Beauty, the Beasts and Other

Chapter 44

"You know I can hardly imagine that you looked like this at one point. They're miniature versions of you," I stroked the heads of some of the baby snakes. Some of them softly hissed at me, but they didn't wake up. "They're so cute."

I looked at their father that was gazing at me with loving eyes as I examined our newly hatched little ones.

It had been two days since Cutis returned from his hibernation with the snakelings in tow. Today, we decided to have the day to ourselves and were lounging with the babies in the same field we had our picnic in two days prior.

I was lying on my stomach while watching the sleeping snakes and Curtis was sitting across from me.

"How fascinating. Will they get their memory of their past experiences when they turn or when they come of age? What exactly constitutes them coming of age though? I had originally thought that as soon as they turned, they were of age."

"Snake beastmen are usually abandoned a few months after birth, if not weeks, but since you expressed not wanting to go that route-"

"Not a chance in hell," I interjected.

Curtis smiled and shook his head but continued, "Since they won't be abandoned, they get to go the traditional route most beasts do. At ten years old they'll be able to shift to their beastman forms, for them specifically, they'll need to work on maintaining a half-turned state to show that they are skilled and can control themselves. Young beastmen are said to be of age at fifteen, that's typically when they leave the home and seek to get stronger and find their own families.

During the ages of ten and fifteen, they would learn everything they need to survive more intensely and may even be put in test situations to see how they would handle certain problems or threats. Before they're ten, they would be learning things, of course, but using your two-legged form is starkly different from your beast form."

"That's actually not too bad. A part of me is still thinking that fifteen may be too young, but you males are literal superstars at this survival thing. I know the babies would be okay," I replied after some thought. "So, what, snake beast men are just robbed of that upbringing? Why?"

"Snake beastmen have a tendency of harboring romantic feelings for their mothers and as such, would challenge their fathers for the right to mate with them. That, and we don't tend to value the family unit much. We are naturally solitary after all."

I visibly recoiled at his words. "What?" I asked in disbelief. I facepalmed as I finally recalled the reason why Curtis hated the cubs from the novel. "That's why you...."

"Want to throw them into the forest and let them fend for themselves? Yes."

"Oh god," I grimaced as I peered down at the babies sleeping comfortably. "But that's not their fault, is it? It's not in their nature, right? Is it just because snakes are generally avoided so they think since females that would accept them are a small amount of the already meager population then they should go for someone that already accepted them in a sense?"