FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The undulating cloud of smoke fades and Henry’s vision becomes clear. A dimly lit wooden structure, bookshelves stocked with thick tomes titled in odd angular font, a dining table littered with burning candles, bones hanging from the ceiling, a large cauldron bubbling off in the corner. Yep, this is the sister’s cabin alright.

He looks to his front to see none other than the horned bear herself. She stuffs the limp body of a frog into a healing potion bottle then sets it on a nearby table.

“Hey Urmine!” He happily greets her, holding his pan up. “You summoned me at a good time, I brought fish!”

She looks to him with a cold stare and crosses her arms, remaining silent. Henry begins to take a closer look at the bear, noticing some startling differences since the last time he saw her. Her dress seems more tattered with new rows of hastily made stiches and patched on cloth littering its surface. Urmine’s eyes appear tired, slightly bloodshot and with a few new bags under them. But most worryingly of all, is the absence of one of her antlers. Where two proud towers of bone once graced her head now only one remained, her left antler having been cut off cleanly near the base, as if with a surgical saw. Henry gets the feeling the last few months have not been kind to her.

He slowly lowers his pan of fish, expression turning to one of shock.

“W-what happened to your antler?”

The bear pauses for a moment, burning an angry hole into him.

“I had to use it.” She curtly replies.

“What do you mean? Like for a ritual or a spell or something? Where’s your sister?”

The bear’s demeanor remains cold. She points a stern finger at him.

“Did you really think it would be that easy to hide from us, little man?”

“What?” He replies with a confused shrug.

“When we desummoned you last time you probably thought you were safe, that we couldn’t find you again. You thought you were free from the consequences of your actions. Didn’t you?”

“Urmine, what are you talking about? I wasn’t trying to hide from you at all!”

Her gaze narrows.

“Oh suuuuuure. God, you’re such a little miscreant.” She groans, rolling her eyes. “You plant your seed then expect others to do the hard work of raising your bounty, then play dumb when questioned about it! I had no idea you were such a coward when we met you, Henry. If I had any sense back then I would have sent you right back to your ball when I first set eyes on your ugly, furless form. It would have saved me and my sister a whole lot of trouble.”

Henry sets the pan down on a nearby table and crosses his arms, a new firmness in his voice.

“Cut the bullshit Urmine. Why am I back here? Where’s Gothetta? And what is it that’s got you so pissed off?”

“Still playing dumb! I can’t believe it! I ought to-!” She growls and holds her paws up as if to cast a spell, teeth bared. Henry yelps and recoils back with eyes full of fright, then her gaze softens and paws lower as she takes in his shock. Her scowl melts into a neutral expression. “He really doesn’t know.” She whispers to herself.

“Doesn’t know what?!” He asks, arms raised in exasperation.

She steps closer, arms hanging limply at her sides.

“Henry, do you remember what we did just before we sent you back all those months ago?”

“Ya, of course, I satisfied your carnal desires on that heart shaped bed of yours. You don’t mean…” He trails off, head tilted to the side as reality slowly begins to dawn on him.

Urmine moves closer, putting a gentle paw on his shoulder.

“Perhaps it would be better if I showed you.”

He nods weakly then she leads him into the bedroom. As the door opens he sees that their bed is no longer the heart-shaped love nest he last saw it as. It’s returned to its normal bunk bed like state, however, the bed does seem to have an excess of pillows on each of the bunks, far more than what a normal person needs. Gothetta is sitting on the top bunk and reading a book as Urmine and Henry enter. She rests atop a large pile of pillows interspersed with blankets sealing the gaps between them. She lowers the book and her eyes fall to Henry, gasping in surprise.

“Oh, Henry! You’re back!” She beams, tall ears perked up. She then looks to Urmine and claps. “You finally did it sister! All those months of trial and error finally paid off!”

“Yes, the resummoning worked this time. Thank the gods.” The bear tiredly replies.

“And a good thing it did, I was beginning to worry that we may never see the flat faced visage of our one and only love companion ever again. But more worryingly than that, I was worried that our hatchings may never see him either.”

“Hatchlings…” Henry breathily mutters.

Gothetta cocks her head.

“Oh, have you not told him yet Urmine?”

“I thought it would be better if he saw them first. Climb up on the bed Henry.” She orders.

Henry walks forward and climbs the ladder with bated breath, head spinning as he takes step after step. When he had made it to the top he sits next to Gothetta. The doe gingerly gets up off her mountain of pillows and moves to the side. As she rises a depression is revealed in the middle of the pillows. Henry takes a deep breath and cranes his neck over the top of it.

Two basketball sized eggs lay nestled in the depression. One is a burnt orange color with dots of lime green, the other is bright lavender with speckles of ebony.

He blinks and does a double take.

“You…you…uhh…you…” He takes a moment to rub his temples, mind in danger of totally locking up. “You laid these? You laid these eggs?” He repeats, pointing to the pillow pile.

“Uh-huh! Uh-huh!” Gothetta cheerily replies, shaking her head ecstatically. “I laid the purple one and Urmine laid the orange one. Aren’t they just beautiful?”

“No sister, I laid the purple one and you laid the orange one. I’ve been telling you this since the day we laid them!” Urmine refutes from below.

“Silly bear, I know what egg came out of who and I know that I laid the purple one! An egg of orange and green came from a bear who’s mighty mean, and an egg of purple and black came from the doe who knows the facts!”

Urmine just shakes her head and sighs in tired defeat, it’s clear they’ve had this argument many, many times before.

Henry leans over the eggs and cautiously puts his hand to the purple one. First lightly stroking it with his fingers as if unsure of its realness, then putting his entire palm over the smooth shell, feeling its warmth.

“Don’t worry Henry, Urmine and I have been acting as good responsible mothers to be. We’ve been taking turns sitting on our eggs to keep the hatchlings inside warm, and we have a nest of pillows on each of our bunks to make sure the eggs stay cozy and safe.” She puts her hands to her cheeks, tittering with excitement. “Oh it’s going to be wonderful when they hatch! We haven’t even named them yet, I thought we should probably wait until you came back.”

Henry slouches on the bed and looks up to the ceiling, the shock of the whole situation gradually wearing off.

“I thought you said you weren’t in heat before I left. I thought you said something like this should never happen. Were you lying to me?”

Urmine softly shakes her head and steps to the edge of the bed.

“No, what I said back then was true. Like all beast folk me and my doeish sister are only supposed to be fertile in our heats, and when we went to bed with you our heats were still months off. Us getting pregnant shouldn’t have happened. And yet it did. Somehow.”

“And I'm guessing you thought I knew something you didn’t. That I intentionally gave you both eggs just before departing back to Earth? That’s why you were so angry with me?”

She glances off to the side and weakly shrugs.

“Well…yes. You must admit, it was awfully convenient timing. With you making love to both of us just before the desummoning ritual it would have been an excellent opportunity to spread your seed around before making a quick, and theoretically permanent, exit.”

“I’m just as clueless as you all are, I have no idea how this happened.” Henry gestures towards the eggs. “I’m no reproductive expert but as far as I know if a doe and a bear aren’t in season then they aren’t in season. I can only assume that me being a human somehow screwed up the natural order of things around here. Again.”

Gothetta quietly chuckles to herself. The other two look at her with curious gazes.

“Is there something you want to say, sister?” Says Urmine, an eyebrow raised.

The doe quickly stops her chuckling and clears her throat.

“Would you fetch me the Book of Summons, dear Urmine? There’s just something in there I want to check.”

The bear shoots her a strange look before turning and marching out of the bedroom. She soon returns, tome in hand. The doe gingerly receives it and begins flipping page after page, eventually landing on the one she needed.

“And I quote, ‘Humans, through some unknown mechanism, create chimeras with every successful coupling.’.”

“Last time I checked for a coupling to be successful both parties have to be in proper breeding season.” Urmine angrily remarks.

“Or does successful merely mean that seed enters the womb? And that the womb doesn’t necessarily have to be fertile?”

“Gah! Give me that!” Urmine reaches up and tears the book out of Gothetta’s hand, her eyes furiously scanning each and every line.

“This explains how your mother became pregnant with you two, I recall that she was out of egg laying season as well.” Henry adds.

“Yes, but she also said that she was close to her heat. I suppose we all simply thought that she mistimed her coupling with father, that it was just a bit of bad luck and her heat started a little earlier than anticipated. Our dear mother never did seem to have the best of luck…”

“Successful coupling…successful coupling…successful coupling…” Urmine repeats, muzzle swinging back and forth as she angrily surveys the book. “In the glossary of magical terms I see no definition for ‘successful’ or for ‘coupling’. Gah! Infernal thing! Why must so many scribes be so vague! Why couldn’t they have just said that if a human mates with a beast folk then it always results in offspring? It would have saved us a whole lot of trouble!”

“No point getting angry Urmine. What’s done is done.” Henry calmly says.

She closes the book with a growl.

“If I ever meet the fool who wrote this thing I’ll make sure that their asshole has a real ‘successful coupling’ with the nearest red hot fire poker!”

“Ah! Urmine! The hatchlings!” Gothetta shouts, moving her body over the eggs in a protective huddle. “If they hear your potty mouth through the shell they’ll come out cussing. And we can’t have that, we want well-behaved, well-spoken hatchlings. Cuss around the eggs, and they’ll hatch as potty mouthed dregs!”

“Sorry.” Urmine blurts out, setting the book down on a nearby desk. “I'm just a little frazzled is all.” Her gaze returns to Henry. “These past few months have been very stressful for me and Gothetta. And not just because of the eggs.”

Henry leans up, a look of concern on his face.

“What’s been going on? Has the town been giving you any trouble?”

Urmine takes a chair from a nearby desk and slides it beside the bunkbed, sitting down with all the grace of a falling meteor.

“No, we’ve been keeping a low profile ever since the eggs were laid. The town remains wary of us but they’ve got no reason to get the pitchforks and torches out anytime soon.”

“Then what’s got you so stressed out?”

“There are rumors, Henry.” Urmine’s tone lowers as she stares into empty space, her head darkening with thoughts of blood splatters and tiny screams. “Rumors of a witch hunter moving into our neck of the woods. We began hearing about them last month, through communication with some of the nearby covens. They say it’s just one witch hunter, but even one can be deadly to a couple of young witches like me and Gothetta.”

“And this witch hunter, do they kill indiscriminately or do they have to have a reason? Why would one be on their way here?”

“Are you familiar with bounty hunters?”

Henry shakes his head affirmatively. Urmine continues.

“Same concept. They deal with people who cause problems, or in this case witches who cause problems. They do it for gold and glory, and in most cases the witches they deal with tend to be of the, let’s say, less savory variety. Usually if a witch gives the people around her no trouble then they’ve got nothing to fear from a witch hunter. Usually.” She ends with a weak shrug and sad shake of the head.

“Pssst, hey Urmine.” Her sister whispers. Urmine looks up to her. “Could this be because of the time we stole all the town’s chickens?”

A faint smile briefly appears on the bear’s muzzle.

“Unlikely.” She softly responds.

Henry tries to lift the sister’s spirits with a bit of cautious optimism.

“You did say it was just a rumor. It could be that there’s no witch hunter on their way at all. Or maybe they’re simply passing through here, on their way to deal with a witch far meaner than you two. A witch like that moose from before!”

“I don’t know Henry, I just don’t know. But this brings me to one of the reasons we resummoned you. In the event that a witch hunter is on the way here they would have no reason to attack you since you aren’t a witch, hell, they shouldn’t even know that you exist. So, if something does happen to me or Gothetta, can we count on you to keep the eggs safe?”

“Jesus guys, you’re being awfully fatalistic here, we aren’t even sure if the danger is real.”

“Becoming a parent entails certain responsibilities, Henry. We need to know we can count on you.”

His answer comes after a brief hesitation.

“Of course. I'm not sure how exactly it would all work out, but I promise to keep our eggs safe, watch them hatch, take care of the hatchlings, all that stuff.”

“Good man.” Gothetta says, patting him on the shoulder. “When the eggs aren’t being warmed by one of us they need to be kept covered up to retain their heat. You mustn’t ever let them go cold Henry, never ever. If the inside temperature of an egg drops too much the hatchling inside will die. Until they hatch it will be up to the three of us to keep them toasty warm and their shells intact.”

“Forgive the dumb question, but when will they finally bust out of their shells?”

“Oh it’s not dumb at all, we have roughly half a year until that happens.” Answers Urmine from below. “Me and Gothetta took nine months from the day that our mother laid us until we hatched, it’s only reasonable to expect our hatchlings to spend a similar amount of time cooped up in their stuffy shells.”

“Just like a human then. Well, minus the egg part.”

Gothetta crosses her arms.

“And just how do human women protect their humanlings if not with the hardy shell of an egg? Do they keep them in a pouch? Do they cling to their backs? This whole ‘eggless pregnancy’ thing sounds so absurd to me.”

Henry has to suppress a laugh; he had forgotten how foreign his world still was to them.

“No, Gothetta. When human women are pregnant the babies grow in their bellies.” He answers, outlining a pregnant belly with his hands. “For nine months the baby stays in there, then they’re birthed into the world, just like how our hatchlings will stay in their eggs for nine months before breaking out.”

Gothetta grimaces, a look of shock and disgust on her face.

“Human babies…break through their mother’s bellies? With those dull little human teeth of yours? That’s horrific! Absolutely gruesome! How does the mother survive! Ah!” She covers her eyes with a horrified scream.

Henry finds he can’t suppress the laugh that comes next and puts his hands up as he tries to calm the doe down.

“It…doesn’t work that way. Just trust me on this. A human birth is messy but not in the way that you think. Hell, I would bet money that not every pregnancy in this world is through an egg either. Where I come from it’s mostly just birds and reptiles that lay eggs.”

Urmine’s eyes suddenly go wide as an unpleasant realization hits her.

“Umm, Henry, are you saying that while the woman is pregnant her belly is round? Kind of like someone’s who’s eaten too many sweets and their features go all doughy and soft?”

“Well, kind of. Their bellies balloon up and they may gain a little weight but it’s usually pretty easy to tell the difference between a woman who’s pregnant and one who’s fat. Just be sure never to confuse the two and ask a plump woman when she’s expecting or a pregnant woman when she’ll slim down, it’s considered very rude back on Earth.”

“That would explain some things.” She mutters under her breath before looking to Gothetta. “Sister, remind me to apologize to the baker’s wife tomorrow. No reason.”

“You got it.” The doe replies, turning to Henry. “Speaking of tomorrow, you, me, and Urmine are heading down to the chapel first thing in the morning to get married. Me and Urmine decided that as the father to our hatchlings you’ll need to become our official and lawfully ordained love companion, or husband slave, as Urmine likes to call you.”

“I didn’t bring a suit with me, but I’ll go to the chapel with you. Sure.”

“Good, good.” Urmine utters through a steely stare. “Because your compliance was non-negotiable. Me and Gothetta made the determination that we’re all getting married even if I have to knock you out with a spell, pay father Bloom a hefty bribe, and drag you up to the altar. But since you’re so agreeable it seems you’ll be walking there.”

“I don’t mind, at least it’ll give me a reason to keep this thing on my finger.” He says, presenting the back of his right hand to the sisters. On his ring finger lies the wedding ring they slipped on just before they tried to forcefully marry him several months before. Its large purple crystal still glows with a dull pulsing light, the band made of dark metal etched with odd angular symbols. “You all forgot to take it off before desummoning me, I suppose in the chaos of that last day we all kind of forgot about it. With the enchantment you placed on it I can’t remove it myself and I wasn’t exactly keen on lopping off my finger just to get rid of it.”

“Sorry about that Henry.” Gothetta pouts and her ears go flat, an apologetic look on her face. “Give me your hand and I’ll disenchant it.”

He presents his hand to her, and she points a finger at the ring.

“Locks and keys and desperate pleas. I hereby remove the enchantment keeping this ring to Henry’s finger, without his blessing it shall not linger!”

The ring glows with a golden hue for a couple of seconds before dimming. He tests her work by gripping the ring and pulling it upward. It slides across his skin with little resistance. With a pleased grin he lowers it back down to his finger’s base.

“Thanks Gothetta. Back home I was worried I may never be able to get it off.”

“It’s the least we could do. I have to imagine it caused you quite a lot of grief back on Earth, any prospects must have thought you were already taken.”

“Not as much as you may think.” Henry says with a half-hearted laugh.

The room goes quiet and Urmine raises her arms up with a mighty yawn. The bear licks her lips and rubs her tired eyes.

“Sister, husband-slave to be, I don’t know about you all but I’m dead tired. What do you say we get some rest before tomorrow’s wedding ceremony? It’s going to be a big day, and I just know father Bloom’s going to give us trouble considering this is the second time we’ll trying to marry him.”

“Wait-wait-wait.” Henry stops them. “One last thing. Of all the humans in the world you could have summoned back here how did you manage to get me in particular back? I thought this whole summoning thing was like a roll of the dice with who you manage to pull out of the ether?”

“Ah yes, that.” Urmine mutters, getting out of her chair and walking towards a desk. She picks up a book from its surface and returns to her chair, absentmindedly flipping through its pages. “This is the copy of mother’s diary we made before putting the original back in her coffin. Turns out our old bird dabbled in altering the rituals involved in summonations in an attempt to pull James back into our world. She put serious effort into her experiments, but after a few years of successive failures she eventually gave up.”

“But mother was a good record keeper!” Gothetta beams, full of pride for her dear mom. “She kept meticulous notes and diary entries about her experiments. Through her failure, we were able to piece together more ways to potentially perform a targeted summonation, one that’s aimed at bringing back a specific individual rather than a member of a broader species. And after months of hard work, trial and error, rare ingredients purchased, fellow witches consulted, and the fires from failed summonations put out, we finally did it! We brought you back Henry!” She exclaims, a toothy grin on her muzzle.

“But not without great cost.” Urmine adds, pointing to the nub of her left antler. “As me and Gothetta worked out what was needed to resummon you we determined that a piece of a horn from a magical beast was absolutely essential to a successful ritual. The price of a unicorn horn was prohibitive, and there aren’t any other horned magical beasts native to this area, so we decided to use mine since I technically count. When I resummoned you it was with the last piece of my left antler so I suppose we should count ourselves lucky, I'm not sure how I could deal with having both of them cut to pieces. My antlers are precious, my best friends, and I…I…already lost one. I feel like half the horned bear I once was.” Urmine looks to the ground and quietly sniffles.

Gothetta looks down at the melancholy bear, voice full of empathy.

“Oh come on Urmine, it’s not that bad. It’ll regrow with time. Your right antler will have her friend back soon enough.”

“I guess. But my antler wasn’t the only thing we had to sacrifice to bring you back Henry. We had to sell much of mother’s library to buy the other rare ingredients that we needed. Genuine kraken ink, bone meal from a skelelord, five leafed clovers, black morenias, jellied sunlight, those things don’t come cheaply. I only wish we didn’t have to sell off so many of her books, they were priceless…” Urmine trails off, clearly upset at the loss of her inheritance.

“But it was worth it, wasn’t it sister?”

“I suppose. Though it all depends on how good of a husband-slave Henry ends up being.” She smirks.

“Ya-ya-ya, very funny you two. I would have been trying to find a way back here if I knew I had two eggs waiting for me.” Henry leans up and begins climbing down the ladder. “We really should get some sleep before tomorrow. Hell, I was already about to keel over before you brought me back here.”

Urmine moves her chair back under the desk then looks to the bunkbed with a hand on her chin.

“Hmmm.” She sounds, eyeing the bunk bed up and down. “Gothetta, with three of us sleeping here for the foreseeable future it seems our bedding situation is now woefully inadequate. Take the eggs and climb down. I’ve got a plan.”

“What did you have in mind?” She asks, swaddling up the eggs in a blanket before beginning the climb down. “Going to bring the heart shaped love nest back? Going for a triple bunk? Or a nice simple, warm, and tasty bed of hay? I always thought there’s no better breakfast than a nearby pile of golden straw, it always satisfies my morning maw.”

“No, no, not so radical a change. Besides, not all of us share in your preyish palate.” Urmine raises her hands and splays her fingers, her voice turning into a booming incantation. “Cottony bedding formed of delicate threading, a bed for resting with a place for nesting, framed with stout oaken beams it shall guard us in our wistful dreams! I command this worn-out bed to satisfy the needs of me and my sister, now bred!”

The dilapidated piece of furniture begins to creak and shift, dust falls from its frame and a mouse jumps out of a mattress to safety. The legs begin to spread out as the top bunk is pulled downward, first becoming parallel with the bottom bunk before they merge into one single large unit. A blank wooden headboard rises from its frame and stands above the now much larger mattress, new soft bed sheets covering its top. The pillows at the head of bed multiply, shifting into three distinct rows each at least three pillows deep. The dusty old blanket takes on a dull red tone and patterns begin to stitch themselves into its surface. The stitches form large diamond shapes, and within each one is an egg bearing differing colors, patterns, and designs on its surface. The bed now almost done with its transformation, several of the blankets Gothetta left on the top bunk slither down to the foot of the bed and fold themselves neatly, turning into soft felt.

Henry stands awe struck next to the sisters, silently wishing that they could do a similar trick to his bed at home. Urmine looks over the new bed with an inquisitive gaze, soon finding a deficiency.

The peeved bear loudly clears her throat.

“With a place for nesting.” She repeats from her incantation.

Immediately the center of the bed drops a few inches, its center now having a slight depression for eggs to lay in. Gothetta smiles, tittering on her hooves.

“Oh it’s perfect Urmine! Soft and cuddly and with all the bits to keep our hatchlings warm and protected.”

“Yes, perfect.” She flatly agrees, kicking one of its legs as if as punishment for not perfectly following her commands.

Gothetta rushes forward and throws open the covers, quickly surveying the depression before gently lowering the prized eggs into it. She then grabs the felt blankets from the foot of the bed and lays them over the top of the eggs, pushing the soft material in to ensure they’re insulated from every angle. The doe then flops lazily beside her eggs, pressing her body forward and slightly over them.

“Get in everyone! I think the hatchlings would much prefer for three warm bodies to heat them as opposed to one!” She declares.

Henry gets in bed next, soon followed by Urmine. He wiggles his way next to the egg pile, facing Gothetta as he hesitantly closes those last few inches.

“So…I just keep them warm by being near them? Like this?”

“Closer Henry, no need to worry about crushing them, their shells are hardier than you may expect. Trust me, Urmine knows aallll about it.” Gothetta grabs Henry by the arm and urges him closer, his body soon reaching a position similar to hers. “Isn’t that right sister?” She asks in a mocking tone.

Urmine scoots next to Henry and lays flat on her back, crossing her arms as she stares at the ceiling.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Gothetta giggles then waves Henry closer, speaking in a conspiratorial whisper.

“She dropped one of the eggs a couple of weeks ago. It scared her half to death when it happened, you couldn’t wrestle her off the top of it for the next half week if you tried. She became so protective of it. Washing it, keeping it warm day and night, I even heard her whisper apologetic lullabies to the hatchling inside.”

“Shush Gothetta.” Urmine simmers, finally looking over to her sister. “I knew the egg was fine just after it happened. I inspected it from top to bottom and found no crack, break, or discoloration. I know precisely how much effort it takes to crack one of those things and I always knew it was fine, need I remind you of the story of our birth?”

“You’re just saying that. I know how it really went down and it involved more than one teary eyed lullaby.”

Urmine groans.

“Whatever. Why don’t you stop telling Henry lies and get some sleep?”

The bear snaps her fingers and the candles in their bedroom instantly go out, the space now only bathed in gentle moonlight. Gothetta lets out a breathy sigh and cuddles up next to the egg pile, Henry doing the same as a litany of questions rush through his head and hold his restful sleep hostage.

Does this mean he has to stay in the sister’s world forever now?

What about his job?

Could he spend half his time here and half back on Earth?

What about his family? How the hell is he going to break the news to them?

What will his parents think?

Should he bring his family here at some point?

And what about that witch hunter, what if they’re real and actively hunting the sisters?

Can he protect the sisters?

Can he protect the eggs?

Can he even protect himself?

What if something happens to the sisters and he’s left here stranded?

Henry sighs and readjusts his position on the bed, smushing his head into a pillow as Urmine’s gentle snoring fills the air. Gothetta pipes up beside him.

“Can’t sleep?” She whispers.

“Ya.” He whispers back.

“I bet you have a lot of questions on your mind.”

“You have no idea.”

“You’re probably thinking about how the heck we managed to lay these big ol’ eggs without breaking our hips, aren’t you?”

Henry pauses for a moment. No, he was not wondering that, but now that she mentions it how did they manage to lay their eggs? They’re far too large to ever make it through any human sized orifice now that he thinks about it.

“You…uhhh…used magic?” He weakly guesses.

She giggles in response.

“No silly, the eggs are much smaller when first laid, they aren’t even finished growing yet. They’ll reach their full size in a month or so then remain that size until they hatch.”

“Ohhh…that makes a lot of sense actually. They do seem a little small to hold a baby right now.”

“Yep, when they outgrow their shellish prison is when their instincts kick in and they break the shell. I hope to be around when it happens. I’ve never seen a hatchling actually, you know, hatch.”

“Neither have I.”

“And you may have the opportunity soon. Now get some rest Henry, tomorrow’s going to be a big day for all of us.” She smiles, gently rubbing his shoulder with a hand.

“You’re right. Goodnight Gothetta.”

“Goodnight Henry."