Star Side

Chapter 71

I wanted to run to the life pod and report the hatching to Levi and Naomi right away: two little girls and a little boy. And they didn't look like monsters, outside of having longer legs and feet that leaned towards the draconic side and a little tail on the boy.

But instincts had once again kicked in for Gilrack. He wouldn't leave the young, nor me, while they were so young. He grimaced as he said so, having never wanted me to feel trapped in the nest. It had been him and his father encouraging me to take excursions away while they had been eggs and me who had wanted to stay behind.

So I didn't fight it and simply wondered and the tiny little people I'd brought into the world—yes, people. Not freaks, not aliens, not mushed up pink wigglers like premature mammals often looked like. Tiny little people with ten perfect fingers and ten perfect toes, unique little faces with perfect little noses, mouths, and big dark eyes. I had examined their eyes closely when they were awake, unable to look away from their steady gazes on mine, and found a fain myriad of colors in their irises, like the colors of a pearl. I told Gilrack that our babies were born with either dark or gray eyes that turned to their final color after a few weeks and found him staring deeply into our awake babies eyes to in awe of the colors. Though that might have been just because his kind apparently were born with their eyes clothes, like kittens or puppies.

"They see me," he'd whispered. "They're looking at me."

"That's what eyes are for?" I said, more amused than bemused by his awe. It felt even more wonderful to have someone to share in all these new feelings. It wasn't just me counting toes or smoothing velvet soft baby hair, it was him as well, though much, much more cautiously to avoid knicking the tiny babies with his claws.

And tiny they were. I had a rough estimate of how big normal human babies were, having held my newborn nephew and nieces before, but even if I hadn't they'd seem miniscule. Gilrack could hold an entire baby in one hand with ease, and while his hands were twice the size of mine, it was still a feet. They looked to be half the size of a human baby, but it made sense to me seeing as their eggs hadn't grown all that much bigger and they were only the size of a softball when I'd birthed them. Or is it lain them? No, I am not using the word 'lay' in reference to me. It made me feel like a chicken.

I fully expected Gilrack's parents to rush in to view their new grandchildren, like humans were, but got a new culture shock that these weren't aliens. Apparently, instincts are especially high right after the hatching of young. If his parents so much as peeked now, they'd be risking getting attacked by Gilrack in a instinct induced madness. It was weird for me to think about, because looking at Gilrack he didn't look like he was readying to kill. He just looked like a soft, happy new daddy who couldn't sleep from eagerness to care for us.

But I had wished he could have at least let his mother come up, because I had no idea what I was doing. I only had the little knowledge from watching my sister with her babies for the day or so I had visited for. Basically, nipple in mouth, burp afterwards, and change the diaper—ugh, but aliens didn't have diapers. At least not the disposable ones. They had cloth diapers, but the babies were so tiny Gilrack couldn't tie or even change the diapers without hurting the babies with his claws, not that he didn't try because all the babies systems seemed to be on the same schedule. They all seemed to need to eat at the same time, and therefore pooped/peed at the same time, and it drove him near wild with need to 'fix' to have two babies crying while they waited for their turn to have their diapers changed. I found it didn't send me as frantic as him when they cried because their cries were more like kitten mewls to me, due to their tiny size, and as long as I was allowed to actively do something about their cries, I was appeased.

But that seemed to be enough. Feed, burp, diaper changes, and letting them nap close on mine or Gilrack's chest. Gilrack chattered something about them hearing our mindwaves and warmth, but it really because there was something heavenly about cuddling a tiny baby.