Star Side

Chapter 48

"When will they hatch?" I asked as I ran my thumb over a blue and purple speckled egg. They were beautiful, in their own way.

He had to think about that for a moment, as he always did when converting his time to our time.

"About three months your time," he said.

"Three months..." I cupped my hand about the egg. It was so warm. "Am I going to have to cuddle them like this for three months?"

"We take turns. Once you are well."

"I'm not really chicken material...what if I squish them in my sleep?"

He rumbled with his version of a chuckle and tapped his claw against the same egg I examined.

"You are light, and they are strong."

"Then how are the babies going to come out?"

"The shell will grow soft near the day. They take in shell to grow. Shell is made of good stone. Lots of nutrients."

Huh. That would be interesting to research. The super multi-vitamin which was shells. Though that also brought to mind how much I had eaten in protein supplements the past few months or so. I'd have to count back to my birthday. Damn, that wasn't a long pregnancy.

"You know, we keep grow our young in our bodies for ten months, then birth them already hatched, no shell at all."

He made a funny squawky noise in his throat that made me laugh. I could feel his disbelief enough to interpret the unfamiliar noise.

"That sounds...uncomfortable." He said, and I knew he was thinking of himself going mad with worry over my few months of pregnancy.

"It is. More than half of us get sick in the beginning as our body adjust to growing another person, and there's all sorts of complications that are considered normal, like swelling and pain and not being able to move well."

"...How are your people still alive?"

"How are yours spending three months doing nothing but cuddling eggs?"

"We work in pairs, we have to—"

"Well, we don't have to work in pairs if we take the baby everywhere with us. Lots of our females are able to birth babies without the help of a mate or family. It's harder, but it happens, probably more than it should."

He didn't like that. He didn't like that at all to the point his mind waves left pin like prickles all along my back.

"You're able to do more when you grow your baby inside you the whole time instead of lay eggs," I went on. "Lots of women still work and do what they usually do when not pregnant."

"Your males are lacking," he said, all growly like.

"Why not the females? It takes two to make a baby, you know."

He was quiet for a bit.

"Instincts," he finally said. "Your kind have weak instincts. My kind, once a male mates a female, he stays near so he can scent pregnancy. When he smells the young, his instincts don't allow him to leave without misery, because they are his. Young are happiness. Young are precious, small..." he pondered for the right word. "Beautiful."

"I think the word you're looking for is cute."

"Yes. Cute. Very cute. Are your young not cute?"

"Oh, no, they're cute. And we have something like instincts that make us uncomfortable and miserable if we leave our young too. It's just...people have choices. Sometimes they don't think young will make them happy, even if they are cute, or staying with their mates is so miserable they don't think the young make it worth it."