Night Fury's Wrath

Chapter 90: Wanting [Part 2]

-This took a bit longer than planned to get ready, but life got in the way and I lost track of time. Anywho, enjoy!

-NFD

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Nana Astra forced a smile. "Vaskr, you may or may not be a father."

My eyes slowly turned to Nibbler, who looked very pale. I suddenly felt dizzy, swaying dangerously on my paws. Mom was there to keep me from falling, but she couldn't stop the panic consuming my mind. 

"Hey, hey, relax," Mom crooned. "You might be a father. It isn't a guarantee! Remember what I taught you? Your emissions cannot survive extreme cold and heat, and you've been starting fires all night! Moon has been running her tail off keeping them under control." 

"Well, technically, they're Soulburners, so their anatomy is—" 

Mom shot Nana Astra a murderous glare. "Not. Helping."

My grandmother cleared her throat. "Er... Yeah, what she said."

I chose to push what Nana Astra said into a corner of my mind to keep myself conscious. I focused on taking deep breaths, pushing off of Mom to lean into Nibbler. "H-Hey, it's not guaranteed, r-right?" I whined, trying to sound comforting but failing. "Okay? W-We're probably okay!"

"B-But might be?" Nibbler whimpered, sounding faint. Oh, man...

I glared at Nana Astra. "What does 'might' really mean?" I demanded.

Nana Astra hesitated. "I can't be sure," she answered. "Nibbler said she didn't know, not that she had never felt it before or had felt it before. It doesn't help that she was unconscious, but without knowing—"

"See?" I crooned, my voice dripping with relief. "It's not for sure!" That helped Nibbler calm down somewhat. I wound my tail around and slipped it between her paw and belly, giving her a nuzzle. She flinched when my tail touched her soft belly, almost as if in pain. "Remember," I whispered in her ear. "I'll be here, n-no matter what." Nibbler whined and pushed into the contact, her paw trembling over my tailfins. Mom strode over to Nana Astra and started hissing something to her.

Nana Astra watched us for a moment as Mom talked, her ears slowly drooping with guilt. "I apologize for scaring you, Vaskr, Nibbler," she hummed softly. "I thought you coming to me meant you were ready to hear any answer. Usually, that's what happens when females ask me if they're pregnant. I... see now that you were only asking what the strange things you felt meant, and I got ahead of myself by talking about eggs."

Nibbler whined faintly at that, making me glare at my grandmother. We would've rather not have known about the odds of Nibbler being with egg. She just felt strange things, and that worried me, so we wanted to know what they were, nothing more. Sure, we were worried about that possibility, but we didn't come here to find out about that.

"If it makes you feel any better, personally, I doubt Nibbler is pregnant."

I blinked in confusion. "Why?"

Nana Astra tilted her head. "Vaskr, your emissions would have to be very strong to get Nibbler pregnant right now because the cold-season has been over for quite a while now," she reasoned. My eyes widened. "Your sister was different because she's mated to a Shadow Blender, and their mating seasons are... different, from what I understand. And your father when you were little... that's another long story. My point is, we don't know if she has felt the early warning sign, but in my professional opinion, I highly doubt it ever happened."

Nibbler sniffed. "S-So... I feel...?"

"You're feeling your mate's emissions," Nana Astra stated bluntly. "Nothing more. Soulburner females, in particular, are very specific to their mating seasons, but with a potent enough non-Soulburner male, it can happen. A Soulburner pair with no weird stuff messing with their bodies can try to make an egg all they want, but it's basically impossible. Both of you are Soulburners, so you have to be in season to make an egg. The test we did is just a different method of ensuring we know the answer, but without knowing whether or not Nibbler felt it, we can fall back on what we know about Soulburners. I bet you could mate twenty times, and nothing would come of it."