Chapter 60: The Birthing of Holstaurs

With Daisy clinging to my back and May Belle in my arms, I dashed light-footedly back to Tater Town, ending up at Etherea's cottage. Setting my beautiful birthing holstaurs onto their feet, I pounded on the door of the humble abode.

"Etherea," I yelled, "Open up! It's Bucky!"

The door creaked open, and the beautiful moon elf stood before me, draped in her morning gown. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "What's the matter? I just got back and was settling down to get some—" Her eyes took in the sight of the panting holstaurs beside me. "Oh."

She shuttled the girls inside and then stopped me at the doorway. "Thank you, Bucky, I'll take it from here. You can wait back home."

I shot a look at her like she was insane. "Sorry, what? Why the fuck would I leave?"

The look she returned showed she had no idea what I was playing at. "Hmm? You wish to be present? For the birth?"

My jaw clenched tightly and my shoulders went tense. "Of fucking course I do," I said. "What the hell did you think? I wouldn't want to be here when my own daughters were born?"

She shrugged. "It's not the way things are typically done here. We usually don't trouble breeders and heroes with these matters. They're not pretty or fun affairs, Bucky."

"But they're important," I stressed, "Let me in."

She looked back at the holstaurs behind her, then returned her eyes to mine. Her expression was hard to read—wide-eyed in surprise, but certainly not upset. "I'll leave it up to the girls, if that's alright with you. This is... extremely unusual. Once again, Bucky, your love for your girls is surprising, even after all this time, but they may not be prepared for this."

"Ask them," I growled impatiently. Then, calming myself with a deep breath, "please."

"What's going on?!" Daisy's voice screeched, sounding rather distressed—all the more reason I couldn't bear being separated from them. "Close the door!"

"Bucky wants to be present for the birth," Etherea said. "I told him I needed your permission."

I could see the twins on the bed across the room from where I loomed in the doorway. They gave each other looks of surprise. Then, with more than a hint of discomfort in her voice, May Belle called out, "Let him in, you dumb bitch!"

Etherea smirked. "Come on in, hero."

I stepped into the cottage interior and closed the door behind me. A fresh fire burned in the hearth, just barely getting started. The holstaur twins—my loves, and the bearers of my children—lay back against the mattress, holding their big baby bellies, staring at me as though they wanted to express something but simply didn't possess the words for it.

"If you're going to be here, then make yourself useful, hero," Etherea said, busying herself with some herbs at a desk against the wall near the hearth. "There are some clean blankets in the corner, resting atop the crate with my gowns. Do you see them?"

"Yeah, I see them," I grunted. I crossed the floor to fetch them and bring them back over. When I returned to the mattress that May Belle and Daisy were laying on top of, I realized my hands were shaking. "Now what?" I asked, my voice equally tremulous.

"Lay the blankets out beneath your girls," she said, pestling some flowers and dried berries. "I'm making an herbal infusion that'll help them to relax and make the birthing easier."

I obeyed, helping Daisy and May Belle  to their feet to lay out the blanket, then gently setting them back down.

Etherea turned around to face us, holding the herbal drinks, a picture of perfect calm, and smiled warmly as she said, "Girls, you'll need to remove your dresses. Things are going to get messy very soon."

Daisy and May Belle both nodded quickly, and pulled their garments off, revealing their bare breasts and pregnant tummies. Their bodies were smooth and flawless, and I felt my cock twitch inside my pants as I gazed upon their naked beauty. "Not now," I grunted, scolding myself quietly. "Jesus Christ, Bucky, get your shit together."

"Are you seriously getting hard right now?" May Belle giggled, staring at the obvious bulge in my pants. Then she groaned in pain.

"Etherea, how soon after birthing will we be ready for sex?" Daisy asked, biting her lip as she looked upon the sight. At least I wasn't the only incorrigible perv.

"Banish all thoughts of such things for now, sweetheart," the moon elf said, covering her mouth to obscure her look of amusement. She handed her herbal concoction to each of the girls, and they drank without question, though May Belle made a bitter face. "Tell me everything that happened leading up to this and what you're feeling right now."

I swallowed anxiously. "Well. About that," I started.

***

Not one, not two, but twelve hours later, after a lot of sweat, blood, and swear words (mostly uttered by May Belle, for the record), we had reached the end of the ordeal. By this time, Autumn was in the room, too, holding May Belle and Daisy’s hands, reminding them to breathe again and again.

“I swear to fucking Paragon if you tell me to breathe one more time I’m gonna rip your tits off!” May Belle howled.

“Where’s Bucky?!” Daisy shouted—for her, she had spells of anxiety and confusion that accompanied her pain. “Is Bucky still here?!”

“I’m here!” I said, crossing over to the bed from where I’d been anxiously pacing. “I’m here, sweety.”

“I’m scared,” Daisy said, her eyes trembling with the dewy gloss of tears. “It hurts so bad!”

I was chewing on the inside of my cheek so much that a bit of blood had dribbled out of my mouth from time to time. The metallic taste did little to distract me, though. “I’m here,” I repeated. I couldn’t offer anything else.

Etherea looked at me in awe. “That’s more than I can say for any other breeder or hero I’ve known in hundreds of years.”

“Low bar to clear,” I shrugged. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

She shrugged. “To be fair, our culture isn’t necessarily set up with the expectation that men are present for these things—breeders often travel before children are born, and heroes often die or go on prolonged quests. You’re special in that you set down roots as a hero.”

“I’m so glad you’re here, honey,” Daisy said, kissing my hand a dozen times.

“Ahhhh my cunt’s falling off!” May Belle shrieked. “Fuck-fuck-fuck! Fuck the gods for this bullshit! Let me lay a fucking egg! Bucky-Baby!?”

“Yeah,” I said, scarcely avoiding laughing at the string of epithets. “What’s wrong?”

“Let me see your balls,” she said. “It’ll help me calm down.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but then it just hung like that for like five seconds.

“Give me those fucking balls!” May Belle roared, making a squeezing gesture with her hands that triggered a psychosomatic pain reaction in my gut.

“May Belle—are you sure you want your daughter born with you cupping Bucky’s testicles?” Etherea said, ever the voice of wisdom.

“Ahhhh fuck!” she seethed. “I love you, Bucky-Baby! Even though you FUCKING DID THIS TO ME! I love you so much! Tell me I’m your favorite!”

“I, uh—”

“Do NOT say that,” Daisy warned me.

I felt suddenly lightheaded. “Fuck me, this is stressful.”

“Oh shit!” May Belle shrieked suddenly. “It’s happening! Something is happening!”

Etherea, kneeling in front of the girls, angled herself to investigate May Belle more closely. “Yes, you’re correct. Here comes the hard part, May Belle.”

May Belle’s voice went deeper than I’d ever heard it before. “What the fuck did you just say you knife-eared cunt?! The hard part?!”

“May Belle!” Autumn gasped in disgust, “That’s so offensive! Calm down!”

“Ohh, you’re one to talk,” Daisy said, “but May Belle, calm down. It can’t be that—Ohhhhh my gods!!!”

I’ll spare you the gory details. Things got decidedly like a horror show for a bit after that, but I wouldn’t have missed a second of it. The whole thing, while utterly terrifying, bloody, and apparently extremely painful, was still beautiful for what it was—the process, a natural ceremony, that brought new life into this world: my daughters.

I will always remember the moment that Etherea wiped the babies with a clean blanket and cast a spell to remove all the leftover fluids, wrapping them up in the same material that she used to make my bandages.

“Do you have names for them?” Etherea asked, looking down at the two mama holstaurs.

“Bonnibelle,” Daisy said.

“I was thinking ‘Lily,’” May Belle added, panting like she’d just run a marathon. As far as I was concerned, she did.

“Both names sound great to me,” I replied. I was grinning ear to ear.

Etherea handed the two babies to me first. “Hold your daughters, hero,” she smiled warmly. “Your long awaited prize after hours of being here for this rather unpleasant ordeal.”

I looked down at the babies. Save for the cow ears, at the moment both babies looked to be very human, all things considered. They didn’t have their horns yet, for one thing, and their tails and hoofs were totally wrapped up in swaddling. At the moment, they weren’t monster girls—they never would be to me, anyway. They were just my little girls. My babies. My daughters.

“Look at the look on his face,” I heard May Belle whisper. “It’s so cute!”

I leaned over May Belle and Daisy, crawling onto the mattress between them. “Here you go, girls,” I said. “Our babies. Bonnibelle and Lily,” I repeated the names. “I’m already in love.”

“Oh, Bucky,” Daisy cooed. “I’m so happy!”

“I can’t believe this is happening,” May Belle said as she held her own daughter in her arms for the first time. “Look, she’s got my eyes!”

“Let’s hope she doesn’t inherit too many features from me,” I noted with a frown.

“Oh hush,” Etherea scolded me, swatting my shoulder. “You didn’t exactly make out badly on the hereditary lottery, hero. She’d be lucky to have any number of your features.”

“Not your beard, though,” May Belle shuddered.

I laughed. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

“Or your weird thumb,” Daisy noted.

“Okay,” I noted with some offense. “It’s a very slight hitchhiker’s thumb, first of all.” I paused for a while, just staring. “How fast do they grow?” I asked, still grinning at all four of my holstaurs.

“Similar to Bonny’s kids, I think,” May Belle said, looking over at Daisy for confirmation.

“They grow the fastest in the first few days. They should be walking and talking by morning, I suppose.”

“Whaaat?” I asked in shock. “By morning?”

“Speaking of growth, you’d better start breastfeeding right away,” Etherea said.

For a moment I thought she was talking to me, and I cracked my knuckles and licked my lips, trying to decide which titty to go for first. Unfortunately, though, I realized very quickly that she was indicating the babies.

“Ah,” I grunted, realizing my error. “That makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Daisy asked.

“Never mind,” I said. Suddenly everything made sense in a way. This was it. This was why I was here. I had one superpower above all others—infinite love and adoration.

But this world was still a dangerous place with evil Dark Queens hell-bent on making it inhospitable for my girls to grow up in. I couldn’t have that. No sir, I would not abide by anything but the best conditions.

I’d never felt more drive for anything in my life. Oh, I wanted to do nothing but spend my days and nights holding my girls—lovers or daughters—in my arms and making every promise that I could.

But I couldn't do that. I knew it now, and although it stung, it also imbued me with a purpose unlike any I’d ever known. The surety of it shook me down to my core.

I may not have been fully healed—but then again, for all I knew, I maybe never would be. The time for waiting around for the quest to come to me, or for my wounds to go away—that time was done. Now was the time for action. I would carve the evil out of this world with extreme prejudice, leaving nothing but happiness, rainbows, and butterflies in my wake.

I would topple castles, slay demons, wrestle with dragons, and endure a dozen more life-threatening wounds if it meant making a world worthy of my girls.

As I looked down at my baby girls held tight to their mothers’ breasts, I knew for the first time in a long time what happiness felt. I knew it, I tasted it, but it was fleeting. It was gone already—but it would be here, waiting for me, when my quest was done.

I leaned forward and kissed each of the girls on the cheek. “I’m going to leave you two to it,” I said.

“Where are you going?” May Belle asked, a bit sadly, but not protesting.

“I’m going to rest for a bit.”

Autumn, May Belle, Daisy, and Etherea all accepted that answer readily—after all, we’d all been here for twelve hours, and I’d apparently shattered their expectations for me as far as the birthing experience was concerned. They were only so happy to grant me my reprieve.

But what I didn’t tell them is that when they all fell asleep tonight, I’d be waking up. I’d be heading east on Blue’s back to the Darkwood to claim the nymph’s tears and take the next step toward forging an alliance with the Dragon Empress—one which, I hoped, would give me the edge I needed to defeat the dark queens and purge evil from the lands once and for all.

Tonight was the night.