Morning.
The best time in some people's lives, or the worst time for students and office workers.
And this morning, a young boy was in for a surprise.
Ars looked at his reflection and froze. He recovered pretty fast, considering what he saw was pretty strange.
'It must be because I just woke up.' He thought, trying to escape reality.
He splashed his face with water from the sink before looking at his reflection once again. He hoped that he was awake enough to see reality now.
However, the strange things were still there.
A pair of horns on each side of his head. They were bulky. To make things worse, they were also black with white stripes. A color that stood out no matter how people saw it.
"Huh?" A confused voice slipped out of his mouth, "Cool, did dad put them on my head because I woke up late today?"
He touched the horns with his hands. They were pretty solid. And when he pulled it, it hurt him.
'Alright, they aren't accessories.' He thought, nodding at himself. 'It's time to panic.'
"DAD!" He ran toward the living room, where his father was.
There, his dad was sitting on a cozy sofa while reading a book, accompanied by a hot coffee on the small table beside him. He was a dandy cool man with glasses. His name was Miller.
"Morning." Miller greeted Ars and looked at him.
"Yeah, morning." Ars greeted back, the panic settled in almost immediately after looking at his father's calm demeanor.
But, something took priority.
"Look at this." He pointed at his head, more specifically at the horns.
Miller's gaze followed his hand and he hummed, "Wow, a new fashion? Youngsters these days are wild. Never in my life would I expect horns would be a trend."
"I hope that's the case." Ars sighed, "These are real, by the way. When I realized it, they were already on my head."
"Is that so?" His father was still calm as if this was something normal. He sipped his coffee before continuing, "Morning wood? Like, they grew when you were sleeping?"
"… Their texture feels like wood, so you're not entirely wrong." He looked at his father with a disappointed gaze. "And how do I know? I was sleeping, dad."
"Intriguing." Miller nodded, putting down his book with a soft thud. "Any discomfort? Or a change in your body besides that? Like, growing a tail or your dick becoming bigger? Or a tentacle? Tell me if you have any other changes in your body."
"Why is dick the first thing that you say to your son? You're a bad example, you know? And no, there is no change. No tentacle either. At least I don't feel anything strange." Ars answered.
He narrowed his eyes at his dad after feeling something amiss. "Do you have any idea what happened?"
"Yup," Miller answered lightheartedly as he stood up, approaching his son.
"Don't yup at me. Explain." Ars pressed, groaning in frustration, but Miller still looked pretty calm.
Patting his son's shoulder, he continued.
"You can say that I had a passionate night with an eldritch entity and she got pregnant. Well, you know? A bad one-night stand. It just happened when I wished for a girlfriend 19 years ago. Yaa, I was desperate and summoned one. That was fun."
"…"
Ars was speechless. An eldritch entity? A bad one-night stand? Was that why he never met his mother? He thought she was gone. There wasn't even a picture of her in the house.
"You're a half-eldritch. Congratulations." Miller laughed and patted Ars's shoulder a few times before taking a trench coat. He went to the entrance and put on his shoes. "Eat something in the fridge and do something productive for the day. See you later, Ars."
With that, Miller left the house and closed the door with a bang. Fast footsteps could be heard outside. The sound got thinner fast and disappeared within a few seconds.
Left alone, Ars looked at the door in disbelief.
'This is too absurd! He left me alone just like that?'
Holding off a sigh was not possible in his situation, so he let it loose.
Unexpectedly, purple smoke came out from his mouth and touched his pajamas. The clothes that were touched suddenly wrinkled and turned into dust. He was left half-naked and confused.
A realization set in a second later and he screamed.
"No! My favorite pajamas!"
And that was how Ars's new morning went. Grew new horns, had a panic attack, had a strangely corrosive purple smoke coming out his mouth, and… losing his favorite pajamas.