Luciana rode the currents through the maze of canals, replaying through the encounter moments ago. It had only lasted a few minutes, but it'd given her a fright, and now she felt anxious. 

It'd been almost a year since she began making her nightly trips to the Kelp’s Hole, and she'd never been caught until now. How did they find out? Coincidence? Would they tell anyone? That fairy said they wouldn't. She'd never seen or met a fae before, but had heard they were sometimes given over to flights of fancy. So she didn’t have a good enough reason to trust that meeting might not slip out at some point.

‘A wagging tongue stirs currents,’ as the saying went. Rumors had a way of blowing through a city faster than a gale. They didn’t seem like residents of the city, so when they left town, anyone they told might not think much of it since her family wasn’t too widely known outside of Merport.’

‘There was that human, too. Maybe he was showing them around the city. Kinda late hour for that, though.’

Wherever they were from, they weren't as eager to see her as they were to introduce that selkie, who was another oddity. They were solitary people, and she rarely saw one in town. Whatever the reason, they were all together, and the selkie was the focus of Luci's concern. She DID seem to know of her, which meant the information could reach the ear of the staff. If the staff knew or suspected, her family would before too long. Worst-case scenario, it'd be a big scandal – not something she particularly wanted. 

She didn't dislike her family. Sure, they could be strict, and she believed their maintaining a strong social separation from the people of the city was obsessive. Still, she didn't want to cause trouble when there didn't need to be any. She just wanted more autonomy. Also, she'd feel bad for the citizenry who admired her and had an image of her in their head, though maybe a more real picture of her was better than some elevated icon. 

Something else was bothering her. That selkie looked familiar. But they’d never met before. Or had they? What had she said… she'd been to every weekly city visit? Normally, there were so many people she didn't pay any attention to anyone specifically, but wait, yes! She had seen that selkie a couple of times before! The first time, she remembered thinking it was rare to have a selkie watching. The second time had to be more than a coincidence. She was an admirer – not unusual since she had many such people – but she was different. She was always hiding in the back and wasn't as physically expressive in her excitement as the other people lining the street. There seemed to be a deep, genuine admiration in her sparkling eyes. 

Luci noted her stop was coming up. Carved onto the side of each canal was a marker indicating the nearby street, corner, or byway above the canal. She surfaced, only poking her head above the water to make sure no one was around. Not that she expected there to be, but this part of town housed many of the lesser noble families, diplomats, city officials, and other important cornerstones to the city's ruling body. She had to avoid detection since no self-respecting person of high social rank would be out at such an hour.

A deprecating smile played on her lips. ‘Except for a misbehaving daughter like myself!’ 

After climbing out of the water, she rounded a shuttered stall that sold flowers in the warmer parts of the year, arriving at her family home. It was an entirely self-sufficient estate with outbuildings, workshops, and lodging for workers all centered around an expansive multi-story lodge. The highborn home was topped with a shingled, deep A-frame roof, flanked with stone-pinnacled towers, and entirely surrounded by a wooden wall. 

Far from a primitive palisade, each felled tree trunk used in its construction had been sawn and sanded into thick poles and carved to depict the heads or bodies of different demi-humans. They were called totems in Merport, and did not act so much as a protective barrier as a representation of family lineage, validating the power, rights, or privileges that a family held. It also served to document stories and histories familiar to the community, tribe, or clan.

Similar to the statues and busts in Iceford, other totems were also erected around this city to serve as memorials and commemorate past events.

Luciana slinked to a place where no one was likely to notice her slime trail and then put her foot at the base of a totem and began to ascend. The sticky mucus produced by her body gave her exceptional, albeit unladylike, climbing abilities.

Once on the other side, she circled the grounds and arrived at the window to her bedroom. Three stories above street level, it afforded an unparalleled view of the harbor, but it felt like a cage to her at times.

It wasn't her status and heritage she disliked; it was the isolation. She lived in a bubble, growing up with a line of separation between herself and others in the city. Many times, she and her sisters were told, "You're royalty. You are different from everyone else. The population looks up to you, so you should conduct yourself with nobility and grace.” Perhaps so, but that didn’t prevent the royal family in Thawdenn from intermingling on a personal level. 

Making the final ascent, she climbed through her window and dumped a bucket of water, available in her room in case she became too dehydrated, down the side to wash away any trace of her excursion. Removing her curtains-made-cloak, she hung it up, and put her room back in order to avoid suspicion. 

The room was luxurious. Specially designed with waterproofed oilskin pillows and blankets, it befitted her bed. Gilded cedar furniture was imported from Iceford, and tapestries of blue and gold, to match her body's color, hung from the walls. 

The fire had burned low, scattering shadows across the centerpiece, a portrait of her family. On the left, her stern yet gentle father, and on the right, her vivacious and socialite mother. Between them were the Tritonian triplets: herself and second of her namesake, her aggressively tomboyish second sister, Rubessa Virelle Tritonia, and their sweets-loving, praise-seeking third sister, Esmerina Emelisse Tritonia.

She had mixed feelings whenever she gazed upon the portrait. It wasn’t because she didn’t get along well with them – she did, despite occasionally butting heads with Rubessa – but mainly because she spent much less time with them now that they were busy with responsibilities she had lost out on.

Putting it out of her mind, she sat herself down in front of her vanity mirror and relaxed a distinct and particular set of muscles below her navel. 

'For all the assumed modesty of Tritonian nobility, the women of my tribe certainly are obscene down there.' Front and center for all the world to see was her womanhood, genitals that, even when unaroused, were grossly engorged, plump, and swollen with a bulbous nub of a clit  perched at the top. It was as if a Krakkari or Scylla got a hold of her and had used their strong tentacles to suction her vulva into a tumescent mockery of how it should have appeared.

Heralded as the shame of Tritonian woman, this blatant, naturally occurring anatomical appearance of their intimates had fostered certain standards of propriety. For instance, it was expected of Tritonian maidens to keep those parts ‘tucked’ away. Similar to sucking one's cheeks in, It was expected for maidens to trained to invert and hide her vulva within the many viscous folds of her body. 

Someone out there probably found such a garish nether region aesthetically pleasing, but she didn’t. The only good point was it made for an irresistibly cushy place into which a lance could nestle. She envied the petite, crimped creases of mermaids or the unassuming slit of the selkies, or even the symmetrical, half-crescent lips folded together and politely hidden like those of sahagins and humans. 

‘Must be nice to have two legs between which to hide your unmentionables!’ she sighed. 

Additionally, her body, like all Tritonians, was peculiar in that she possessed both the womanly bits one would expect and an extra… appendage. It was a long, tentacle-type organ used for two purposes: mating and 'jousting'.

She brushed her fingers along the right side of her body where her so-called 'lance' was stored underneath her mantle. Then, grabbing her hairbrush, she went to the window and looked out over the city. 

On a clear night, the stars and moon covered the bay in a silvery gleam. She spent many a night watching the fishermen’s lanterns bobbing on the waves. What a simple life they must have, not having to worry about all the exhaustive politeness, remembering each string of an ever-changing web of political and cultural alliances, friends, and relations, or dueling your siblings in a tournament for ascendancy for what roles you’d be performing for the next several decades.

Even though it was called a tournament, it was nothing so grand. It was merely a generational tradition, an inter-familial competitive bout between the offspring within the main family line. One of a variety of contests examining their skills in statecraft, diplomatic neutrality, civil and charitable work, history and heritage, language proficiency, cultural understanding, and soft skills like etiquette, manners, and leadership. The joust was merely the physical and final evaluation for them on gamesmanship, determination, and stamina. 

The scoring was done by their parents and the extended family elders to determine which of them possessed the highest aptitude for each competition. 

Luciana had confidence she'd win. She had nearly perfect marks in everything else and had not slacked in her physical training. Still, there was one thing in this last exam for which she hadn't accounted: sensitivity. 

That first match, she squared off against her smaller sibling. Esmerina, being the quietest and most unassuming of the sisters, was someone Luciana thought it’d be an easy win against.

Before the start of the match, the two combatants would lock hands to ensure no cheating. When the signal was given, they were to unfurl their 'weapons' and begin.

Among the more vulgar names for the 'joust' was 'penis-fencing.' But that wasn't entirely accurate. It was more of a tussle, the goal of which is to reach the deepest parts of the opponent and pleasure them into submission.

Each combatant could swivel and pivot their body any way they wished as long as they didn't let go of each other's hands.

Her lance, one of the most sensitive parts of her body, was nearly translucent with a splash of milky white and an under-hue of lightest blue. It didn't really have a definitive, tangible shape; it was smooth, overwhelmingly soft, and spongy, making it malleable to any hole or crevasse.

Luci's strategy had been simple: use her larger size to dominate Emeli (the sisters preferred using their middle names between one another). The plan got off to a good start. She'd driven her sister back against the wall. With no escape, Emeli had tried to pivot her hips out of the way, but Luci kept 'stabbing' until her lance had caught the lip of her sister's vulva and wiggled inside. 

It'd been the first time Luci had been inside a vagina with that part of her body. Penetrating oneself was taboo and forbidden because the results of self-impregnation could be disastrous. At times, she'd stuck her fingers inside to pleasure herself, but Emeli's insides felt completely different from her own. The texture of her walls was like little swirly bumps compared to her zig-zagging grooves. The tightness wasn't what she'd imagined either.

As she pinned her younger sister's hands above her head and hilted the smaller tritonian in one smooth motion, she was sure of her victory. 

She burrowed deep through the fleshy, slick folds until she bottomed out. Outweighed, Emeli had wrapped her own lance around Luci's multiple times in a desperate attempt to pull her out, but she soon figured out that wasn't going to work. On top of everything else, Luci had used her ample chest to block Emeli's view so she couldn't see Luci’s entrance.

Emeli didn’t need her eyes, though. Guiding her lance along the shaft of her sister’s, she found the now defenseless and vulnerable hole and dabbed at the entrance. Not that it mattered much since Luci still had the lead, but this was where the true battle began. 

While the first half of the contest was a melee, the second half was ranged. Another, perhaps even stranger feature than possessing both sets of copulatory organs, was their 'darts' – high-velocity projectiles containing their seed. With darts too small to see but potent enough to be felt, she and her kind were able to ejaculate at will, though it didn't feel nearly as good as when it happened involuntarily during orgasm.

The act of firing the gummy projectiles was a two-step process – build pressure and let loose. Creating the pressure was the easy part. Not unleashing them all at once required control and focus. The closer one came to orgasm, the harder it was to control the firing rate. Most of the pleasure came with speed. A single, clean shot provided significantly more pleasure upon impact for the receiver. Two at once got in each other's way, drastically reducing momentum. The target was the other's cervix. It was prohibited to penetrate all the way through to the opponent's womb. It was grounds for immediate disqualification.

Luci let fly her first dart, making her sister grunt and falter in her attempt to penetrate her. 

 A second dart, another hit, but this time her sister had redoubled her efforts and managed to get her lance into position. 

Pushing up into the larger girl, Emeli wasn't as girthy and therefore not as filling, but she made up for it by thrashing her lance back and forth. At the same time, she drove past her sister's clenching muscles, irregularly bumping up against pleasure points Luci didn’t know she had.

While it was true that the faster the dart, the stronger the impact, another element front-loaded into the dart, an aphrodisiac, made them tiny lust arrows with orgasm-inducing shrapnel. 

Whether it was that way from the beginning or an adaptation of their kind adopted through an unknown number of generations, the dual liquid blend made the receiver ultra sensitive when mixed with their seed.

Luci managed to nock and fire a third dart just as her sister fired her first. She, like her sisters, was a virgin. That meant no dart had ever entered them before. All her training had been in how to handle and maneuver her lance. Sensitivity resistance training wasn't something the sisters had considered.

As members of the cold-bloods, Tritonians didn't generate their own body heat. However, the speed at which their darts traveled produced enough friction that the impact and shattering against each other's wombs’ entrances were keenly felt as a hot, goopy mess. Therefore, Luci had been quite unprepared for the intensity of the sensation. She nearly came right there as the sharp explosion of pleasure painted her insides white.

She fired a fourth time, hoping her sister would finally cum, but Emeli grit her teeth and fired her second.

’Why was the feeling so strong? Was this natural? Was her sister feeling it as much as she was?’ She was going to bet the contest on this last one. Maybe, if she squeezed her vagina hard enough, she could actually constrict her sister's lance and slow the speed of the next one.

She'd been about to commit to her last desperate effort when, in a surprising move, Emeli pulled herself up by her pinned arms and kissed her sister. It wasn’t an illegal move, but it was totally unanticipated, especially coming from the meeker sibling. At that, Luci had a tongue to battle. 

The passionate ravaging of her larger sister’s mouth had worked to create a distraction. Emeli fired her third dart a fraction of a second faster than Luci could, forcing Luci to climax, losing all control over her own dart and the ones still left inside her body. 

Swiftly drained of all strength and composure, she let go of her sister's hands and fell to the ground red-faced and panting as her uncontrolled ejaculation continued to spurt out weakly inside her sister.

In an unexpectedly surprising display of dominance, Emeli yanked Luci’s lance from her stuffed hole and licked the messy tip triumphantly.

Depleted of seed and fighting spirit, Luci's most keen memory of that moment had been her cum leaking out of her sister, signaling the white flag of her defeat.

The next day's match with her other sister, Rubessa, had also ended in a loss, partly because her confidence had been shattered, and their middle sister was accustomed to more physical activities. She also couldn’t bully her with weight since they were almost the same size.

With both duels lost, it was customary to never show her lance again. It'd be shameful if she did. That was fine, as she didn't have any further use for it. The results of the bout were never publicly announced, but always managed to slip out somehow. 

She had been frustrated with her loss but accepted it gracefully. She didn't begrudge her sisters. They had earned their wins. 

The resulting assigned roles were what many expected. Rubessa was bestowed with tasks regarding foreign relations and diplomacy, perhaps because she was active, and it involved a lot of travel. Also, she wasn’t easily intimidated.

Esmerina was, to no one’s surprise, put in charge of more domestic affairs – cofferer for the inter-city economy and trade representative with the local pelagian tribes.

As for herself, Luci initially would have guessed something similar to a master of ceremonies in charge of hosting staged events, banquets, conferences, and the like. Yet, no… she became an almoner – put in charge of charities and distributing goods and goodwill to underserved communities. 

It was a noble endeavor, but she believed her skills could have been employed more fully elsewhere. She now found herself with a lot of extra time on her hands. 

A sudden flash from the lighthouse dispelled her retrospection. She sometimes wondered who worked there, maintaining that beacon of hope and safety for the ships at sea. She'd heard it could be an exceedingly lonely job. Maybe whoever it was didn’t mind that. Certainly, there existed pelagians who shunned all social contact and preferred it that way.

As the daughter of a duke, she was constantly surrounded by people. Guards, maids, stewards, attendants, and in more social settings, family acquaintances, distant cousins, or other relations – someone was always around, so much so that it was stifling at times. 

Sadly, out of them all, none was someone she considered a closer friend with whom she could share her personal thoughts and feelings. 

Her thoughts strayed back to that selkie. What did the fairy say her name was? Seula? What must it feel like to prefer a solitary life? Did she get lonely too? Maybe she was lucky and didn’t have yearnings for camaraderie. Her stuttering was cute. It must have taken a lot of courage for her to say what she did. What would it be like to be friends with that girl?

Alas it could never happen. No friends permitted among the lower class. Don’t want to  grow close with those outside her peerage and risk tarnishing their reputation. 

She doubted they’d interact again, one-on-one, but maybe she’d keep an eye out for the girl when she visited town.

Tossing another log on the fire, she crawled into bed, hugged a pillow to her chest, and fell asleep.

—--

“...na."

Reina thought she heard a far-off voice.

"...eina."

It was so quiet. Must be from the dream she was having; one of those dreams when you know you are dreaming.

"Reina!"

Reina jerked awake as the blanket was yanked off her. 

"Azalea?!?" 

"Ssssh! Don't wake Life-mate."

The whitehorn propped herself up on her elbow and rubbed her bleary eyes.

"Where are you? Are you alright?"

"Over here. There's been a… situation."

Azalea was at the corner of the bed, wrapped up in the edge of the blanket she had just pulled.

"What are you doing over there?"

"You wouldn't be upset with me if, um, something unusual happened?"

Reina re-positioned herself so she was nearer the uneasy fairy to avoid having to speak too loudly. "My little love, you are the definition of uniquely unusual. The only time I could imagine myself getting upset with you is if you were putting yourself or someone else in danger."

"Well, this is a little weird even for me."

"You aren't panicking, so how concerned do you need me to be?"

"Well, um, it's just, I know how you feel about Oozi..." Azalea answered while looking away.

At the mention of her least favorite creature, she looked around for the sneaky puddle. Not seeing it, she narrowed her eyes at Azalea.

"Azalea." Her voice had a tinge of mom in it. "Where is the schlicum, and why are you hiding?" 

"Promise not to be too grossed out!" Azalea pulled back the covers, revealing her usually flat belly now round and swollen.

Reina stared at it for several seconds and then rubbed her forehead. 

"It’s not what you think! It kinda… snuck in."

“Snuck?”

“Ok, maybe it was more of a sudden self-invitation.”

"I worried this might happen someday,” fussed Reina.

“Do you think Life-mate will notice?"

Reina smirked. “You look six or seven months pregnant, so yes, I dare say he will.”

Upon hearing his name, Devin stirred. Azalea quickly wrapped herself back in the blanket.

"Good morning, Life-mate!" Azalea said with forced enthusiasm.

"Good morning, Azalea, Reina," he contentedly spoke.

"Morning, Herd-mate. Good might be a bit subjective right now, though."

"Oh? What happened?"

"A certain thing." Answered Reina with a hint of resignation.

Devin rolled over. "Are you both involved with the thing in question?"

"No, just Azalea. She was at the center of it."

"More like it's the center of me."

Devin sat up, thoroughly curious now.

"Life-mate, you wouldn't be averse to me putting on a little weight?"

"Of course not."

The sheepish fairy let the blanket fall a second time.

Devin blinked several times. "Given that you didn't look like that last night. I'm going to assume you're not pregnant."

"Well, yes… you'd be right, but also, no."

"Azalea's pet has taken up a new residence," the Whitehorn summarized.

Devin scooped Azalea up for a closer look, immediately noticing a difference in weight. He prodded her belly. "It doesn't hurt, does it?"

"No, it just feels heavy."

“What were you doing when this happened?”

“I was feeding it like usual.”

"It must have been feasting with how soaked the blanket is.”

“Sorry.”

“Did you get carried away?”

“No more than usual. It's just… it numbed me. I had no idea it could do that! It wasn’t even a lot, just enough for it to sneak inside.”

“You weren’t watching?”

The fairy bashfully played with a lock of her hair. “I, uh, was too distracted fantasizing about you two.” 

Devin laughed, but Reina flashed him a look that asked how he could find this funny given Azalea’s condition.

“I didn’t even realize it till I started feeling oddly stretched and a sudden pressure building in my tummy. Before I figured out what was happening, the little rascal started massage-sucking my cervix, trying to loosen me up enough to weasel inside!

“I tried pushing it out, but you know how it is. It was like trying to clench down around water, so that didn’t do any good. Also, I was too close to cumming, so when it did manage to push through, I came immediately. I had no idea my cervix was even an erogenous area.”

“With how you are. Your whole body at times seems like one,” Devin commented.

Azalea gave a sheepish smile and continued. “But then the strangest things started happening!” 

“Stranger than this?” 

“Mhm. Much weirder, Life-mate! My siphon crest activated.” 

“I thought while you remained in contact, Oozi prevented your crests from activating." 

"I thought so, too, but this time it didn’t.”

“Maybe it has to focus or concentrate and was too distracted trying to get inside you?” 

“No. I’ve tried activating them when it was sleeping, and it didn’t matter if it was awake or not.”

Devin turned Azalea to the side to see her profile. “Then… perhaps it is due to proximity?”

“To what?”

“Your womb. You said that was the source of your affinity or crest power. Have you ever read about a giant storm that's shaped like a ring?” 

“I haven’t.” 

“The outer area is where the wind is blowing and the rain is coming down, but in the center it's strangely calm.”

“I don’t see the connection.”

“If your womb is the center and all the activity is happening around it, maybe that anchor point is a neutral spot for the flow of affinity or something. Oozi can’t disrupt or do whatever it does to prevent your crest from activating while it's within that space.”

“That kinda makes sense,” Azalea agreed.

“It's only a guess. Though, just having your crest suddenly working doesn’t sound too strange.”

“But that wasn’t all, Life-mate! You know how you feel energetic and giddy when I pass my energy to you? Well, it went to Oozi, but then it came back to me, and it didn’t stop! It continued to bounce between us, prolonging my orgasm way longer than any I've ever had before!”

"Interesting." 

"Not the word I'd use, Herd-mate," Reina quipped.

Devin shrugged. “You’re pretty loud when you’re orgasming. I’m surprised your moans didn’t wake us up.”

“The pleasure was way different – very intense and very concentrated. I was so overwhelmed, I was stunned and couldn’t really do anything other than flop around like a beached mermaid. It felt amazing, but toward the end, I was a bit scared it was never going to end.” 

“For the sake of your poor little body, I'm glad it did,” offered Devin. “Diminishing returns?”

Azalea giggled. “More like because we passed out from exhaustion.”

“We? Oozi was experiencing it too?”

“Yes! And that is the most extraordinary part! While we were cumming our brains out, I could feel everything Oozi was feeling at the same time… even its emotions!”

“I never stopped to think about it having feelings.”

“That's the oddest thing. I don’t think Oozi did before now.” 

“How do you know?”

“Because it was astonished at the pleasure it was suddenly experiencing and confused. No, that's not right. It was confused at being confused, as if it had never experienced emotions before. Up until this happened, I had an inkling that maybe Oozie could sense my emotions and maybe even feel the same sensations I do.” 

Reina’s ears perked up at Azalea’s speculation, aligning with her own earlier suspicion. 

“When I’m especially happy and feeling extra lovey, it perks up and wants to snuggle.”

“I observed that, too, when you were cuddling with me and it last night,” Devin reported.

“Also, I’ve noticed it likes to time its feedings to when I'm feeling most aroused.”

Devin considered this. “So then, the most obvious question is where did it get these emotions if it didn’t have them before?”

“It's great at absorbing things, so perhaps it absorbed them from me.”

“It couldn’t do that while it was on the outside?”

“No idea. Maybe the energy boost I gave it enabled it to do that, or maybe it had an epiphany at that moment. I sometimes have my best ideas during and post-orgasm.”

“So, let me see if I got this straight. When Oozi entered your womb, you somehow formed a connection that let you experience each other’s emotions and physiological sensations, and at the same time, it expanded Oozi’s perception of such things?”

“Pretty much that, ya. Oh, and I can talk to it.”

Up until now, Reina had remained quiet while her family, for some reason, obsessedly theorized as to the what and why of Azalea’s anomalous condition, but this talking to Oozi business was a revelation too far. 

"Talk?!? I can’t wrap my mind around it being alive, and I'm especially disturbed knowing it can feel pleasure now. I don't know if I can handle it learning to communicate." 

“What's wrong with that?” Azalea smirked. “Worried you might take a liking to it if it started sweet-talking you?”

“What? Eww, no!” Reina cringed, folded her arms, and looked away with a huff. 

Reina couldn’t tell them she was worried that if it did learn how to converse, her little interaction with it in Seula’s lighthouse might come to light. She didn’t want to admit that Azalea’s prediction might end up coming true. What had started out as a very real repugnance toward Oozi was now possibly, maybe, perhaps the tiniest bit less so. She wasn’t ready to admit it to herself.

"Perhaps talk isn't the right word. I was… I‘m not sure what I was trying to do. Help it associate emotions and sensations with positives and negatives?” 

“What made you decide to do that?”

“When we both woke up, Oozi was all too keen to explore my insides. It tried to go into the little tubes where my eggs come from. That was definitely a place not to go, so I tried impressing upon it a strong disapproval of what it was doing.”

“Did it stop?”

“Yes! I was surprised. I have no doubt I can teach it more. Oozi’s already very astute at learning all my favorite feel-good spots. Aren't you, you widdle cutey?” Azalea rubbed her belly and impressed love and affection to the still Oozling. “I'm so excited, Life-mate! I wonder how much I can teach it!” 

Devin set Azalea back on the bed. “I’ll admit I was concerned when you first proposed taking Oozi with us that you might have taken on a responsibility you later wished you hadn’t. I’m relieved and pleased you two are bonding so well.” Devin patted Azalea’s head, eliciting giggles from the praise. “Mrs. Svin’s family developed that hand language for Clarissa. You might end up doing something similar, which I'm sure would be a first. Can you picture how excited Jeni would be?”

“She would, wouldn't she? I can’t wait to tell her when we get back!”

"What's it doing now?" Devin asked, looking at Azalea’s tummy.

Azalea’s deep focus crest lit up, enhancing all of her senses, making her unnaturally cognizant of every aspect of her body she normally couldn’t or wouldn’t be aware of. The sound and movement of her heart, the blood pumping through her body, the stretch and pull of her muscles and sinews, and even the signal flashes of her nerves firing were all sensed by her conscious thoughts. 

She looked down at her belly. Oozi, her adorable schlicum, despite being curled up in a tight ball, stretched her virgin womb out more than it ever had been before.

“Looks like it went back to sleep.”

“Mrs. Svin did say schlicums prefers warm, wet, and dark places. With how much you were already supplying the first two, I suppose it was missing the third requirement.” 

Reina had been doing her best to be patient, but with the morning waning, she spoke up, “If you two are quite done flitting the morning away with this unpleasant topic, maybe you should discuss the more important matter of how you get it out.” 

“Yes, Mrs. Grumpy.” Azalea flew up and kissed Reina on the lips.

“Be glad I'm still letting you kiss me while that thing is inside you.”

“Oh, I am. Very much. And I know you are, too.” Azalea went in for another, much more intimate kiss that did much to melt away Reina’s reluctance and made up for her having to put up with their “unpleasantness.”

Devin suggested, "If it doesn’t come out by the time we leave Merport, we could stop by Muddy Springs on the way back and ask Mrs. Svin if she knows how to remove it."

"I feel bad for making us go out of our way. Maybe I could just write to her instead when we get back to Iceford.” 

“It wasn’t that far out of the way, but it's up to you."

Azalea wrapped her arms around her distended belly. “I’m sorry, Life-mate. I wanted you to be the first one inside the deepest part of me.”

“I’m honored you were saving yourself for me, but it is what it is. I’m just glad you’re ok. I guess this is the cost of dabbling with the mysterious and unknown. Who knows? Maybe you really will end up being able to establish a dialogue with it, and besides, maybe this isn’t so bad. It’ll help stretch you out.”

“You’re right, Life-mate! I’ll still need to use my dilators for my vagina, though.” Azalea attempted to stand up. "Thank you for not being upset."

"I might have been if you had been in distress, but right now, you look strangely sexy."

Azalea leaned into the praise. "I do?" She immediately jumped into several poses meant to show off her roundness. "You like your tiny fairy giving you a teaser of what she’ll look like at peak fertility?"  

"I do. Though, for your sake, I hope it's not permanent. Are you still able to fly?"

Azalea lifted off the ground. "Affirmative… though I don't feel as agile."

"Hmm, now I'm curious if your lactation crest is fooling your body into producing milk, I wonder if your current… condition would act on that and be doubly effective."

"Huh. I don't know. Perhaps we'll find out!" Patting her tummy again, she expressed, "Do you think Seula is awake yet? I wonder what she would say if she saw me like this!”

"Try not to shock her too badly," Reina advised.

"I won't. I'll go see if she's up!"

Reina handed Azalea the clothes she was trying to find and commented, "Don't wake her if she isn't." 

Ensuring she was well covered, Azalea flew to the door latch, jumped on it, and pushed her way into the hallway.

"What are we going to do with her?" Reina said more as a statement than a question.

"Keep her around to ward off a mundane life?" joked Devin.

Reina rolled her eyes and smiled. "She is quite the deterrent against that, isn't she? Do you think her insides are going to be ok?"

"I trust she knows her body better than we do, and you saw Mrs. Svin; she's had one inside her for decades."

"Not promising. Maybe she doesn’t know how to get it out! What if Azalea is stuck like that forever?"

"Unlikely. It's almost exactly like water. I’m sure it can get out, given the right motivation. You saw how often it likes to snuggle with her.” 

“True. It makes her look quite the doting mother." 

"She did say she was trying not to spoil Oozi before we arrived in Merport, but I don't know how much of that was tongue-in-cheek. Taking care of it might be good practice for the future when she wants to become an actual mom. Would you also be one to dote?"

"’Disciplined with love’ was my family’s motto, but maybe I can learn to by pampering you."

“I wouldn’t complain. Devin placed a hand on Reina's bare stomach.

"Herd-mate?"

"Just wondering what you'd look like with Oozi inside you."

Reina looked disgusted, and Devin smirked.

"Sorry. The thought behind it was what you’d look like as a mother."

"Do you like the pregnant look?"

"I hadn’t thought about it before, but I can’t say I dislike it if my wonderful, sexy Whitehorn was big and round for a few months." Devin attacked Reina's sides, tickling her.

In a fit of giggles, she fended him off, trying to tickle him back.

After a few tenuous creaks from the bed, they called a truce and lay in each other's arms, listening to a rabble of the seagull harpies outside the window. 

"Well, if you ever do see me in that state, this is the only part of me that's going to get big." She patted her flanks. "Just a wide, fat Whitehorn that'll have trouble fitting through doors." 

"Then I'll help give you a good push from behind."

"I'm sure that wouldn't be the only thing you'd be thinking of pushing while you were back there."

Devin chuckled and kissed her. "Guilty as insinuated. Speaking of big, are your breasts larger?"

"Are they?" Reina looked down at her chest. "I figure they would be when my milk let down, but not this soon. Crests are mysterious things to me. My shirt does feel tighter."

"How big are you, normally?"

"I don't know. I've never measured myself."

"Do you want to know?"

"I'm not particularly curious, but if you want to, Herd-mate, go ahead."

"Let’s see… string, string..." Devin slid off the bed and dug through his bag. Surely there had to be a length of twine somewhere. "Ah, here's some! I'll mark off the length, and we can compare it to something we know the exact length of later."

Reina thrust her chest out.

Devin flashed a look of ardor. "Every time I see them, I feel the compunction to play with them."

"You know you are free to whenever you wish."

"I know, but then I'd get nothing done. Hands over your head, my massive mammaried beauty. So, about… here." Devin pinched off the length of the string and marked it with a piece of charcoal from the fire. 

"While they are out, would you mind massaging them while I brush my hair into a presentable state? We can avoid Azalea getting involved and spare my sensitive nipples from possible… shenanigans."

"But I enjoy watching those kinds of shenanigans."

“I’m sure, but I don't need her teasing me only to have that thing suddenly pop out and surprise me."

"Maybe you are just the lure to attract Oozi!" 

Devin laughed at her displeased face.

"Don't joke about that."

"Right. Shutting up about it."

"And would you also please comb my tail once you're done?"

"Anything for my queen."