88
“Is this supposed to happen!?” Marissith asked loudly as soon as she wakes
Waking me up and immediately alert
God, how I miss that comfortable feeling of being still drowsy when waking up. Kal and Druig already left my tent. Which leaves me alone with the panicking Marissith as she saw herself already heavily pregnant.
“Yes. Do not worry. It takes at most one day between impregnation and birth. It won’t hurt too.” I sit up and console her by caressing her face
“How did the beastmen not overrun the Old World yet?”
“Because the empire can kill them as fast as they can breed. Only those that stay in the deep forest that are difficult to hunt down.” I answered truthfully
“Isha... I’m going to give birth to a monster.” She pray in lament
“Not exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“The beastmen, at least those under my command, have been steadily moving away from being a monster. Still looking monstrous but their intelligence is steadily rising, we didn’t even raid for a long time too. They have a chance to be a proper civilization.” I felt a little sense of accomplishment explaining this to her
“That doesn’t exactly sound comforting.”
I roll my eyes at her statement. What she said is true. Not exactly comforting to other races. Then it dawns on me. There might be a chance that the only way I am allowed to join the alliance with the humans is if I abandon my beastmen. Definitely not going to happen. Doing so will make me lose the base of my power and even if I accept, it could be just a ruse to kill me.
“It’s just that I might be able to return the beastmen to their original state. Though I wonder if that’s a good decision or not.” I decided to just tell her the truth. This kind of news only has value to those directly benefited from it and I doubt the Four would even care if I restore a significant chunk of the beastmen back.
“That is good right? Isn’t that what you aim to do?” She is genuinely confused by my indecision
“Well, if you know what is coming, it might not be a good thing.”
“What? What is coming?”
“In your tongue, the Dragon with Two Tails is coming soon. Though I don’t know much how the elves interpret it other than an omen of things to come.” I explains
“Is it-” I just slightly shake my head. Since the elves are neutral in their interpretation, for them, omens must be both good and bad. Nothing good will happen so I stop her from even asking.
Soon after, Marissith starts giving birth. I held her head in my lap and her hand in my hand. She yelps with every beastmen baby she pushes out. Not out of pain but shock and confusion on how easy it was. But different from the screeching usually heard when beastmen babies are born, those born from Marissith are distinctly crying as they should be.
I pick the oldest one that is already pushing himself to stand. Inspecting him, the beastmen born from Kal and Marissith all have antlers rather than goat horns. His countenance is sharper. As his chin is not wide and its jawline is thinner, he looks like he is always smiling when his mouth is closed. Unfortunately his teeth are still filled with jagged and thin fangs. I guess this is what the Satyrs would look like, though the insides are still fully beastmen. It opens his eyes and stares at me, what I see is not the usual vertical pupil of a beastmen but horizontal pupil. The baby immediately focuses on Marissith despite me being the one lifting and in front of him.
“Seems like my grandson likes you more than me.” I chuckle as I give him to her waiting arms. Marissith immediately took him and breastfeed him. Though this led her other children to flock and surround her.
“W-wait, this is progressing so fast.” She look afraid as the ones she give birth to already starting to stand or crawl to her
“I would suggest picking the oldest boy and girl to take care of yourself. The female beastmen of the herd will take care of the rest.” As soon as I said that, Mal entered the tent. She side eyed me with all her three eyes, silently saying that these beastmen look and feel different than the rest.
“Wait. Let me name them first.” I shrug at Marissith request and allow her to do what she wants