Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 117: brought to you by daddy love

Be grateful you're getting anything this week. I haven't been this sick in years, my house is a wreck, and some fan-servicy anime made me feel like a fat ugly blob. Pretty sure a popsicle stick with two big pink marshmallows glued to the front would serve as waifu to whatever guy gets off on that stuff. Still...

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The last warmth of summer was marked by Curtis shedding his skin. He had apparently been pushing it off as much as he could so he could finish the house. The consequence of which made it so he could just pull himself into his den in time. Shay spent the day guarding the entrance to the den to reassure him while she wove baskets. It was a quiet day, spent listening to the light rain and the girls playing outside with Dice, the brother visiting for the day. Harvey sat across from her, doing various chores one could do sitting down like grinding seashells for soap, carving bones into various tools, and mixing herbs. Curtis didn't allow Ryan inside, so while he wasn't playing with the girls or doing chores he hung his big panther head in the window and meowed for pets from Shay.

In the evening, Curtis emerged renewed and blindingly beautiful, grinning as he held out streams of beautiful light-ruby snake skin.

Shay did much cheering over the snake skin, having missed her snake-skin clothes greatly, especially living by the ocean as she was. But her cheering only distracted her for so long from her mate's new brilliant luster. It was to the point that Harvey and Ryan noticed, and even Harvey looked a bit jealous.

"Snakes have all the perks," grumbled Ryan.

"Fur," said Harvey.

That helped Ryan feel a little bit better, especially since Shay always rolled towards warm and furry when she slept at night.

One of the baby snakes had to hear that though and spread it to all the others, since these baby snakes had to be oddly gossipy for snakes.

"Mommy, do you like fuzzy babies more?"

Sky's eyes were tearful, even as she fought to act mature. Dawn was beside her, reacting as she always did to disrupted emotions--with violence. The poor flower in her hand didn't stand a chance.

"Honey, I love you because you're my babies, not because you're fuzzy or scaly."

"But...but Ryan said..."

"Ryan is just very excited to be a daddy and wants everyone to love his babies most of all."

Dawn snapped the petal-less flower's stem in half. "Our daddy didn't want to be a daddy."

Alarm spiked in Shay's chest. "Of course he wanted to be a daddy! That's practically all he could talk to me about when we first mated."

"Mommy's a liar," whispered Dawn.

Sky, who would have usually jumped at the chance to scold Dawn, like it was some weird game to stay on top of her wild sister, didn't say anything as she looked at the ground.

"Dawn, I am not a liar," Shay said, her voice uneven from a cross between a budding grief and anger.

Dawn just made a point of dropping the shredded flower on her mom's foot before stomping away. Shay called for her and would have followed, but was stopped by a loud sniff from Sky.

"Sky, honey, what's wrong? Oh, honey, come here."

Only enfolded in Shay's arms, with her little hands fisted into the soft fabric of her new snake dress, did Sky finally speak.

"Why can't Ryan be my Daddy? Daddy...Daddy wanted to kick us out...Daddy...Daddy's never excited. Daddy no care if--if anyone likes us."

A rustle came from Shay's right and a large red snakehead, freckled with blue, quietly rose from the bushes. Lazy Boy's large eyes settled on his sister with a certain softness Shay still couldn't understand how a snake's face could convey.

His tongue flickered slowly, like a slow curling ribbon, followed by a low, low hiss.

Sky's hands tightened on Shay's shirt.

Biting her lip, Shay also stretched out her arm to Lazy Boi, who came forward to tuck his head within her embrace as well. It had been a long time since he had been small enough to hide himself in her hair, but he still brought the rest of his long body around her and Sky.

"When did you become so kind and good?" Shay said to her boy, kissing him on the scally eyebrow. "What a lovely son I have."

She whispered such comforting words and compliments to the two as she kissed them. Telling them how she loved them, and how wonderful a thing it was to have the honor of being their mother. After a time, Asher popped up as well, sniffing the air for snake tears and croaking with concern. She spared him a pat as well.

Drawn by his children's distress, Curtis eventually came over to where they sat beneath Shay's favorite tree, Luna and Dawn on each arm. Luna looked more solemn than usual, though Dawn was still sniffing with her hands bunched up to her eyes. Curtis's lips had been pulled very, very thin.

"Let me guess," he said. "My children are wishing they were born to someone else?"

Shay bit her lip.

Curtis let loose a long sigh and settled himself next to them. Shay couldn't help but notice that he didn't bother to swat Lazy Boi away from her like he usually would.

"As I told your sisters," he said. "I have nothing to say that will comfort you. Snakes are terrible fathers. We are taught that being a good father is incubating the eggs and then keeping you fed for two weeks then kicking you out, longer if it's winter. I didn't even have that much."

Sky let out a little whine.

A tear trickled down Luna's quiet face.

That lone tear seemed to wound Curtis far deeper than the handful of Sky's and Dawn's.

His voice went a little raspy as he said, "But...I still love you."

Lazy Boi quietly looked at his father, who scowled back.

"What?"

A small, tiny hiss from the very big snake.

Curtis sighed again. "Yes. Although it's...yes, you too."

Sky turned in Shay's arms to give her father big, woeful eyes, her face smeared with snot.

Curtis wrinkled his nose at the sight. "Really. To be so sensitive with cold-blood. We are not meant to cry in the first place, you're going to dehydrate yourself. All of you. Give her to me, Shay, they need to drink. And have a calming swim to remind them who they are."

"I already know who I am," said Sky thickly. "I'm your daughter."

After a second of being stunned, a heartbreakingly soft smile, at odds with Curtis's sharp features, broke across his face.

"Yes."

It was a tight fit, but all three girls could still fit in Curtis's arms. He jerked his chin at Lazy Boi with a short hiss and his largest son unwound around his mother to follow, but not before giving her one last nuzzle.

Only then was Shay finally able to wipe her own tears from her face.

"Goodness. Always an emotional rollercoaster with that lot. Do I really want to add more kids to the mix?"

Well, it would be a good while until then. She's already been pregnant enough for a life-time, and somehow she doubted she would ever seem healthy enough to her mates who were still traumatized from seeing her broken and starved from the rabbits.

Even so, with dads like these, no matter what kids threw her way, everything would turn out alright.