Ch 37: Children

Catherine’s view

It took a while to realize it, and even longer to accept it, but clearly this Alice and Tessa were mates. Two women can’t make children though? So why? I didn’t really have the courage to ask for a long time.

“Why do you choose a mate that can’t give you kits?”

“While I haven’t tried, I don’t think it’s impossible for two women to have kids.”

“Eh? We could have children? Do you really mean that, Alice?” Even Tessa seemed interested in Alice’s response.

“Yes. I understand enough about how it works. I think I can figure it out. Just need to figure out how to merge two unfertilized eggs and induce growth as if it were fertilized.”

She thinks she can give a woman children? I want her children! I immediately changed into human form.

“Let me bear your young!”

“Eh?”

Tessa’s view

I really wasn’t expecting the conversation to end up like this, but somehow, when Alice turned to look at me, I knew my answer.

“Can the three of us bear each other’s children?”

“Eh? I-I suppose so.”

“You… you want me to take both of you as mates?”

“I’ve wanted children for a long time, but I know Alice doesn’t want to deal with raising kids, and I worry about raising children alone. If we raise them together it should be easier.”

“A three-way marriage.”

“I know you like the idea Alice. You might think you hide it well, but you’ve always wanted to bear children someday, haven’t you?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Do you think I’m not good enough, Catherine?”

“N-no! I just… I’m only really familiar with harems, where one lord takes several mates. I’ve not really heard of or seen a relationship like this. I thought I would just be lucky to bear Alice’s children, I never thought I could bear yours as well. I mean, you’re clearly her mate already.”

“I will ask you to stay in human form when you’re here. You’ll need some clothes too.” I then turned to Alice. “There’s research you need to do before we try it, right Alice?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I should do that.”

“Come, Catherine, there is a lot of basic human customs I need to teach you if you want to be a part of our family.”

Alice’s view

I never thought Tessa would ask for something like that! God, I love that woman.

Ch 38: Feelings

“Are you sure this is what you want?” I really found this entire thing unbelievable. 

“I know that I want your kids, and I don’t want to be the only one raising them, nor do I want to put the burden on you. Anyone I ask to help raise my children has to be someone I can accept as a member of our family.”

“And you chose Catherine?”

“I know that she is going to love you. She doesn’t know it yet, because she wasn’t raised to even know about love. However, I can see it in the way she looks at you. It’s not just admiration and gratefulness in her eyes.”

“But, you-”

“Shush. I know what I’m doing. I’m doing this for you, I’m doing this for her, and I’m doing this for myself. I know you worry about me, but you are too kind, and would go along with whatever I said, so this is what I choose. I love you, and I know your love for me won’t diminish because of a third person joining in. If anything, you’ll probably love me even more.”

“How do you…”

“I’ve been watching you for a very long time, Alice. I know all about how you react to people being kind and compassionate, and the way it really turns you on. I’ve seen the way you swoon when someone says or does the right thing; when I say or do the right thing. Don’t you worry, I’ll make this work. Catherine will make it work too. Just love us, like I know you will. That’s all you have to do… well, also get that baby making plan of yours working too. What do you think the child of a human and a mystic beast will be like?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they’ll be human with only a minor influence, like an affinity or a slightly different smell. Maybe it’ll be like the beastkin of stories I read on Earth, with mostly human bodies and varying degrees of animal features, like ears and tails. Maybe we’ll just end up with kittens.”

“Whatever they are, they’ll be our children, and we’ll raise them well.”

“Yeah, I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will.”

Ch 39: Blessings

Erica’s view

Eh? Mother’s pregnant? With twins? So are Alice and Tessa? H-how? Mom tried for decades to give me siblings, and then she asks Alice and gets pregnant with twins in less than a year? 

“Are you a goddess of fertility? Can you bless everyone?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The more powerful a mystic beast is, the harder it is to have children. You’ve blessed mother with twins, can you bless everyone who seeks children?”

“Uh… I’ll see what I can do.”

Alice’s view

Actually impregnating everyone who asks is not something I want to do. Can you imagine the lines that would form for that? However, boosting fertility is doable with formations. The basic vitality boost I maintain already boosts fertility as a side effect. 

I ended up making a room at the base of the tree. A very large room, to ensure the beasts who used it would not lack space for their activities. The room had formations within designed to maximize fertility of those inside, and ensure the offspring would be healthy. Hopefully this doesn’t cause problems.

Erica’s view

After hearing Alice’s explanation of what she’d done, I immediately left to announce it to everyone living down below.

“The goddess has granted us a boon! A room for our use to receive her blessing! Those who mate inside will have blessed children! Let us create an army for our goddess, may she become lord of all!”

Alice’s view

Wtf? Did the beasts just form a religion worshipping me? Hopefully the real god won’t get upset about this.

Ch 40: Family

I wasn’t expecting to feel so happy having children. Watching our babies sleep puts a smile on my face though, one that just doesn’t go away. Until they wake up and start crying at least. Thankfully, it’s not just Tessa, Catherine, and I. It seems Erica wants to help care for her sisters as well, and has learned to take human form for that purpose.

What I find more confusing than the happiness of motherhood though (admittedly, not needing sleep due to my cultivation is a massive help), is that we gave birth to three human girls, one mostly human girl with cat ears and tail, and two kittens. Catherine gave birth to the kittens, while Tessa gave birth to pure humans. I ended up being the one with a mix.

Catherine named her kits Milly and Pearl. One’s black, one’s white, and thankfully it seems they could take a more human-like form once they got a bit older, which looked a lot like my girl Michelle whom has cat ears and tail, but looks otherwise human.

Tessa named her two daughters Anne (after the woman who raised me in this life), and Jane (after her own mother). The one pure human daughter I had, I chose to name Lisa.

This isn’t going to be a slice of life story though. 20 years raising children just isn’t a long time to cultivators whom have been alive for centuries. I made sure they had copies of my cultivation books and understood them. Tessa made sure they knew how to fight, and understood how humans in this world usually live. Catherine and Erica introduced them to all the beasties and taught them about how the beasts live.

It didn’t even take 20 years for them to all decide to leave on their own journey to see the world. A few beasts even chose to join them. I can’t help but wonder if things will change having kids like them around. They grew up playing with pythons and panthers, lions and lizards, bears and boars. They aren’t gonna treat the mystic beasts of the world the same way other humans do. They were raised to see them as people like Tessa and I do, though admittedly some don’t quite seem smart enough to qualify, it’s usually just a matter of time. Pretty much any mystic beast that’s lived for 100 years will have as much smarts and maturity as a human at the age of 20.

I can’t help but hope that someday this world will be less violent.

---

“Do you want more?”

“No, I think six children is enough for me. Go find another mate if you still want more, Catherine.”

Clearly Catherine did still want more, as I ended up seeing more cats around the house at times, but thankfully Tessa was content like I was. In the end life largely went back to the way it had been, and Tessa and I began research into ways to cultivate together so we wouldn’t need to spend as much time apart just for cultivation. 

While Catherine did continue to raise more children of her own, she didn’t really bother us much, except to play together sometimes, and Erica eventually left on her own journey. 

It wasn’t very practical to create a long lasting fire for Tessa’s cultivation, however, I did figure out a way to create a powerful sunbeam during the day, which was usable to create a very bright and hot room. I gave myself shade, while Tessa soaked in the sun, and we could cultivate side by side, holding hands. We’d also found tricks for redirecting ki we didn’t need to the other, so we didn’t need to get our own positioning perfect as long as the room was setup right.

Was this the origin of pair cultivation? Two people sharing the ki of an area? It would probably be easier to get the ki balance right like this if the people have enough difference in what ki they need. I haven’t actually read books on pair cultivation, but I know it exists and is a common trope in cultivation novels, often with some lame excuse for it, when all the readers know the real reason is ‘cause authors and readers are pervs and sex sells.

Ch 41: A helping hand

“I come to request aid from The Goddess!”

Wtf?

“Catherine, could you-”

“I’ll go see what he’s here for.”

“Thanks.”

Uh, Catherine? Why are you taking him to the so-called sacred room? That’s not really what he came for is it?

---

“I beseech thee, please help me ascend. I am growing near my lifespan limit, with only a few centuries left, but have yet to figure out what’s wrong.”

Hmmm… Giant white wolf. Well, more of a silver than white. Feels like a cliche. Needs help ascending? He certainly is strong. Much stronger than me or Tessa. Probably stronger even than Elder Darya. 

“I’ll see what I can do. Let me study you a bit to start.”

“Of course.”

Oh, I think I see. He’s got some really old scars that are interfering with his ki flow, and some old wounds that aren’t healing properly. His body is quite a mess. Just how many fights did he get into? Well… probably thousands considering what his age must be.

“I think I can help, but I’ve not done this sort of thing with a non-human before. So I’ll need your cooperation to experiment and figure it out.”

“You have my thanks.”

I don’t want to kill him, so I do have to be careful, but having a living willing subject to experiment on is great. Time to find out if I can embed formations into beasts, like I’ve done with humans. Might even be able to find a way to speed up beast cultivation. Having an ascended beast owe me one in the upper realms might be helpful in the future.

Though his name is so cliche: Fenrir.

---

Fenrir’s view

While her experiments do hurt at times, I can tell she’s making progress. Some of my old wounds have already begun healing, and many of my scars are slowly disappearing. I’m glad I came here. The stories of The Goddess left me skeptical, but it seems to be true. She may claim to be just an ordinary human cultivator, but that’s impossible. Human cultivators always try to dominate or kill us for our power. I’m not going to believe a person so kind as her is human.

Ch 42: Ascension

After Fenrir ascended (there was a great shining beam of light and a giant door that opened in the sky, it was really cool!), not a whole lot really happened. Our daughters came back to visit a few times, two had gotten husbands, one got a wife, one had a daughter, but no spouse, and the other two remained single. It was actually a higher rate than normal for cultivators partnering up like that. Most are so dedicated to cultivation, they don’t spend the time for building a family. 

As a result, millenia passed rather peacefully, (did god lose interest?) and somehow I passed Tessa in cultivation, and accidentally completed Ascension first… except I’d messed up.

I wasn’t ready for ascension yet, and didn’t think I could ascend yet. I didn’t have enough ki based on what I knew. That wasn’t really the problem though. As the light dragged me towards to door, I began to feel something tear quite painfully, and looking back I realized that I’d made a horrible mistake.

As an experiment I’d put quite a lot of my soul into the tree we lived in. Somehow, I’d put enough in, that instead of becoming a soulbound artifact or contracted creature, it literally became another body. I had two bodies, and only one was ascending, as the other hadn’t actually cultivated properly and was no where near ascension. If I did nothing, my soul would be torn in half by the separation, and I’d die. I had two bad options that I knew of, picked one, and fell unconscious.

Tessa’s view

It was terrifying when I saw Alice’s body explode and the gates of the upper realm close. However, somehow, I could feel that she hadn’t died. Her soul was still whole and in this world. In fact it was right next to me somehow, but where?

God’s view

Hahahaha! It’s not my fault! I didn’t even do anything this time! *sigh* I didn’t actually know what to do. I saw no way to kill Alice without cheating, and kinda gave up. Thankfully she managed to solve my troubles for me. I’m not ready for her to ascend yet, and her impact on the world has been quite nice. In fact, what she just chose to do might really help with my plans. 

There’s a special path that’s never been possible for my worlds to take before, but Alice just might make it possible now… okay, I admit, I never actually thought of the idea before, and only thought of it because of what Alice did. After all, she’s now stuck on an ascension path that I’d never had reason to even consider before. I mean, who turns themselves into a tree?! Alice, that’s who.