They rose and set out again at dawn, still not fully recovered from the hard fast walk the evening before. A little over an hour later, they reached the village where Pwalu had left Qesem in care of the shrine priestess.

A few people were in the street, mostly women gathered around the well. And as they got closer, it became clear that all the women there looked pregnant.

“It’s spawned,” Gareth said. “Keep an eye out for the little ones and kill them if you see them.”

“What do they look like? How do we kill them?”

“I didn’t show you the picture? I knew there was something I was forgetting. Kind of insectoid or crablike, about twenty centimeters long and five centimeters wide, with chitin that can change color like a chameleon’s skin… If you spot one, stomping on it should work, but spotting them’s the hard part.”

They approached the women at the well, Pwalu looking around nervously for the vaguely-described creatures. “Good morning, ladies,” Gareth said. “You look about done. When are the little ones due?”

“Any day now,” came a chorus of voices, followed by laughter.

“Yes, we must have all gotten knocked up around the same time,” said one of the older ones. “Those spring nights, you know?”

“Good health to you,” Gareth said. “But you know, there’s a disease going around – doesn’t show symptoms in adults, but it’s very dangerous to unborn babies. I’ve compounded some medicine that should take care of it and make sure your baby is born safely.”

“Oh, thank you,” the women said, looking simultaneously worried and relieved.

Gareth served out tiny spoonfuls of the powder from one of the jars onto each woman’s tongue. “Lot of women in town pregnant right now?” he asked casually.

“Dozens,” one of the younger women said. “Even –” She broke off, laughing hard.

“Let’s get on to the shrine,” Pwalu said impatiently. “Can you give me the other jar? I’ll give some to Qesem and anyone else I see that needs it.”

“Here you go,” Gareth said, handing him the jar and another small spoon. “Don’t spill it. I hope it will be enough. – And don’t give it to too many people at once. We have to kill the creatures when they’re forced out, before we give the drug to another group.”

Pwalu took the jar and hurried on ahead to the shrine. As he approached it, he passed Tiequ’s blacksmith shop. Tiequ was already at work in the forge, and as Pwalu passed, he saw that Tiequ’s belly was big as if with child.

Oh, no.

“Ah, hey, Tiequ… I don’t know if this is a polite question, but are you pregnant?”

“Yes!” Tiequ said, beaming. “Should be due any day now. My wife, too. It’s the best of luck, we’ve been trying for a little one for ten years, and we finally both fall pregnant at the same time as half the village… it’s a miracle.”

“Yeah, a miracle,” Pwalu agreed perfunctorily. “Listen, Gareth gave me this medicine for all the pregnant… people… to take. It will help make sure your baby is born safe and healthy.”

“Oh, good. Let me go fetch Lishwelen, she’s out in the back garden.”

Pwalu impatiently waited for Tiequ to return. Half the village… would there be enough of the drug? He must hurry on to the shrine after this, with no more delay.

When Tiequ and Lishwelen returned, Pwalu gave each of them a spoonful of the powder. They made sour faces at the taste, but thanked him.

“Thank Gareth,” Pwalu said. “He’s around here somewhere. I’ve got to go.”

He went on straight to the shrine without stopping, ignoring the other seemingly pregnant women and occasional men he passed. At the little house next to the shrine he clanged the bell rope desperately. The priestess, Fialasem, opened the door moments later. She, too, looked hugely pregnant. “Come in, Pwalu!” she said. “Qesem is well. She still hasn’t had the baby, but it won’t be much longer.”

“About that,” Pwalu said, following her into the house, and screamed. Something was crawling up his leg, inside his pants. He shook his leg and slapped at it – no, where it was a moment ago. He started to take off his pants – no time for propriety, he had to kill this thing – but before he could undo more than one button, he doubled over in agony as something bit down hard on his penis. The pain continued and got worse and worse. He collapsed, the jar rolling away from his thrashing hand.

Qesem came running into the room. “Oh, Pwalu! What’s wrong?”

Pwalu passed out before he could answer.

---

Pwalu woke in a strange bed to find Qesem sitting beside him, stroking his forehead. “What happened?” he asked, feeling disoriented.

“You gave us a scare,” Qesem said. “There was so much blood! But you didn’t lose the baby.” She touched his belly gently through the sheet.

The baby. He looked down at his belly, huge and unwieldy as it had been for weeks now… or wait, had it? Was it usual for men to have babies? But Gareth had said he could be a woman if he liked. If she liked. She must have decided to be a woman, and gotten pregnant around the same time as Qesem. What a happy coincidence, although it would undoubtedly be exhausting, taking care of two tiny babies at once.

Something didn’t quite add up. Hadn’t that talk with Gareth just been a couple of days ago? She couldn’t remember.

She shook her head and said, “I’m glad. I’m sorry I gave you such a scare… I don’t remember whatever happened.”

“You screamed and collapsed just as you got back from Gareth’s house,” Qesem said. “What did he say, anyway? I know you came all this way to consult him about something important, but it’s slipped my mind.”

“He said…” Pwalu frowned. That in particular was even harder to remember. Finally, she remembered something, though she wasn’t quite sure it was right. “He said there’s a disease going around that can hurt a baby in the womb without showing symptoms in the mother. He mixed up a batch of medicine for us and the other pregnant women around here.”

“Oh, is that what the jar you brought with you is? It’s over here.”

Some of her recent memories came back a little more. “Yes, that’s it. I had a little spoon in my pocket – that’s to measure the right dose.”

“We had to burn your trousers, they were so bloody. But I set aside what was in your pockets; it’s in this basket.” Qesem got up from the bed and took one of the baskets overhead from its ceiling hook and rummaged through it.

“All right, so how many spoonfuls – how often and for how long?”

“…One spoonful, one time, I think?” Pwalu concentrated, trying to remember. “Yeah, one dose is enough, I’m pretty sure.”

“And you’ve already had yours, of course. I’ll take mine now, and then go distribute it to the other people who haven’t already gone into labor. – No, wait, I should get you something to eat first; you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

“Yes, I suppose I must have already taken it back at Gareth’s house, though I can’t remember. – wait, who’s gone into labor?”

“Tiequ and Lishwelen – Tiequ came to the door and got Fialasem to come to their house with him.”

“Oh. I hope they have healthy babies… I hope we do.”

Qesem bustled around and brought Pwalu a platter of bread and cheese and a tankard of boiled water.

“Stay in bed until Fialasem or I get back, all right? There’s a chamber pot under the bed, you probably shouldn’t walk as far as the privy too soon after that bleeding, Fialasem said.” Qesem kissed her, and taking the jar and the spoon, left the room.

Pwalu felt a little tired, and very confused about some things, but not at all sleepy. After a little while of obediently lying in bed, she began to feel restless. She shifted her legs (there was nothing between them, which felt a bit strange, but she must have had a vagina months ago to get pregnant, right?), rolled over on her side and then onto her back again, and sat up. She felt a little lightheaded, but the feeling passed after she’d been sitting up in bed for a few minutes.

It wasn’t long before she felt she needed to empty her bladder. She pulled off the sheet, finding she was naked from the waist down – that was convenient. Qesem had said something about her trousers being so bloody they’d have to burn them.

She carefully got up, holding one hand on the bedstead as the lightheadedness came back briefly, and squatted to reach under the bed and pull out the chamber pot. She sat down on it and relaxed her muscles to pee. Something about this felt unfamiliar, too, but of course this couldn’t be the first time she’d sat down to pee, if she’d had women’s parts down there for nine months or more. Not being able to remember how and when she changed was concerning, but she didn’t care, she was just glad to be woman enough to have a baby. She wished her breasts would grow, she didn’t want Qesem to have to nurse both their babies, but this was better than she could have hoped for a year ago.

She wiped her crotch with one of the rags beside the bed, unable to get a good look at it due to her belly, and got back into bed. Maybe she was more tired than she thought. She closed her eyes for a long while and wasn’t sure if she’d fallen asleep when Gareth suddenly burst into the room.

“Oh, no, they got you too. I told you to only give the drug to a couple of women at a time. I’ve had so many people popping out their parasites at once it was chancy whether I could kill them all before they recovered from the drug and started looking for new hosts. Qesem must have given it to seven or eight people before the drug took effect on her, I lost count… How did she end up with it?”

“What?” was all Pwalu could say at first. “I’m sorry, that part about not giving it to everyone at once slipped my mind. What was that about parasites?”

“Never mind, it’s got hold of your brain. No sense explaining until you’re recovered.”

“Fialasem said I’d lost a lot of blood, it’s probably why my memories are confused.”

“Part of the reason, maybe… its entry seems to be a lot more traumatic for men than women. Or people with penises, excuse me. Here you go.” Gareth took out another jar of the drug and offered Pwalu a spoonful.

“Oh, then I didn’t take it back at the house?”

“No.” Gareth added something under his breath that Pwalu couldn’t hear. “Go on, take it.”

Pwalu obediently opened her mouth and closed it again after Gareth dumped a spoonful into it. “Now we wait,” Gareth said.

“Wait for what?”

“Never mind, you wouldn’t understand until the drug takes effect. How are you feeling? Sore?”

“No, just tired, and a little lightheaded when I sit it up or stand.”

“I hope after the drug takes effect you can tell me more about what happened… I’ve seen the effects on the men it infested, but wasn’t sure how it worked to begin with, what the entry point was or how the tissue was converted. It can’t be a natural mutation like that book said, somebody must have deliberately engineered it to attack men too, maybe late in the war when things were chaotic and records weren’t being kept as accurately…”

After a few days at Gareth’s house, Pwalu was used to only understanding about half of what he said, but this was worse than usual. She chalked it up to the loss of blood, and was thankful once again that she hadn’t lost the baby. She let his rambling wash over her and thought again about how nice it was to be a woman now, even if much of her body still wasn’t to her liking. Oh! She should pick a woman’s name. Should she add a feminine termination and make it ‘Pwalun’ or ‘Pwalum’ or pick a new name entirely? Such a big decision was one she shouldn’t make without Qesem’s advice, and perhaps other friends’… Maybe Maswen or Seilum would have some good suggestions?

Suddenly she felt her belly muscles contract. “I think I’m going into labor,” she said. “Oh, I wish Fialasem weren’t busy with Tiequ and Lishwelen.”

“They’ve already had their babies,” Gareth said. “Don’t worry. It won’t take as long or be quite as painful as a normal birth, since your vagina doesn’t have to open quite so wide.”

“I should get up and sit on the birthing stool.” As the village midwife, Fialasem must have one somewhere, although maybe she’d taken it with her to Tiequ’s house?

“Yeah, there’s not as much mess as normal births either, but still better not to mess up Fialasem’s bed. Come on.”

Pwalu got up, feeling embarrassed about Gareth seeing her half-naked. But if Fialasem was busy, and Gareth was going to see her through the birth, it was necessary. She held on to Gareth’s arm for support, and followed him to the corner of the room where the low stool sat.

“Here you go.”

“Qesem should be here,” she fretted.

“Qesem ‘had her baby’ at Tiequ’s house, and she’s resting and recovering there. You can see her soon.”

Qesem had had her baby without Pwalu with her? That wasn’t right, Pwalu should have been by her side. But there was no help for it.

Gareth had gotten her onto the birthing stool none too soon. Her water broke within a couple of minutes. The contractions were coming faster and faster. Gareth bent to look at her vagina. “Shouldn’t be long now,” he muttered, and then louder, “You don’t actually have to push, like in a normal birth, but it would help it go faster.”

“It’s time for that already?” Back when Pwalu’s mother had given birth to his little sister, it had taken practically all day. But maybe that was the distortions of childhood memory, and hadn’t Gareth said something about the drug making labor faster and easier?

She pushed and pushed some more, and screamed. It hurt worse than the time she had broken her leg, falling out of a tree. But not for long.

Her head was clearing despite the pain. Memories that had gone fuzzy or blanked out returned. Suddenly some of the things Gareth had been saying made sense, linked up with things he’d said yesterday evening which she’d somehow forgotten until now. Her pain, previously tinged with joy at having a baby, was now compounded by horror.

And then it slid out of her. She looked down and saw a horrifying creature with too many limbs and eyes, pincers like a scorpion’s but much larger, and long limp tendrils trailing out of its back… and then Gareth stomped on it.

“Let’s get you back in bed,” Gareth said, after stomping on it several more times to be sure. “I’m going to go finish distributing the drug – one person at a time. And killing any loose parasites I can find. Come find me when you feel better.”