“Kuta, are you busy right now?”
Kuta had mostly been staring into space, occasionally looking at Ret as Ret did his guard patrol duties. They did not expect to be interrupted by Elksia and Phovos. Wrapped up in a bundle on Elksia’s chest was her baby, Reksi, who was weirdly trying to reach for Kuta.
“I am not busy, no. Is something wrong?”
“Not… wrong…” Elksia hesitated slightly. “Well, firstly, Reksi is bored and wants to play with someone new. You haven’t really had a chance to play with her yet. You’re gonna need the practice. But we wanted to talk to you in particular about something.”
“Is it a bad thing?” Kuta was trying very hard not to use their telepathy. “This seems like a bad thing.”
“No, not a bad thing. Just… can you come to my tower? It’s private there.”
Kuta frowned, then nodded and got up. “Of course. Lead the way.”
Elksia and Phovos both did as they said they would, leading Kuta to the watch tower where Elksia normally worked. They all climbed into the tower via the weird step ladder, and Elksia quickly sat Kuta down. She then undid the wraps that kept Reksi fastened to her chest and handed the baby Vrekan to Kuta.
“Oh, hello, little one!” Kuta smiled as they sat Reksi on their knee. “How are you?”
Reksi chirped excitedly, waving her hands in Kuta’s face. She however suddenly stopped, eyed Kuta a little bit then poked one of Kuta’s fangs and chirped some more.
“Yes, I have fangs. They are sharp. Please do not scratch yourself on them.”
Reksi seemed to understand, but she also seemed to be rather infatuated with Kuta’s fangs, to the point that she started poking Kuta in the mouth. Kuta tolerated the poking, knowing that Reksi was just curious. After all, Reksi had spent time with other Rethans, mostly Retvik, who was Reksi’s guardian, and Retvik didn’t have fangs. Reksi however did quickly get bored and waved her arms in Elksia’s direction, wanting food.
“Do you mind?”
“Do I mind what?”
“If I take Reksi and breastfeed her?”
Kuta shook their head. “Of course not. Was there something else you wished to discuss?”
Phovos and Elksia glanced at each other. Kuta noticed that Phovos glanced briefly at Elksia’s exposed breast as she sorted Reksi out and helped her get attached, but Kuta was not really interested in breasts.
“Yeah. I wanted to talk to you. About you and Ret. And you two having kids. Phovos wanted to talk too.”
“Are you going to tell me not to do so?” Kuta grunted.
“No!” Elksia chirped. “Not at all! I just got… recommendations.”
“What Elksia is trying to say is that, between Elksia and I, we can and want to help you. I’m a Life Goddess, she’s a Time Drake, we know things. However, us knowing things doesn’t help if we don’t tell you those things.”
“Mhm. Basically, there are a lot of strings. For you and Ret. I’m trying to tie them together. In a good way though. Not the bad way when I was watching for Reksi to hatch.”
“Fair enough, I guess?” Kuta shrugged. “Admittedly, Ret has been rather nervous about… well, everything. And so have I.”
“Yeah, totally understandable,” Phovos sighed. “It is a massive commitment. And it’s dangerous. Laying an egg is less dangerous than a live birth, but it’s still risky. A lot of things can go wrong. In fact, that… is what we want to talk about.”
“I… I do not follow.”
Elksia glanced down at Reksi, who had quickly finished feeding. She patted Reksi on the back until she burped, then she handed the baby to Phovos, who wrapped her up again and held her. Reksi quickly fell asleep, with both a full belly and the satisfaction that she’d experienced something new, touching the strange, white, not-big-guardian person’s fangs.
“I’ve had a few future flashes. Just like… glances. Nothing concrete. But like, with a future flash, I can build on it. See things that go particularly good or bad. And right now? If you continue exactly as you are? It’s gonna hurt.”
“In… in what way will it hurt?” Kuta stuttered. “Are you saying that one of us will…”
“Not you… Well, yeah, laying an egg hurts. But you won’t die or anything. You two will be fine. But Ret… I dunno, he’s super fit. But if you guys try and don’t talk to Sini first? Ret’s heart will break. The egg will die. And there are basically no strings that will fix it.”
“We did not want to get her involved though, outside of removing my IUD…” Kuta frowned. “Is it really that dire?”
“Yeah. Ret will have a miscarriage. Or the egg will die shortly after being laid. It ain’t good for him. It’ll break his heart. Hurt him in so many ways. And you might not be able to fix it. The only way it goes well if you don’t talk to Sini? It’s if you’re the mum. But I also kinda know you don’t wanna do that. Or something. Strings ain’t clear on that bit.”
Kuta sighed. “Actually… we… wanted to get egg-ridden together. So we would have two kids.”
Elksia paused, then turned to Phovos. “I forgot that was an option for them. Dunno how. I can see time stuff. And I forgot.”
“You can, but your future flashes are tied to Ret. You said that Kuta might not be able to fix things if Ret has a miscarriage? It might be because they go ahead with impregnating each other, and Kuta ends up egg-ridden and Ret doesn’t, and Ret gets upset or jealous or whatever because of it.”
“That… makes sense…” Elksia turned back to Kuta. “Just, I know you wanna go ahead, but… please, please, get Sini to help. Because Phovos is crap at this stuff. And Elkay-En is even worse. For both your sakes.”
Kuta took a deep breath, then relented. “You are absolutely right. I cannot let Retvik be hurt. I will speak to Sini. I need to anyway.”
“Thank you!” Elksia perked up. “You can go now. Ret is gonna ask you about a shower together. It’s a good time to talk.”
“I… I see…” Kuta frowned as they got up. “Thank you for the advice.”
“No worries! Look after yourself and say hi to little Retvik for us!”
“Will do…”