Family of 101

Chapter 1: Two Young Saviors

Cold, wet, injured… and unconscious. Probably the best way to describe me if you found me on the wet rocks at the side of a countryside bridge. I should probably rewind a bit.

Honestly, I can't remember how long ago it was since I fell out cold, but I do remember my jackass excuse of a dad stopping the car above the bridge, I think I could make out a fairly large city in the distance but my view of the sights was cut short when my dad opened the door and dragged me out of the car by the neck of my hoodie into the gloomy, pouring rain outside. I knew there and then that he finally had enough of me being around him and me existing in general and I could see it in his face whilst picking up that familiar and disgusting smell of alcohol from his breath. I didn't even have a chance to protest before I was thrown over the edge of the bridge and landing on the wet rocks, thankfully the bridge was fairly small so the fall wouldn't kill me, but I guess dad lost a few brain cells from all his drinking and thought it would.

But then again, it could've been an hour since I was literally dumped here and no one had found me so he may have believed that I'll either eventually die from my injuries or hypothermia. ...At least I'll finally see-

"Oh my gosh! Dizzy, look!"

I'm hearing voices. None that belong to me or my dad. Best case scenario is that someone actually did find me and was hopefully going to get me some help, strangely though… this voice that was quickly followed by another, they sounded like they belonged to some young girls.

"What's a human boy doing here?"

"Is he okay? He looks hurt!"

All I could sense from these voices were growing concern of me as you'd might expect. Even though I could hear them, I was still in my unconscious state of sleep so I couldn't respond to them. It wasn't until maybe a second later when I thought I could feel two pairs of arms carefully lifting my limp body, faintly hearing some struggling grunts from the sources of the two voices.

"Let's take him back and get Dylan! He'll know what to do!" I didn't know what happened after that but I could only guess they were probably taking me to their home, wherever that was…

Presumably one or two hours later…

My head was throbbing, the pain as far as I could remember was like when the time dad got so pissed off at me from drunken rage and smashed a beer bottle on me. Instinctively, I reached a hand to my head and felt something like the rough fabric texture of a band-aid, that was when I realised I was coming to consciousness. I slowly opened and blinked my eyes to fix my blurred vision, and my sight was met with a cream coloured ceiling. Still slowly recovering, I chose to just move my head around to look at my surroundings. I could see for one that I was laying on a blue couch decorated with purple and hot pink pillows. The wall the couch was placed against adorned many photo-frames but before I could get a better look at the photos in the frames…

"Hey, he's finally awake!"

I recognised that as one of the two voices I had heard back at the bridge. I turned to my left… and I did not expect what I saw.

Two anthro Dalmatian puppies who were probably around my age if not a little younger than me. One of which wore denim overalls with a blue under-shirt, her significant features being a few spots on her face and a fur pattern around her eyes that looked like an eye-mask and one ear being black. The other meanwhile had similar garments but the overalls were replaced with a skirt held by overall straps and her facial fur pattern was of what I could best describe was a rounded stripe squashed in the middle running from her forehead to her nose, alongside her having both white ears. The latter was carrying a glass of orange juice as she set it on a low table next to the couch I was on before they both leaned over me.

"You had a pretty nasty fall there, are you hurt?" The Dalmatian in the skirt inquired. I was still trying to processing what my eyes were depicting before I snapped out of it and stammered an answer.

"A-A little..." Of course, I shouldn't have been too surprised. Anthro animals were usually common where I live. ...Well, used to live, yet something about this seemed uncommon to me.

"What happened? Did you slip and bump your head?" The overall wearing puppy followed with a question of her own, this one however I didn't feel comfortable answering. All I could get out was a nervous "Um..." before my "interview" was cut short.

"Dizzy! Dee Dee! You left dirt prints on the floor again!" An older masculine sounding voice called out from outside the room I was in, followed by footsteps that got slightly louder before the source of both noises came in and was taken aback when he immediately noticed me.

"W-What on earth"?

What came in was another Dalmatian, like one of the two girl Dalmatians, one of his ears was black while his fur was of the regular white with black spots. His outfit being a simple white t-shirt with red sleeves and a grey star on the front, followed by a pair of denim jeans. I could quickly tell he was older than the two girls and even me because of his height, most likely a teenager.

"Where did you-?"

"We found him at the bottom of the bridge, he wasn't moving and he looked badly hurt!" The girls quickly answered before the older Dalmatian could finish his question.

"Can we keep him?"

"At least until he's better!"

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" The two girls suddenly asked while pressing their cheeks against the Dalmatian boy's, giving him pleading eyes. I admit, even I was stunned to hear that. I had only just met these three and two of them wanted me to stay. I didn't even know their names let alone which of the two were supposed to be Dizzy and Dee Dee. The older Dalmatian looked over me, the wet patches of rain on my already unkempt and scratched hoodie and jeans were impossible to notice.

"...Okay okay, but only until he's better, then we're contacting his parents." He caved in to the girls' begging with a slightly defeated sigh. My mood instantly went south when he mentioned about contacting my parents. None of them knew yet why I was even laying limp by the bridge in the first place.

"YAY!" The two girls cheered, before suddenly running off, leaving me alone with the teen.

"So your name is…?" He asked, giving me a small smile perhaps to try to make me feel comfortable and my answer was evidence that it was working.

"...Cody. Cody Wester." I tried to return a friendly smile.

"Nice name for a human. I'm Dylan. And I guess you've already met two of my sisters." The teen Dalmatian introduced himself, glancing at the doorway those two girls had run out through during the last sentence. At least I had a bit of info regarding Dylan and the girls' relationship.

"Do you know where you're from?" He then asked, this one took me a while to think.

"...Yateley, I think." I did remember seeing a sign that said something like "Now leaving Yately" a while before I was dumped.

"Alright, so we'll just need to get to Yateley when you've recovered and find your mum and dad!" Dylan remarked positively. I however, wasn't positive. I really wanted to protest, but for whatever reason I just couldn't speak up. Call it an emotional barrier that children get that won't let them speak out against their abuser, I have no idea.

"BOW WACKA WOW, LOOK OUT BELOW FOR THE GREATEST STAIR RAIL SLIDER!" Another voice rang out nearby, this one being female but also seemingly older. Dylan's face turned sour as he walked out of the room.

"Ugh, Dolly!" I heard him call out exasperatedly, the sound of a crash following after. Curiosity was getting the better of me but since I was still recovering, it took some effort for me to find my muscles and sit up. I remembered the photos on the wall and brought my attention back to them. There were other Dalmatians of various ages and statures, Dylan must live with a pretty big family. I then looked back at the glass of OJ that one of Dylan's sisters had left me and took a sip, I was getting pretty thirsty.

Dolly's POV

*Sigh* Here we go again. Here comes the part where my loveable yet dorky buzzkill brother comes in and tells me off like a second dad for being "dangerous". Hey, I can't help playing dangerous, I live for that kind of stuff.

"How many times must I tell you not to go down the stair rail like that, we have stairs for a reason!" I rolled my eyes with a smirk before getting up off the floor and dusting myself off.

"Chill out, Dylan! You forget that I've already slid down that rail so many times. Besides, it's not like I ever get hurt from it!" I defended, though I was kinda fooling myself to hide the fact that I did get a splinter on my paw.

"Just because you've never hurt yourself from that stunt doesn't mean it's never going to happen! Now please, just don't get yourself into trouble, we already have a problem on our hands! ...Oh my dog, I forgot!" I was about to ask what he meant by problem until he quickly ran off. Eh, he probably lost his prized space helmet, I swear, given that he sometimes sleeps with it, I bet he'd marry it if he could. Though with him gone, I could at least get the splinter out.

"Ow, ow, ow, stupid wood!" I yelped in pain as I managed to get the dang thing off. I dunno what's more painful, these or paper cuts. That was when I noticed Dizzy and Dee Dee carrying a sandwich on a plate to the living room, normally I'd just ignore it and get back to what I was doing but those two usually eat at the kitchen like me and the others. Maybe they were watching a movie and getting a snack? I shrugged in my head and followed where they were headed, peeking into the room.

...Huh? What was a human kid doing there on the couch? And how long has he been there? Dylan was there with Dizzy and Dee Dee as they gave him the sandwich which he took and ate. I guess this was the problem that Dylan was on about. I looked again at the kid and saw that he was not the cleanest looking, like they just picked him up off the streets. Was he homeless and they just happened to spot him and let him rest to get his energy. Where were his mom and dad?

"Is Yateley nice, Cody?" Dizzy asked. So that was the kid's name. I wonder if anyone else knows about this.

Cody's POV

"Y-Yeah, it is pretty nice." I nodded with my answer. Now it was my turn to ask something. "So where are we?"

"You're in Camden, London. It's quite the sight for sore eyes." Dylan was quick to answer. I guess that answers the question of what that city in the distance I saw before being thrown of the bridge was. I honestly didn't think I'd ever visit London especially when my dad never let me go anywhere except school and spent almost all his time at the TV with his six packs of beer.

"Think you're alright to walk? I think Dizzy and Dee Dee are just waiting for you to meet the others." Dylan then inquired. I briefly tested my legs for a moment and felt no pain, same for my arms. Seemed like I hadn't broken any bones thankfully. So I stood up from the couch after finishing my sandwich and turned to the three.

"Yeah. I think I'm okay." I replied with a comfortable smile. Dizzy and Dee Dee squeed before grabbing my arm and tugging me along with them.

"Come on! Our brothers and sisters will like you!" Dee Dee affirmed as I was lead out of the living room with Dylan quickly following behind.

Although for a moment, I thought I noticed someone out of the corner of my eye by the doorway.