Along with the sort of green aura around my hand, the foxfire glow of the system text centers in my vision. Assisting how to use it with so helpful descriptions, like for the map’s Mode adjustnts and the Stash’s limitations.
| DICAL STATE SCAN |
| SCAN: Hold On Target, 6 seconds. |
| LIMIT: Pack mbers Only |
"Well, clearly it wants to have this at this timing for one reason only..."
Hesitantly, I placed my hand over my abdon... half expecting it to fail and give my own information. A gentle warmth spread beneath my palm and slowly the sphere rendered in the center of the interface began to fade and fill.
An image that reminded of taking the ultrasound at Dr. Lang’s office - but without the uncomfortable gel and insertion of a probe. Over the six seconds, it beca a clearer, three-dinsional version of what was growing inside .
"How can you do this? Alter , do impossible things - what are you?"
I asked even though I knew the system wouldn’t answer. Instead, information stread across the previously empty areas and provided all the data I could not have known to ask for.
| TARGET: ??? |
| SPECIES: Werewolf Δ |
| DEVELOPNT: Δ Accelerated (4x Human Rate, Canid Form) |
| VITALS: Normal |
| GESTATIONAL AGE: 3 Weeks |
| GESTATION ESTIMATE: 63 Days|
| DELIVERY ESTIMATE: 45~ Days |
> You’re seeing this, right? I an, I know you can’t exactly read, but you can sort of understand what I’m understanding... <
Sitting up on the couch, I keep staring at what it says. As if it would change and give the real answer if I distrusted it enough.
"Nine weeks... not nine months?"
The apocalypse countdown currently read [46 DAYS, 3 HOURS, 51 MINUTES]. The near overlap of that tir with the number estimate that seems to state when I’ll be giving birth is much, much too awkward to be coincidence.
But more imdiately alarming was what the words suggest about the child itself. Werewolf, but listed as currently being canid form... not a ’human’ baby like Ogas in this world are supposed to be born as.
A form that would only eventually shift if the Lunar Goddess granted them a wolf spirit, like happened with Helene. But if this information is right, and with everything else simply abnormal.
"Unless the system is faulty for once, then the child is potentially going to be a wolf pup from the very beginning of its life. How..."
No, I don’t need to ask how. That’s just like shifters in my world... a beast born entity that learns to turn into a human. That follow the sa natural birthing scales as their more common counterparts.
> This is because of . Because of what I truly am. My soul did this when I arrived in this world. <
In the mindscape, I hug and pet Vrika perhaps a little too hard - but the black wolf is letting do it without growling any complaint. My head is filled with guesses about how my transmigration into Helene’s body had manifested more than just my consciousness.
Fundantally altering how the biology of the child in her functioned shouldn’t be possible if looking at it from a magical perspective, with my world’s knowledge. It even sounds preposterous.
> But it wouldn’t be the only ti I’ve encountered sothing that seems magical but feels impossible. <
"Perhaps... it was the system using my soul as a blueprint. But why would it make such a change?"
Or perhaps this was always going to happen, so sort of natural ’mutation’, and it’s why it chose this body in the first place. After all, the system still calls this body Helene. So I could be making assumptions and making myself anxious for no reason.
Just like I did at the clinic. Worked myself up assuming that she had been... taken advantage of without knowing. But three weeks should be exactly when she and Jace did their deed.
I watched the three dinsional representation as the little, tiny thing ant to be its heart flickered rapidly within the small, translucent form. In just over a month and a half, I would give birth - and this creature will look like... a pup.
> Seems like sothing I should keep an eye on. The question is, will I have to keep using the Scan or is this now... ’real ti’? <
Finally turning my attention away from that, I start to really study all the other information panels. They seem to detail nutritional requirents and all sorts of other comprehensive dical data.
At least, I’m assuming that’s what all the numbers are. I closed the interface and my eyes as a host of new questions start to puml . But the strongest ’punch to my gut’, worse than the one I got when I arrived in this world...
> What does this an for the child, Vrika? I clearly cannot risk going back for doctor’s visits. They would soon enough realize how different what is inside of is. Especially if another two and a half weeks ans the equivalent of ten in growth. <
Worries about myself are there, but muted. All I can think of is how people might treat such a beast in its early years. Any future it might have in this world in whatever bleak state society will find itself in.
"Maybe it will have an easier ti of it, growing up after everything has changed. It won’t have fond mories of the world before it was cold. But..."
It will have . I’ll make sure it grows up healthy and strong, so long as I can help it. First, I needed to deal with so of the the more imdiate complications of my current situation.
> Yes, like the ssages I’d been avoiding. Thank you for reminding . <
Reluctantly, I reached for my phone. The notification count made wince - four unread ssages. That’s already a record! The most recent ssage appeared first and was sent by Kyrie not long after I’d left her.
K: [Permission to protect my Princess as I see fit? I’ll respect any boundaries you set, and apologize any ti I cross ones that weren’t made clear. But I can’t just do nothing when you’re in trouble, Citra.]
My chest tightened uncomfortably reading it. Even after I’d threatened with what she likely feared - and even after commanding her to stay put like so sort of trained animal... she still focused that much on my phrasing.
"Asking to let you decide sothing like that for again...? But she still hasn’t asked if I’m pregnant or if it was all false rumor. What is wrong with her priorities?"
My wolf barks angrily as my hand brushes through one side of my hair. Scrolling up to first of the earlier ssages, I found the conversation I’d pretty much started with the photo from this apartnt.
K: [You look sowhere high up.]
The next was a photo in return - the city view from what had to be Kyrie’s office window again. Looking down at the tops of so many buildings.
K: [I don’t know what you an to imply by ’well played’, but all the places I see from here can also see this building of mine right back.]
A laugh escaped despite the night I’ve had. She’d completely misunderstood my comnt about the view including her tower... I think. Or perhaps she just decided on her own to reject the possibility that I was accusing her.
> Yes, I’m going to be bitter about it for a while. I was completely blindsided by that awful slling woman! If she’d just inford she was lying for my sake... <
I quickly shut down that line of thinking. Because I was beginning to feel like a hypocrite when thinking about who was blindsided by what.
"Should I just ask how she heard the news first... what she did? What she thinks... or just tell her the truth without questioning her beforehand - and let what happens happen."
Talking out loud, it was easy to see. What was the right thing to do, which was the smart thing, and which thing I would be doing.
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