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The tree is pregnant.

Okay, yeah, that was an intentionally provocative way of saying it, but it isn’t false. In a way, it’s always pregnant. Permapregnant, if you will. This time is different, though.

You see, normally, the tree only grows the insects from its roots. They look like little potatoes. When they hatch, they dig their way to the surface and fly up to join the rest of the group. This time is special. It’s not growing insects, and it’s not growing on the roots.

Now, the whole concept of a tree being pregnant is probably strange and foreign. You have to understand, the tree is not a tree, it just happens to be shaped like one. The part you see, the part that looks like a regular tree is just the shell. It’s an exoskeleton. The fleshy bits are on the inside, protected from harm by the hard exterior.

You may see where I’m going with this, but let me finish. The tree is actually pregnant, it’s not just spontaneously growing the children like usual. An actual child is growing inside the tree, like a mammal. It has a womb and everything. It’ll be born before the Awakening test.

It’s species isn’t like other plants; where self-insemination is possible. Where other plants just release pollen into the air and if some just happen to land back on itself, then, whatever. The other plants don’t have control, they just spray and pray. The tree is different.

It’ll help if I first explain how the trees reproduce. There are three distinct genders, with extreme sexual dimorphism. The first are the hermaphrodites, the trees. Next are the males, which are the bugs. The males are grown parthenogenetically, so no males are required to make more. Finally, there are the females, which I haven’t seen yet. Uncle Herbert wants it to be a surprise. He did say they were humanoid, though.

By the way, the tree is prego with a female; I can tell because the herms only use internal gestation for the females. Males grow underground, while herms grow like acorns. When a female is prego all three use internal gestation.

You might ask how I know it’s pregnant if it’s internal. All I’m saying is that suddenly the tree has a place where the child will come out from. It didn’t before.

What makes the pregnancy significant isn’t actually the pregnancy itself; it’s that all the males the tree has ever come in contact with are its children. Children with identical DNA to itself. My family will not be happy if they find out, they're pretty conservative after all. Incest is a taboo they wouldn’t tolerate.

To make matters worse, if that’s even possible, the tree is isolated. There are no mature females of its species that can care for the child. Within acceptable distance anyway. As the tree’s caregiver and the only person it’s ever been in regular contact with, I’ll be expected to care for the child. It has no one to care for it otherwise, the tree certainly can’t.

I’d already been stressing myself out about the Awakening and trying to learn as much about it as possible, which isn’t easy since everything about it is kept secret. Now I need to learn how to care for a child, one with a drastically different body and mind than myself, without knowing anything about it. All while trying to hide its existence from my family. I guess you could say the issue is more personal than moral.