Uh, hi!

...Hi???

They are in a garden. A very ugly toddler is splashing in a fountain in the garden. The presumably telepathic person has pointed ears and silver hair and several tattoos and a pretty dress.

Wow, there's more than one snake thing, I guess, that's how I got here too.

--Where's here? Where are you from? What are you? Is the child yours? Are they alright?

This is the Howling Mountain. I'm from Angband. I'm an orf. She's mine. She's fine.

Oh good. What's an orf? What's the Howling Mountain? Do you know if my owner can find me here?

An orf is partway between an Elf and an orc. The baby's an orc. The Howling Mountain is a mountain with a nice castle on it, Serik Tanaikon owns it. I don't think your owner can find you here and they'd be pretty dumb to try to get you if they did find you.

Why? What's an Elf? What's an orc?

Elves look like so - A lot like her, really - and orcs look like the baby, except when they are grownups they are bigger. It's usually a bad idea to come here if Serik might not like it, he's very powerful.

Is he an [elf]?

No, he's a human.

How does a human get that powerful?

Magic! Also torturing people, that's important for the magic.

Where I'm from if a human has any appreciable magic the [elves] kill them.

Oh. Well, nobody's going to kill Serik. He's very immortal and he killed a god and stuff.

Okay. So--

You said he tortures people, is he going to torture me? Is he going to torture my baby?

He definitely absolutely won't torture your baby. I dunno about you. He doesn't torture me but he picks up pretty people to add them to the bunch of people who turn into swans for magic reasons and can be tortured for magic.

If my baby's okay that's all that matters. They were going to kill it.

I guess I don't actually know how he is about babies that are not born yet. We could find you Iri and she could get you off the mountain maybe? But you won't be able to talk to anyone, I'm the only person around with osanwë.

I'll figure something out if I have to.

Okay, I'll ask Iri if she can help.

Hey Iri there is another snakemonstered person here! She is pregnant and might wanna be not on the mountain.

...oh. Well. I'm... not sure what to do about that. Ah - does my father know yet?

No.

Well, that's something.

It seemed like maybe it would make sense to ask you first.

Yes, that was well thought of. I'm just not sure whether it's better to ask him to be nice, or try to get her off the mountain before he notices... I think I'll talk to him.

Okay.

Iri's gonna talk to Serik, she tells the newcomer.

Who's Iri?

Serik's daughter. He doesn't torture her either.

Torturing one's own child would be really really bad.

It's not fun for anybody when that happens!

--That sounds like it has context.

My parents had to torture me a lot while I was growing up so I wouldn't turn into an Elf and it sucked.

??? So you wouldn't turn into an Elf? Had to? What???

An evil god made them do it. My birth parents were Elves, but if you torture a pregnant Elf enough their kid comes out all fucked up and then if you torture the kid they stay fucked up and then we're orfs and can have orc kids. Like her. She inclines her head at Kat, who has a little wooden boat toy and is kicking it around the fountain.

I'm glad she's okay.

Orcs hurt all the time without anyone having to torture them at all but Serik fixed it!

Well, that's a point in his favor.

Yes.

Why's he have to torture people to do magic?

Dunno, that's just how it works here. I do magic by singing.

Singing sounds better.

I prefer it!

Will you teach me?

Sure, whaddaya wanna do?

Healing?

Okay! The healing song I know goes like this - And she starts singing.

Gosh pretty!

Lyrendi listens attentively. 

Meanwhile, Serik has been asked to be nice to the unexpected visitor and he doesn't see any especially good reasons not to do that. He spins himself into a breeze and goes looking for his orf.

Singing to the visitor in a garden while Kat plays in the water!

At the end of the song, a breeze ruffles Beka's hair, and then Serik materializes and scoops her up and spins her around and kisses her and puts her down again.

"Eeeeheehee! Hi."

Lyrendi screams and falls over and scrabbles away from him. 

"...I have to admit, I wasn't expecting that."

She is utterly terrified. He looks human, yes, but she knows that face, it's on coins, that's the Emperor's face, and she's a pretty slave girl. Everyone knows what the Emperor does to pretty slave girls. 

"You look like the emperor from her world," Beka diagnoses.

"Well, I'm not. But that sure is a weird coincidence."

He says he's not the emperor from your world and it's a weird coincidence.

...It's a very weird coincidence if it is one, she agrees. She stops trying to scramble away and instead starts trying to get to her feet. If this is the Emperor it's not like running will do any good. 

She says it's a very weird coincidence if it is one.

"What's your Emperor like?"

(Beka osanwë-translates.)

I've never met him personally or anything, I just know that the people who deal with buying and selling slaves sometimes complain about what a drain he is on the pretty girl supply. He apparently keeps needing new ones because he tortures them to death too often. 

"...I admit that sounds like exactly the kind of Emperor I'd be. But I haven't actually ever owned a slave as such."

Why not?

"Well, among other reasons, slavery is illegal in Nathureme. And was in Ansaith and has been at all the points in between. Also, I don't need to buy pretty girls when I can just kidnap them from fancy parties instead."

I don't think the Emperor hurts elf women.

"Maybe if there was a whole different species of conveniently disposable slaves around I wouldn't hurt humans, but here we are. Anyway, I'm not going to hurt you, Iri asked me not to."

Thank you. She wraps her arms around her stomach. Your castle is beautiful. 

"Thanks, I'm very proud of it!"

You're not going to hurt my baby, right?

"...No...?"

Sorry. I've just been so scared. Back home they would have been killed once my owner realized I'd lied about them not being his.

"And why's that?"

Half-elves are really powerful, magically. They want to stamp out all the human magic. They kill anyone who displays significant magic. 

"Makes sense, I guess. Well, I don't have to worry about that because I'm outrageously powerful myself." He scoops up his orf again and nuzzles her cheek affectionately and puts her down.

Giggly orf. He killed a god for me! she reiterates.

You two are very cute together.

Thank you!

Serik beams. He has the best prettiest giggliest orf!!!

She would like to be hugged but it would be very forward to ask so she will not. 

When Serik lets Beka go, she hugs Lyrendi.

(Aww!)

Lyrendi hugs back.

After a moment she starts crying. 

Aww. Pat pat.

—well.

The crying gets more violent. She starts shaking. 

Hug hug hug.

Eventually she cries herself out.

Thank you. Both. I was so scared.

We haven't even done anything! Pat pat.

(Being thanked like that is... weird. But not bad weird? He kind of wants to hug them both, but his instinct is that hugging Lyrendi would not improve the situation, given her reaction to his face earlier.)

You're hugging me and he's not hurting me.

Well, you're welcome.

Hug. And it's just--really good to be safe.

It's nice here! All the dining tables make food if you sit at them and there are hundreds of pretty bedrooms with pretty clothes and there are gardens and stuff. I like it here a whole lot.

Kat finally runs over to see what's going on. "Who's that, Mama?"

"She got put here by a monster same as you and me!" says Beka, translating for the benefit of the audience.

"Hi lady," says Kat.

"Hi! What's your name? Mine's Lyrendi."

"Am Kat," says Kat.

"That's a good name."

"Yes," Kat agrees.

"This is your Mama, hm? She seems like the sort of person who'd be a good Mama."

"Yes, my mama is the best one. She escaped us from the place that is bunnies now."

Bunnies now?

"I'm going to be a mama too, soon," she says, gesturing at her overlarge stomach. 

"Serik turned the place I grew up into a meadow full of bunnies," Beka explains.

Kat pulls up Lyrendi's shirt to see if she has a baby under it.

Lyrendi giggles. "The baby is still inside me. You were inside your mama too, once." At least Lyrendi assumes so.

"Yup. Then you got taken away and I had to steal you back! But now we're okay."

Kat puts Lyrendi's shirt back and nods.

Lyrendi wonders if Serik could turn her stomach transparent so Kat could see the unborn baby, then decides that this would be a weird thing to ask and she probably shouldn't. 

I dunno if his magic could do that, but it probably could! You sure you don't wanna ask?

"I have a little boat," says Kat, displaying her little boat.

"Oh, that's a neat boat!"

...So you are actually reading my mind, not just getting what I send you.

Yeah, you have to learn to keep thoughts private if you wanna do the other thing. I can not listen to you but then it'd be really hard to translate.

It's fine, I just wasn't sure. You don't think Serik would think it was weird if I asked him to make my womb see-through?

Nah. Well, I mean, weird but not bad?

Alright then.

Beka passes on the inquiry.

...Serik laughs. "Sure, why not," he says, and he pulls a little power from the mountain and fiddles with it. Transparency spreads through Lyrendi's flesh like ink through water, pouring into her midsection until the only things still visible there are the child and her bones; and, above and below the transparent part, an unsettlingly ragged cross-section of the neighbouring bits.

Lyrendi grins in delight at the baby. "See, Kat?"

"Wowwwww. It's got a thing on its tummy."

"That's the umbilical cord. It connects the baby to me so I can feed it in the womb."

"It eats through its tummy??"

"Babies do that until they're born!"

"Whaaaaaat. And it's soooooo smallllllll -" She reaches out but transparent doesn't mean insubstantial. Pat pat.

"It is very small!" She looks a little closer. "He's very small. But he's just about big enough to be born."

"He's a he?"

"Yeah. See?" she asks, pointing. 

Kat looks at her mama. Presumably her mama explains, because Kat nods and resumes peering at the small baby who she cannot pat no matter how many times she tries.

Her trying is adorable. 

"He'll be born soon enough. You can pat him for real then."

"How soon???"

"I'm not sure, exactly, but not longer than a few weeks."

"That's a long time."

"I've had this baby inside me for almost nine months. Compared to that, two weeks isn't very long."

"That is so long! Why isn't he bigger yet?"

"At the beginning he was too tiny to see!"

"Whaaaat. But you couldn't see him anyway, you weren't see-through before!"

"Yes but--do you know how babies are made?"

"Kinda."

"What do you know?"

"You need a boy and a girl who are grown up enough."

"That...is true. Well. The boy and the girl do a thing and then the girl is pregnant, and it takes months before the baby is big enough to make even a little bump in her tummy."

"That is so long." Pat pat pat.

"Babies take a long time to make! But they're worth it."

"He's so small. I want to holllllld him."

"Well, you're going to have to wait."

The baby kicks Kat's hand. 

Kat's jaw drops in rapture and she gasps a tiny gasp.

Your daughter is adorable.

Thank you.

"Make him do it again," whispers Kat.

"I can't make him do it. He's too little to understand."

The baby kicks again anyway. 

"EeeeeeEEEEEEE!"

"Isn't that just the best thing?"

"YES. What is his name."

"I was thinking Kaian for a boy..."

"Kaiaaaaaaan. HI KAIAN."

The baby kicks again. 

Kat jumps up and down, grinning toothily.

Lyrendi laughs softly and carefully sits down so that the remarkably ugly but nonetheless extremely adorable small child can have easier access to her belly. 

Kat puts her ear to the transparency, perhaps hoping to be kicked in the head.

Hopefully so, because that happens.

This is all tremendously adorable. Serik hugs his orf.

She can have a little friend!

Giggle.

Lyrame is utterly delighted by Kat but also sort of in the background thinking that more hugs would be nice and even more in the background that it would not be traumatizing for Serik to hug her. 

Beka hugs her again. Hints to Serik by osanwë.

Aww. Sure, he can join this hug.

Lyrendi has a baby in her belly and a small child pressed against it and two people hugging her and she is so so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, wow, that's a pretty good smile.

Lyrendi manages to free her arms enough to hug Beka and Serik back. 

Awwww.

Hey you should know not to touch my hair, it's a sex thing. Kat's is fine, full orcs don't have it.

Oh, thanks. She moves her arm to avoid accidental hair-touching. 

Hug!

Cozy hug.

Eventually Kat gets bored and charges off in a randomly chosen direction.

Your daughter is delightful.

I think so too!

I remember being that young and my mother being pregnant with my little sister, I was so excited.

I was really freaked out when my next youngest sibling was in progress but after I realized that orc kids weren't gonna get tortured like me I was really into them!

Bunnies, you said?

Bunnies.

Good.

Yes.

Hooray for snake things. Extra squeeze for Serik. 

They're so handy!

Awwwwww. He kisses Beka's forehead and smiles at them both.

You have a nice smile. The Emperor never smiles on coins. 

"Probably thinks it's undignified or something. Poor guy."

Oh?

"I am a much happier person, up here on my mountain with my daughter and my swans and my orf, than I would be if I ruled the world."

Stands to reason. She doesn't really get what people get out of having power over others. The only thing she ever wanted out of life was security for her family. And babies. But she's not heartbroken to settle for just one. And Beka seems lovely! And the swans...she has no idea. Well, swans are pretty. Oh, Beka said he tortures them for magic, right, that makes sense. Magic is a kind of power that it makes sense to want; you can protect your loved ones better that way. And he said he would do the same thing as the Emperor so it's probably a sex thing. Sex things vaguely make sense as a motivation for doing things, but mostly in an abstract sense; her handful of experiences with the subject were mostly boring and uncomfortable. 

...aww. His first impulse is to wonder if he could do something about that. Pleasant experiences are nice!

Or maybe she just doesn't like boys! Beka likes boys but has tried the other kind and would not mind helping her out if she wants!

--Lyrendi has no idea what she thinks of all this, although she's pretty sure she likes boys, at least in the abstract. She has no idea about girls. Um. Mark down tentative interest in the idea but not right now.

Okay!

For right now: Ɛ>~hugs~<3

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Hugs!

She is so so happy to be here in this nice safe cozy hug. 

Although eventually she may need to get out of it in order to deal with pregnancy-exacerbated biological functions. 

Through that glass door turn left it's the second door on your right.

Thank you. Getting up is slightly awkward but oh well. She exits stage-slash-glass door left. 

"She seems nice!" Beka comments when she's gone through the door.

"She's pretty cute." Snuggle. "And huggable!"

"And she's nice to Kat."

He nods. Yes, this is also an important quality in anyone who's going to be hanging around his castle.

Beka flops herself backwards across his lap, humming.

Aww! A lapful of pettable orf! Best thing!!!!!!!

And presumably eventually Lyrendi will return.

Lyrendi does return! More hugs?

Sure. Hugs and singing?

Ooh yes good!

What a good cuddlepile this is.

At some point it occurs to her that the singing qualifies as a human doing magic and has to suppress a shiver of fear. She is here and not there and not going to be murdered for breeding purposes. 

Nobody here's gonna kill you for singing magic songs. Breeding purposes?

Human magic is hereditary; part of the point of killing any human who exhibits magic is so that the next generation will have less magic in it.

Oh, I guess that makes sense if you don't want your humans to be magic for some reason.

If humans had more magic they might be able to make [elves] stop enslaving them.

Oh. Orcs couldn't get out from being enslaved like that but most of them don't learn to do any magic anyway, I don't know why.

And now instead of orc slavery there is bunnies.

Yes!

--I wonder if he could do anything for us, too.

"Mm?"

I don't know what your replacing-slavery-with-bunnies criteria are but even if you don't wanna I'm sort of curious if you could.

"Well, nobody in your world hurt my orf, so I'm not all that motivated to try, but I bet I wouldn't have too much trouble."

--I have no idea if you could win a fight with the Emperor; he, too, is supposed to be crazy powerful. And apparently he's sort of you. So.

"I'd rather not fight him at all, if he's as much like me as it sounds, but if he's as much like me as it sounds it shouldn't take me too long to convince him he'd rather not rule the world."

That makes sense.

He ruffles Lyrendi's hair. Because she's cute and ruffleable.

Ee.

It would be nice if she could motivate him to free the rest of the humans but she can't think of any way of talking him into it and trying to manipulate him seems like an obviously bad idea on a wide variety of levels. Maybe she could talk him into rescuing her family, though. 

She wants you to rescue her family but she's being awkward about it.

"Aww." He ruffles Lyrendi's hair. "You can just ask me for things, I won't mind! Sure, I'll rescue your family."

"I mean in my defense if you keep knowing my thoughts as soon as I think them you're gonna know what I want before I ask for it no matter how free I feel to ask for it."

"Eventually somebody'll learn somebody's language and then Beka won't have to keep translating everything." He kisses his orf on the cheek.

Do you want me to stop? Beka asks Lyrendi.

Nah, it's fine.

Okay good. It's convenient!

It is!

It'll also be convenient before your kid can talk!

Ooh.

It helps a ton! I usedta help with my brothers and sisters all the time till they learned to talk.

I was not telepathic but I helped with my little sister. I am very glad to have telepathic aid.

You're welcome.