Monster Girl Islands 7

by Logan Jacobs

  Once we were all back to safety, I looked around to my women and grinned like a fool.

  “You guys fucking killed it,” I announced. “I can’t even put into words how proud of you I am right now.”

  “You say that like you are surprised.” Nadir winked, which caused all of us to laugh.

  “No, no,” I promised, “I expected us to kick those monkeys’ asses. But I didn’t expect you to do it in such a crafty, smart, resourceful way. Seriously, you guys are the best.”

  The reactions of the women varied between excitement, shy bashfulness, and even a bit of cockiness from the Coonag. However, they were all over the moon at my compliment, and it was well-deserved.

  We meandered through the forest for a bit until we finally got back to the chicken coop.

  “Okay, new plan,” I mused as I looked over the wooden slats we’d put over in place of a wire fence. “If we have enough to spare, or maybe we’ll get those broken cannons sooner, because I want to melt down some of the iron and then use it to make a stronger fence.”

  “I want to know how those things got into the clucker birds’ pen,” Lezan observed. “Wasn’t that the whole point of putting the crisscross wood over their nests?”

  “It was,” I noted as I crouched down to inspect the fence, “and it looks like it worked for the most part… There isn’t any sign of forced entry or--Waaaaaait a minute. It’s the damn holes!”

  “The holes?” Jemma questioned. “We made them small, just like you asked us to.”

  “I know.” I nodded to the auburn-haired beauty. “But I was thinking more about Gargamors or other large predators. I didn’t even know this island had smaller animals that would want to eat the eggs. See the size of this hole in the lattice? It’s the perfect size for one of their tiny, grubby mitts to squeeze in through and grab breakfast.”

  “At least they didn’t go after the clucker birds.” Nadir stated with great seriousness. “I don’t think I would have been able to let them live if they killed them before we did.”

  Jemma gave Nadir side-eyes, but the Coonag woman was right. Eventually, if we didn’t want these chickens to go to waste, we’d have to butcher them before they got too old for the meat to be used. However, that was still a few years off. In the meantime, we just needed to start letting the roosters occasionally congregate with the hens so they could fertilize the eggs. Then we’d have several baby chicks we could raise to be either egg factories or our dinners.

  “Securing the coop can be our next project,” I noted. “Until then, I just hope we scared those things enough that they stay away for a while.”

  As we walked back down the trail to the palace, I wondered if I’d made the right call. Sure, we’d scared the green monkeys pretty good, but would it be enough? They were animals, after all, driven primarily by instinct and the drive to fulfill the desires of their reptilian brains.

  Then again, that was precisely why I didn’t want to kill them. It wasn’t like they were trying to kill or eat us. Hell, they didn’t even touch the chickens themselves. They were only hungry, and they saw the eggs were just lying around waiting to be collected. It wasn’t their fault, and I didn’t want to make them pay the ultimate price for something like that. We just needed to account for nature a little more, and make the proper adjustments.

  It didn’t take us long to get back to the castle, and once we were there, it took us even less time to deliver the eggs to Hali.

  We found the porcelain-skinned, green scaled dragonkin cook running around the kitchen like a chicken with her head cut off as she gave orders to her underlings.

  “… And make sure the boar meat is still good,” she reminded one of her chefs. “I know it’s dried, but even that doesn’t keep for as long as you’d think. The last thing we need to do is make everybody sick!”

  The dragonkin chef gave Hali a small salute before she slunk into the other room, most likely to prepare whatever dish we were having for dinner later. Then Hali clapped her hands together, turned around, and smiled brightly when she saw our faces.

  “We come bearing eggs,” I joked as I bowed and showed her the basket full of brown ovals. “I know they’re a little late, but trust me when I say we had a very, very good reason.”

  “A horde of small critters tried to steal them,” Nima interjected. “But Ben got them back!”

  “I didn’t do all the work,” I chuckled. “You guys caught a bunch of them, after all.”

  “True,” Jemma giggled as she elbowed me playfully in the shoulder. “But none of us had to imitate the hum of a water dragon.”

  Hali’s sea green eyes lit up with mischief. “You imitated a water dragon?”

  “Sure did,” I stated as I puffed out my chest and wiggled my body proudly. “I’m sure George would be proud of what I was able to come up with.”

  “Oh, don’t do it in front of George,” Jemma warned. “For all we know, you were screaming obscenities at those monkeys in the water dragon language.”

  “You’re probably right.” I shook my head and laughed. “But that’s all the more reason to show it to him, right? So he can tell me what the hell I’m saying.”

  Hali smiled widely as she accepted the basket of eggs.

  “I’m sure whatever you said was good,” the dragonkin cook reassured me. “And thank you for the eggs. I’m already thinking about what I can make with these… You know those items you were telling me about the other day, Ben? The ones where you boil the eggs, cut them in half, and then smash up the yolk with all the other ingredients?”

  “Deviled eggs,” I confirmed. “But you’ll need mayonnaise to make those.”

  “That paste made out of egg yolks, oil, spice, and acidic liquid?” Hali questioned.

  “That’s the one!” I proclaimed. “I guess if anyone can figure out how to make it happen, it’d be you, Hali.”

  The cook smirked at my comment, but it wasn’t a look of arrogance. Rather, it was an expression of pure joy, expressed only in the way the wonderful Hali could.

  “I’ve already got a few ideas cooking up in this ‘ol head of mine.” The dragonkin woman grinned. “I’ll tell you what… When you come back from your next journey, I’ll have a whole batch of those ‘devil eggs’ whipped up for you, okay?”

  “That sounds freaking fantastic,” I sighed and smacked my lips. “I haven’t had a good deviled egg in forever.”

  “Then I will make you the best devil egg you’ve ever had.” Hali winked. “For now, though, I need to focus on our next meal…”

  We all bade our chef a happy farewell before we turned around and headed back out to the main courtyard of the castle. There, we found Nerissa, Jonas, Talise, and Careen, along with all of my children and their water dragons.

  My son Arrick, the gray-eyed child of Nerissa and I, stood before his water dragon, Malkey. He was only a few months old, but the boy had the appearance of a gangly pre-teen. Arrick held a wooden sword in his hand as he circled his water dragon, and the scene was cute, but comical.

  Malkey, the little copper-scaled dragon, wasn’t so little anymore. He’d grown in the last few weeks, and he was now about half the size of his parents. Even then, that made him twice the size of his bondmate, and the thought of Arrick sparring with such a big creature made me chuckle.

  The other water dragon, Cerin, was currently playing with my younger daughters, and Oshuna, Lizzie, and Amira all giggled loudly as Cerin chased them around the courtyard and harmlessly “snapped” at them as she ran.

  I couldn’t believe how big my youngest children had gotten. It felt like just weeks ago they were barely toddlers, lumbering along the beach awkwardly as they tried to figure out how to walk and talk. Now, they had the cognitive functions of normal six-year-old children. They could form complete sentences, they could think critically, and, most important of all, they were completely potty trained.

  Nerissa, Talise, and Careen sat at the table usually used for our feasts while they chatted away and occasionally loo
ked over to make sure their kids were doing alright.

  Last but not least, Jonas and Marella sat over on a small platform. They were lined up across the wooden platform, cross-legged with their eyes closed and their hands placed firmly on their ankles. I’d seen the soothsayers do this enough times to know they were meditating and that it would probably be best to not disturb them.

  However, my mystic of a daughter must have already sensed my presence.

  “Dad?” She opened up a single purple eye as I walked past.

  “Hey, baby girl!” I smiled at my precious daughter. “I didn’t mean to break your concentration.”

  “Benjamin, please,” Jonas’ gruff voice joked, “I have been trained to meditate in the middle of a raging storm, and I have been passing on such training to your daughter. I don’t think there is anything you could possibly do that would ‘break our concentration.’ We have woken up because we wanted to speak with you.”

  “Good to know,” I chuckled and then tufted up Marella’s dark hair, much to her dismay. “How goes it on the rebonding ceremony, by the way?”

  “I think I’m ready.” Jonas nodded sternly. “But I have discovered it takes much longer than I originally thought. Hours, actually.”

  “Hours?” I whistled, but the old man just frowned.

  “It’s a complicated ceremony,” the soothsayer explained, “also, the bond between a being and their dragon is one of the most powerful, sacred things in the world. It’s only natural it would be a long, drawn-out process to unbind them from their original bondmate and then attach them to a new individual.”

  “I guess,” I chuckled. “We’ll just have to make sure we do the ceremony in relative peace, then. Not a single orc or dangerous creature in sight.”

  “If that’s what you want.” Jonas shrugged. “Like I said, I’d be more than willing to perform the ceremony right in the middle of a large battle or the chaos of a powerful storm. I trust my concentration that much.”

  “Well, shit,” I snickered and pointed off to my kids, “if you can keep your concentration in the middle of this chaos, I definitely trust that you can keep it through anything.”

  While I was talking to Jonas, I saw Marella walk over to Nadir and the other Coonag women. My daughter began to chat the other women up with a serious expression on her face, and I suddenly wondered what sort of a vision she had that made her look so concerned.

  So, I walked over to see what all the commotion was about.

  “… Sooner rather than later,” Lezan told my daughter. “Very, very much sooner.”

  “Hey, guys…” I cleared my throat and cocked my head inquisitively. “What are you talking about over here?”

  “Oh,” Marella said without missing a beat, “I was just asking if they’d told you yet.”

  “Told me what?” I pondered aloud.

  Lezan and Nadir stared daggers at Marella, whose face turned beet red.

  “I’m sorry!” the teenager exclaimed. “It just slipped out! I’m so sorry… I just--I see it in my head, and it feels like it’s been there forever. I forget not everybody sees the world like I do…”

  Marella’s eyes filled with tears, and she buried her head into her hands.

  Instantly, Nadir and Lezan placed their hands on her shoulders to comfort my daughter.

  “Awwww… It’s alright, dear,” Nadir promised. “We were going to tell him soon, anyways.”

  “In fact, this was actually helpful,” Lezan added. “The sooner we get it out in the open, the sooner we can figure out what comes next.”

  “R-Really?” Marella asked as she wiped away a tear. “You’re not mad at me?”

  “Of course not!” Nadir shook her head. “Actually, you’ve done us a favor.”

  “Okay, I’ll bite,” I said, though I had a feeling I already knew exactly what they were talking about. “What is it you need to tell me?”

  Nadir and Lezan both exchanged glances, and then they looked up at me with pure, unadulterated bliss in their eyes. It was uncharacteristic of the Coonag women, and it honestly kind of scared me. Yet, at the same time, it was extremely comforting.

  “Ben…” Lezan took a deep breath and smiled. “Nadir and I are pregnant.”

  My jaw hit the floor, and my heart skipped a beat as the world began to spin. Then, once the initial shock wore off, I smiled and shook my head.

  I was going to be a father once more.

  Chapter Four

  “Pregnant?” I grinned at the two beautiful Coonag women. “Awesome. That was the plan. How long have you both known?”

  “About two weeks,” Nadir explained. “For me, it was when Hali brought us the innards of a boar you hunted. My sisters all dug into the wonderful delicacy, but my stomach refused to let me join. So, I prayed to Novam, the Goddess of Fertility, for guidance. And do you know what happened? The very next day, I kept finding things that appeared in pairs. There were two eggs in my breakfast bowl that morning… We ran across two boars while hunting… There were two shooting stars in the sky that night… It was all a sign from Novam. I am carrying your child, Ben! Your bright, clever, and strong child.”

  I instantly stepped forward, planted a kiss on the Coonag leader’s lips, and then placed my hand over her tummy.

  “If it’s a strong child, it will be because of you,” I whispered. “You’re one of the strongest women I’ve ever met.”

  “You’re going to make me blush,” Nadir shot back with a smirk. “Our child will be the leader of the Coonag people someday. And I know that, with your strong seed, they will be the cleverest leader anyone could ever ask for.”

  “They’ll only be strong if we raise them to be strong,” I reminded my mate. “But, between the two of us, and all of the various aunts and siblings they’ll have, I think our child will be the greatest ruler your people have ever had.”

  Nadir grinned broadly, and we kissed softly again as my mind raced.

  Arrick was already the prince of the dragonkin. Now, I was having a child with the Coonag leader, and our offspring would eventually take their mother’s place. Then there was Ainsley, the leader of the Niralope, who also bore my child.

  Benjamin Whitfield, the maker of great princes and princesses. I liked the sound of that.

  I gave Nadir one more kiss before I turned to Lezan.

  “And what about you?” I asked. “We, uh, consummated way after Nadir and I did.”

  “Daaaaaad!” Marella gagged off to the side. “Gross.”

  “Sorry, dear,” I chuckled awkwardly. “But you’re old enough now to know where babies come from.”

  “I already know.” My daughter shuddered. “Mom gave me that talk months ago.”

  Good for Talise. Not only was it wise to get the birds and the bees talk from the woman who actually helped deliver the babies, but it also meant I wouldn’t be put into the awkward position of having to do it.

  Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

  “My discovery was a bit more subtle than Nadir’s,” Lezan sighed. “Now, promise none of you will judge me for what I’m about to say?”

  “We promise,” Trin reassured her sister. “You know Coonag are not ones to judge their friends.”

  “Okay…” Lezan frowned and brushed the white half of her hair out of her eyes. “I… I fell asleep just after sunset.”

  The Coonag women all broke into hushed whispers, and I swore I even heard a few gasps.

  Me, on the other hand? I didn’t get what all the hoopla was about.

  “Okay… so?” I asked with a furrowed brow.

  The Coonag women all whipped around in unison, and their gazes locked onto me.

  “We are partially nocturnal creatures, Ben,” Nadir explained. “It is considered in poor taste for us to fall asleep before the moon is high in the sky. To fall asleep before the moon even fully rises? That’s a sure sign of pregnancy.”

  “I also prayed to Novam as well,” Lezan noted. “She did not grace me with the same prophetic signs
as our leader, but she gave me another type of answer… My breasts were tender.”

  “Another sure sign of pregnancy!” one of the Coonag women called out, though I couldn’t identify who it was.

  “Wow,” I muttered in disbelief before I pulled Lezan close to my body.

  Then I kissed her tenderly and ran my fingers through her multicolored hair as I thought about the child she would bear me.

  Sure, the kid Nadir and I were going to have would be tough, but the one Lezan was going to bear? That was going to be on a whole other level.

  “You know our kid is going to be fearless, right?” I mused to the Coonag woman. “We’re going to have to watch them like a pair of hawks, or else gods know what kind of crazy adventures they’ll get themselves into.”

  “Just like their father.” Lezan winked.

  “And their mother,” I whispered into her ear. “Don’t let the others know, but you’re the most fearless woman I think I’ve ever met.”

  “Really? You think that?” Lezan’s hand clutched into my arm at my words, and her entire body seemed to shudder. Then she looked up at me with her hooded black eyes as her mouth dropped open in disbelief. The woman’s eyes watered around the edges, and I thought I was about to see a Coonag cry for the first time ever. However, Lezan quickly sniffled and recomposed herself before she let her raw emotions shine through.

  “Of course,” I replied. “I love you, and I can’t wait to meet our kid,”

  “Thank you, Ben,” Lezan whispered. “I’m so happy to hear you say that about me and our child.”

  “Both of you are wonderful women,” I said as I wrapped my arms around each of the pregnant raccoon-women, “and I am proud you are my mates. What happens next, then? Are they coming in a few weeks, or months, or…?”

  “Two cycles of the moon,” Nadir explained. “We were once a populous people, and that is because of how quickly we can have children.”

  Two cycles of the moon. That was only two months, give or take a few days. I honestly couldn’t believe it… In two short months, I was going to be the father of two more beautiful children.