Soon enough, it was time for Iris to give birth. Due to how close she was, Basil tended to make extra time to be home with her. So, as soon as her water broke, he was right next to her, giving out orders as he led her to the bed. He shoved the mattress onto the floor and demanded

"Fern, arrange the pillows behind her and then go boil water. Birk go get the others and tell them to come home immediately. Nothing is to stop them short of a life and death emergency."

The cubs were running around in the room and didn't want to follow Fern to the kitchen, but a fierce glare from Basil got them to sit down immediately. Rosemary started crying, so her brothers tried to comfort her, but Basil just ignored it, worried about Iris. He had been traumatized a bit by the difficulties of the last time Iris gave birth and he was extremely worried about how this time would go.

He grabbed her dimensional bag and quickly dug out the numbing tea, setting it aside so he could ask Fern to make the tea when he returned. The water he was making now could be used both for the tea and in combination with some soap to sanitize the area. Basil had even made some new soap with a mixture of lavender, chamomile, and mint so the strong scent of relaxing herbs could help Iris relax more this time around.

Basil watched over everything nervously while Iris squeezed his hand. He just barely avoided snapping at Fern about how long he had taken to get the water when he finally returned. Instead, he shoved the tea and liquid soap into Fern's hands as he demanded

"Make this tea for Iris, add some ice to it so that she can drink it right away. Then I need you to use the rest of the hot water with this soap and sanitize the room, keep everything clean so we can minimize the risks. Make sure you keep plenty of tea ready to go for her."

Ultimately, there wasn't actually a lot they could do to improve things this time around. They would have to wait until the cubs started to be delivered and take care of any problems as they occurred. Even then, it would come down to waiting for the cubs to be delivered, only guiding them out, or considering more extreme measures if things went wrong.

The book Basil had received had some semi-modern medical practices mentioned in it, such as performing surgery to pull the cubs out before sewing the female back up. However, Basil had never performed a similar surgery before and he hardly wanted his first attempt to be on his own mate. He would almost certainly prefer to kill the unborn cubs and scrape them out of her womb before taking the chances of her bleeding out on the table and dying from a poorly executed surgery or, worse, slowly dying after the fact if an infection or something occurred.

Ember and Birk were the first to arrive at their home. This was primarily thanks to their ability to fly, which allowed them to go straight to the top of the mountain and skip most of the stairs. Ash arrived next, clearly having run the entire way there without stopping. Hazel arrived last since being a three-star beastman didn't mean much when beavers weren't exactly known for speed in the first place. Still, it wasn't like giving birth was a quick process, so the first cub still hadn't even begun to be birthed by the time they arrived.

Iris sighed in relief as the numbing tea took effect and her eyelids drooped in exhaustion. Her teeth were no longer clenched as she no longer felt the need to desperately squeeze Basil's hand. The pain was hardly as bad as it could get, but the anxiety from the last time was definitely playing tricks on her mind and her ability to handle things. Basil glanced at her with a frenzied look as he said

"It's alright, you can squeeze my hand, I can handle it."

Ash scowled as he pushed Basil out of the way, saying

"Here, you can hold my hand. I bet you couldn't hurt me, even if you tried."

Ash didn't want to be an ass, but Basil clearly needed to do his job as the only witch doctor present. His job was to oversee the medical side of things, not to provide emotional comfort. Ember glared at Ash, clearly upset that he had thought to make the offer first. Now it was too late and would just make him look like a copycat, so he decided to guard the door instead. Caspian didn't care how he looked and went to Iris's other side, massaging her shoulders as he asked

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"How are you feeling? Does it hurt?"

Iris shook her head, tiredly

"No, the numbing tea actually works really well. I can't feel anything below my waist anymore."

Basil looked worriedly at her bottom half where the first baby was beginning to move into place, ready to be born into the world. He mumbled to himself, just loud enough for the other males in the room to hear

"I really hope those effects aren't permanent."

The other males also felt worried as they looked at Iris. It was true that this medicine was a strange thing in this world. Still, if it meant she didn't have to suffer through the same pain as the last time, they would happily care for their female and make sure she never felt the effects of being permanently crippled. Of course, that wasn't an actual concern as the Beast Deity and the system wouldn't have given Iris such a flawed medicine. It was just that everyone was too stressed and was letting their minds jump to conclusions.

Basil stood up, holding the first cub as he declared

"It's a wolf cub."

Caspian couldn't help but smile in joy and Iris shared his joy as she asked

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

Basil double-checked before declaring

"It's a boy."

Iris nodded, starting to think about names for their new wolf cubs. She had named their fox cubs after herbs, much as their father had been named. However, she wasn't sure that modern-day names like "Fred" and "George" were fitting for the beastworld. It wasn't until the next wolf cub was born that she made her decision. Basil stood up, looking astonished as he said

"It's a baby girl! I can't believe it... two baby girls in our family!"

Caspian was happy that he too had been capable of giving Iris a daughter. Caspian happily declared

"We should give her a beautiful name like her mother's."

Iris looked thoughtful before she nodded. Flower names it was!

"Alright, well then, we can name our oldest Fiore and our daughter Heather."

The names seemed to go well for siblings, so Iris was quite satisfied with the names, even if they weren't as flowery as Caspian was likely hoping for. The males in her family just smiled, though, happy to accept Iris's decision. Hazel held Fiore while Caspian stepped forward to hold Heather, smiling happily.

However, their happiness was short-lived and they all began to panic, talking in hushed voices as Basil declared the fifth cub to also be a girl. Iris was still thinking of what to call the third and fourth cubs, much less the fifth cub. So, it wasn't until she interrupted them to ask

"Is that all of them? I can't really tell..."

She laughed awkwardly and Basil frowned, still feeling distracted as she replied

"Yes, that's all of them."

Iris nodded as she replied

"Alright, well, how about Heath and Jared for the other boy cubs and Jasmine for the youngest wolf cub?"

Ash knew just as well as the others how strange it was for a female to give birth to two female cubs in their lifetime, especially with back-to-back births. However, it was unheard of for a female to birth two female cubs in the same pregnancy. It was considered a blessing worth celebrating just to have one daughter already. They would have to protect Iris more carefully in the future, but that was their responsibility, they didn't need to make her life more difficult in the process. So, he smiled down at her as she replied

"I think those names are lovely. However, I'm pretty sure we'd all happily agree to call them whatever you wanted, regardless of how ridiculous, anyhow."

Iris frowned, starting to second-guess her choices, but Ash's response had prompted Ember's over-protectiveness as he defended her

"That's just because all of her ideas are good. Certainly better than yours!"

Iris smiled as the two bickered like children. She somehow doubted the two would ever quite grow out of their dislike for one another, but she was happy nonetheless.