Bonus Epilogue

KLEENA

“Oh my gods, Erhan, it’s happening!” Kleena cried, clutching the picnic blanket with one hand and her bulging belly with the other.

It had been only six and a half months since they’d received news of her gravid state and although the Niri doctors had done everything they could, the exact gestation period had remained unknown. Until now.

“Wait, you mean…” Erhan asked, whipping around from where he’d been pouring out two glasses of nonalcoholic sava-wine.

For a second, he stared at Kleena with a panicked expression until wine began to flow over the rim of the glass and right into his lap, sluicing down his dark scales.

“Ye-eeeess!” Kleena replied, suddenly racked with a shudder of pain. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced, and she let out a cry that cut through the sound of nirlings playing nearby.

It seemed as if the whole park turned to look at her, but Kleena hardly paid attention. All she saw was Erhan’s look of fear as he rushed to her side. Within seconds, he had lifted her into his arms and was gliding toward their shimmering blue shuttle.

“Medical! Emergency!” he yelled into the control once he’d settled Kleena in beside him.

Another wave of pain racked her body, and she let out a cry just as the vehicle sped away, siren blaring.

“It’s going to be okay,” Erhan reassured her, clutching her hand in both of his. “You’re going to be okay.”

The look in his eyes told Kleena he was worried, though, and admittedly, so was she. Though there had been other human-Naga births on Nirum, they were too few for the doctors to know exactly what they were dealing with. One thing they had been able to predict though: Erhan and Kleena would be having twins. The night of the fertility celebration, Erhan had implanted two eggs inside her womb.

“They want out!” Kleena yelled over the wailing siren as they careened through the streets of Nirum.

“They’re fighters like their sire,” Erhan joked and Kleena managed a smile.

“They better not be getting any ideas,” she joked back, but a sudden jolt in her spine turned her weak smile into a look of panic. “Oh, Erhan, they’re coming!”

She gripped his hands hard, straining her head back and arching her back in a desperate attempt to quell the pain. But it was coming in waves now, rocking her body from the inside.

It felt like forever until they reached the medical wing, but Kleena and the twins managed to hold on until then. Suddenly, a flurry of doctors flocked around her, yelling to each other and pushing her into a wheelchair.

Erhan hurried beside Kleena, clutching her hand the entire way.

As the doctors transferred her to her private delivery room, Kleena mumbled the promise that had become her mantra over the previous six months.

“I love you. Your daddy loves you. You’re perfect. I love you. Your daddy loves you. You’re perfect…”

She couldn’t wait to tell her babies in person, but she had labor to get through first and then egg hatching. Another wave of pain rolled through her body, her spine jolting again with the pressure of their impending birth.

“That’s good. You’re doing great!” one doctor encouraged as they transferred her to the birthing pool. “Now it’s time to start pushing!”

Kleena was shocked. It had been less than an hour since her first contractions began, and her water hadn’t even broken yet. But then, she didn’t exactly know what she was supposed to expect from this. The queen, of course, had been the first human to bear Niri eggs, but she had never spoken candidly about the birth itself.

In any case, it was too late for that now, and Kleena knew all she could do was surrender to the process.

“Come on, my love,” Erhan encouraged her, slithering into the birthing pool beside her.

She was still clutching his hand tightly, and she looked up into his eyes, nodding. Then she bore down, letting out a deep, guttural cry as she did.

“That’s it!” yelled the doctor, hovering over the pool to assist the process.

Another push and Kleena felt something inside her shift. It was as if a weight was moving through her, inch by inch. For fifteen minutes, she pushed until she finally felt it all at once—the first egg.

It slipped out of her before sinking down to the bottom of the pool and catching her entirely off guard. She had half-expected a baby, not an egg, and for a second, she almost cried at the sight.

But then the doctor fished the egg out of the water, and she saw it.

About a foot long with leathery black skin, the egg was malleable and semi-translucent . She let out a small cry when the shadows inside began to move and she realized she could already see their first child writhing around inside.

The sight of it made her heart skip a beat. Even more so when the doctor handed the egg to her and Erhan. For a moment, they clutched the egg gently together, gazing lovingly at the half-hidden creature squirming inside.

“When does it—” Her question was broken midway through, however, by another massive contraction.

“Aahhhh!” she cried out, bucking under the pain.

“There’s still the second one, remember!” the doctor cried, getting back into position over the pool. Kleena cried out again as Erhan took the first egg with one hand and held hers with the other.

She began pushing once more, and this time it didn’t take long. The second egg followed quickly, slipping into the pool and leaving Kleena exhausted. But the thought of meeting her babies imbued her with a rush of love that cut through the pain and the exhaustion.

“Let me see my babies,” she managed, her voice hoarse from screaming.

With a smile, the doctor handed her the second egg. Just as he did, Kleena heard a small crack beside her.

When she looked, she saw a small hole beginning to form in the egg that Erhan held. Kleena held her breath for the appearance of their first child, but something else caught her attention suddenly.

As if hearing its sibling, the second egg followed suit, and soon, pieces of black shell were falling away right before Kleena’s eyes. She hardly knew where to look until she heard a small coo from below. When she looked down, her heart almost beat out of her chest. A small black face was peering out at her, hazel eyes gleaming and blinking into the brightness of the world.

The baby’s eyes were the exact shade of Kleena’s, and her hand reached out to stroke her baby’s beautiful face.

When she turned, she saw that a second face was peering up at Erhan, this time with deep green eyes that matched his.

Kleena was overcome with the purest joy she had ever felt. Their two children, a boy and a girl they quickly discovered, had now wriggled free of the shells’ remains. They were already grasping at Kleena with their tiny human-like hands.

“Oh my god,” Erhan whispered beside her as he pulled Kleena and their two babies into a gentle embrace. “They’re so perfect.”

Kleena nodded, gazing at the babies with love in her eyes. “I love you. Your daddy loves you. You’re perfect.”

When she tore her gaze away from her two miracles, she saw that Erhan’s eyes were welling with tears of joy.

“You’ve given me everything,” he told her, pressing his forehead to hers. “Thank you. For loving me. For choosing to be with me. And for these two beautiful nirlings.”

Kleena’s heart swelled as she watched her husband’s outpouring of emotion, and her own vision grew blurry from the tears that were now beginning to form.

“I promise I’ll always be a safe harbor for you and the nirlings,” Erhan continued, smiling through his tears. “I’ll always be here for you, all of you.”

With this he glanced down at the babies who were snuggled up between them, their tiny hands clutching at Kleena’s hair and Erhan’s scales.

“I promise the same,” Kleena said, laughing a little as tears began to roll down her cheeks. “I will love you and our kids for as long as I live.”

With this, Erhan’s lips found hers, meeting in a tender kiss that Kleena felt roll all the way through her. She had found true love, in all its forms, and she knew she would never take any of it for granted.