Family Matters
© 2022 by M. Mitch Marmel

Thumbnail art by  tegerio, color by  marmelmm

Part Six.


Missy:

“Excuse me, wolfess?”

The delegation that I had guided from Eastness had left to go back to the Master’s Lodge and the Annexe after lunch, and Ooo-er, Aedith and I were the only ones – well, living ones – left in the Grotto. Aedith had immediately gone back to basking in the sun. I turned to see Princess Grace smiling up at me. “Yes, Your Highness?” I asked.

“May I have a word with you and Ooo-er?” The ghostly skunk swished her tail, and something moved in the treeline behind her.

I felt Ooo-er stiffen and hiss as Tali emerged and walked toward the Grotto, glancing up at the sunlight quizzically as she crossed the boundary.

“Ooo-er,” Grace said sharply, “please show some manners.”

“She had venery with my mate,” the otteress said sullenly.

The specter raised a finger. “And if a Gap hadn’t shown up, would you have objected to Tali having venery with you both?” Ooo-er paused in mid-objection, and her tail drooped. “You wanted to share Tali with your mate?” My love’s shoulders slumped and she nodded.

“I thought so,” Grace said. “Now, my dears, I would appreciate it very much if you three would do me a service.”

“What?” I asked.

Grace gave a serene smile. “I want you to finish the picnic that you started before all this happened. Please?”

“The frog pond is probably very cold,” I observed, “and it’s pouring down – “

The ghost laughed. “My dears, there’s a perfectly serviceable pond just down there, and Ooo-er?” She perked her ears. “Was it very cold?”

“No,” she admitted, because Elves Don’t Lie, “it’s quite pleasant.”

Grace smiled and glanced at Aedith, who was dozing in the sunlight. “Well then, you three go off and play.” She made shooing motions with her paws.

Ooo-er was right. The pond was quite warm, but Tali and I rather self-consciously shed our clothes. Before she stepped into the water, the feline reached into a pocket and rummaged around a bit, coming up with a small flat rectangular box. She placed it on the ground and touched it, and two small red lights appeared.

“Just a monitoring apparatus,” Tali explained. “If another Gap forms, at least we can find out how it forms and where it goes.” She waded into the pond and sighed. “Oh, this feels heavenly.”

Ooo-er and I looked at her, caught each other looking at her, and looked away. “Um,” I ventured before finding what I thought was a safely innocuous subject, “did you read the letter I brought you, love?”

She nodded. “It was from Arnie. He wanted to know how I was doing, and he wanted to let me know that I’ll be welcome at his mother’s inn if I ever go back to Eastness.”

“You must have made a great impression,” Tali said.

Ooo-er gave her an arch look. “We both did – on his mattress.” She giggled, and gave me a look.

I smiled. “I had no idea that you liked mels, love.”

She shrugged and glanced at Tali, who had submerged briefly and was wringing water from her black headfur. “Elves Don’t Lie, I like both, my heart,” she replied. “But I’ve missed you, and that’s no lie, either. Can we call a truce?”

I eased a little closer to her, putting all three of us a roughly equal distance apart. “I think we can do better than that,” I said. “Make peace.”

“Peace?”

I nodded. “Uh-huh,” and I smiled. “Sealed with a kiss.”

Ooo-er grinned, and was about to say something, but instead her mouth opened and a loud “BRRRRAPPP!!” came out. She suddenly gave me and Tali a gleeful smile.

I sat back, surprised, and so did Tali.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Was it something you ate?” asked Tali.

My otteress was practically dancing where she sat in the water, chirping and clicking a happy song. She lapsed into Standard long enough to say, “On the Glittering Isle, if a woman belches after venery, that means she’s pregnant.”

I chuckled a bit at that. Elves belch for almost any reason, usually having to do with how much they’ve drank or eaten. I’ve seen the wolves of the Gray Horde holding belching contests.

Let’s just overlook the farting contests the roebucks hold, shall we?

I glanced at Tali, who was smiling a little tolerantly. I could understand that, based on the places she’s –

“BRRRRAPPP!!”

“BRRRRAPPP!!”

“BRRRRAPPP!!”

All three of us belched, close enough to simultaneously as makes no odds, and made enough of a racket doing it that I glimpsed Aedith sitting up, looking downslope at us, and going back to sleep.

I just sat there in shock and Tali looked embarrassed, with a paw over her muzzle.

Ooo-er only smiled wider.

“What?” and I cast detect-magicks on myself.

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.

There was something there.

Something living.

“I -I,” I faltered.

Ooo-er gave a happy squeal and launched herself across the pond to hug me, and Tali climbed out of the water, grabbing another piece of apparatus from her jumpsuit. She ran it over her belly, looked at the result and tossed it down.

She looked very angry.

“You’ll excuse me,” she growled. “I’ll be back.”

And with that, she stomped off in the direction of Glenallid, without a stitch on.

Of course, by the time she disappeared in the downpour, I had Ooo-er in my arms, and I really didn’t feel like asking Tali where she was going.


***


Tali:

“MATT!”

My mate looked up from the book he was reading. “Yes, Tali?” He whistled appreciatively. “You’ve lost your clothes again – “

I like the water, and as hot as I was, I’m surprised the rain didn’t flash into steam. I had also ignored the many wolves and wolfesses that had watched me walking by. Yes, I had noticed. “You randy old bastard – “

He raised a finger. “Tut tut, my dear. You’re right about two of those, but I must tell you that both of my parents were happily married – “

I glared at him. “Beside. The. Point.”

“So,” and he set the book aside, “what, indeed, is the point, my love?”

“You’ve knocked me up!” I shouted. “Have you been playing fast and loose with your Precautions? Again?”

“Elves Don’t Lie – “

“YOU are NOT an Elf!”

“True, but honesty’s always the best policy,” my honey bear said reasonably, “and I swear upon the bones of Bastet that I got a booster at Headquarters before we started operations here.” He caught my look and raised a paw. Thumb holding little finger, three fingers raised close together. “Scout’s honor.”

I narrowed my eyes at him before stomping off to the autodoc.

Of course, I dried off before setting the controls with my baseline parameters and lying down on the diagnostic bed. It hummed and buzzed and warbled, and when it was done it went ping.

I climbed out and read the diagnostic results.

And then read them again.

And again.

I was dimly aware that Matt was leaning against the doorjamb. “You okeh, love?” he asked.

“I-I’m pregnant.”

“Mazel tov. I ask again, who’s the father? I’d like to meet him.”

I showed him the diagnostic screen, and my bear’s jaw almost hit the floor.

By then, I was already out of the wagon and headed back to the pond, with a portable medical scanner in one paw.

And I still didn’t have a stitch on.


***


Ooo-er:

Missy and I were snuggling when Tali came walking up to the pond. My love’s head cocked to one side. “Is everything all right?”

Tali was fussing with another one of her little boxes while grumbling in a language I didn’t understand.

She pointed it at me, and it warbled.

And then it went ping. I liked the sound, very pleasant.

Tali glared at it, and I asked, “What’s that?”

“A medical scanner,” Tali replied. She glanced up and saw my look at her, because she said, “It can see deep inside you and tell about your physical condition.” She turned it and pointed. “This says that a fertilized egg has implanted in your uterus – in other words, you’re pregnant.”

I squealed like a kit and hugged my love, who hugged me back and asked Tali, “Is that why you left? To go get that thing?”

“Yeah, and to do a scan on myself.” The feline shook her head. “I . . . I can’t explain it – hell, I’m having trouble understanding it.”

“Well?” Missy asked.

Tali shook her head, her tail hanging down and the tip curling around her ankle. “I’m pregnant,” she said, and she looked at both of us, “and it’s a wolfess.”

I looked at Missy, who looked almost like she had when I had shocked her. “Use that,” she said, her voice dead flat, “on me.”

Tali pointed it at her. The box warbled, and went ping. She looked at it, her tail bottled. “It says you’re pregnant, all right – with a kitten.”

(yes, My children.) was heard as there was a sudden glow downstream.





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