It had been a month. No sightings of Risky, her Tinkerbats, a ship, or even a hint to her presence. Security around Scuttle Town became a bit lax as the people generally felt safer now. Sky and a few others staid on watch, not exactly feeling they could trust the word of a pirate who attacked their land twice. But for the rest, life went on as normal. Risky Boots had been mostly forgotten by the general populace.

Shantae took things easy. Morning sickness had started to set in big time, and with that came the constant trips to the bathroom to relive herself. Doing menial chores felt like she just finished two long adventures back-to-back without as much as a short break. Mimic got a lot of vanilla ice cream; not to perpetuate the common notion that all women like ice cream, but to keep Shantae something easy to eat, and to make sure her throat would burn after a bout in the bathroom in the morning. Honestly, she didn't want to be useless and hang around the lighthouse all day doing nothing…but the baby Nina was telling her: "No, you get to sit down and watch reruns of Nurse Betty."

Not to say Nurse Betty was a bad show; a compelling drama about the life of a war-torn nurse trying to adapt to normal life after a long ten-years war. But Shantae didn't want to spend all day going through the different arcs of the show, she wanted to do something useful despite her current situation.

Today, Rottytops had come over to visit. She carried with her a bouquet of nice flowers (As opposed to the usual array of dead and wilted flora) and a box of chocolates (Which weren't stolen). The former were for Shantae but the chocolates…

"For Sky." Rottytops admitted before kissing the box.

"You're interested in her?" Shantae asked with amazement.

"Seeing your belly get bigger with a baby…" Rottytops stopped mid-sentence. "Big belly baby. Heh." She continued after a short chuckle at her alteration joke. "…well, I'm interested in getting my own hot babe to have a baby with." Before Shantae could ask the first and obvious questions, Rottytops filled it in with, "There's a way. Trust me. Sky is going to carry a living baby…with slight zombie characteristics. At the most, a necromancer at birth."

"You do realize I'm not doing this for fun?" Shantae reminded with a distinctive glare to her undead friend and a finger pointing to her belly, which started to push out from her usual outfit.

"Can't help but feel a…unusual feeling." Rottytops admitted, sitting down and breaking open the box to taste one chocolate. "A weird thing…in my gut. If I still have one. Guess I can borrow one for a bit." She shrugged and went back to the last subject. "Ya know, it's the kind where you feel the need to do something different. Maybe my horses are looking for a place to settle down." She sighed as she popped another chocolate into her mouth. If she didn't have a gut, does that mean the chewed-up chocolate just settle in her lower regions until it falls out? "And I believe Sky's parents wouldn't mind all too much…they do want their daughter to marry and have a child of her own…I don't think they care too much about the source. Besides, I'm a big hero and everything…"

"Rottytops." Shantae sickeningly choked. Rottytops wisely decided to keep quiet. "More power to you." Shantae got out before hopping up and hitting the bathroom for another episode of dry-heaving on the toilet bowl. She could hear Rottytops taking her leave. Well, her breath did smell like barf, and Rottytops could still smell things. Man, she would kill those flowers if she breathed out. Risky must be keeping track until the baby's birth and laughing her ass off knowing Shantae's current conditions.

Shantae's trip didn't last too long thankfully. And Bolo did mention getting some medicine, so maybe she would get over this soon. She once more looked down to her stomach and took great notice of the slight curve. She took a series of deep breaths as a wave of storming emotions washed over her. This was happening. She would give birth to a living being in seven to eight months.

Hell, if she was going through these pains, she deserved to keep the baby.