Chapter 42: Introductions and Goodbyes
Glenna found herself surrounded by darkness. This wasn't the same as if she were standing on a hilltop in the dead of night. No, this was like being shut inside an interior room with no windows or doors. It was absolute darkness. It was a void of nothingness. Was there air here?
Suddenly she was having a hard time breathing. A wave of panic tightened her throat and she found herself panting as waves of fear rolled over her.
Looking down, she realized she could perceive her body. It wasn't her new, goddess-gifted, hybrid body with four arms, bountiful breasts much larger and perkier than was natural for a woman of her build. Nor did she still have broader hips and buttocks that were thicker and rounder than natural. There was no tail splitting the cheeks of her buttocks made up of flexible tailbones that turned outward from the sacral promontory of her pelvis and some four and a half feet long before ending in a pointed tip. No, her fused sacrum bone once again curled inward naturally. Glenna saw her thighs and further down her lower legs and feet. They were no longer hybrid legs with hooves. Also, she was no longer luminescent, giving off light with phases of the moon. Her skin was simply white now. As white as newly fallen snow, but still, it was natural. Her hair brushed across her shoulders and back, and tickled at her behind and the backs of her thighs, and for the first time in her life, she knew what it was like to have hair that fell down her body instead of floating above. This body she saw in this place was her body. Her true body. The one she would have been born with if not for the Blessing of the Queen of Heaven, or, more recently, the divine changes she received from her goddess Seline.
Everything she perceived took only a minute to interpret and understand. Then, the long pointed ears sticking out from her head and the long black hair hanging down over her shoulders and back quivered. She heard something. Weeping. It was soft and tremulous, bitter and lonely. Looking around, Glenna saw no one nearby, and so, her ears perked up as she used her sharp alfari hearing to hone in on the direction the weeping was coming from.
Spinning around she determined the crying was coming from behind her and started in that direction. She walked upon nothingness like there was a firm floor beneath her feet. To walk on her own feet again felt strange, and yet, also so very natural.
She was naked so as she walked she tried to will clothes in existence, but nothing happened. Wherever this place was, she was not in control. Her breasts and buttocks jiggled with every step, and for the first time, Glenna blushed from embarrassment. It wasn't as it was before. Without the inborn Blessing of Queen of Heaven, her breasts were only slightly larger than handfuls. Her breasts jiggled instead of bouncing and swinging pendulously. Without her breasts being so large and her hips broader, her waist didn't seem quite so tiny in comparison. Her hips were still as wide as her shoulders were broad, but now they seemed toned and athletic rather than being seductively curvy and voluptuously thick.
Was this what nottalfar women were supposed to look like? Naturally?
The tips of Glenna's long black hair whipped the back of her thighs and buttocks as she walked. The right cheek and thigh then her left cheek and thigh before whipping the right again. She ignored her hair. It was so strange how it fell down her body now. Moving ahead, always ahead as far as she knew, the sounds of weeping grew louder until a woman appeared as if out of a heat haze. The woman was crouched down sitting with her haunches on her heels and bent prostrate as she wept. In front of the woman and hovering above her were pictures. Still pictures and moving pictures. They seemed to be recordings. Memories. All of them were of a young boy and his mother. Sound accompanied the moving pictures. Sounds of laughter and excited talking. Once seen and watched the pictures and videos winked out as others appeared. The boy was now a young man and his mother was a little older.
From what Glenna could see as she approached the woman, crouching down amidst pictures and videos of her memories, was very beautiful. She looked to be close to her middle years, but that seemed to only make her more beautiful. She was a flower in full bloom. Prostrate though the woman was, Glenna saw that the woman was tall, nearly as tall as Glenna herself who was five feet ten inches tall. The woman was thick and curvy as if she was blessed by the Queen of Heaven. Her legs were long and thick. Her hips were broad and her buttocks were thick and well rounded, rivaling Glenna with her blessed body from the Queen of Heaven and hybridization from Seline. The woman's waist was slim though not as slim as Glenna's, and the woman's breasts were very large and beautifully shaped. At least, as far as Glenna could tell from the way they hung pendulously beneath the woman and jiggled every time her body shuddered from her turmoil. Lastly, Glenna saw the woman's face and she was stunned, the woman was beautiful. If anything Glenna would say the woman looked remarkably similar to herself, with a sharp jaw and pointed chin, a plump mouth, a well-shaped nose that curved out like a ski-slope before turning upward, and bright, piercing blue eyes that spoke of intelligence, optimism, joy though they were terribly sad at the moment, a deep passion, and a twinkling of mischievousness. All of it. All of the woman's beauty was surrounded and encapsulated by thick golden lashes and eyebrows, and long golden hair that seemed to glow with a rose tint to it. Glenna knew herself to be a beautiful woman, but still, in the presence of this woman, for the first time in her life, she felt inferior.
"Hello, are you well?" Glenna called out as she approached, but the other woman didn't respond.
The woman was completely absorbed in the pictures in front of her. Turning her attention to the still frames and moving pictures, Glenna watched a young woman growing up. It was only her and her son. She was only a little older than her son. In one moving picture she was nursing a newborn. In another moving picture, he was a young man and the woman was older. They frolicked on a beach, both of them in undergarments made for swimming. The boy's shorts were modest while the woman's clothing was revealing enough to rival a temple priestesses' habits of seduction. The two of them played and enjoyed the beach, and then they moved to lay out on the sand. The mother rubbed some sort of oil on her son's body, and then she had him rub the same oil on her. From her hairline to her toes, she made him cover every inch of her.
Glenna quickly saw the underlying attraction the woman felt for her son. The way she flirted, though never over aggressively. Her cute requests. The way she pushed the boundaries of their mother-son relationship, making her son nervous and uncomfortable though he never complained. The way she clung to him when they were together, revealed more about the woman than anything else, and then there was the way she looked at her son. Glenna knew that look. She had given the same look to her son, and she felt the same burning love, the same desire, barely concealed behind her eyes until yesterday.
Still frame pictures of memories popped up and replaced others, and then another moving picture appeared of the woman cooking in her kitchen. Preparing dinner for herself and her son before carrying it to her son that sat in his bedroom, his back to her as he typed in programming code into a computer. Glenna didn't know how she knew what this computer or code or programming was, she just did. The woman set the tray of food down beside her son on the desk, but he was so focused on his work that he failed to see his mother or acknowledge her efforts and the love she had expended selflessly on his behalf. Disheartened, the woman still smiled at her son as she combed her fingers through his dark blonde hair as she turned away and left the room.
A new window with video-like memory appeared and this time the boy was young, maybe ten or so while his mother was in her mid-twenties. There was a tired cast to her eyes. She had worked hard to provide for her family. She had just returned home from a night shift and instead of going to bed, she took her son to a pool where they spent several hours swimming and playing. As Glenna watched she felt much of herself in this woman, and to her surprise, the boy looked more and more like her Viridian. Finally, a moving picture window opened and Glenna watched as the woman walked into her son's room, and sitting there at the desk was the blackened form of the burned-out husk of her son, and Glenna gasped in shock and began to wail from grief.
The pictures and videos winked out and new ones replaced them. Glenna watched the woman as she sat in front of the computer in her son's room. The body of her son was gone. She was alone. So alone. So lonely. Her eyes were red from crying. Unshed tears glistened on her lashes. Long painted nails clicked on the keys of the keyboard as the woman typed in a command, and then she smiled wanly and sat back in the chair as the computer revved up and the screen started swirling with the colors of the rainbow. The hovering moving picture window went dark before another replaced it. The face of a beautiful dokkalfar woman filled the screen and Glenna understood that the perspective was that of the woman as an infant looking up at her mother. The memory was then quickly followed by a succession of videos and Glenna watched as the woman's new life played out before her. She was young, having been transferred to this new world like her son before her. She was only a month younger than Viridian. Only recently having reached her eighteenth year in the Verdant Realm.
The woman's life was sad. Horribly sad, and lonely. Marked most profoundly in both lives by loss. First by the loss of her boyfriend when he found out she was pregnant. The loss of her father. The degeneration of her mother. The loss of her son. Then she was reborn only to be condemned by her father and nearly murdered. Witnessing her mother save her by killing her father only to lose her mother a few years later to rape and murder. Then surviving alone for years before she finally found the wolf pack only to be lost to the darkness that despoiled the earth and her new friends and family. The tragedy was over for Glenna and she found that she couldn't stop crying. Her heart was breaking, and she had no idea what to do!
Closing the distance between them, Glenna reached out and grasped the prostrate woman's shoulder. The woman jumped in fright, and then the picture windows surrounding them started swirling about them both. Half of the windows were of the woman's past while the other half was Glenna's past. The memories played out their lives for each other, and at that moment Glenna knew the woman as Helena Reas mother of Daniel Reas. She knew her as Hlina Reas-Alvadottir, the lonely soul born to an enslaved dokkalfar, Alva, and she knew Hlina as the Oracle of Gaia.
Simultaneously, Hlina saw Glen'nathel Moonlilly's past. Born of Yul'Anahaen Moonlilly, priestess of the moon goddess Seline. Hlina saw her grow up and go for her training as a priestess when she turned twenty. The taking of her vows as a priestess and consummation with one of the young priests. Hlina saw her adventures when was given her missionary service and appointed as an Apostle. Hlina saw Glenna's first meeting with Summerset Vale and the romance that quickly followed. Hlina watched Glenna marry Summerset Vale. She saw Glenna's rape and impregnation, and the subsequent birth of her daughter Silvain. Hlina saw Glenna's patience as she waited to get pregnant with Viridian. Hlina witnessed her becoming pregnant, Seline's vision of who her son was going to be and where he came from, and Hlina witnessed Glenna giving birth. The memories continued on and on, and Hlina watched as Glenna became both mother and wife to her son, Viridian Vale. The same young man was also Daniel Reas.
"Daniel!" Hlina cried out in shock, and then as understanding came with Glenna's memory sharing, she asked, "Daniel? Your son, Viridian, is my son Daniel?"
"Yes," Glenna replied breathily, "It seems so."
"How is he? Is he well? Is he alive?" Hlina asked in an excited torrent as she giggled.
She also hugged Glenna and kissed her and then hugged her again. Glenna took it all in step, giving Hlina time to express her relief and joy as she came out of her despair. Then, she answered Hlina, "He is well, he is strong, and yes he is very much alive. Right now, he is celebrating his marriage to Orsa and Tampa."
"Marriage!" Hlina gasped in surprise and horror, "No no no, he can not marry. He is mine, and he will not get married unless I approve of her!"
Glenna chuckled as she responded, "I have seen your memories Hlina, and I know your heart. You wouldn't let him marry anyone but yourself if you were to have your way."
Hlina started to shake her head and pull away as she objected, but then Glenna's matrilineal and wifely relationship hit her and her eyes grew wide with understanding.
"You!" She gasped, "You are Daniel's mother and wife? And, you are still married to Daniel's father as well?!"
"Yes," Glenna replied warmly, "Such relationships are not frowned upon here. The Nottalfar from which I was born is a matriarchy. We take many husbands if we wish too. Summerset Vale, Viridian's father, is a Villralfar. Their people are a patriarchy. They take many wives. With the union of our two families, and to maintain our alliance, I have two husbands. Summerset Vale, and his heir, Viridian Vale. Likewise, Summerset is married to me and my mother, Yul'Anahaen Moonlilly. Also, Ana's children by previous sires are all married to men of the Vale Household. This guarantees that the union of our Houses will never be sundered."
"Yes, but, you're his mother!" Hlina gasped in outrage.
Glenna smirked at Hlina before she responded, "Do not try to deceive me Helena Raes, I know your memories. I have seen your past, and I know the depths of your love for your son. I know that if it were possible your relationship with him would have been much as mine is with him now."
Hlina swallowed nervously and new tears lined her eyelashes as she said, "So, I've lost my son again. I've lost him to you, haven't I? There is no room for me to be with him, is there?"
Glenna felt tears bud at the corners of her eyes and she couldn't help but step in and hug Hlina Reas-Alvadottir. Hlina hugged her back and they both started crying before Glenna finally answered, "That isn't true. There is room for you here with him. There will always be room for you from now on. He is the one that rescued you, and he was the one who saved you from dying."
"How?" Hlina asked as she reined in her tears.
"The amount of healing you required forced him to take you as his wife," Glenna said, "His healing magic is in his seed, so…"
Hlina's expression was a mix of horror, shock, and amazement. She obviously didn't know what to think or how to feel about this revelation.
"So," Hlina finally said in a breathy whisper, "My son had sex with me?"
"Yes," Glenna answered then paused before continuing, "Though I feel like I must point out that he was your son in your previous life. Now, he has no relation to you. You can however tell him who you are. I'm sure it will reassure him that he didn't leave you behind in Midgard."
Hlina smiled and nodded, but then her smile fell and her expression became pensive before asking, "But what if he rejects me? I am… I was his mother."
Glenna's smile deepened as she shook her head and replied, "Remember who I am. I am Viridian's mother and he has no qualms with being married to me, or having relations with me. After all, I am currently pregnant with his heir."
"You're what?!" Hlina gasped.
"Wake up Hlina," Glenna purred, "Wake up and join the living world again. Leave behind these sad memories. I promise you, from now on you will make happier ones."
Glenna felt herself growing faint, like she was dreaming and now she was waking up. Hlina reached out for her. Hlina called for her, but Glenna couldn't stop from waking.
——(!)——
Sound was the first awareness Hlina had of her surroundings. There was crying in the distance. Infantile crying. Then it stopped and was later replaced by whimpering. Hlina opened the slits of her eyes. Just a crack at first, letting her eyes adjust to the light in the large room she was laying in. It wasn't bright. Actually, it was quite dark besides the light that beamed in around the ill-fitted door and its casing. Still, the dark room was brighter than the place she had been.
To her right she found a very pretty bunny female with hairless pink skin, and long white-furred bunny ears. She didn't look like a bunny body wise though. She had seen dead bunny females as her wolf tribe gutted and butchered them for eating. All bunny-females were short in stature and extremely curvaceous. This bunny-female was none of these traits. This bunny-female was tall and lithe. Her breasts were about the same size as Hlina's, maybe a smidge larger, but not much. Her hips were broad and her thighs muscular, but her curves were long whereas a true bunny's were short and exotic.
On the other side of the bunny-female was… an… insect-female. A bee, she thought. The bee was distinctly feminine. Her face. Her hair. The shape of her arms. Four arms, imagine that! Though the second set of arms were smaller and appeared to be scythe like appendages. She had broad hips and thick thighs that were fat with stored pollen. Behind her back were gossamer wings, and below them, as if growing right out of her pelvis above, what Hlina thought of as her buttocks, was a long thick insect abdomen. It was mostly black, a glossy black like the rest of her body, with two thick bands of orange that circled the entire circumference of the bee-females abdomen. The orange bands pulsed a bright orange glow, and with every pulse Hlina saw hundreds if not thousands of tiny eggs within.
"She's a queen," Hlina gasped.
"Oh! Good morning," A soft sultry voice purred on her left.
Hlina whipped her head to her left and there she saw the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Her skin glowed faintly a surreal celestial moonlight white. Her long midnight hair danced around her head periodically getting in the woman's face as it slowly moved to and fro like a flame. A flame that was underwater. As she looked closer she saw that she could see the heavens in the woman's hair. Stars. Nebulae. Galaxies. The woman's hair was like a moving window revealing snap shots of the heavens as if seen from a telescope, but much much more detailed and vibrant. Then Hlina saw her eyes, black orbs filled with stars and galaxies, and her breath caught. She nearly screamed, but the woman put one of four hands on her arm to calm her.
"Shhh," She shushed softly before whispering, "The babes are sleeping. You don't want to wake them. Calm yourself. We met in your dream. I am Glen'nathel Moonlilly, Viridian's mother and wife."
Hlina looked at Glenna with a shocked expression. She looked Glenna down her celestially blessed body and then came back to her eyes before she finally hissed, "You don't look anything like you did in my dream!"
Glenna nodded, "That was my true form. It is what I would look like without the Blessing of the Queen of Heaven. It is a hereditary blessing. All nottalfar are blessed with skin that glows with the phases of the moon, and eyes and hair that reveal the vast glory of the universe. I am a priestess of the moon goddess Seline and she further blessed me by raising my station so that I am her Oracle, and as such, she has given me a body that resembles her own so that those that worship her will worship me, and through me, her."
"I… I think I have the same arrangement with Gaia," Hlina mumbled breathlessly.
"You do," Glenna agreed, "I can feel a sisterly connection to you, and Seline has also let me know who you are."
There was a pause as Glenna stood up on her hooves. She held her gravid breasts with her bottom arms, and then offered her two primary hands to Hlina. She took Glenna's hands and allowed the woman to help pull her up. Unnoticed until that moment, she saw a beautiful, exotically curvaceous, woman covered in sandy blonde fur. She had wild, curly blonde hair, and she was semi asleep with a child on each breast, and four more asleep beside her.
"Wow," Hlina whispered.
"Yes, amazing," Glenna agreed as she silently led Hlina out of the large home. Once they were outside, Glenna sighed, "Sorry about the abruptness. Huxian has been up and down on night nursing her litter of pups. As is usual for infants, right before dawn they all decide to go to sleep. So, I didn't want us to accidentally wake them."
"I understand," Hlina nodded as she looked around at the predawn light turning the sky into a wonderful array of pinks, oranges, yellows, purples, and greens.
"So," She said offhandedly, "Where is my son? Where is Daniel?"
Glenna smiled, gripped Hlina's hand tighter, and then started off into the strange village.
——(!)——
I woke up smashed in between Orsa and Tampa. Really, I seemed to be laying between them and on them somehow. Orsa had me pulled against her body like I was some kind of pillow. It was then that I realized that I had reverted to my alfari-form. Orsa's breasts protruded out over my shoulders. My head rested on one breast while the other breast rested on my head. Orsa's arms were wrapped around me, so I couldn't escape or even move!
If that wasn't enough to make a person claustrophobic Tampa was right in front of me. Facing both me and Orsa, and both of my hands… No, both of my arms were wrapped around her breasts as they smashed against my head, and all the rest of my upper body. Her breasts were so large they were like trying to reach around wine barrels. But, they were so soft and Tampa seemed to perpetually smell like freshly cut grass, tulips blooming in spring, and milk!
Tampa moaned when I pushed against her breasts. My hands and arms sank into her soft, cushiony fat, and if anything, she cuddled up closer. I was beginning to feel like I was going to suffocate, so I reached out to the void and I grabbed ahold of the Book of the Moonbeast and I selected a form.
My body started growing and changing, causing Orsa to grunt as she awakened, and Tampa to moan as she rolled away. I grabbed Tampa's breast. It was much smaller now that I was a hybrid-bos-taurine, but no matter what my size, her breasts were huge!
She moaned lustily as her eyes fluttered open and looked up at me with a look of brazen desire. She had been so shy the night before. So innocent. Now, she looked back at me with a panting sex-intoxicated lust that matched my own. I was about to force her legs up and open and slide in between them and inside her when there was a knock at the door. Tampa gave a look that begged for me to ignore it, but I didn't. Lowering her legs, I pushed her thighs and slapped her behind and pinched her before rolling off the huge bed. As I walked to the door, I reverted back to my alfari-form.
"Good morning, my little progenitor," Quebracho purred in my head as she tapped into my magic power and generated armor that grew from the bracer on my left wrist like vines crawling up my arm until I was fully clothed in Barkskin Armor that appeared like villralfar woodland clothes, "Did you have a good time last night? I know I certainly did…"
"Well then," I thought to her as I mentally slapped her behind too, "Given our… familiarity with each other… you should know exactly how I feel."
"Oh, I do," Quebracho purred, "I would ask how you feel after spending your dreams with me, but I know that too."
I had to smirk. Quebracho was in my dreams every night. We made love in ways that were impossible in reality, and last night was no different. After getting Huxian, Leandra, Burza and Glenna pregnant, and fertilizing Sequoia, I decided to spend every night with Quebracho in my dreams. Like Sequoia, fertilizing Quebracho completely drained my life-force, or my sperm. Given Seline's Blessing, my life-force had an extremely fast recovery time. So, I'm hoping that I wouldn't impregnate Coella, Orsa, Tampa, or the Oracle of Gaia right off the bat!
Well, that is my hope at least.
"And I am very happy to oblige," Quebracho purred just behind my left ear, "I am so full of your seed now that I just might seed here soon myself."
"I thought you could seed," I mentally gasped as I paused at the door.
"Remember," Quebracho purred salaciously in my ear, "I created my breastplate out of my most inner parts. The part of me that seeds. My femininity. I couldn't seed, but I could make a clone of myself. However, since Seline destroyed my breastplate and bound me to this bracer, I feel different. I think… I think she changed me. I think, given enough of your life-force, your seed, I can reproduce now. Our own offspring."
"Oh my goddess!" I gasped as I pulled the door open.
"Good morning, husband," Glenna purred.
Stepping in close I hugged her. She returned my feelings and when I looked up at her she leaned in and we kissed. We kissed like two lovers separated against our will. I reached down and grabbed a greedy handful of her left buttock and Glenna growled like she might not wait for the two 'Weeks of these Wives' to pass before she took me inside her.
Someone cleared her throat just to Glenna's side and we broke apart. I blushed but Glenna smirked very naughtily before stepping back and making introductions.
"Viridian, you met her yesterday," Glenna said as she gestured to the dark earthy brown woman beside her, "But, I don't think you got her name. This is Hlina… Reas… Alvadottir…"
For the second time within seconds I was shocked. This time, I was speechless. I stared at Hlina. I searched her eyes. I scoured her body, looking for something familiar. Only the shape of her face was the same. Her jawline. Her chin. The shape of her cheekbones. Her lips were far too plump, but the shape was right. Her eyes were as dark as onyx, but again the shape was exactly the same as I remembered. Her hair was glossy black instead of fiery red, but those curls. Finally, I found his voice, "Hlina… Raes? Helena… Raes?"
Hlina gasped as tears burst from her eyes. The clear moisture gathered on her lashes and then cascaded over to fall on her cheeks and run down to her chin.
"Daniel!" She gasped in overjoyed relief, "Daniel, is that you, son?"
"Mom!" I cried as I closed on her and hugged her fiercely, "Mom, I'm so sorry! I was such an idiot. I took advantage of you and how much you loved me for years. I should have been a better son…"
I hugged her tight and I could smell her again. The way my mother smelled when she hugged me. Earthy. Fiery. Like cinnamon. Like licorice. She smelled like pine trees and spring flowers, and she smelled like the rain. A thunderous rainstorm with high winds and ominous clouds.
"Mom," I asked suddenly, "How did you get here?"
"I…" Hlina began to answer and hesitated, "This might sound crazy, but I think Gaia called to me. I was sleeping, and when I woke up I had this memory of her voice telling me that if I played the game on your computer I would be able to see you again. So I did, and here I am. Your mother, and yet, not. Actually, I think I'm a few weeks younger than you."
"Shit!" I gasped. I didn't know whether to be pissed or grateful to Gaia. My mother had basically committed suicide in order to join me here in this realm.
"Mom," I said as I hugged her tight, "I missed you so much. Dying, or you thinking I died. Leaving you alone like that. It killed me!"
"Shhh," Hlina found herself shushing her son like she always had before.
Hugging him close, rubbing his back. It helped that he was only five-feet tall and she was six-feet two-inches. It made her feel motherly all over again and he was her young teenager. Then she remembered, besides a loincloth she wore nothing else. When she felt his dick rub against her hairless pubic mound she realized that she wasn't wearing anything at all. She gasped, and then she tentatively ran her hands down his back and cupped his behind.
"Oh my goddess!" She squealed, "I'm naked. I'm naked in front of my naked son!"
"Mom," I said gently just for her to hear, "Things are different here in this realm. Think of yourself as a member of an aboriginal tribe back on our earth."
"Thank you, son," Hlina mumbled as she squeezed my head to her chest again.
"Good," Glenna said in her rich sensually melodic voice, "Now that the reunion of mother and son is complete, Virdy, we must leave this place soon. We still have a svartalf army to stop."
"Yes, of course," I answered.
——(!)——
"…you may leave your mate here with us, Druidlord," Chief Fyrsil was saying after I had expressed to him my intentions to leave and confront the svartalf army headed towards the Valelands and Valeheim, "She will be safe here with us, and your children will be both protected and nurtured by your mate and our nursemaids. Never fear, we owe you a large debt of gratitude. From this day forward, please, consider Jordmodirbaer your home.
"Thank you, father," I replied. It was the correct way to honor him now since I was his son-in-law, "However, Huxian has expressed her desire to continue by my side. I cannot deny her this. Thankfully, between Huxian, the Oracle, and Tampa Longhorn, we have the capacity to feed and nurture our young ourselves. Thank you though, for such a generous offer."
Chief Fyrsil nodded. Actually he knew exactly what my answer was going to be. What was happening now was just the formalities for the benefit of the village. To allow them the honor of participation. A resounding sound of cheers, hoots, and bellowing rose up as hundreds of ursidae-alfari expressed their gratitude!
The noise startled the babes which were tied in slings around Orsa, Tampa, and Huxian's chests. Small cries of protest came from the babes as Huxian, Tampa, and Orsa tried to quiet them. Meanwhile, Chief Fyrsil offered both of his hands and forearms with palms turned up.
I transformed into my new hybrid ursidae-alfari form. White fur burst from my skin covering my whole body. Quebracho adjusted my Barkskin Armor so that it was a tight girdle that started just below my ribs and ended at my hips. From there a long loincloth fell down the front hiding my privates. My face was that of a bear's head, not a ursidae-alfar's. My hybridization was different from theirs in this way. Actually, all of my hybridizations were different from the animalae-alfari. I didn't know why, it just was.
In my new form I was as tall as Fyrsil. Another cheer went up for my transformation into something very much like themselves. One roar of cheering melding to another as I placed my hands and forearms on top of Chief Fyrsil's and he grasped my forearms while I grasped his. It was the farewell of a son leaving his home. As son going on a journey of discovery of the world. To test his metal, and to find a mate. I had already found my mate. Mates. But that was beside the point. This was the farewell of a beloved son from his tribe.
I didn't feel I deserved the honor, but then, this was all about me. Orsa hugged her mother, and then we swapped and Orsa hugged her father while I hugged Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda. Everything that needed to be said already had been earlier, now, everyone smiled and waved, Coella turned and a path opened down the main street all the way to the north gate.
Coella led the way with Tampa by her side. Behind them came Bartlett and Maha Longhorn, then Orsa and Huxian, then Glenna and Hlina, and finally Shahad and me. The path had been prearranged, leading us through the exact center of the village. Chief Fyrsil and Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda followed behind us, accompanying us to the north gate. Once we reached the center of the village Coella brought the party to a stop and a small hill of green grass. Coella and the others encircled the hill while Shahad and I climbed to the top of the hill. Chief Fyrsil and Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda were the only ones to follow us to the center of the grassy hilltop.
Turning in a circle I announced as loudly as I could, "Today, I leave Jordmodirbaer as a son, and in peace. You all have given me many gifts, chief among them, my mate, Orsa daughter of Eferhilda, daughter of Fyrsil. Today I give two of my daughters to you as a sign of our union, our peace, and our prosperity."
As I finished Quebracho gathered a huge amount of my life-force and with what she had already stored up, the tree on my bracer shook and grew. Vines and branches whipped and wove together as Quebracho made a full sized replica of herself standing beside me. Quebracho took a step forward and opened her hands. Inside was a small yellow seed. It was ovoid in shape and when I looked closer I could see an embryo inside moving about.
"This child," Quebracho sent to everyone through her pseudo-pollen telepathy, "Is a clone of me. She has all of my memories up to today. When she, or I, mature in a year or two she will pollinate. Do not worry, she was born pregnant with Lord Viridian's seed. My sons and daughter will then grow and spread out and live among you in the forest. Please, protect my offspring!"
Then, Quebracho dug a whole in the grassy hilltop and placed the seed into the ground.
Next, Shahad stepped toward Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda. Eferhilda then took a step closing the distance between them. Shahad produced from beneath her wings a large milky-white egg that she had Glenna help with her birthing earlier. Then, Shahad handed the egg to Eferhilda.
"This is my daughter, Flora, so named by my king," Shahad sent via her pheromone telepathy, "She is the daughter of my king, Viridian, and myself. My daughter is a queen and she too was born pregnant. Please, protect my daughter until she is born. Then, she will reside among you and she will provide you with honey. Thank you for always being good neighbors to me and my family."
Chief Fyrsil and Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda both bowed deeply to Quebracho and Shahad.
"Thank you," Eferhilda said with all of the wisdom and authority she had, "These are great gifts of our shared fidelity. We will cherish them and protect them. Thank you."
Shahad and Quebracho both gave stoic nods. Then, Quebracho disappeared as the vines she had used to make her replica disintegrated into a fine powder. Shahad returned to my side and waited for me to take the lead. Chief Fyrsil and Kunnigr-volva Eferhilda stood where they were and smiled as I turned and Coella took the lead again, leading the group out of the village of Earthmother's Den.
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