Page 39 of His Human Rebel
She has not requested that I penetrate her while pregnant. “Let’s wait for that part,” she whispers, “to make it more special.”
So I wait.
“I was reading all the legal documents that Erid has given me and I've learned that normally, the moment a Hyrrokin female gives birth to a live child she is legally that male’s bound for life. It makes me wonder about our own situation. You tried to adopt our baby when we went to the courthouse but the judge wouldn’t allow it without that live birth.”
I cross my arms behind my head. “I will verbally proclaim the baby as mine upon birth. And that is the loophole.”
“Yes,” she smiles. “That's what Erid said today. He found it in the law and sent me a copy to read. It’s some old law from ancient times.”
“It's a different way to adopt because it does happen that there will be a female who is pregnant, and sadly, her mate passes away before the birth. This is why there is a loophole for verbal confirmation of adoption after a live birth.”
She turns to look at me. “I don’t want you to think I’m pressuring you to adopt our son. I’m just curious about laws and legality. This is a curious case to me that I want to understand.”
I smile because I don't think she realized she said “our son.”
When I took her to the med lab here at the ranch for her first appointment, we were there together, holding hands, and found out that it was a boy. We also vid message with an Earth doctor who specializes labor and birth. It's probably not strictly necessary for this extra input, but I like listening to what the human doctor has to say, because it teaches me a lot about what is happening with my female and the child she carries.
I've been reading and educating myself on human births. And there are my niece and nephew, so I know exactly what half-Hyrrokin, half-human offspring look like, but I don't know anything about fully human offspring. I haven't said this to her yet, but I do worry about the fact that our son will not be able to flash flame. But the Flagstones will teach him in the ways of old and we will figure out how to give him a way to flame. I have been working on this already.
Coco jumps on the bed and snuggles next to me for a quick nap. Boots is already curled up on the foot of the bed.
Stella likes to work in the barn with me each day and brings the cats in their cage so that they can be close. My female seems to really like the riding beasts. I put her on the seat of our most gentle mare and we’ve gone for slow rides in the pen and around the house and on a few easy trails. After she recovers from the pregnancy, I plan on helping her to become a proficient rider, which seems to be her greatest wish.
She says there is a similar animal to riding beast in tales mythology of the original planet that humans came from, except our beasts are bigger and breathe fire.
She is also in awe of the pyrotaurs, out here every day with me tending to the animals. I think she likes to be able to care for something or someone. If it isn't her students, then it's them. Also, she has bonded with Lucy over their shared love of the cats and has begun to leave with Burl’s bound on quick day trips back to New Earth. She’s been able to facilitate meetings, community events and cat rescue auctions, which is highly enjoys. Who am I to stop her? I do hope that one day she can do all these things here on Tarvos. I'm sure she will find her way.
Stella places her hand on her swelling stomach. “I can't believe my due date is soon.” She glances out at the already dreary skies. “And rainy season starts tomorrow.”
“We are all ready,” I remind her.
She taps on her screen and looks at her checklist, which I find hilarious. I've done rainy season every year my whole life. I don't need a checklist.
“We have all the food we need? All the ranch hands have enough supplies too?”
“Yes.”
“The portable power unit is ready?”
“Yes.”
“Did you message your mother to let her know we’re ready?”
“I will do that.”
“All the animals are gone? I haven’t seen the barn today, but it’s really empty?”
“We let them all free and monitored the herd as they progressed to the caves.”
“I still can't believe that.”
“The animals know how to protect themselves during the storms and I am closest to the mountains. The caves have already been laid out and we’ve stocked food in the caves for them. They like it there. They can get in and out if they need and the caves go far back. It's where they naturally shelter. There are other animals in there too, but we made sure we put them in an area where there were no predators, an area we've used many times before. The predators are farther up and hibernating at this time of year.”
She bites at a soft nail on the tip of her finger. “Wonderful.”
I look at her. “This is a vacation.”
She takes a deep breath and calms down. “Well, I know for the rest of you rainy season is a vacation of some sort but I'm going to have a baby during this time. Maybe in the future I'll be able to think of it as a vacation.”