After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World-Chapter 1896: Strength of a Mother
Somewhere in a forest on the edge of the Western hemisphere, a small, eclectic group was camping by the cave.
It was a group of half-orcs and dwarves, with the latter trio sitting in a triangulated position, using each other’s backs as support.
The avian was gently patting the heads of her children, one avian like her and another a little bear, their heads resting on her thigh.
They looked quite comfortable, despite being in the cave while it was raining. The scent of the ground that wafted whenever it rained, combined with the soothing pitter-patter sound of the rain, seemed to lull the children, causing their eyelids to grow heavy as the minutes passed.
They tried to keep awake, though, with the little bear cub directly using his chubby fingers to keep his eyelids open.
This amused the adults, especially their mother, who gently patted their little heads. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
The snake half-orc, Sephra, giggled while Freya watched the interaction and couldn’t help but feel soft. Freya was a big woman with no femininity in her. However, she did like children.
It was just that she had never thought of having children herself. After all, she was much too big and too strong for a woman. She was bigger than even the male half-orcs she had encountered in her couple decade of life. She was simply not attractive in that way to the few half-orcs that they did encounter, and she was never attracted to them either.
Sephra, on the other hand, was still quite hopeful. In fact, she once had a lover—a human one.
And he was dead now because of her.
Some memories passed by Sephra’s mind, and the atmosphere around her turned solemn, and she could only look outside, in a daze.
Freya was not aware of her friend’s deep thoughts. Her eyes were fixed on the children, who were now snoring softly and adorably.
"Sigh, to think they used to be as big as my palm..." Nana said, wistfully patting their cheeks with her palms. The children grew up too fast.
"Was giving birth very painful?" Freya couldn’t help but ask. She knew it was, but she was curious how avians do it.
"Quite bit," Nana said, "And the Process itself even more so."
Crossbreeding between different races had its challenges. It was not only more difficult to procreate, but the gestation period was also much more deadly.
There was something unnatural with the two species combining, after all, and the one that suffers the most would be the being who bears the brunt of the consequences—that was to say, the mother.
There were more deaths among mothers carrying half orcs than successful births, which said a lot about exactly how many women had conceived at all.
Among half-orc women, even if their partners were also half-orcs, was still dangerous. The risk was far less than if they were fully human, but it was definitely extremely painful. The Halflings, in general, whenever they procreated, would struggle like this. In a sense, this was because their very existence was unnatural.
However, when they do succeed, it was never a single birth. Further, the children would most likely be healthy unless there was a major incident during birth or right before it.
"You are a very strong female," Freya said, making Nana smile.
"You are much stronger than I am."
"You know that’s not what I mean," Freya said, her big hands extending to gently part one of the children’s hair that blocked their faces. "I’m not even sure what to feel nor am I sure what to expect."
Nana gently patted the tigress’s hand, which was much larger than hers. "Well, whatever the great universe decides for you, I’m sure it will be for your own happiness."
....
Speaking of half-orc babies, in Warrior City, two young ones were already running around.
The two adorable half-orc babies were toddling around in the gardens. They were very cute, and in a short time, they had filled up the weight they should be getting at that age, making them even more adorable.
The female bear cup liked to eat a lot, and she tended to find a nice corner to quietly eat. She also had a habit of stocking her food in said corner as if she was going to hibernate soon.
The little male bird also had a hoarding habit, though he preferred the soft items like pillows, blankets, and, recently, stuffed toys. Some of these had been imported from Alterra, and he quite liked the odd avian types they had over there.
He also liked to observe people and tended to tilt his head whenever he did this, and also whenever he was a bit confused. It was very cute.
They had recently become the adoptive children of the Lord.
It was not a simple adoption to, say, raise one as a servant. It was a legitimate adoption where technically they’d have a right to inherit what he had, at least a bit of it.
It was not a right to the throne per se, because the Lord was still giving that to his brother, but he thought it wouldn’t be bad to have more people in the family. Having too much was useless.
He could say this as someone who had lived most of his life in the face of death.
There had been a lot of voices against such an official adoption. While it was really minor and the inheritance they’d stand the right to get was only some assets, people still worried because they’d be his children in name.
A lot of those voicing out their opinions were actually Virion’s supporters. His brother Virion was the heir, after all, so whether or not he liked it, some people wanted to support him in an attempt to solidify their status in the ’next reign’.
Sad for them, Virion never wanted to be the Lord at all. It was just that he nor his brother revealed this fact, because then it’d be even more chaotic.
