Monster Girl Islands 16 Chapter 4

“All of you are in labor?” I gasped as I looked between the five Morpho women who were now hunched over and taking long, deep breaths. “At the same time?”

“I think so,” Queen Dalwen said through gritted teeth. “The god Cacoo has a very twisted sense of humor.”

“This must be why we have a scheduled mating season.” Zerandrie added as she tried to stand back up but then doubled back down. “So we can all have our children at the same time.”

“I wish we would have known that before now!” I scoffed, and then I motioned to my loyal subjects in the crowd. “We need healers over here, stat!”

“You heard the Draco Rex!” Talise called out. “Help me get these ladies to our infirmary.”

Anora and several more dragonkin and Niralope women stepped forward, and they all scooped up the butterfly women in their arms. I began to follow as they carried the Morphos away, but Holara held out her hand to stop me.

“In Morpho culture, the father must wait until the baby is born to see his mate,” the purple-haired beauty explained.

“I don’t care what the lazy-ass Morpho men did.” I shook my head. “They need my love and support right now, and--”

“It’s not the men who made the rules,” Holara continued. “It was Queen Dalwen. Childbirth is a messy, scary, and unflattering process. The decision was made to save our dignity, not to appeal to our men.”

“But… They need me,” I said once more as I watched the Morpho women being carried off.

“It will be alright, my love,” Queen Nerissa said as she placed her hand on my shoulder. “Our healers will ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible, and they will alert us the second your children are here.”

“I get a new brother?” Meer asked as she tugged at Nerissa’s cloak and looked up at us with excitement in her silver eyes.

“Yes, dear,” the queen said to our daughter. “You’re going to get many new brothers and sisters, if previous experience is anything to go by.”

“What’s wrong with the brother you have now, huh?” Arrick teased as he walked over to his little sister. “I’m cool enough for ten brothers!”

“I want new brother.” Meer crossed her arms and frowned. “A younger one.”

“Come on now, Meer…” the Dragon Prince said with a charming smile. “A younger brother can’t do this!”

Arrick scooped up his toddler-aged sister in his arms and then made an airplane sound as he held her high above his head, like I used to do to him. My son placed Meer on his shoulders and then started to run around the woods, all while the little girl let out happy squeals of glee.

Yeah, I was ready for another kid, but I knew absolutely nothing about Morpho babies. I had no clue how quickly they aged, or if they needed any sort of special nutrients, or what.

“I’m kinda glad I’m the only one who’s not pregnant,” Holara said with a chuckle, but then the color drained from her face when she looked over at me. “Not because of you, Draco Rex! I just think it looks like it hurts, that’s all.”

“It does, dear,” Nerissa said with a smirk. “But I have gone through it several in my life, and I would do it all over again without hesitation. Look at those two beautiful children playing in the woods. I’d do anything for them, no questions asked.”

“I would, too.” I nodded. “I’ll do anything to make this world a safe place for them to live.”

“Okay,” Hilda’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “I’ll be the one to ask since my crewmates aren’t… Is this a common occurrence around here? Like, people breaking out into spontaneous labor?”

“We have a lot of pregnant women on this island.” Nerissa shrugged. “Courtesy of the Draco Rex.”

“He’s helping us repopulate our species,” Sela explained. “So, naturally, we have many pregnancies at any given time.”

“Right now, I think we are up to-- Actually, I’ve lost count,” Jemma said with a laugh. “All I know is our nursery is full, and it’s likely to only get even fuller.”

“That’s insane,” Gudrun said as her mouth fell open. “And you all go through this willingly?”

“Of course we do,” Sela said as she placed her hands on her hips. “Why wouldn’t we?”

“Because the Grand Gar didn’t give these women a choice,” I explained. “Children were like a commodity on Isla Gar, and that green bastard stole them away from their mothers the second they were born.”

“We weren’t allowed to have any children who weren’t from the Grand Gar’s lineage, either,” Olga added. “All of the men who weren’t loyalists were sterilized once he rose to power.”

“Gods…” Sela gasped. “What kind of a sick man does something like that?”

“The same sick man who sent his hordes around to neighboring islands with instructions to kill, rape, and pillage,” I growled. “The motherfucker known as the Grand Gar. AKA the asshole who’s going to be dead soon. I--”

“Dad, Mom!” a soft, gentile voice cut through my anger. “Dad, look!”

I turned to see my twin dragonkin girls, Amarari and Lizzie, running toward me at breakneck speed. It seemed like both of them had grown so much since the last time I’d seen them, even if that had only been a few days ago. They were now tall and lanky, with flowing red hair and beautiful blue eyes that pierced into my very soul. They now looked to be about the age of a preteen, and I couldn’t help but nostalgically long for the days when they were just little toddlers.

“Look what Valea and Erel taught us to do,” Amaria said with a stern frown, and then she cleared her throat.

The two green-scaled girls placed their hands together and gave each other a nod. Then I watched as Lizzie planted her feet firmly into the dirt below her, and she let out a yell of determination as her entire body tensed up. As she did so, her sister pushed her legs into the ground, twisted her body, and flipped around Lizzie’s back. Amaria let out a battle cry as she threw her feet into the air and kicked an invisible enemy, then landed onto the ground in a crouched position.

“It’s a double-team attack!” Amaria panted from the ground. “Isn’t it awesome?”

“It’s totally badass, girls.” I smiled at my daughters. “I’m proud of you.”

“I can’t wait to see it on the battlefield,” Sela said with an equally proud smirk. “Nobody will be able to handle your combined powers.”

“Yes!” the twins said as they high-fived, and then they dashed off toward Arrick and Meer.

“Wow…” Olga trailed off, and I heard her voice crack slightly. “I’ve never seen that before.”

“That move?” Sela scoffed. “It’s an amateur tag-team fighting move. I’m proud they’ve mastered it, nonetheless.”

“No, no,” the orc captain sighed. “That sort of interaction between parents and child.”

“I’d imagine,” I said with a frown. “That fucker doesn’t even let you hold your babies after you’ve had them.”

“Even before the Grand Gar, it wasn’t like that,” Gudrun added. “We orcs may have had loving parents at one point in time, but things were different.”

“If I remember my history lessons correctly,” Thyra spoke up. “Even in the old days we had a warrior culture.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Yrsa demanded.

“The fact we were trained from a young age how to fight,” Olga retorted. “And we were always instructed to keep our emotions to ourselves and to never show even the slightest hint of vulnerability? You are too young to remember those days, Yrsa, but Gudrun and I remember them vividly.”

“That’s terrible,” I said as I tilted my head to the side. “How could anyone want to live like that?”

“It’s just how we were raised.” Gudrun shrugged. “And then the Grand Gar came along and fucked it all up even worse. Now, none of us even know who our children are.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen here,” I promised as I placed my hand on Olga’s belly and looked tenderly into her golden eyes. “I will love our child with every ounce of my heart, no matter what happens. And you will love them, too.”

“I-I don’t even know if that’s possible.” Olga shook her head as she sniffled and fought back tears. “I don’t think we orc women are capable of feeling love at all. Not with the way we were raised… All we know how to do is fight and fuck.”

“Hey.” I placed my hands on either side of Olga’s slender face and lifted her eyes up to mine. “Don’t talk like that.”

I pressed my lips against Olga’s, and we kissed softly for a few seconds as she wrapped her arms around my neck. I pulled the orc captain close against my body as our lips intertwined, and then we both smiled at each other when we pulled away.

“Come on, Dad,” Marella gagged. “Right in front of all your kids?”

I just ignored my daughter’s overdramatic musings.

“What do you feel right now?” I asked Olga. “In this very second. Go!”

“Uh…” the orc woman sputtered. “I don’t know. It’s a strange feeling. I’m not sure I can describe it.”

“Do you feel warm and secure?” Nerissa asked.

“Do you feel like nothing else in the world matters right now?” Mira added. “Other than this moment right here?”

“Do you feel like you are happy?” Batari asked. “Perhaps happier than you’ve ever felt in your entire life?”

“Are you getting a strange, tingling feeling in your body?” Sela interjected. “One that’s not arousal whatsoever?”

“I-- yes!” Olga said with wide eyes. “All of the above!”

“That’s love, my friend,” Nerissa confirmed. “That feeling you have right now is the feeling of love.”

“Do you feel it too, Draco Rex?” Olga asked as her lips pursed together.

“Of course I do,” I said to the beautiful orc. “Who couldn’t love a woman like you?”

A deep red blush shot into Olga’s cheeks, and the orc woman quickly pulled away and covered her face as she tried to hide her embarrassment. The rest of her crew snickered in response, but they shut up the second she shot them a dirty look.

“Do you all want to have latrine duty next time we’re on the ship?” Olga warned her crew. “Because you’re all sitting on the edge of that right now.”

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a screaming woman from the infirmary wing of our palace. Seconds later, there was another. Then another. And another until there had been five screams in total.

My goodness… Cartram’s eyes looked at the building in horror. What are they doing to those poor women in there?

It’s the miracle of childbirth, Tirian explained. Get used to it, because it happens a lot on this island.

“I hope they’re alright,” I said as I began to jog toward the building. “That didn’t sound like a normal birthing scream.”

My jog turned into a full-on sprint as I dashed toward the building, and I heard the footfalls of several more of my subjects behind me.

But my attention was firmly on the infirmary, and nothing else.

I trusted Talise and Anora and all the other dragonkin healers with my life, but things could go wrong at the drop of a hat. Especially around here, where none of us had experienced a Morpho birth before. I entered the infirmary wing through the front door, turned left, and rushed down the stucco-like hallways of the building, but my racing heart skipped a beat when I heard the sound of babies crying in a nearby room.

I followed the sound into the closest room, where I saw Ahwara laying in a bed with a rough blanket over her body. She looked completely exhausted as a few dragonkin healers moved about her performing various tasks, but the orange-haired butterfly woman was still smiling.

In her arms was a small, swaddled shape, and tears filled my eyes when I realized what it was.

It was our child.

“How are you doing, darling?” I asked as I walked up to Ahwara. “Is that-- Is that who I think it is?”

“It is.” Ahwara nodded tiredly. “Ben, meet Alberich.”

The Morpho woman turned the swaddled child around, and my entire body swelled with pride. I could only see the child’s head since he was swaddled, but I was able to get a good sense of what he looked like. The boy had orange hair like his mother, but it was wispy and a shade darker, like my own. His tiny eyes fluttered open as he let out a coo, and I saw they were a pure, light shade of silver. Alberich had a button nose nestled at the center of his rounded face, and his body shape was long and tubular.

I didn’t know if that was the blanket, or if we had a miniature larva child on our hands, but it didn’t matter to me.

“He’s perfect,” I said with a smile. “What color are his wings?”

“He doesn’t have them yet.” Ahwara shook her head. “Those don’t appear until after the first metamorphosis.”

“I’ve got a lot to learn about Morpho lifecycles,” I admitted as I ran my hand through Ahwara’s hair. “But I’ll have a lot of great help between the five of you.”

“You should go check on Elzara!” Ahwara gasped. “The poor thing is probably a mess right now… She’s so young and pure, she’s probably traumatized.”

“I’ll give you some rest.” I nodded, and then I leaned in and gave my son a kiss on the forehead. “But I’ll be back. I promise.”

“I know you will.” The orange-haired Morpho winked. “Now, go see how Elzara’s doing. She’s in the room across the hall.”

I gave both my lover and my son another kiss, and then I turned and hustled out the door. When I entered the room on the other side of the hallway, I let out an audible gasp as my heart fell into my stomach.

Elzara was laying there on the bed, but the young, blue-haired beauty was sobbing uncontrollably.

Was the baby okay? Was Elzara okay?

I ran over to Elzara and instantly threw my arms around her.

“It’s okay…” I said in my most calm tone. “It’s okay, Elzara… What happened?”

“N-Nothing,” Elzara said through her tears. “It’s just so beautiful.”

“What?” I asked as my panic began to dissipate. “What’s so beautiful?”

I pulled away from Elzara, and the blue-winged Morpho pointed behind me. As I turned around, I saw a Niralope woman with a swaddled child in her arms and a smile on her face. The deer woman instantly handed me the baby, and I felt myself get weak in the knees.

Much like its brother, the baby appeared to have a very tubular-shaped body. Its hair was light-brown, and it had a much more angular face than its brother as it let out a soft whimper in my arms. I shushed it and began to rock it softly in my arms, and before I knew it, I saw two beautiful orange eyes looking back at me.

“She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?” Elzara asked. “Cacoo couldn’t have sent us a more precious gift.”

“He really couldn’t.” I shook my head. “She’s amazing. Do you want to hold her?”

“I’d like nothing more in the world, Ben,” the blue-haired beauty sobbed.

I handed the baby to her mother, and Elzara looked like she was about to have a full-on breakdown. I felt myself get a little misty eyed as the Morpho woman leaned in and repeatedly kissed her daughter, all while whispering something in her native tongue.

“You’re a natural at this,” I said with a smirk. “I always knew you’d be a great mother.”

“Azalea.” Elazara finally cleared her throat. “Her name is going to be Azalea.”

“Azalea it is,” I said with a firm nod.

“Ben?” I heard Zerandire’s timid voice ask from somewhere in the hallway.

“Zerandrie!” Talise’s voice gasped. “Get back in bed! You’re in no condition to be walking right now.”

“Uhhh, I gotta handle that,” I said with a gulp. “Give the little girl enough kisses for both of us.”

“You can do that when you get back, my love,” Elzara promised.

I slid out into the hallway, where the frail figure of Zerandrie was currently standing and leaned up against the wall. Talise and Anora both had her by the arms, though the red-haired woman was still holding her little bundle of joy against her chest.

Several of my friends were now in the hallway behind the healers, including the entire Council of Queens, Mira, and the orc women.

“I just wanted to show him,” Zerandrie protested with a tired smile. “He needs to see our little boy.”

“I’m here, Zerandrie,” I promised as I moved in and helped support the tiny, yellow-winged woman. “You can go back to bed now.”

“Look at our son, Ben,” Zerandrie sighed as she held out our child. “Look at little Gil.”

“Gil?” I asked with a warm smile. “I absolutely love that name.”

As I took the baby from the redhead, I saw that he looked just like a “Gil.” The boy was much, much skinnier than the rest of his siblings, though he also had an ovular shaped body and a round face. His head was covered in yellow scales, which contrasted perfectly with his purple eyes and bright red hair. His lips were so thin they were practically nonexistent, though they were nestled just above a very pudgy-yet-prominent chin.

“He’s beautiful!” Jemma said with a coo. “What a wonderful little bundle of joy.”

“Go back to bed, Zerandire,” I told the Morpho woman once more. “I’ve got Gil, and you need some rest.”

“I love you, Ben.” Zerandrie’s green eyes glistened as she said the magic words. “I’ve never been happier in my life.”

“You’ll feel even happier if you get some rest, dear,” Talise offered as she placed her hands on Zerandrie’s shoulders and turned her back to her room. “Come.”

I held Gil in my arms as I entered the next room, where I saw Candara and our child.

The Morpho woman sat there completely naked in bed as she held her bundle of joy up against her bare skin. Candara looked completely normal and unphased as she shushed her baby and bounced it up and down in time with the gentle song she was singing, but when she saw us all enter the room, the golden-haired beauty quickly tossed a blanket over her body and smiled.

“Do you want to meet your daddy?” the blonde Morpho asked our child. “And your siblings?”

“This is Gil,” I said as I walked up and leaned down so Candara could see the baby in my hands. “This is your brother.”

“Ohhhhhh, a brother?” Candara sighed. “I’m glad we have some variety in our children now.”

“Zerandrie and Ahwara both had boys,” I explained. “Does that mean we had a girl?”

“Yes, Ben,” she said with a nod. “We have welcomed the beautiful baby Muirgen to this world.”

“Muirgen?” I asked. “That’s a beautiful name.”

“It’s a magical name,” Candara confirmed. “One bestowed upon me by Cacoo himself in one of my dreams.”

“You can thank him for that, then,” I said as I sat down on the bed beside both of them. “Hi, Muirgen… This is your brother Gil.”

The little baby girl’s eyes were bright blue, and she had a few blue scales down the side of her head. She also had pointed, elf-like ears, though the rest of her body appeared to be more Morpho than dragonkin. Muirgen already had a thick head of dirty blonde hair that was tufted up in a nest atop her skull, and she smiled when she looked at Gil.

Gil answered back with a large grin, and my heart fucking melted in my chest.

“Not to ruin a tender moment,” Shala’s voice interjected. “But how are you feeling so good right now? Shouldn’t you be like, bedridden for at least a few hours?”

“Not when you’ve taken a cocktail of herbs and natural oils.” Candara shook her head. “I’ve tried to get the rest of the Morpho women to take them throughout their pregnancy, but they called me a witch doctor. Who’s laughing now, though?”

“Ben?” Dalwen’s voice asked weakly from somewhere down the hall. “Where is Ben?”

“I’m coming!” I called out to the Morpho Queen. “I’ll be right--”

“It’s okay, Ben,” Candara chuckled. “Our Queen demands your presence.”

“I’ll take Gil back to Zerandrie,” Marella offered, and then she grinned ear from ear when I handed her little brother to the soothsayer. “Awwww. Why can’t Arrick be this cute?”

“I heard that!” Arrick grumbled, and then Marella walked out of the room.

I headed down the hallway as I followed Dalwen’s voice, until eventually I came to her infirmary room. When I entered the room, I saw the yellow-haired Queen sitting up in her bed, though her golden locks looked like they’d been tousled by a hurricane. She had bags underneath her soft, purple eyes, but her skin was glowing, and her smile was large as I approached.

“Is that the future king?” I asked as I took a few steps toward Dalwen, and my heart fluttered.

“Not a king, Ben.” Dalwen shook her head. “A queen. We have a beautiful baby girl, Ben!”

As I got closer, I saw our daughter had the same vibrant yellow hair as her mother, but her entire body was covered with emerald green scales, similar to Amaria and Lizzies’. She had a round, square-shaped face and a double chin, and her eyes were as brown as the unfettered clay of the ground. She smiled at me when I touched her forehead with my index finger, and then she let out a coo when I tickled her belly.

“The Queen of the Morpho,” I said with a chuckle. “She’s gonna be following in her mother’s footsteps, I suppose.”

“Queen Radella.” Dalwen nodded. “If you think that name suits her.”

“It does,” I confirmed. “She’ll make a fine queen someday. As long as her parents raise her right.”

“Is that even a question?” Dalwen asked. “I’ve seen you with your other children. You’re a damn good father, Ben, and all of these Morpho children will bring us into the next golden age of our species.”

“Don’t put that sort of pressure on me,” I joked.

“Ben?” Talise’s voice asked from the door. “I hate to play ‘bad healer’ here, but it’s about time for us to do our rounds.”

“Okay?” I half-asked, half-stated. “What does that have to do with me?”

“You probably don’t want to be in here for that.” Talise explained with her musical laugh. “It gets very, very in-depth.”

“It’s okay, my love,” Dalwen said as she ran her hand across my arm. “We will both be here when it’s all over.”

I gave my daughter a kiss on the cheek, and I softly kissed Dalwen on the lips. Then I stood from the bed, waved goodbye, and walked out past Talise and into the hallway, where the rest of my very large family waited.

“Wow…” Arrick whistled. “Meer’s gonna be really happy she has so many new siblings!”

“They all will,” Nerissa added. “Our numbers are growing by the day.”

“Perhaps this calls for a celebration?” Batari suggested. “I’m sure Zamwae would love to--”

“Maybe not now,” I cut off the Queen Mother. “Maybe after we get through the whole ‘war with the orcs’ thing.”

“Come now, Draco Rex,” Ainsley said with a chuckle. “You said it yourself, we need some time to relax, right?”

“Exactly!” a very pregnant Hali clapped her hands together. “What better way to relax than to drink, eat, and dance?”

“We’re actively at war, though…” I trailed off.

“We have technically been at war with the orcs for several years, Draco Rex,” Jonas explained. “I don’t believe a small break to celebrate the miracle of childbirth would be detrimental to our efforts.”

“So, everybody wants a party?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Party!” Yrsa exclaimed as she threw up her hands and smashed them into the ceiling.

A bit of the stucco cracked from the impact, and the large orc woman instantly shriveled up and let out an embarrassed chuckle.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Alright, fine,” I sighed. “But tell Zamwae to keep it short, sweet, and to the point. We need to discuss battle strategy ASAP.”

“That’s all I needed to hear,” Batari said with a smirk, and then she turned and headed down the hallway.

The rest of my loyal subjects followed, and I was right behind them. I got about halfway down the hall, though, before a hand stopped me in my tracks. When I spun around to see who had grabbed me, I saw Signe take a step back and hold up her hands in surrender.

“I’m sorry!” she gasped. “I’m sorry, Draco Rex. I just… I wanted to get you alone.”

“Okay,” I said with a frown. “What’s up?”

“I didn’t want the rest of my crewmates to hear this,” the curly-haired orc woman explained. “But I’ve been thinking about things.”

“What’s going on, Signe?” I asked. “Are you alright?”

“More than alright!” she promised. “I just-- after seeing how you interacted with Olga earlier, and then in there with all of your children? I-I think I want one.”

“You want what?”

“A baby, Draco Rex,” Signe said with narrowed eyes. “I want a baby. From you.”