Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 54: Return of the Forgotten

Just in case it wasn't obvious by how I hurled my guts out, I wasn't having a good night. I woke up in my loving mate's paws, took the short flight from my parents' den back to the forest, and walked a grand total of two minutes before I started puking like I'd never puked before.

Soon after I woke up, Nana Astra had helpfully warned me that this egg would likely cause worse symptoms than the last one. Apparently, now that it had a soul, that soul could and would affect my womb, which, in turn, affected the rest of my body. Freaking yippee to that. Here I was naively hoping that this pregnancy would be smoother, that Nana Astra's warning would be a false alarm, and that the only bad part would be laying the egg.

Oh, what a fool I was.

I barely had enough time to suck in a deep breath before my gut spasmed and squeezed again, forcing me to arch my back and cough up what little bile I had left in my stomach. I whimpered shakily, then my stomach heaved again, making me cry out in pain, which rapidly turned into a hoarse mixture of a groan and a screech. Of course, nothing more came up, but it did aggravate Myrkr's mark in the base of my neck.

I panted with my head hanging and maw gaping, strings of bitter-tasting bile drooling from my mouth. The pool of vomit had barely digested fish and other unidentifiable lumps in it, smelling entirely of stomach acid. It was disgusting. I shakily looked at Myrkr, only to be overwhelmed by a horrible, nauseating stench that left me frantically sidestepping away from him and dry-heaving. Myrkr crooned worriedly around the fish in his mouth and took a step toward me.

"NO!" I coughed, panting shakily. "Keep th-that away from me! K-Keep—" My gut lurched, forcing me to hunch over and heave, but nothing came out. Tears flowed from my eyes as I coughed and heaved two more times until my gut finally let up. I whimpered and panted pathetically, my whole body shaking like a dried-up leaf. "N-No fish," I pleaded. "No... fish..."

Myrkr tossed his head and flung the fish far behind him, then rushed over to gently nuzzle my trembling head. "No fish," he agreed. "Is it the taste?"

"Th-The smell," I moaned, revolted. "It s-smelled like it was rotting for days!"

"It was fresh," he said thoughtfully. "Maybe it's the egg. I guess it doesn't like that fish, huh?" 

My stomach grumbled, demanding food. Oh, now you want food?! You had food! What the Hel?!

"Should I find you a different kind? I can try to get a tuna again."

"NO," I denied firmly, shuddering at that thought. "N-No fish, period!" Just the idea of eating any kind of fish, tuna or otherwise, made me nauseous. 

"Alright, alright," he hummed soothingly. "What do you want, then?"

Almost as if Nana Moon herself knew exactly what I needed, a faint scent happened to trail into my nose right then. It smelled heavenly, making saliva pool in my mouth. "I wanna hunt it myself," I whispered, my growling stomach happily supporting that idea.

"Yourself?" Myrkr warbled, confused, as I began walking toward that delectable scent. "Er... okay."

It felt like the growing egg in my belly was singing praises to that wonderful scent in the air, practically begging me to feed it with the source. Predictably, I obeyed and tracked my latest prey hungrily. Everyone said that the egg usually controlled the mother's actions to some degree, but I hadn't really believed it. Until now. 

I almost felt little 'nudges' in my gut that told me where to go, but I knew it was all in my head. Still, I believed it now. My egg was hungry, so I went to feed it. My egg wanted this prey, so I ignored all other scents and hunted just this one. This feeling of unconditional dedication to a simple desire was a big wake-up call for me. From now until I laid it, my life would revolve around this egg. If it wanted something, I would give that something to it, no questions asked. I'd bow to its every whim.