I was going to say something funny here, but my brain went 'whatever'. Here's the next chapter.

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When the other clan finally leaves, Ji'kra summons me and tells me to bring Alex. Upon our arrival, Ji'kra asks where Alex has hidden the relic. The other clan couldn't find it, though they spent five days looking for it.

Alex smiles, the secret shining in her eyes. "It's hidden in plain sight."

Before either of us can ask her more, she strides into the kitchen and comes back with a broom. She sweeps to show the authenticity, then flips the broom upside down and strips the ends off to reveal the point of the religious spear. It's shaft had acted as a broomstick, and Alex had used it to sweep the floors right in front of the guests and they hadn't even recognized it.

Alex presents the spear to Ji'kra with a low bow. He takes it gently, reverently.

"You have done well Alex. You don't know the extent of what this means to us. Tell me, how did you manage to steal it?"

"I snuck in through a hole in the wall. It was a tight fit – I think I left several layers of skin along the edges – but I got through all the same. During the day I hid or if I got the chance I'd sneak into an empty house,"

She looks over her shoulder at me and says, "I need to show you some of the jewelry I stole. Some of them are really pretty."

Ji'kra looks at me incredulously and I shrug. "She likes shiny things."

"Anyway, I'd wait until night before I started moving closer to the compound. It took two whole days to memorize the guard routes. When I snuck inside, it took another full day to memorize the layout. You wouldn't believe some of the places I crammed myself when someone startled me. The vase was a horrendously close call."

"The vase? You fit yourself into a vase?"

"Wasn't even a proper vase either. It was one of those squiggly things. I felt like a zigzag."

Ji'kra exchanges a look with me.

"Moving on, I found the room the relic was in and jammed myself between the joint of two rafters to watch the clan leader. Sure enough, after the house quieted down, he pulled a rug back, unlocked a chest buried in his floor, and just stared at it. After several minutes, he locked the chest, put the rug back, and climbed into his bed where he fell asleep.

"I shimmied down the rafter and dropped to the floor and snuck over to his bed and searched his pockets for the key. Oh, found this on him too. Thought you might like it."

She plucks a ring from the pocket of her dress and tosses it to Ji'kra. He catches it and looks at it in shock. "This is my sire's ring. I thought I had lost it."

He slides the ring on his finger before gesturing to Alex to continue.

"He nearly caught me when I slipped the key from his pocket, but I slid under the bed and lifted myself up into the frame before he came to enough to catch me. He did look under the bed, but he didn't see me. After he lay back down I waited a while just to be sure before I pulled the rug back and unlocked the chest. I took the spear, locked the chest back, and replaced the rug.

"I slipped out of the compound and made my way back out of the village. Once outside the walls, I disguised it as a broom and headed home."

Ji'kra nods and dismisses us.

At the house, I ask Alex about the jewelry she stole. She goes into her room and comes back with a leather bag that's as big as her torso. She clears the kitchen table and tilts the bag over onto it, spilling rings, necklaces, and bracelets all over the table.

I am stunned. Just one of these could be sold for a substantial sum. Alex picks through them with deft fingers.

"Of course, I'll pick out what I want, then the rest you can sell. You won't have to go off world for a while."

While saying this she picks up a necklace that has a garnet the size of her fist set into it.

"My birthstone. Couldn't resist." She explains.

I let her pick out her choices and she hides them in various places about the house, but the garnet she ties around her neck.

I gather up the rest and put them back into the leather pouch and stuff them away in a locked chest in my trophy room. I will go to market tomorrow.

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I am thrilled. Again. Alex has conceived. This time I hardly let her out of my sight. After four months of barely leaving the house, Ji'kra has demanded I make myself useful. He sets me to training the unblooded; close enough to the house where I could get back in ten minutes easily.

Every day I go home for lunch and stare in wonder at her swelling belly. Every night I gently trail my mandibles over the soft flesh of her abdomen, purring in contentment. As the months wear on and her stomach grows, I rub her back and her feet. Sometimes I can't resist tickling her feet. I have to brace myself for the kick that inevitable follows, but seeing her strangled face when I pin her foot and rake my claws over her arch is too humorous to pass up.

The first time I felt the kick, I couldn't believe it happened. Alex had laughed and said it was normal, that the babe had been kicking her all day. It was an odd feeling; I have felt xenomorph young twist in their host in a similar manner. I do not tell this to Alex. She will fret.

Several times I have found myself flying across the room when she trips. I will not let her fall, but she has become quite the klutz and it tests my reflexes. Once I had even demanded that she remain in bed and let me cook, but she countered my male superiority with her female logic – to which I bowed – and she explained that getting her little bit of exercise is good for the baby, that it keeps her muscles from atrophying so they'll be strong for labor.

I supervise her carefully.

This morning I found a spot of blood in the furs. I point it out to Alex. She looks at it with little worry.

"Mucous plug. Means I'm dilating. Baby could be here in a few days or a couple of weeks. Better go tell Er'ha to be ready."

I let Er'ha know that we are close and ask her to prepare. She brings clean rags and buckets of water over to the house to be ready.

Then I wait. And I wait. My skin prickles I'm so nervous. I have never had a child before. How will I know what to do? I don't even know the actual process of birth. Alex tells me to be ready for a long night; this is her first baby and she'll most likely be in labor for hours on end.

I pace, and I huff, and I growl, and I want to pull my dreadlocks out.

Three days later, I am out in the yard, cursing and slashing at a bush that refuses to bow to its master.

"Kri'za!"

Alex's voice borders on panic. I drop the shears and fly into the house, adrenaline pouring through me as I prepare to fight off an intruder. But I find Alex alone in the kitchen, eyes wide and standing in a puddle of fluid that smells odd.

"It's time."

Those two words send me into a panicked frenzy. I rush from the house and run through the streets of the village as if being chased. I skid, trying to stop in front of Er'ha's stall, but end up sprawling into a hunter's stall. He snarls angrily but I ignore him and rush to Er'ha.

I don't know how she managed to understand me through all the disjointed words I said, but she closed up her shop and grabbed her things and walks calmly down to my house. I tug on my dreadlocks and scratch my scalp in frustration. Doesn't she know that we need to get there now?

Apparently she knows more than me. When we reach the house, Alex is walking around the kitchen table, breathing deeply in through her nose and out through her mouth. Er'ha nods with approval. Alex thanks Er'ha graciously for her help before resuming her pacing around the kitchen.

She pats my arm as she passes me. "The walking helps until the contractions get closer."

I don't know how long it is before Alex announces that she's ready, and she goes to the bedroom and lays down, knees up and legs apart.

"Let him stay. He comforts me."

Er'ha gives me strict orders not to do anything stupid before she settles between Alex's knees and stares. I think that is odd, but Alex is not perturbed. I sit down behind her and let her lean on me.

Her hands fist into the netting on my thighs. I put one hand on her shoulder and use the other to run through her hair.

Alex begins whimpering in pain. Er'ha announces that Alex is now fully dilated, and orders her to push. Alex follows her directions, and after several hours, Er'ha announces that the baby has crowned.

"What is crowned?" I ask.

"When the baby's head has come out and not gone back in." Er'ha answers and gets her rags and water ready. Alex had put the water near the fire pit while I was rushing to the market, so the water is warm now.

Another hour passes before I hear a smack and the sharp intake of breath and a loud, piercing cry. Er'ha goes about cleaning the babe and cuts the cord. She wraps the babe in a rag and hands it to Alex.

"It is a girl."

It is human, as I knew it would be; despite being weaker, for some reason the human blood is always dominant over the Yautja.

Alex nuzzles the babe and murmurs for a moment, before leaning back into me, exhausted.

I stare in wonder at the chubby face of my new daughter.

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Longer than normal, I know, but I skipped PE to write this chapter. Hope you like it.