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Dragon’s had hoards everyone knew that, full dragon or hybrid.
It usually started with stuffed animals as a child, or clothing, or blankets, before graduating to trinkets or rocks.
He’d never hoarded, his brother had but the instincts had never popped up for him.
He’d happily curled up in Hels’ or their parents’ den but hadn’t made one himself ever.
Was it something he told people?
Absolutely not.
But it was the truth.
And it’d always been something he felt a little bit insecure about, like he was made wrong, made broken. He was a bad dragon, he was broken, not quite right.
Everyone always compared them to each other, he was the ‘perfect’ sibling, son, student, he never struggled, was a star athlete, excelled in every step of his knight training.
At least that’s what it looked like to the outside observers.
They didn’t see the hours he spent doing nothing but thinking about everything he had to do, how he fought every step of the way to pump out projects.
Didn’t see the hours him and Hels spent practicing together.
Didn’t see the fact he didn’t have a den.
He knew the people around them were confused when he left town with Hels once their knight training was done.
They split up eventually, him joining servers and building and exploring until he made it to a server called Kingdomcraft.
Then Kingdomcraft was coming to a close but the admin of Hermitcraft offered those still active a place to stay.
So they moved to Hermitcraft and several months into the server he started feeling strange.
Ren had been over to hang out, playing some music and when it was time for the dog hybrid to leave his instincts all but screamed at him to take Ren and hide him away from the world.
He let him leave though, finding an isolated, safe, corner of his base, deep in the mesa he’d carved out.
Then he pulled out his comm and called his brother.
“Hello Wels, who do I need to beat up?” Hels immediately asked.
“No one,” He said.
“Then why are you calling me?” Hels asked.
“I-what do hoarding instincts feel like?” He asked.
Hels was quiet for a bit before asking in return, “Why?”
“I want to know,” He said.
“What happened Wels?” Hels asked.
“Please, just tell me what they feel like Hels,” He almost demanded.
Hels sighed, “Hoarding instincts boil down to wanting to take something, hide it away, and protect it.”
“Okay,” He said, quietly.
“Why?” Hels asked.
“I-I think-I think I felt that,” He said, almost a whisper.
“Oh?” Hels asked, “What about?”
“...Ren,” He admitted.
“It’s not unusual for someone’s hoard to be people close to them,” Hels said.
“Then why did they never activate for you?” He asked quietly, insecure about his brother feeling slighted by that.
“Because I was always dragging you into my den,” Hels said, “There was no need.”
“What do I do?” He asked, “I can’t trap them all the time, that’s not fair.”
Hels hummed, “I think you should see who exactly your instincts are trying to hoard and then chit-chat or whatever you and your friends do, about it. Ya’ll are problem solvers, you’ll figure something out.”
“It’s gonna be a fight every time isn’t it?” He asked.
“You can call me after each one,” Hels said, “Yes, it will be.”
“Void, I hate this,” He said then whispered, “At least I know I’m not broken.”
He didn’t whisper it quietly enough though as his brother said firmly, “You were never broken.”
He stayed quiet, anything he said his brother would refute.
“You weren’t broken, you were never broken Wels, you just hadn’t found your thing yet,” Hels said, “You’re not a fraud or a fake dragon.”
“I’ll-can I come see you before I do this?” He asked.
“Of course,” Hels said, “You have to inform Xisuma first though.”
“I know,” He said, navigating to Xisuma’s contact.
It was every Hermit, already, and once they all talked it out they figured out that clothes from the Hermits worked pretty well, sometimes he would still have to steal one (or more) of them away and to his den, when his instincts got really bad.
And the Hermits were so chill about it, they just accepted that sometimes he would come over and hoard them away in his den.
The moment his brother was brought onto the server they treated Hels like a person, like a different person not an extension of him, and despite himself the Hermits became Hels’ hoard too, with Xavier, Xisuma’s brother, as his shining jewel, not that Hels would admit it.
His shining jewel was Hypno, but that wasn’t something he’d admit either. He couldn’t risk Hypno’s friendship, at least Hels and EX got together like romantically, him and Hypno were just friends.
But Hypno was very important to him.
And he’d found his hoard and he was the happiest he could be.