Monster Girl Islands

by Logan Jacobs

  She nodded that she understood and hurried off to do as I asked.

  “I’m so sorry, Ben,” the queen mumbled through her fingers, “I didn’t mean to weep on you like that.”

  “There is no need to apologize, Nerissa,” I reassured her, “that is what I am here for.”

  This didn’t help one bit and just caused her to start crying all over again. I pulled her back into my chest, and I could have sworn I saw George roll his eyes at me.

  Soon, the woman I’d flagged down earlier brought me a glass of cool water, and I thanked her the best I could with my eyes, but I was sure it came off more like a pleading look.

  She just smiled, patted me on the back, and walked away.

  Thanks a lot, lady.

  “Nerissa,” I said softly, “my darling queen, please tell me what’s going on. At the end of the day, I am a man, and I am not so good at picking up subtle or even obvious hints dropped at my feet. I have some water for you, please move your hands so I can see your face and talk to you.”

  After far too many minutes, Nerissa pulled away and removed her hands from her face, but wouldn’t meet my eyes. I gently lifted her chin and looked at her beautiful, swollen face. Then I gave her the cup with the water, and she chugged it down like she had just run a marathon in the desert.

  “Now, care to tell me what’s going on?” I gently asked.

  “You mean you really don’t know?”

  “Once again, I am a man, I am clueless. You have to tell me directly.”

  She stared at me for a few seconds that felt like years. Then a slight smile came to her lips before she finally told me.

  “I’m pregnant, Ben.”

  Time, along with my ability to breathe, seemed to stop when her words hit my ears. My mouth suddenly went dry, and I broke out in that weird clammy sweat you sometimes get before nausea hits you like a sack of bricks.

  A thousand questions rattled around my brain, and finally one of them popped out.

  “Wait, you already know?”

  Nerissa nodded her head again, and her bottom lip started to quiver.

  There was no way in hell I was going to let her break down again, so I did the only thing I could think of. I put both of my hands on her cheeks and pulled her into a kiss. After that was done, I picked her up, swung her around, and laughed like a maniac. I realized I wasn’t faking the joy, not one bit. I was genuinely happy about this news.

  I was most definitely freaked out, too, but I was still ecstatic about it.

  “You are happy,” Nerissa laughed.

  “Of course I am!” I shouted. “I am terrified, but that doesn’t stop me from being happy, too. I know I am going to work hard every single day to be the best father I can be.”

  I was going to be a dad. Fuck. Fuck.

  Suddenly, I was the one overwhelmed with emotion. I dropped down to my knees in front of Nerissa and put my forehead on her tummy. I could already feel a slight swelling of her womb, and that blew my mind. I kissed her belly and just stayed there as I put all the pieces of the puzzle together. The increased fullness of her body, the chuffing sound George had made, the sudden bursting into tears, they were all signs.

  I stood up and pulled this amazing woman back into my arms.

  “Promise me, Nerissa,” I practically begged, “that you will just tell me what you need. I suck at clues and hints. For the love of the gods, George realized you were pregnant before I did.”

  This caused her to burst into big bubbles of laughter that I definitely preferred over the sobbing. This was something I could work with.

  “Yes, Ben,” she replied, “I will do my best to just lay it right out there for you.”

  “Thank you, my queen.” I said, “you will be doing me a huge favor.”

  I hugged her tightly against me and gave her one last kiss before I let her go. Gods, she was so soft and smelled so good. It was hard to take my hands off her, but there was too much to be done.

  “Tell me what you have going for the games tonight and what I can do to help,” I instructed.

  “There really isn’t much left to be done out on the field, but you can check with Hali,” Nerissa suggested. “She is planning on a big feast and might need help with that huge boar.”

  “I am on it, my beautiful queen,” I said with a bow.

  She giggled at my response, rolled her eyes, and went back to directing what needed to be done.

  “Come on, George,” I called as I turned away from the future mother of my child, “I bet we can get another snack from Hali.”

  This perked the dragon up, and he followed me to the kitchen.

  I’d barely set foot into the kitchen when I heard Hali’s voice call out my name from the back door. I ran over to see what was so urgent and saw her trying to wrestle half of that huge boar out of the door with just one other person.

  “Let me grab this end, and you two get the other side,” I suggested.

  They had loaded it back onto the hammock, which was smart, but they still didn’t have the strength to get it outside.

  George gave the meat a big sniff of approval before he let me pick it up.

  We got the boar outside and over to a huge pit that had been dug into the ground. It was lined with banana leaves and reminded me of the Kalua Pork I had at a luau in Hawaii while I was on active duty. My stomach growled at the thought, even though it hadn’t been that long since I’d shoveled it full of food.

  I helped Hali lower the boar into the hot pit. Then we pulled the hammock out, and she stood over the hole sprinkling some kind of seasoning from a bowl liberally all over the boar. She then instructed us to layer more banana leaves on top and cover it with some of the woven thatching.

  “Well,” the redheaded beauty huffed, “that should be perfectly done in time for the victory celebration tonight. Thank you for your help. We could have wrestled that thing for another hour before we made it to the pit.”

  She tossed George a hunk of meat from the butchered boar and handed me a honey cake before she ran us out of there.

  I decided to take a walk down to the training field and then see about going over to the eastern shore to get started on ideas for the border defenses. I needed to make my way back into the jungle to collect my contribution for the compost pile, but it would have to wait until some of the warriors could accompany me. It looked like they were all working out to prepare for the games or helping others to prepare, and I watched them for a little while from a distance so I didn’t disturb them. They moved so gracefully that it reminded me of watching a ballet on stage in New York City. I would have kept watching, but then a noise came from the houses behind me.

  I turned to see a woman hunched over and bracing herself against the wall of a hut, and a cold chill ran down my spine at the sight.

  George whimpered a little at my distress as I jumped up to run over and check on the woman. The closer I got, the harder my heart pounded. I thought I was running as fast as I could until two things happened at once. The woman dropped to her knees, and I got close enough to see it was Talise. I found more speed inside of my body and sprinted the last fifty yards to her side. She was hunched over in the grass and dry heaving over what appeared to be a very fresh pile of vomit.

  “Talise? Talise, are you alright?” I leaned down to put my arm around her and to pull her hair out of her face.

  The healer didn’t respond, but she had dark circles under her eyes and a greenish tint to her usual porcelain skin, and she just kinda leaned into me and let me support her weight.

  I gave her a few seconds to see if she was done and then scooped her up and carried her across the village to her hut. Her head just rested against my shoulder, and she seemed to pass out in my arms.

  By the time I’d reached her hut, I’d told every single woman I’d passed to fetch Careen or Sela or both or whoever they could find and meet me there.

  George followed close behind me and let out the occasional whimper at my distress.

  I gent
ly laid Talise down on the bed and went behind the privacy curtain to fetch a bowl of water and a soft cloth.

  I came back, sat down next to her on the bed, and began washing her face and neck with the wet cloth. I carefully wiped her beautiful bottom lip and cleaned all the vomit off her face. I used the rag to get what I could out of her hair, then pulled it all up on the top of her head and fastened it the best I could with the few hair pins I could find. Finally, I covered her up with the soft blanket and not so patiently waited for one of the women to show up.

  George laid his dragon head on the pillow next to Talise and let out a big sigh.

  I was just about to lose my mind when Careen came running in the door.

  “What has happened?” she asked as she assessed the situation with total confidence.

  “I don’t know, I found her puking, and then she passed out in my arms,” I said worriedly, but I had enough sense to move out of the pixie healer’s way.

  Careen proceeded to run her hands down Talise’s throat, chest, and abdomen. The pixie healer spent a lot of time on the other woman’s stomach, which made a lot of sense considering the condition I’d found her in. Careen reached into the basket she carried in with her and pulled out an instrument that looked like one of those old timey ear horns, only made from a conch shell. Then she listened intently to Talise’s heart and lungs and moved down to her belly. She moved the damned ear trumpet around all over her tummy for what seemed like hours, and I was on the verge of screaming my head off when she paused and held her hand up for me to keep my mouth shut.

  Careen stayed in that same spot for several minutes while I sat there and lost my ever-loving mind. Soon, though, she looked up at me and smiled. She actually smiled at me.

  Best handjob of my life or not, I was about to murder this woman.

  “Don’t say a word, Ben,” she said in her sweet voice, “just lean down here and listen.”

  I didn’t say a word, but the look I gave her had a million things to say that my mother would have beaten me senseless for even thinking.

  Then I leaned down and put my ear to the funky gadget, and I could hear Talise’s heart pound a hundred miles an hour in her stomach. That couldn’t be good. I started to say something to Careen, but she put her finger on my lips and pointed to the makeshift stethoscope. I listened again, and in the background of the heartbeat, I could hear another heart beating at a much slower pace, and it seemed to be further away.

  For a fleeting moment, I wondered if these women had two hearts, but I continued to listen to the heartbeats and tried to understand.

  Then George stuck his head up on the bed and started making that chuffing noise again.

  May all the gods in the whole fucking universe have mercy on me.

  Talise was pregnant.

  Careen let out a giggle when she saw the realization hit my face, and I couldn’t stop listening to the sound of their hearts beating in tandem. I placed one hand right next to the horn in a protective gesture, and George laid his head on my hand. It was like we both silently swore to protect this little bean with everything we had.

  Just then, a woman I hadn’t met poked her head in the door.

  “Is there anything I can get for you?” she asked Careen.

  “A pot of peppermint tea with sage and lemon,” Careen told the woman with a smile.

  A matching grin broke out across the other woman’s face, and she nodded her head and promptly turned away.

  “I take it I am pregnant,” said a small voice that came from the bed.

  I looked up to see Talise was awake and had tears in her eyes and a big smile on her face.

  I moved up to lay beside her and wrap her in my arms, and she turned to me and snuggled against my chest. She only shed a few tears before she lifted her head to kiss me soundly.

  Sweet hell, it was crazy how pregnancy hormones affected these women so damn differently.

  And so damn quickly. I’d just made love to her last night, and even though I just found out the queen was pregnant, I couldn’t believe that Talise already was.

  The other woman brought the tea back, and I helped Talise sit up to drink it. She sipped on the cup of tea, and pretty soon the color came back to her face. She still had the dark circles under her eyes, but I wasn’t so terrified now that she wasn’t a very unsavory shade of green.

  “You must attend the games tonight, Ben,” Talise said with a weak smile, “I will be fine here, I promise.”

  I started to protest but knew it would do me absolutely no good. So, I looked at Careen with a pleading expression on my face, and she had mercy on me.

  “I will stay with her tonight,” Careen promised. “Go attend to your duties.”

  I leaned down and kissed Talise goodbye and let her know I would see her soon. I even kissed Careen and the woman I didn’t know before I ran out the door with George right at my heels.

  I made it to the royal bathing chamber in record time. I washed all the puke smell off me as quickly as I could before drying off and running to my room naked as the day I was born. I passed a few women, who giggled at the sight of me, but I could hardly believe they hadn’t seen me naked at least once. It seemed to be the ongoing theme these days.

  I was relieved to see some beautiful soul had put the clothes I was supposed to wear for tonight on my bed so I didn’t have to bumble about trying to figure it out for myself. I threw the soft camel colored pants and vest on and ran my fingers through my hair. Then I remembered to brush my teeth and chew on some mint leaves so my breath didn’t reek before I took off running to the field.

  I arrived just in time to escort the queen into the arena. She was a beautiful sight in her pale green wrap, and it took me a few minutes to catch my breath so I could greet her and tell her how splendid she looked.

  “Never mind all that,” she said matter-of-factly, “what is going on? I heard talk that something has befallen Talise.”

  “No, no,” I panted with a broad grin, “it’s okay. She’s okay. In fact, she’s more than okay…”

  I quickly regaled the whole story about Talise to her, and Nerissa smiled and then burst out into a fit of giggles. Soon, I saw tears welling up in her eyes, and I was afraid we were going to have a repeat of this afternoon.

  “It’s okay,” Nerissa said, more to herself than to me, and wiped at her cheeks, “I will not lose control right now. I am just so happy.”

  I didn’t dare to interrupt her mantra she had in place to calm herself down. I just stood by on alert to do what I had to do.

  Nerissa composed herself with the grace that only a woman like her could muster and presented me with a smile that melted my heart.

  “You are a great blessing, Ben,” she said as she kissed me gently before she took my arm to enter the arena.

  We stepped up onto another stage and took our seats behind a table covered in small platters of dried fruits and cakes. There were also pitchers of water and nectar, so I poured water from the pitcher into the queen’s cup and then poured myself some of the nectar, downed it, and then poured some more.

  It had been a really long day, give me a break.

  Nerissa smiled at me as she sipped her water and nibbled on the dried fruits. I guess she understood my actions without me having to voice them, but I was just glad they made her smile instead of cry.

  Before I even had time to feel the effects of the nectar, the woman named Isla was standing before us in front of two posts about five feet in the air. They were about the width of a city street manhole cover and were maybe six feet apart.

  This was going to be interesting.

  “Your Majesty and Honored Hero,” Isla began, “I would like to announce the start of our arena games to determine which warrior has the Third Right of Mating with our esteemed hero. The object of the game is simple: knock your opponent off their post. While they are armed with spears, they are not allowed to take a life. This game is about balance, dodging, and thinking on your feet, along with outsmarting your oppo
nent. At your signal, my Queen, the games will begin.

  Nerissa stood up and picked up a silk scarf dyed a bright red that almost matched the color of Hali’s hair. Then she held it up over her head and let it fall to the ground in front of her. When it hit the ground, cheers erupted from all around, and the first two contestants entered the field.

  I would know Mira anywhere, even if she didn’t have the bright jade hair. She walked with a confidence and determination I’d never seen a woman wear before. Opposite of her entered a woman I’d only seen in passing, but she looked equally formidable. They approached one another and bowed as Isla reminded them of the rules. Then they each walked over to their prospective posts and hopped up onto them in one leap.

  That right there was an amazing feat all on its own.

  Isla walked between the contestants with her hands raised. Both women got into the fighting stance of their choice, and once they stilled, Isla dropped her hands and quickly backed away from the posts.

  Mira was in the semi-crouched position I’d seen her take the night of the raid, and the other woman had gotten into a similar stance. They remained incredibly still for a few moments before Mira made a lunge with her spear, but the other woman dodged efficiently and threw a jab of her own.

  This continued back and forth for quite some time with a few close calls happening. Mira managed a spectacular back-flip to dodge a blow that would have surely knocked her off her post.

  The breath caught in my chest, and I leaned forward in my chair as I stared raptly at the fight.

  Then Mira caught the other woman off guard with her actions and managed to knock her soundly off her post with the butt of her spear.

  “Yes!” I cried out with a fist pump.

  The crown roared into applause, mine likely the loudest, and Mira was declared the winner of the first round.

  The rest of the rounds went very similar to the first with the women all pulling off spectacular moves and jabs. I saw leaps that would have made any professional ballet dancer green with envy, and I saw bounds that would have made the greatest track and field Olympian weep with pride.

  Mira, Sela, Darya, and Zarya dominated the competition and ended up being the final four in the showdown. Mira was pitted against Zarya in the best match of the night so far, and they flipped, jumped, and clanged spears in a fight that almost seemed choreographed. Mira managed to pull out a win due to one minor mistake on Zarya’s landing, but Mira was quick enough to capitalize on it. Zarya laughed out loud and congratulated Mira with a hug and a whisper in her ear that made them both laugh.