A 12-meter high yellow furry giant was hovering outside Lee's house. It looked unimaginatively like 4 wings and 2 legs mounted to a cylinder. However, the phoorumph's cylindrical body became more pear-shaped as it started inhaling large amounts of air.
"Phooooo-RUMPHHH," thunder echoed throughout the valley as the phoorumph exhaled all its pent-up air.
"LEE!" Tabby hollered from inside the house. "I WILL DESTROY THIS THING IF IT WON'T SHUT UP!"
"Phoooooooo-RUMPHHHHHH!" The phoorumph trumpeted again.
"It seems to be more excited after hearing your shouts," Lee chuckled.
"DON'T MAKE ME GO OUT THERE!"
"Phooooooooooo-RUUUUUMPHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"YOU ARE DEAD, CREATURE!!!" Tabby rushed out of the house with a fiery trident.
"Woah, woah," Lee started patting the phoorumph. "Easy now, there's food."
Perhaps to Lee's calming strokes or Tabby's murderous aura, the phoorumph eventually calmed down enough to land on the ground, causing a small tremor in the process.
"Can you please put that away? Trying to skewer the phoorumph with an overpowered magical trident is a bit overkill," said Lee as he quickly chucked the large bowl of food into the phoorumph's mouth.
"This is not just a 'magical trident', it is the FLAMING TRIDENT OF ETERNAL MAGMA." As Tabby raised the trident over its head, a small lava fountain erupted behind its back for theatrical effect.
"Okay, okay." Lee poured more rice into the bucket. "Please put the Flaming Trident of Eternal Magma back in the umbrella stand. Thank you."
Tabby grunted and reluctantly carried the Flaming Trident of Eternal Magma back indoors. Meanwhile, Lee continued feeding the phoorumph which emitted small yelps of satisfaction from time to time.
The phoorumph's enormous physique gradually shrank as it continued eating. After one final loud belch, it stopped shrinking and became roughly the same size as Tabby.
Lee bent down to pick up the phoorumph. Content, the phoorumph willingly wrapped its wings and the lower end of its body around Lee's forearm.
"I can never get over how ridiculous a phoorumph is." Tabby remarked as it came outside to collect the unfinished bowl of food, and thankfully without the trident.
"Says one magical creature to another," Lee made his way to the chair on the porch. "By the way, clean up that lava mess. I don't want my papaya tree to be burnt."
"Oh please, that thing and I are leagues apart," said Tabby rolled its eyes. "I am of a higher-order of existence that is highly intelligent, obviously sentient, and yet irresistibly cute."
As they talked, Tabby pointed at the lava fountain and lazily waved his finger counter-clockwise. Time rewinded, the magma flowed back in reverse and the ground mended itself. Nothing remained except for a few scorch marks.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Whatever you say pal." Lee decided to ignore Tabby's self-gloating. "It is unusual to see a wild phoorumph though. I thought phoorumphs are only found in zoos?"
"Perhaps it has escaped? Can you see if there's a tag or something," Tabby asked.
"There's a QR code here on this wing," Lee said as he gently pushed the phoorumph's lower-left wing.
"Huh, we don't have a scanner though," Tabby asked.
"Don't need one." Lee's right eye started glowing gently with blue light. After blinking his eye a few times, his eye stopped glowing and he furrowed his brows.
"This guy did not escape from the zoo. It was smuggled out and was supposed to be sold by traffickers." Lee sighed and stroked the phoorumph's fur.
"Seriously? Aren't people supposed to learn from the past stampede." Tabby pointed at the phoorumph. "The last thing anyone needs is for a hungry creature raised only to eat cooked human food to be loose in the wild."
"Money and power is an unfortunate combination that makes people stupid," Lee said. "Plus, not everyone believes that stampedes originated from phoorumphs."
"I thought you gave a seminar to the last batch of Earth Guardians on the origins of beast stampedes?"
"Seeing that the seminar was held 200-ish years ago, I am not sure if they kept the seminar notes properly. Plus, centralised knowledge repositories were only invented by yours truly 80 years ago. I won't be surprised if they missed out some things as they have stopped relying on actual tomes."
"Besides," Lee continued. "Not everyone can accept that this tiny creature is one of the main sources of beast stampedes. After all, trying to explain that the phoorumph's body and gravity magic grows according to its hunger to an exaggerated size can be a hard sell. It took me years, years, to hunt down every wild phoorumph and feed them enough to shrink into a manageable size."
Sighs. "I see where you are coming from," Tabby acquiesced. "Still, that is no excuse for them to smuggle phoorumphs. Isn't the whole point of zoos to protect and preserve highly dangerous wild animals?"
"Again, money and power is a combination that makes people stupid," Lee shook his head. "It is fortunate that we tamed it rather quickly. Imagine the damage if it strutted around for a few more days."
"Should we return it to the zoo?" Tabby tapped its chin thoughtfully.
"Nah," Lee replied after thinking for a few moments. "I am a qualified enough Guardian to take care of this little guy. I literally wrote this world's first manual on zoo-keeping."
"What happens if someone comes after us?" Tabby asked.
Lee stood up and gently unwound the phoorumph from it's wrist. He looked out into the dark night.
"We sic 'em."
* * *
Back in the living room, Tabby went to sleep while Lee put the phoorumph in a cloth-filled basket.
Lee frowned as he noticed some scars on the phoorumph's body. In addition, there were some paler, yellow patches of fur which were obvious signs of malnourishment.
Originally having second thoughts only keeping a potentially destructive beast in his hut, Lee waved those concerns away after he saw how pitiful the phoorumph is. It was only a toddler by phoorumph standards! He sighed and went upstairs.
Lee's night dreams were of rainbow-coloured phoorumphs having an epic showdown against a fiery trident-wielding tabby cat.
* * *
"Wake up Lee, we have guests."
Lee shot up in alarm, startling Tabby who jumped off the bed.
"It's not even morning yet," Lee complained as he rubbed his eyes.
"Look carefully," said Tabby as he drew the curtains apart.
Lee blinked his right eye which started glowing gently in the dark. Squinting, he noticed faint mana lines on a metal wall encircling their house.
"Oh what the h..., why do criminals wake up so early nowadays?" Lee snapped his fingers, morphing his pyjamas into a hoodie and a pair of jeans. After washing up hastily, Lee stomped downstairs and quickly moved the sleeping phoorumph to a corner in the kitchen.
"Please look after it," Lee said. "I will deal with this quickly."
"Are you sure you don't need my help?" Tabby asked bemusedly.
"No offence, but I am not sure if having a talking cat open the door to a bunch of criminals is a good idea." Lee glanced at Tabby, then the phoorumph. "What is scarier is if it throws a tantrum out of hunger."
"Sure, sure. Make it quick." Tabby waved Lee along.
As Lee marched to the front door, he contemplated if he should use the Flaming Trident of Eternal Magma.