Sachihiro

There is nothing that christens a home like the birth of a child in it and there is nothing that helps permanently bind a territory to a bloodline like the shedding of blood and the burial of bones. Blood and death are age old rituals that creatures have had with the land from time immemorial. Birth is a vital part of that natural cycle, this is my home the baby cries out violently.

Birth and death to bind the land I bind my blood. Bones born here to rest here again in death to keep the claim secure another generation.

It is a covenant naturally cast with the land as my child is born on land I have been given as mine finally accepting us as part of it. Birth and death are powerful cycles that come with releases of great spiritual power.

Thankfully Its the former that is taking place at Deep Keep today as Ingwe goes through her third birth. I’m pacing up and down the wide foyer of what is the second floor of the building where the family rooms are and most of the children’s nurseries and the mothers’ bed chambers have been allocated.

They have been in there for a long time now and I’m thinking maybe Ingwe shouldn’t have any more children after this, her births are always stressful times full of surprises and I don’t like having my nerves frayed with uncertainty this way. Not about something as important as the lives of my love and my child.

Om’s hand suddenly shoots out and stops me in my tracks as he places his big palm gently on my shoulder. He gives me a nod looking at me in the eye, "it’s done,’’ he then says and I suddenly have a pressing urge to urinate.

Why send to Om to tell me that, why didn’t anyone send directly to me? I worry but I lock my knees back so no one sees them wobble, an old trick I learnt during the war to keep standing while dizzy. Everyone gets a hard hit on the head at some point fighting in continuous melees and it’s the lucky and experienced warrior that finds a way to stay on his feet even when the world is spinning.

Ingwe is in my arms vulnerable and shivering as a fever burns through her. My son has been born in an unusual form that has everyone who has seen him so far very surprised and his mother suffering from what Shea calls a cold fever for the first time in her life. Hopefully the only time.

‘’He’s so small,’’ Ingwe whispers with a hiccupped sob and I pull her tighter to me as she shakes and sobs silently in my arms. Still feverish from the birth but also sick with grief from not understanding why her child has been born in the form he has.

‘’He will be fine, he is strong,’’ I say holding her.

‘’How do you even know it’s a boy?’’ She whispers the question even I can’t seem to really answer but I just knew. Shea knew as well but that’s because she tasted his blood from the feeding cord after he was born to ensure he was hale and probably to make sure he is really mine but strangely I had absolutely no doubt even as I saw his strange form.

‘’I don’t know how I know but that’s a boy sleeping in the nursery right now and he is actually strong and healthy the way he is.’’

‘’You think so?’’

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‘’I do,’’ I say kissing her forehead.

Our son is some sort of human beast hybrid reminiscent of a lemur and a human combination, a beastman. Ingwe has birthed a beastman child and it was very stressful on her body even with the midwife, Isis and Shea present with her throughout the process. Her distress is also very emotional as she fears I will leave her or not love our son because of his appearance, I cans feel her worry in her aura and see it written all over her body.

But like most things it isn’t a fear I can easily dispel with words or reassurances, she will just have to see as I interact with the child that I love him and I treasure him like I do all my children. Even before I fully finish the thought a very pregnant Shea brings in the calm little bundled up newly born for Ingwe and I to hold again.

I take him in my open palm and crook of my arm with a smile before adjusting so that he settles into me comfortably. He yawns cutely opening his little mouth wide and I notice the grooves inside each side of his mouth at the back of his palate. Scent sacs, my son is born with a nose on his cute little face though it is quite small. He looks like a normal human child in almost everything except the shape of his body which is currently that of a creature that is more comfortable on all fours than on two legs. But scent sacs make him a natural predator, a hunter.

I suspect my son will be walking within the next two days as he really cannot be gauged accurately by any human scale because even though both his parents are human he clearly isn’t. ‘’I will call you Morpheus, your name just came to me little one. I didn’t even have to look for it.’’ I whisper to him holding him up to my chest.

‘’Let me see him.’’ Ingwe says in a low voice and again we unbundle him slowly with Shea’s help. His skin is that of a human but of a much lighter complexion than that of his mother, closer to mine. His proportions seem to be well designed and there doesn’t seem to be any deformity of any kind on him though his shape is quiet unique for a human. Closer to that of a monkey, an adorable hybrid between human and beast at first glance. Is this a puppy or a baby is the first confusion but he doesn't appear deformed, in fact he seems quite comfortable being held like a human baby for now.

His toes and fingers are shaped such that they are as much paws as they are hands and feet. It is clear that they are designed as much for walking on all four limps as they are for grasping and manipulating things. He has a beautiful dark mane of hair on his head and little fine hairs all over his body. What confuses Ingwe and most other most though is that he doesn’t have genitals.

There is no protruding little cock or slit to easily depict his gender, only an anus and of course everyone has an anus. Shea could tell it was a boy by the chemicals in his blood or some such, I just knew the moment I stepped into the room. I could feel it, his aura, smell it in his scent, the frequency at which he vibrates indicated it clearly to me. He has a slight bump of a tailbone made of soft cartilage protruding slightly from his rump, an interesting child and a concern for my bloodline maybe? I guess that will reveal itself depending on what he becomes, who he becomes.

"You're going to be strong, Morpheus."

Morpheus van Sachihiro, I really need to do something about all my children’s names. It isn’t an issue yet but I can’t have every single child having a different last names. Saya and Didi are del’Mira, Aura and Niki are del’Ingwe, Hannah is Iki are called del’Kuyoki but Hannah’s ma is an over two thousand year old sidhe fae but I’m definitely not calling her del’Vevina. Then depending on whether the next batch of kids are male or female they will be van Sachihiro or del’ whatever.

Not sure I like that though, I’m thinking all of my children should have a single family name, maybe ‘van Damage’ maybe ‘van Billiard’ maybe. Billiard the Terrible has been calling me in my dreams and as soon as all my children are born and weaned we will have to travel back to Sandaria. I have mates that have never been to my homeland, children that have never been to their homeland, and children that were too young to be fully influenced by the culture of my homeland. I also have some appointments to keep and a brother to visit, but Billiard’s descendants definitely warrant a visit even suspecting the outcome of such a meeting.

‘’He is beautiful isn’t he?’’ Ingwe asks looking up at me.

‘’Yes, he is a beautiful child.’’ I respond looking closely at my son again. I wonder what about me has caused him to be born this way, I wonder how my other children will turn out, I wonder what Morpheus will end up being when all is said and done.

Am I right in consigning his bones to this strange land before he can even speak? My strange first born son.