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25 years old Clara Heartfield was entering her house on a hot summer afternoon, basketball practice had been exhausting, especially under this heat, her clothes were stinking, her hair was all sticky, her arms and legs almost completely numb, but if she wanted to stay as the top player of her team, she had to made sacrifices, she had to put an effort and woman up!
At least, the reward that was waiting for her at the end of the day was even better than she could ever dream of: In the past, she had desires of glory and triumph, of trophies and medals hanging on the walls of her house, she had those now, but she couldn’t care less about them.
Now, what matter to her was the person waiting for her at the other side of the door, well, maybe not a person per se, but no one had to know the truth, right?
No one had to know that her beautiful wife, with her soft brown skin, her blue eyes and her long, perfectly trimmed red hair (a lovely improvement from the times where she looked like an exact copy of her adoptive sister, Clara had to admit), who took on her mother’s footsteps and decided to dedicate her life to research and help endangered animals all over the world, was actual a demon from another realm, a basilisk, to be precise.
They’ve gotten married almost a year ago, on a ceremony that moved everyone to tears (Everyone except Clara of course, shut up, what are you talking about, she was an independent strong woman, she didn’t cr- Fine, she bailed her eyes out), they decided to do it on the Boiling Isles, especially because letting a huge group of witches and demons show up on Earth all of a sudden wasn’t a good idea; their day almost got ruined when the few basilisks that were left alive rejected their invitation, saying that they would never approve one of their kind engaging with an abomination like the young Heartfield girl.
It took Camila, Eda, Raine and Clara’s parents intervention to stop Vee from laying waste to those creatures, although both the Owl Lady and Luz wanted violence for an answer.
(The human finally settled for covering those evil basilisks’ nest in egg shells and glitter, because no one was going to mistreat her little sister that way, according to Eda, she went soft on them)
Back to the present, Clara let out a soft sigh, she had lived so many fantastic moments with her wife and she was decided to live even more, always remembering how lucky she was for having Vee at her side.
“I’m home, my sweet basilisk” she shouted as soon as she stepped inside and closed the door.
The only thing that welcomed her was silence, weird, since Vee should have been back from her office alr-
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
Her thoughts got interrupted by the thunderous sound of a giant basilisk’s roar and Clara rushed to her shared bedroom, her heart jumping in her chest.
When she opened the door, the blonde woman paled at the sight: The room was thrashed, their bed completely torn apart, the trophies she had on the wall knocked down, but she didn’t care about all of that.
What took her breath away was seeing the greater basilisk in front of her coiler around herself, resting atop of a nest made out of broken wood, pillows and their torn off mattress, shivering in fear, Camila and Eda sitting at each side of her, softly stroking her back.
“Sweetie… What happened?” the human questioned.
For all response, Vee slithered towards her and rose to her full height, she remembered crystal clear when they were younger, how each and every time that her girlfriend turned into a basilisk she looked small and cozy, her head barely reaching the human’s nape. Now, after so many years, Vee’s true form was gigantic, enormous, a towering figure that Clara couldn’t reach to, no matter how badly she wanted to.
Which is why Vee had to lower her head, he purred at her and wrapped her tail around her body, once, twice, three times, Vee could be much bigger than she was in the past, but she was still as cozy as ever.
“Clara” the greater basilisk spoke in a grave voice.
“Yes, what is it?” the human questioned.
Vee didn’t reply, so Clara managed to free her arms and held her wife’s cheeks as softly as she could, repeating:
“What is it?”
For all response, Vee slowly let her go, slithering away and moving her head towards the nest, Clara walked there and gasped when she saw a multicolored, white spotted big egg at the center of it.
“Is this yours?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“Ours, actually” Vee let out, returning to the nest and twisting her body to give the egg enough warm.
“But how?” the human asked.
“Very sloppily and carelessly, I imagine” the Owl Lady replied witch a chuckle.
“Eda, shush” Camila ordered, then motioned Clara to sit at her side and explained “Basilisk’s reproduction cycle is… complicated to explain, but yes, both of you are that little baby’s mother and all you need to know is that as soon as Vee laid her egg, she went a bit overboard, doing her best to protect it as best as she could”
“Hence the thrashing and destroying” Clara commented.
Camila nodded and the blonde woman got up, walked to her wife’s said and silently asked her to lay with her, Vee nodded and the human wrapped her arms around her waist, muttering:
“Wow… We are going to have a baby basilisk…”
“Ha! You wish!” Eda boomed.
Vee looked away and Clara stared at the witch, demanding an explanation.
“As you know, basilisks can transform into any living creature they want, but when they laid eggs, their shapeshifting ability goes out of control”
“And?”
“And basically, the cells of the creature inside the egg are so unstable that anything can come up from it, but don’t fret, whatever form it took, it’ll stay that way, but again, it can be any creature… well, anything except a human, I guess”
“Anything?” Clara questioned, suddenly going a bit pale.
“I’m betting on a manticore”
“Eda, you’re not helping!” Camila shouted.
The very next day, Clara and Vee woke up to the sound of incessant knocking, they had to make certain modifications to her sleeping place: It was ow a next, even bigger than before, filled with stolen pillows (thanks Eda) in every inch, not the most comfortable of places, but Vee assured her wife she was happy with it and the egg, according to the basilisk’s words, was enjoying it too, so the human was willing to get some back pain for her little family.
Whoever was still knocking was pretty insisting and after reassuring Vee everything was fine, Clara walked to the door and opened it.
Luz Noceda was staring at her with impossible big eyes.
“Where’s my little nephew?” she questioned in a sing song voice.
“Still in its shell, thank you very much” the athlete responded.
“Let me see it, let me see it!” she shouted, running inside the house at full speed, Clara didn’t try to stop her, simply shrugging and inviting the rest of the people into the house.
“Congratulations” Hunter said amicably, shaking her hand “I bet you didn’t saw it coming, though”
“Of course not” Clara replied with a smile “But it’s alive, it’s ours and… I still don’t know what it is, but I’ll make sure it can be as happy as it’s possible”
“What do you mean you still don’t know?” Linus, Hunter’s husband and her friend ever since the moment Clara discovered Vee, asked, practically leaping at her.
“Give her time” Amity blight, Luz’s wife, interrupted him “I bet not even Vee knows”
“Oh, trust me, Vee totally knows, but she’s being exasperatedly overdramatic and she won’t tell me, no matter how much I insist” there was a tiredness in Clara’s voice, but also an infinite amount of warmth.
“Maybe this can help you identify it” Amity said, giving her a book titled ‘The Complete Guide of the Boiling Isles Creatures’
“Cute” Clara said, chuckling.
“What do you mean cute?” Amity huffed with a bit of indignation “You know how much I had to bother Malphas to get this tome out of the library?”
“I didn’t mean to offend you, Am” Clara replied quickly “It’s just, my cutenomicon is three times the size of this book and I’m talking about the first tome”
“It’s not when your wife can literally transform into creatures that haven’t existed for millennia”
Clara laughed, decided to put an end to their playful banter and invited the group to see her wife and their little... Spawn? Offspring? Child?
Not even the human herself was sure of which word she should use.
When they entered, the group saw Luz holding the big egg, marveled by how it looked.
“There’s something inside…” she whispered, hugging the giant egg softly.
“Of course there is” Vee replied “Inside, there’s…”
She looked at her wife, who was expecting to receive a clue about the baby’s identity:
“Our little bundle of joy” she added on purpose.
“You won’t even say if it’s a boy or girl?” Hunter questioned, approaching his sister and kneeling in front of her.
Vee denied with her head and Linus hugged his husband from the back, his eyes also fixed on the egg.
“That’s great, gender is a social construct anyways” he commented.
“I’ve got its name on my mind and everything” the basilisk commented proudly, before hugging her wife with her tail and pulling her closer to her “If my wife agrees, of course”
“I’m sure you’ll pick the perfect name, sweetie”
“So, can we know its name at least?” Amity questioned.
“I’ll give you a clue, it starts with a D”
“Daniel”
“No”
“Dennis”
“Nope”
“Daphne”
“Noppity noppity nope”
“Delilah?”
“Nope, nope, nope, so much nope”
The next few days went by in a breeze: Luz came to visit her sister practically every day, each time with new and more extravagant names and each time failing, much to her dismay and Vee’s amusement.
Linus decided to share his ideas about rebellion and revolution with the egg, Clara said he was going to be a bad influence and the man replied with a “that’s exactly the plan!”
Hunter was surprisingly caring with the egg, he offered himself to take care of it at every opportunity he had and Vee was happy to see this new side of her adoptive brother.
Amity shared tips and tricks about demon anatomy, years of reading a kid’s corner gave her plenty experience and the married couple was tremendously thankful for her assistance.
Finally, after Eda and Camila promised to the two woman they’d be at their disposal if anything happened, Raine came by to dedicate a personalized serenade to the soon-to-be-born baby. They played for several minutes and Clara Heartfield would be lying if she said she didn’t tear up, Vee also did it, completely attuned with the feelings of her wife and her future offspring. After the song was over, Vee and Clara fell asleep embracing each other, not before the human left a great amount of little kisses across the long body of her scaly lover.
Eleven days after she laid the egg, on a Tuesday night, Vee whispered to her wife:
“He’s ready”
“He?” the human questioned, her heart thundering in her chest.
Vee nodded happily, softly stroking the egg and continuing:
“I can feel it, he feels it’s time, he feels safe, protected, cared for”
“Of course” Clara muttered, giving the softest possible kiss to the shell “We’ll protect him with our lives”
“Still, I’m worried” Vee said, looking up.
Clara climbed to the top of her body and hiding her face in the crook of the basilisk’s neck, questioned:
“Worried about what, sweetie?”
“He’ll be able to inherit my shapeshifting powers, at least to some degree, but that won’t happen until he’s a bit grown up”
“Ah” Clara said, spotting the problem instantly “You’re worried about the humans around you”
“About almost all the humans around me” Vee said, kissing her briefly “But yes, I wonder, what should we do?”
“Move to the Boiling Isles, of course” Clara answered quickly.
“Really? Just like that?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll leave your human life behind, all your achievements, probably your future career, only-”
“Shush” Clara interrupted her, leaving a trail of kisses across her long, big lips “Don’t say another word, whatever he needs, whatever you need, I’ll do it, without a second thought”
“Clara Heartfield, I love you so much…” the greater basilisk said, her extremely long body wrapping around the small figure of the human, before turning into a human herself, laying atop of her wife.
“And I love you too, so, so much, Vee Noceda” Clara replied, hugging her tightly and feeling the way Vee’s lips traveled down her neck and chest and down, down, down…
“Wait!” the human said suddenly, looking at the egg “Are you sure we should do this, in front of him?”
“He can feel, but not see, you silly girl” Vee said, rolling her eyes.
“In that case” Clara replied, laying back and closing her eyes “Go on…”
Vee laughed before complying.
The egg started to shake violently exactly four hours later, Vee and Clara were at its side just a moment later, the basilisk adopting her natural form, because that seemed fitting to receive this new life into the world.
It cracked a little and Vee muttered:
“I see an eye…”
“I see a foot…” Clara whispered.
“He’s got four feet” Vee said excitedly.
“And scales!”
Finally, the egg cracked completely and the creature, with his eyes closed, moved towards his mothers, but before any of them could touch him, he opened his mouth and let out a long, shivering breath.
“Cold breath! He’s got cold breath!” Vee said, moving down to scoop him up.
But the creature jumped away from her, avoiding her arms and leaping straight into Clara’s lap, the human went rigid at the contact and softly caressed him, from the top of his head to the tip of his tail, the creature let out a purr of satisfaction and snuggled closer to her, Clara looked at her wife and the basilisk whispered:
“He feels safe with you; I’m not even surprised”
As if he somehow could feel her jealousy, the creature moved his tail and touched Vee’s scales and the basilisk went down once more, looking at him, her son let out another little breath before giving her a kiss on her head and Vee let out a hiss of happiness.
“So, I guess you were right and the name is rather obvious, isn’t it?” Clara said as soon as her son fell asleep.
“It’s an easy choice, right?”
“A perfect choice” the human agreed.
An hour later, all of their friends, demons and humans alike, received a message from the happy couple, Luz was the first who reacted to it, letting out a huge scream that woke up her wife, Amity rubbed her eyes and before she could ask what was happening, Luz showed her phone to her and shouted:
“Look at him! He’s so cute!”
“Oh wow… he does look cute” the witch conceded.
On the screen, they saw the picture of a smiling human, her body wrapped by an equally as happy basilisk, between their arms (and tail, in Vee’s case) was their sleeping baby, red and green scales covering his whole body, four legs frantically kicking the air and his mouth open, letting out a soft, cold wind.
Below, there was this caption:
“Everyone, meet… DRAKE!”