," Harlow mutters before she starts eating. Harlow has told me before that even though it may seem like she hates Kiro, she doesn't actually. They just have that sort of friendship where they're always teasing each other, kind of like a sibling type of relationship. I'm certain she wouldn't actually want Kiro to be banned from coming over.

       Even if she, on the off-chance, did want him to be banned, Dad and Poppa wouldn't ban Kiro. They always say they like when Kiro is over since not only is he my best friend, but he's very respectful when he's over. There have even been a few times when he helped out making dinner or cleaning up afterwards. Kiro says this is like his second home, so he likes to help out whenever he can.

        When I finish eating dinner, I head to my bedroom and let my bird, Apple, out of her cage. Her cage used to be in the living room but once I was more responsible to take care of her on my own, Dad and Poppa were fine with me moving it to my room. Apple is usually only in her cage whenever I'm not in my room. Otherwise, I keep her cage door open so she can go in and out as she pleases.

       I love having Apple as my pet bird. There's just something so comforting about her presence. About any animal's presence, if I'm being honest. I definitely got my love of animals from my dad, and I'm happy that I did.

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i named the fox after my own dog, luna. unfortunately, her full name isn't lunatic but it might as well be lmao. she's a crazy and silly girl, but i love her <3 she's also very snuggly. she's actually snuggling with me right now as i work on this. she's my family's dog but we all agree that she's pretty much my dog since i'm her favourite human hehe. 

anyway, the lannister-bakers got a lot more pets since the previous book. idk how much they have tbh. just a lot. marius still comes home from work to see a new animal fawn got lol.