Mpreg Central

"You alright over there?" Cormac asked.

"I'm fine! Just a hard kick is all!" He called. As he started collecting one of the required plants from a tree, Astien began thinking. Since he didn't know when he would be due to give birth, what was he going to say when Cormac inevitably noticed that a man who seemed about a month or two from giving birth, failed to give birth? He could lie and say it was a baby from a longer lived species. An imp, maybe. That was a feasible thought, but imps tended to be monogamous, and rarely left their partners over trivial things like an offspring's parentage. He had already said the father had left him, so saying it was an imp was out of the question. He sighed, and decides to turn his mind back to the task at hand.

"Alright," Cormac said before returning to his work.

Astien quickly finished his own work harvesting from the trees, but Cormac had yet to finish. He went over and tried to help as best he could, but he wasn't able to do much. So he sat on a log nearby and pulled out a small notebook and pen from his bag. Patting his belly, he began to write some things down. "Cormac," he called, "I have you got any ideas for baby names?"

Cormac raised an eyebrow. "Not really. Mum just named me after my grandfather or somethin'."

"Oh come on. You have to be able to think of something! Surely you've known people with names besides yours."

Cormac thought for a moment. "Well there was Elias, Tucker, Lily, Geoffrey, Lucia..."

"Hmmm... Elias..." Astien paused as he scribble the name onto the list. He winced and his baby delivered another sharp kick. "Calm down in there, little one. Shhhh." Astien started humming a lullaby as he rubbed his belly tenderly, hoping to calm his baby at least a little bit. "You're lucky, Cormac. You don't have to deal with constant kicking, swollen ankles, ceaseless hunger, odd cravings..." And being outrageously horny, he thought to himself.

"I don't plan to put anybody through it, either," Cormac said.

Astien chuckled and patted his belly. "Well it can be annoying, but I never said it was bad." He looked down at his stomach, moving as his child moved within him, and smiled warmly. "I wouldn't give this up for the world."




(Farewell, friends, for it is time for sleepies. Once again, the prodigal son shall return after work. )

Cormac shrugged. "Having kids never really interested me. I prefer to travel, I guess. Bein' stuck somewhere for years on end doesn't suit me."

"Safe to say that that book was not what any of us expected." Darol is still blushing. "And how the hell did it get mixed in with the clothes? Maybe I'Karis put it there, as it was already there when I saw it."

"Well, I don't plan to stop traveling just because I have a child." He shrugged. "Obviously, I'll have to stay home for a little while once I've given birth, but after a few months, I plan on returning to work that will have me traveling."

Astien turned to Darol and grinned. "Still caught up in that, huh? I very much doubt I'Karis put the book there. If he wanted to cause mischief, he would do something much, much worse. Besides, I'm certain he has better things to do besides follow us around just to put an embarrassing book somewhere we'd find it."

Cormac shrugged and went back to his work. "Maybe I just haven't met the right person."

"I certainly didn't put it there." Darol blushes. "Page had already had the corner folded, which I didn't do."

"Don't worry, Cormac. I'm certain you'll meet your true love someday. I can only hope I find mine, heh." Astien closed his eyes for a brief moment, slowly rrubbimg his tummy. "I hope I'll be a good parent."

"I'm sure you'll be fine. I was raised in a brothel and I turned out alright."

"I hope... Well I guess I hope for a lot of things. For now, though, lets try to finish up here. We need to get to Riverside before he leaves. Otherwise, I'll have to find someone else to tell me about male pregnancies. And I'm drawing a blank."

"I don't have much left to do," Cormac stated. "I should be done soon enough."

"Ah, good, good. Left me know when you're done. We can set out after lunch. The ferry landing shouldn't be too far, I hope. And I'd like to get there soon. I'm afraid I'm not sure of it's schedule. Who knows when the next one will come."