>>5754292You spend the next few minutes assuring the Serpent Queen of the Great One’s desire to join in Bloodrise’s society, and of the control—a rapport really, but you know what word and what framing will bring your cold-hearted mate more comfort—that you have over them. She still seems unconvinced, such that you hesitate to bring up her father, the (apparently deceased) Chaplain of the northern forward base. It is at least easier to lie to this Beloved Oen than to Ekaterine, for a Reptilian relationship has the coldly-comforting certainty of MUTUAL deceit and manipulation.
“You are looking skinnier yourself,” you note wryly, changing the subject as you rest a hand upon her midsection. “You have laid our egg, then?”
The Once-Novice stops mid-insult as you pull her close and trail claws down her flat abdomen, drawing a small shiver from her despite—alas—surely not being in heat so soon after laying an egg. She averts her gaze, but allows you to hold her without protest, and her long, thick tail even seems to find yours instinctively—a subconscious admission that she missed you, a you missed her.
“You will wish to see it, no doubt,” the Serpent Queen suggests. “You are soft of heart and soft of head like that.”
“I am,” you happily agree. “Show me our child.”
You follow your mate to a chamber within the ever widening complex which was once the Bloodrise Kobolds’ warren, but increasingly resembles a dwarven mountain-hold, for its primary architects. The complex becomes rougher as you turn a corner, more utilitarian and cramped as you enter an area more uniquely ‘kobold’, and it is here than the rookery of the Reptilian races—Master and kobold-servant—can be found. To your surprise, she leads you past and BEYOND the clutches of small, ovoid eggs attended by dozens of kobold females, though you see larger eggs of the Master race among them.
“You left me pregnant with a single spawn, oh ‘Prince of Love’,” the Serpent Queen notes, when questioned. “You expect me to leave my only claim to lasting legitimacy among the unsorted eggs of the rabble, when I have no idea when or IF you will return?”
Indeed, you find the egg—not very different from any other tall, white egg of the Master Race—alone, attended by nearly as many kobolds as the rest of the mountain kingdom’s brood COMBINED—and by Serpent Priestesses who you take for ‘Mother’s Daughters’, the priestesses of the Lady of the Rookery and Mother of Dragons. You approach the egg under their watchful, curious eyes.
