Chapter Eleven: Father

"Hey, Karol," Yuri said, "pass me your water canteen."

"Why?" Karol asked, unclipping it from his belt.

"Because I'm thirsty."

Karol stopped. "What, are you already finished yours?"

"Yes," Yuri said. The hot sun beat down on him, and he was beginning to regret wearing black to the desert.

Karol unscrewed the cap of his canteen and took a swig. "We're almost back to the Fiertia. You should have rationed your water better."

"Come on, Karol, I'm really thirsty."

Yuri made a grab for Karol's canteen, but Karol jumped out of the way and then stood on his tip-toes, holding the canteen high above his head.

"Karol!" Yuri shouted in exasperation, reaching for the canteen. To his great aggravation, Karol's reach was above his head.

Karol laughed. "Ha! Looks like you're too short, Yuri."

Yuri growled in frustration. He was pretty sure he liked Karol a lot more before his growth spurt. Yuri gave up, leaning forward with his hands resting on his knees, letting his hair hang down around his face. "Karol, please, my mouth is so dry."

"Suck it up, Yuri," Karol said. "I'll give you some if you're about to pass out, but you should have rationed yours better."

Raven reached over and slapped Yuri on the back. "Relax, we're almost at the Fiertia. Look, I can see it on the horizon."

Yuri raised his head a bit and saw the top of the mast sticking out over the sand dunes. He sighed in relief; the Sands of Kogorh really weren't his idea of a good time. But, Karol had insisted because some archaeologists from Ruin's Gate needed a ride to some archaeological site out in the desert. Yuri had accepted the job because he figured all they had to do was fly them out and drop them off, but then the archaeologists had thrown a fit about letting Ba'ul land too close to the site, fearing the force of the giant whale and boat landing would pick up too much sand and cover the excavation. So, they'd been forced to land about a mile away, and then hike out to the site with the archaeologists to protect them from monsters on the way.

"Keep up, Yuri," Karol said, marching ahead.

"Yeah," Raven said. "It's just a short walk. Don't go keeling over yet, Old Man."

Yuri shot him a deadly look, but pushed himself onward. Raven was as aggravatingly unperturbed by the desert as always. He wished Judith were here, but they'd left he behind on the ship. As much as they both wanted her to join in the fun of trekking through the desert and slaying monsters, they also both realized that this wasn't a great idea for someone heavily pregnant. Her due date was only two weeks away. Thinking about this reminded him of another aggravation.

"Dammit, I still haven't picked a name," he said.

Karol looked back and said, "Yeah, well that's because you didn't like my suggestions."

"No," Yuri said. "Just… no."

"I'm tellin' ya," Raven said, "you're missin' a golden opportunity ta name the kid after me!"

"Also no," Yuri said. As much as he was hoping for a boy, part of him wanted it to be a girl just so he wouldn't have to worry about the name.

After a few more minutes of walking, the ship proper came into view. It looked kind of odd to see a ship sitting in the middle of the desert, but Yuri was too busy dwelling on the prospect of shade and a cool glass of water to think too much about it. There was sand in his boots and his shirt was soaked in sweat, and he decided that the next time Karol approached him with a job in the desert he'd have to be conveniently too busy.

"Hey, what's that?" Raven said.

Yuri lifted a hand to shade his eyes against the glaring sun and made out a dark shape streaking toward them.

"Is it a monster?" Karol asked.

As it came closer, Yuri relaxed. "Don't worry. It's just Repede." The relaxation didn't last long, because he's specifically told Repede to wait with Judith just in case and to come get him if something went wrong. If Repede was racing toward them, something must be wrong. "Judy's in trouble," he said, all memories of exhaustion wiped away. He started running, cursing the shifting sand that slowed down his steps.

With Karol and Raven right behind him, he cleared the distance to the ship in record time. He wasted no time in scaling the ladder up to the desk, and looked around for any sign of monsters. The ship was silent and still, but he didn't lower his sword just yet. "Repede, where's Judy?"

Repede barked and ran for the door down to the hold. The wood creaked as Yuri pounded down the stairs. "Judy?!" He found her lying on one of the beds with her eyes closed, taking deep breaths as sweat beaded up on her forehead. Yuri ran to her side. "Are you alright?"

She opened her eyes and looked up at him with a slight smile. "Oh, hello, Yuri. I don't want to alarm you, but I seem to be going into labour."

Karol and Raven had followed Yuri downstairs. Karol stared at her in shock. "What?!"

"You can't," Yuri said. "It's not supposed to be for two more weeks."

"Tell that to-" she cut off and groaned in pain, tensing up as she was hit by another contraction. Yuri looked around in panic, searching for anything he could do to help her. She took a deep breath and said, "Tell that to the baby."

"What do we do?!" Karol said.

"I don't know!" Yuri replied. He looked back at his friends, hoping one of them would know what to do. "Karol, you know about a lot of stuff! Don't you know anything?"

"I was never in a medical guild, Yuri!"

Repede barked, trying to get them to calm down. It didn't work. Panicking wouldn't help, Yuri thought, but he couldn't get himself to stop. They were in the middle of the desert and none of them knew the first thing about childbirth.

"I – I think we need hot water," Karol said.

Before Karol could protest, Yuri snatched his canteen off his belt. The water was definitely warm from sitting out in the sun for so long. "Ok, what do we do with it?" Yuri asked.

"I have no idea!" Karol threw his arms in the air, his voice shrill with panic. "I just know we need it!"

Yuri looked between the canteen and Judith's pained face. "Is she supposed to drink it?"

"What good would that do?" Karol demanded.

"Don't ask me!"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" Raven said, raising his voice above their panicked shouting. "Are ya forgetting we have a flying whale? Let's just hop on over ta Mantaic and find a doctor there."

Yuri stared at him, sense sinking in. "Right. Yeah. Let's go to Mantaic." He doubted they had time to fly all the way to Dahngrest or Zaphias, but Mantaic was reasonable. He didn't know if Judith was able to communicate with Ba'ul and clearly ask him to fly them to Mantaic while she was in so much pain, so he said, "Karol, run upstairs and tell Ba'ul to take us to Mantaic."

"Right!" Karol said, sprinting up the steps.

Yuri turned back to Judith, wishing there was something he could do to help her. He grabbed her hand and forced a smile. "Hey, you can't have this baby yet. I still haven't picked out a name."

"Well, I guess we'd better hope for a girl, then."

The boat lurched as Ba'ul took to the air, and Yuri dragged a chair over. Now that they had a plan and were on their way to a doctor, he let himself relax. There really wasn't anything he could do at this point, so there was no use getting worked up about it.

Karol came running back downstairs. "We're on our way!"

"I noticed," Yuri said. He looked over at Raven, who was still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "Hey, Old Man, you seem awfully calm."

Raven shrugged. "Well, when you've been around the bush as long as I have, things don't bother ya as much."

"What, you have a lot of experience with childbirth?" Judith's hand tightened around his as her face scrunched up in pain again. Yuri looked down at her worriedly, wondering if an Apple Gel could do anything to help. Probably not.

"Not a lot," Raven said. "There was this one girl, though, and boy, lemme tell ya, I was relieved when the kid turned out ta be a redhead."

"Ok," Karol said, not nearly as calm as Yuri or Raven. "So if you've done this before, what should we do?"

Raven stroked his chin. "Not a lot ta do, ta be honest. Best ta just let nature take its course. Although, I know we need ta make sure she's dilatin' or somethin', so maybe she should take her pants off and I'll check."

Yuri gave him an annoyed look. "I don't think that will be necessary."

"Ya know, this really isn't fair," Raven said. "We went on that whole journey together, and in the end, you got a hot girlfriend, Rita got a hot girlfriend, Estelle also got a hot girlfriend, and even Flynn's still got that hot Sodia chick fawnin' over him. What's ol' Raven left with? Karol?" He gestured at him disapprovingly.

"Hey!" Karol said. "Don't bring me into this." He crossed his arms and added, "Besides, I didn't get a 'hot girlfriend' either."

Judith looked over at him. "What about Nan? She was cute."

Karol blushed and stammered, "D-don't bring her up! That was – I was young, ok?"

"Aww, but you were so cute with your little crush."

"Sh-shut up!" Karol said. "You're supposed to be in labour; stop teasing me!"

"I'm not teasing you," Judith said. "I really do think you were cu- Ah!" She winced and wrapped her hands over her stomach. "Yuri, I think I'd feel better if I got up and walked around."

"Are you sure? Are you allowed to do that?"

Judith sat up, one hand rubbing her back. "I don't know. If the pregnancy police show up, you'll have to fight them off for me."

"Heh, ok." He gave her a hand and helped her stand up. "Let's go get some fresh air. We must be nearly in Mantaic by now." He led her up the stairs, and the hot wind hit him in the face the moment he stepped outside. Ba'ul soared over the desert, going faster than usual. He clearly understood that they were in a rush. On deck, Judith kept her hand on her lower back as she paced around, every now and then taking a deep breath.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Yuri asked, feeling rather useless.

"I don't think so," she said.

Yuri frowned, and walked to the bow of the ship to see if Mantaic was in the distance yet. All he saw was more sand. "You weren't supposed to go into labour on this trip, you know," he said. "We were just going to drop off those archaeologists and then zip back to Dahngrest."

"Gee, I'm so sorry," she said, walking over to stand next to him. "I'll try to be more considerate next time."

Yuri shot her a look. "Whoa, what? Next time? We weren't even going to have one kid and now you're talking about 'next time'?"

"I was joking, Yuri."

"Oh. Right."

She groaned a bit. "This is quite annoying."

"How long has this been going on?"

She waited a few seconds for the worst of the contraction to fade and then said, "About an hour or two."

"That long?" Yuri felt guilty, even though obviously there was no way he could have known what was happening back on the ship. "Man, sorry we left you."

"That's ok. Repede took good care of me. The moment he caught scent of you, he took off running."

Yuri smiled a bit. "He's a good dog."

Judith took a few steps away, pacing around the bow of the ship. She reached her arms up, leaned back, and stretched. "You raised him well. I don't know what you're so worried about with a child."

Yuri put his hand on his hip. "Everyone keeps saying that. Dogs and babies are not the same."

"I think everyone has more confidence in you than you have in yourself."

"They're all over-hyping me. I just don't know what to do with a kid that's too young to understand what I'm saying. It's so much easier dealing with Oliver now that he can talk." He sighed and leaned back on the railing. "Do you think we're just fooling ourselves, Judy? Can you honestly say either of us are parent material?"

"It's a bit late to call it off." She smiled a bit. "It's alright to be scared."

"I'm not-"

"I think all new parents are scared. It's a pretty large change."

"I feel like…" He hesitated, not sure exactly how to put his feelings into words. He typically avoided doing so, because there wasn't a point in weighing down his friends with his personal issues, but this involved Judith too. "For the past nine years, you and I have been… well, partners."

Calling each other 'girlfriend and boyfriend' always sounded rather juvenile to Yuri. Besides, using those words seemed weird because he and Judith had never really talked about exactly what they were. They'd taken off with Ba'ul doing guild missions together, and somewhere along the line they'd started making out to celebrate a successful mission. They'd never bothered to sit down and talk about exactly what they were, they just knew that what they had together worked, and there was a shared understanding that the two of them were a 'thing', even if they weren't sure what to call that thing.

"If we have a kid, then suddenly we're not just partners, we're a family." He paused again. Judy was always telling him not to be so taciturn with his emotions. He didn't really buy into the idea that telling other people your problems could make them better, but since this was about her, too, she deserved to know how he felt. Besides, he'd already started, so he'd better just grit his teeth and get the rest of this out. He let out a deep breath. "And being part of a family is a kind of overwhelming idea because… well, I've never been in one before."

"Oh, Yuri," Judith said, walking over to him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He held him tight and rested her head against this neck. "Don't be silly. You're already in a family. What do you call Flynn, Estelle, Rita, Karol, and Raven?"

"Usually I call them friends."

"It's deeper than that, and you know it."

Rather than answering her, he changed the topic. He reached his arm up to rub her shoulders. "Hey, aren't I supposed to be the one comforting you?"

"If so, you're certainly not doing a very good job of it. I hope this isn't an indication of second-rate parenting I should be watching out for – oof." Her grip around him tightened, reminding Yuri just how strong she actually was.

He pried her arms off before she crushed him. "You alright?"

"No," she said with a grimace. "This isn't pleasant at all." She stepped away from him to resume pacing around the bow. The walking seemed to help. "Anyway, are you sure this anxiety isn't just your midlife crisis now that you're thirty?"

Yuri was a bit taken aback. "I'm not having a midlife crisis!"

"It's understandable. You're having a child, entering a new stage of life, the days of your youth are officially behind you…"

Yuri scowled. "You don't have to say it like that."

She stretched again and added, "I don't think Ba'ul can tolerate carrying anything much heavier from the Fiertia, so I wouldn't look into getting a bigger or faster ship. If you want to paint it bright red, though, I think we could manage."

Yuri decided not to answer, which would only provoke further teasing. Ordinarily he'd tease her right back, but it felt like a low blow to do so while she was in labour. He looked over his shoulder at the sand racing by below them, and then his eyes lit up. "Hey, look! Mantaic is up ahead!"

"Oh, goody," Judith said, walking over and leaned over the railing to see. "I certainly hope they have painkillers."

They landed outside Mantaic ten minutes later, and wasted no time rushing off the ship to find a doctor. Luckily the town was pretty small, so it didn't take long to find one. Yuri would have preferred a more well-staffed hospital like the one in Dahngrest or Zaphias, but this would have to do. There was one doctor, one nurse, and one bed. The small office, with stone walls and sand dragged in on the wooden floor, had only two rooms, and Yuri, Karol, and Raven had been relegated to the front waiting area. Yuri had wanted to stay and help, but the doctor insisted that the best thing he could do was stay out of the way.

That had been five hours ago. Yuri was pretty sure he'd counted every grain of sand on the floor by now. There wasn't anything to do, but he knew that the moment he left, something would happen. He stretched his legs out and rested his arms behind his head, with Repede napping by his feet.

"Is it supposed to take this long?" Karol asked, resting his cheek on his fist.

"Yep," Raven said. "Ya know, if you had to sit through childbirth first and then get to the sex, humans would have gone extinct ages ago."

"I don't get how it works, either," Karol said.

Yuri looked over in concern. "Karol, please don't tell me no one ever told you where babies come from."

"N-no, I know that!" he said quickly. "But, I only learned how the baby… you know, gets in there. How does it come out? I mean…" He glanced nervously to the door and lowered his voice a bit. "Baby heads are…" He held his hands up a few inches apart. "But girl parts are… um… not." He brought his hands much closer together. "So, how the heck does the baby come out?"

Yuri paused to consider this. It wasn't a topic he'd ever pondered before. His own sex education had just been things he picked up along the way, because certainly no one had ever sat him down and explained how it all worked, so he supposed there were a lot of subjects he wasn't fully informed on. Most of those subjects involved lady bits. "Um… I think it stretches."

"That much?"

"I guess so." He looked to Raven. "Hey, Old Man, have any wisdom you care to share on this matter?"

"What? Me? Uh… something about dilating."

Dilating was what happened when your pupils expanded. Yuri had a mental image of the round pupil in his eye stretching and expanding to twice its original size, and then applied that concept to Judith and her lady parts. His face constricted in horror.

Karol had reached the same mental image as Yuri and said, "It can do that?" He looked even more horrified than Yuri felt.

"It must," Raven said. "How else do ya fit the head through? I heard the doc say somethin' about ten centimetres."

Yuri looked to Raven, aghast. "Does it go back to normal afterward?" This was something he had not even considered. How could they… if it was ten centimetres wide…how was that even possible?

"I think so," Raven said, scratching his chin.

Karol looked sceptical. "How can your body possibly expand by ten centimetres and then pop back to normal?"

"But what about the ears?" Yuri said. "If ten centimetres is normal for humans… do Krityan babies have big ears that stick out and require even more room?" He wasn't even sure if their baby was going to have human ears or Krityan ears, but now that he thought about it, he decided he didn't want to know.

"Oh, I remember somethin'," Raven said, leaning forward. "The doc has got ta cut the bellybutton off or somethin' like that."

"What?!" Karol said.

Yuri was confused, because he knew that he definitely still had a bellybutton, and besides, how could you cut off an indent? He didn't think he really wanted to know. Despite himself, he asked, "What do belly buttons have to do with anything?"

"Well, the baby is attached ta the mom through a cord on their bellies. Then when the baby comes out, the cord is still there. So, ya gotta snip it off."

Yuri's hand instinctively went to his stomach. "That's what bellybuttons are?!" He'd never really thought about why people had bellybuttons. They just did, and that was that. He suddenly longed to go back to those days of blissful ignorance.

"Babies are attached?" Karol said.

"They're not just floatin' around in there, that's for sure," Raven said.

"Oh… I kind of just pictured babies snuggled up in a warm dark space and then after nine months they somehow come out and everything is happy."

Raven laughed. "No way! When they come out, they're usually pretty messy."

"Messy with what?" Karol asked.

"Uh…" Raven faltered. "I'm not sure. Fluids of some kind."

Yuri shuddered. The vague suggestion of unnameable 'fluids' was a bit disturbing. "Why would anyone do this voluntarily?!"

Raven patted Yuri on the back. "And that is why evolution put this part after the fun part."

"Hey, Yuri," Karol said, desperate to change the topic, "have you picked a name yet?"

"Dammit, no." He was quickly running out of time. He looked around the room, searching for inspiration. "…Vase Lowell."

"Raven Lowell, call him Raven Lowell!" Raven said.

"No," Yuri said.

"Raven sounds like a girl's name," Karol said.

Raven gave him a dirty look. "And 'Karol' doesn't?"

"Why don't you just name him after someone you know?" Karol suggested, much happier now that they weren't talking about childbirth. "Like, a good friend or something."

Yuri considered this. "Flynn Lowell. …No, that just sounds weird." He glanced at the door, wondering how much longer he had. They'd been here for over five hours, and that wasn't counting the time spent racing toward Mantaic or the hour Judith had spent before they got back. He had to think. What were good names? Names, names… Joseph. Ted. William. Frank. No, these were all terrible. What about –

A baby cried. Yuri froze, his eyes glued to the door. Was that…? Raven and Karol stared at the sound in rapt attention as well.

The door opened and the nurse looked between them. "Which of you is the father?"

Raven and Karol turned their heads to look at Yuri, who slowly stood up. "I am."

The nurse smiled. "You can come in now. Your wife is perfectly healthy."

"She's not my… never mind." That really didn't matter right now. He hurried past her and into the small room, where Judith lay in bed with a bundle of blankets. Yuri stood hesitantly by the bed, not sure what to do or say.

Judith looked up at him with a smile. "I know you were hoping for a boy, and have some good news for you," she said.

Shit, shit, he still didn't have a name. Think of something, quick! Bed Lowell? Yuri, Jr.?

"You're off the hook," Judith said, holding the bundle up to him. "Her name is Joanna."

Yuri gingerly took the tiny baby in his arms, feeling a bit more confident now after practicing with Oliver. He stared down at her, not sure what to say. The first thing he noticed was that her ears were pointy like Judith's. He briefly wondered what this meant for the ten centimetres Raven had mentioned, and then quickly decided he didn't want to know. Her hair was dark, almost as dark as his, but it was so thin and straggly right now he couldn't tell if it was more purplish or bluish. For a second he wondered if someone had come through and given her pigtails, but then realized it was actually tiny antenna like Judith's.

"Looks like she's Krityan," Yuri said.

"Not entirely," Judith said. "Normal Krityan babies have much longer antenna than that, and her eyes are much greyer than usual."

"Oh, so we've got a hybrid freak on our hands, huh?" He sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I know you wanted a boy," Judith said. "I hope you aren't too disappointed."

Yuri looked down at the girl. It was so bizarre to think about the fact that this was his daughter. He had a daughter. That was surreal. He had been hoping for a son, but now that he held her, he couldn't imagine ever wanting anyone else. "I'm just relieved I don't have to worry a name. Joanna Lowell. That sounds nice. How'd you pick it?"

Judith shrugged. "I just liked the name."

"It's a bit of a mouthful, don't you think?"

Judith frowned. "It's only three syllables."

"Yeah, ok," Yuri said. He looked down at her and said, "What do you think, Jo? Bit long, huh?"

She said nothing, just stared up at him. Yuri sighed. Conversations with babies were impossible.

"So, how do you feel?" Yuri asked, looking to Judith.

"I'm fine," she said. "As soon as she popped out, all the pain stopped. The doctor says if we don't want to stick around in Mantaic we can head back to Dahngrest, provided I stay in bed for the trip and we both see a doctor once we get there."

"Good." Yuri wasn't thrilled about the idea of hanging around Mantaic for a week.

The door burst open, and Raven, Karol, and Repede spilled in. "What's going on?" Karol said. "Is everything ok?"

"Everything is fine, Karol," Yuri said.

"Can we see him?" Raven asked, approaching the bed.

"Her," Yuri corrected as Repede walked up and sniffed her. "Her name is Jo."

"It's Joanna," Judith said.

Yuri looked to Karol and said, "It's Jo."

Judith sighed. "If you insist. The birth certificate is going to say Joanna, though, because 'Jo' isn't a name."

Repede gently licked the side of her face, and her tiny clumsy hands grabbed at his nose. Repede sat still and let her, and then looked up at Yuri and barked slightly. He was letting Yuri know that he understand that this was his master's human, and therefor he was going to look after her, too. Yuri smiled and said, "Thanks, Repede."

Karol leaned over Repede to get a better look at her. He reached out and gently poked her ear. "She's so cute, Yuri! Look, she has little Krityan ears."

In a low voice, Raven mumbled to him, "Remember what I just told you about fluids?"

Karol froze, his face going white, and then he quickly pulled his hand away. He'd play with the baby later, when she hadn't so recently been covered in 'fluids'.

"What was that?" Judith asked.

Raven grinned innocently at her. "Nothin', Judy, darlin'."

Yuri gave Jo back to Judith. "I'll go clear some final things up with the doctor and then we can get out of here."