Chapter 133: brought to you by D-day

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...holy crap, you're still reading this?

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Hane was not too far from the desert border. Just far enough to make the trip from there to the homestead not completely ridiculous. Apparently, the more legs you had, the quicker you were over rough terrain. Even so, he was irritated at being summoned back not long after he'd been kicked out. But he knew he had no place to complain.

Even at full six legged speed, he didn't make it back until late at night, roughly two hours after Oda's water had broken.

"Why hasn't it been born yet?" he asked on hearing she'd been in labor for hours already.

Oda let out a plaintive, high pitched mewl of pain from his arms. Angry welts had already appeared on his biceps, despite his tough, male skin.

"Females are much larger than males," Shay said.

Shay was already beginning to sweat beneath the all encompassing head wrap Curtis had equipped her with. Only her eyes were left uncovered, and even then a long length over them made it so she could only see what was in the immediate direction of her nostrils. She'd pinned it back with a bone needle, despite Curtis's warnings to keep even her eyes covered, and worked like that. Fortunately, Hane must have been too caught up in the horror of labor to pay much attention to any beauty, for he didn't comment or stare.

Shay and Harve had already done what they could to relieve her pain and stress by burning lavender in the fire and massaging her hips, but one could only do so much for labor pains, especially with a girl who'd never experienced this kind of labor before. Fear played a large part with pain.

"How impossibly large must they be?" Hane asked, looking at her enormous, swollen belly with growing fear. "Will she...can she..."

"You need to stay calm for her. Stress makes it hurt more. You're her support right now."

Hane's eyebrows danced in his confusion. Shay imagined he had never had to control his emotions much in a male dominated society where only the strong survived. Even now he held Oda awkwardly, more like letting him lean against her chest while his arms hung in the air than actively holding her. Every time a contraction ran through her, wringing her in pain, he'd flinch and draw back into the wood wall, as though terrified of her pain. On her heart he may be, but Shay couldn't help but wonder if this scorpion simply didn't know how to love above a shallow pity and need to protect.

Harvey seemed more affected by it than Shay.

"Stroke her arm or her hair. Hold her," he barely refrained from snapping. "Let her know everything is going to be okay."

"But I don't know if everything..." Hane's arms came down to her sides uncertainly. Oda, who had herselt pressed hard against his chest, ducked her head from where she had smothered against his collarbone to let out a strangled scream. Her legs kicked and bucked, and Hane jumped. His eyes looked wild.

"This--there's got to be something wrong," he almost squeaked.

"This is labor," said Harvey harshly.

"But scorpion eggs--"

"Are like jelly and probably came out like passing soft feces, but this is body of flesh and bone. It hurts, but it's natural."

Shay, who had been focusing on Oda's pressure points in her feet, bit her lip at Harvey's rising tension. He'd stopped massaging Oda hips and she could see the hardness to his clenched jaw.

"Harvey, get Ryan and take a break."

His attention flashed over to her, dismayed, but only for an instant as he understood. He didn't seem happy about it, though.

"He's just outside," he said. Then, as though trying to show the scorpion how to do it right, he embraced Shay about her shoulders, gave her a kiss on the corner of her eyes--since the rest of her head was covered in snake skin--and slipped out, quickly as to not let in the cold air.

Within a moment, Ryan stepped in, his dark skin and hair a stark contrast against the light honey of the fresh pine walls. He had a braided robe in his hand of leather and cloth, which he proceeded to tie from one of the rafters.

"When it comes time to deliver, pulling on this should help," he said.

But Hane seemed to hardly hear him, his hands popping on and off Oda's trembling shoulders.

"How--how long does this usually asked?" he asked.

"Anywhere from half a night to three days," said Ryan.

"Three days?!?" Hane choked.

Oda yowled in unison horror.

"But I doubt it will last that long," Shay said hurriedly. "Oda has nice wide hips."

And she did. Oda was, as Shay thought of it, a rather stout, square individual. Not to mention she'd learned long ago that the females of this world were made of slightly stouter stuff than the ones of her world.

The scorpion's eyes rolled in his head. For a moment, he looked as though he might faint. He even slumped against the wall, as though he had been the one exhausted and not the whimpering, limp female against him.

"How--how do any of your species survive?" he choked after a minute. "Cats only have three at a time, at most, don't they? Our females can lay up to forty eggs at a time, but you..."

"This is a female baby," Shay said flatly. Hane was beginning to irritate her past her endurance as well.

Hane seemed to hardly hear her.

"No wonder mating feels so good," he said. "If it didn't...oh damn..."

Oda whimpered and squeezed the arm in her grasp. He didn't even wince, so at least he had that going for him.

Shay took over for the hip and back massages that Harvey had left, but her hands could only keep doing so for a few minutes. Every now and then liquid would leak from between Oda's legs and Shay would avert her eyes. Being smothered beneath her headwrap had begun to make her feel light headed, especially with the continuous light smoke from the lavender. If only she could just take it off.

Maybe if she could get him to leave...

When she suggested it, Hane instantly began to move to do just that, more than eager enough to flee, but Oda clung on tight to him with pincer-like strength, wailing in distress. Hane had no other choice than to remain on his butt, serving as her squeeze toy. Even when Shay or Ryan would urge her to change positions to help the labor along, she kept her grip on him.

Ryan and Harvey afforded her a short break some hours later. Shay took off her headwrap in the dark night to find her hair completely soaked through.

Curtis was there in an instant.

"My skin should have breathed fine," he said, his tongue flickering in dismay over her face. "You're hot to the touch, are you ill?"

"No, it's just very warm in there. And the humidity from my breath..." she sighed. "A quick wash in the river should do."

"You should come in and sleep. Let Ryan and Harvey handle it. You're exhausted."

And indeed, she was. Heavy as lead from the late hour and the heavy tension of the room. "No, she's already stressed out without me. And I need to do what I can. And Harvey can't stand that scorpion, and Ryan only can because he's ignoring him. And I said I'd help."

"But Harvey's there, he knows just as much. Isn't he your teacher?"

"All the more reason I should be there. I need to learn, don't I?" Shay frowned as a thought occurred to her. "What are you doing up? Who's with the children?"

"The girls and their brother are in their room."

"Asher?"

"With them too, that's a given. Practically attached to the girls at the ankle. And how could I sleep knowing there's some homeless male on my territory, next to my wife? If I could stand being in that tiny space without..." but he sighed. "I hope the ugly girl gives birth soon. I can't tell you how difficult it is holding myself back from killing that beast."

Shay scowled. "Can you not be so prejudiced against females based on their looks?"

"A bit difficult," he smiled. "Seeing I'm married to you."

Shay happily changed the subject and, one cool down wash in the river and a break with Curtis later, she was switching off with Harvey, who once more had reached his limit to being around the scorpion.

Inside, Shay could instantly see why. Hane had nodded off, despite his own previous fright and his wife straining and clawing at him. Apparently, scorpion skin was especially tough due to their exoskeleton. But that just said all the more about Oda that she could make any markings on his skin at all.

Ryan's yellow eyes had sharpened to slits. Looked like his ability to ignore Hane had ended as well.

"Go take a break with Harvey," Shay said.

Ryan's face flinched towards her. "I will not leave you with him."

"He's asleep, his mate is in labor...just until you can calm down. You're making it worse."

And indeed, he was. The frustration of a one mark predator was not nearly as heavy as that of a four mark. The air had grown a bit harder to breathe and the air inside the little shack had grown, if possible, even warmer.

Also, Oda's weeping had turned into choked sobs. Her face, which hadn't been all that pretty before, now looked like a wrinkled prune, all twisted up from pain and despair.

Ryan clenched his jaw, looking hard into Shay's eyes.

"Only for a moment," he murmured.

Then she was alone.

After checking Hane to make sure he was asleep, she carefully undid the bottom half of her veil so she could breathe more easily.

"Oda," she said, trying to use as much softness as she would with her children. "Sweetie, you're going to be okay. Take it from me. I have three daughters, don't I? These males are just stressed because they don't know any better. They can't give birth."

Oda keened high and long against Hane's bicep.

"You're so strong. Your hips are nice and wide. You're going to do just fine. It's only going to hurt for a moment and then you're going to have a beautiful baby to hug."

After a short, quick suck of air, the poor girl turned her face around to give Shay her bleary, wet gaze.

"Is...is it worth it? I've...I've only ever had eggs. They hatch, and go off."

"It's more than worth it," Shay said. "It's the most wonderful thing you'll ever experience. That's why it hurts. You can't have so much joy for nothing."

Shay couldn't tell if Oda really understood her, as the light behind the small eyes didn't seem all that great. But she handled the following contractions with just a bit more grit.

When gray morning light reached through the cracks of the window shutters, Hane finally woke up when Oda gave an all out scream.

"Wha-what's happening!" he yelped.

"Birth," said Harvey sourly. Ryan was the one outside this time. "Help her up."

"Why?"

"So she can hold onto the rope, idiot! We want the weight of the baby to help it out."

Hane scrambled to do so, even as he acted as though his legs had fallen asleep. At least he moved quickly to help, and stayed there to hold her up as she clung to the robe.

Many screams, many pushes, and some released feces later, Shay, with her arms covered in birthing fluid, caught a tiny, wrinkled and blue-gray form. A blink later and the ugly, squashed human started to scream out it's cone shaped head, forced into that shape from being pushed out a small hole.

Oda collapsed into Hane's arms.

"You hear that?" Shay cried. "That's is a very healthy baby girl!"

Oda's exhausted eyes were glued to the little baby, wide as coins and shivering with disbelief.

"That...that came out of me?"

"It's huge," said Hane, equally shocked. Then, "...she's tiny..."

Something shifted in his expression, like a wave across a still pond.

It was the first time Shay had held a newborn human as fresh as this as well. Through the spike of adrenaline that had come at seeing the baby's head crown, she felt both disgust and awe, and then more awe as she found her disgust melting like frost before the sun.

Then Oda let out another scream, breaking everyone from the revere.

"What's happening?" Hane yelled.

Harvey just gaped, his hands still reaching for the baby in Shay's hands.

But Shay somehow knew. "Lift her up again! Quickly!"

"No way," she heard Harvey mutter.

Sure enough, a second squalling, wet body plopped into her waiting hands.

"Twins!" she cried.

Hane collapsed with Oda, thunderstruck.

"You--you had two of those in you?" he looked to Oda, completely spent and wet against his chest. "Where did you keep them? How are you still alive?"

She gave him a warbling smile.

"Babies," she mumbled. "For you."

Hane just looked at her, then to the two tiny babies already bright red from kicking and crying. His eyes watched their little fists open and close, each with perfectly formed tiny fingers. Finally, after staring enough for his eyes to fall out, he reached across the cramped space of the shack the brush the tip of his finger against one of the tiny, kicking feet.

Watching the wonder brightening his eyes with tears, Shay had a suspicion that, even if her face was unveiled and her head uncovered, Hane wouldn't have given her a second glance. Perhaps, despite his incompetence, he loved Oda more than she thought.

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