Chapter 11: Baby Faeries

~~ October - Week 40 & Tychy Week 5 ~~

The worried family had all end up crashing out.

They were woken by Bellna the next morning. Bleary-eyed, Sean simply said, “Sparky?”

Bellna happily informed them that Sparky was well, and so were her daughters. Ross was stunned. They had not suspected that she was having twins. She was bigger than they had expected, but he still hadn’t thought of twins.

He had two daughters. He was a very happy daddy. Bellna took them back to the cavern Aronha lived in. Ross flew straight to his love. Sparky was feeding one of his daughters. “Aren’t they beautiful, my love?” Sparky said. She looked well, and Ross was greatly relieved.

She indicated the little bundles beside her. Ross knelt down beside her. Suddenly he realised there were two bundles and she was holding the third.

Ross’s eyes grew large as they flicked between the three little girls. “Oh, my heavens,” he said. “Three! But faeries can’t have three babies.”

Cia and Torcán were also amazed. Sean looked at his tiny granddaughters. “I will admit three is getting excessive, but triplets are not that uncommon for humans.”

Ross looked at him. “It is extremely rare for a faerie woman to survive such a birth on Utopia. Often, she loses all the children as well. Especial as it was her first-time birthing. For Sparky to do so is a miracle.”

Ross got to his feet and bowed at the Dragon Queen, “I know not what you did your Magnificent, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart for my daughters and most importantly, my Queen and love.”

Aronha bowed her head at Ross. ‘You did well Lee to bring her with you. I believe the lower gravity on your ship and with Harmony also being lighter than Utopia helped. So, she was able to carry the children to term.’

Unfortunately, faeries also require extra assistance as the babies tend to try to be born at the same time. They often stop each other from exiting the womb. With twins, the strongest will typically push the weaker away, and they usually both survive.’

However, three tend to get in a muddle and can-do damage to the mother and themselves. I had to stop the other two from interfering with the birth of the first.’

‘It is a long time since I assisted in such a birth, but it was a pleasure doing it for your family Lord Lee. She is a good strong faerie, and her daughters will be important to you in the future.’

Lee bowed at Aronha and explained what she had told her about the birthing of the girls to the others. She kept the last bit to herself. Ross was just amazed to have so many kids and still have Sparky too.

“Aronha, will she be able to feed all of them?” he asked. He was worried about Sparky’s future health.

‘No, you will have to find a substitute source of milk,’ Aronha told Lee. Lee told Ross they would have to help her. Then she disappeared. She was back a few minutes later and handed a small glass tube to Sparky.

“Sparky, I need you to express a small amount of milk into this tube for me,” Lee told her. Cia helped her, and they got a few millimetres of milk into the tube.

Lee disappeared again.

Tammy was surprised when Lee appeared in her lab.

“Lee, where did you come from?” she asked.

Lee ignored the question. “I have an urgent problem. Sparky has had triplets, and she doesn’t have enough milk. I have some of her milk in this tube, can you analyse it and tell me what we can do to make a substitute for it?” she asked.

Tammy took the test tube from Lee, and as she did, she touched Lee. Lee looked at her, stepped forward and touched her tummy. She grinned at her and Tammy blanched. She remembered her doing this to Debora.

“No!” she said in surprise.

“Do you want to know its sex?” Lee asked, still grinning.

Tammy was in shock. She looked at the little tube of milk. “Shit I will probably need a substitute too, women in my family are notorious for not having enough milk,” she said worriedly now about her own precious unexpected child.

“Well, Dave and Ellen said that Sparky was for all intent a small human, so her milk will probably be just as good for your ... Do you want to know?”

Tammy nodded, touching her tummy herself.

Lee smiled at her, “Your son should also thrive on the same substitute.”

Tammy grinned at her. She was sure a certain Burgis guy would be delighted with this news. She took the test tube over to one of her machines and using a dropper placed a couple of drops in four different slots and started the machine.

She bought up a program on her computer. And they waited for the results. When they appeared, she ran the program that compared it to known components to find a match. The result came back quickly.

“Camla milk? It’s a bloody good match. Hmm, all I have to do is add a couple of things. I can make them up in the replicator, and I’ll do a couple of experiments and get the right mix. Can you give me about an hour or two?” she said to Lee.

“Tammy you are awesome I’ll be back in a couple of hours okay?” Lee said.

“I’ll do my best,” Tammy said.

Bray said as he walked in, “Hey Lee, what are you doing here?”

“We have a breast milk problem, Sparky had triplets, and we need to find a substitute.”

“Oh, that’s easy, add a small egg yolk to about two cups of Camla milk. My Gran and mum sold it to the faeries all the time. It’s not exactly the same, but I’ve seen the faeries that have grown up on it, and they were perfectly healthy.”

“Oh, what about baby bottles to put it in?” Lee suddenly said, thinking of this problem.

“No problem I’ll be back in a minute,” he said. Bray walked out.

Tammy brought up the bio for the eggs their hens laid. She imposed it over the camla milk.

“Damn he his right, it’s probably got a little more protein, but I have to agree with him I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. If she alternates the feeds, they should pick up enough of anything missing from the substitute and they would be no worse off for it.”

Bray came back about ten minutes later and handed Lee a box. In it were a dozen tiny bottles, as many teats to fit the bottles, two bottlebrushes and a container of milk. He then grabbed a couple of syringes from one of Tammy’s draws and tossed them into the box.

He explained that his mother had given him a small supply of bottles since she knew there were faeries where he was going. He had gotten Ian to scan them for the replicator, so if they needed more, they were easy to get.

“The milk is fresh and should last a couple of days. We should start taking the animals down tomorrow, so I can make it fresh every morning for Sparky,” Bray happily told Lee.

Lee thanked him. She even hugged and kissed him in delight.

“Do you only make that mix for the faeries?” Tammy asked.

“No, mum says it’s just as good for all of our races,” Bray said.

“Excellent, then you get to feed him,” Tammy said with a big smile.

“Feed who?” Bray asked confused, Lee said Sparky had daughters.

“Your son, I probably won’t make enough milk, so you get to feed him,” Tammy qualified.

Bray was just about to say he didn’t have a son when the grins on Tammy’s and Lee’s face registered. Lee left while Bray was still kissing the shit out of a very happy Tammy.

Back at the caves, Sean helped Lee fill the bottles with the syringes that Bray had thoughtfully supplied. Lee warmed them, and then they handed a bottle to Ross and one to Cia. Two starving little girls were soon sucking their little hearts out.

‘Camla milk and egg yolk if I’m not mistaken. Yes, I remember this recipe’ Aronha said. ‘It has been used by the Burgis for many thousands of years.’

‘What do you mean thousands of years?’ Lee asked.

‘Exactly that, the Keltrian people didn’t come from the place you call Earth. Yes, they lived there for probably about sixty to seventy thousand years, I think. But they came from Keltria before that.’

‘My mother told me that an Oracle predicted a great catastrophe was to happen. Back then, on their planet, the wizards were many. They set out in groups of ten to scout the known universe to find suitable planets to move the people too.’

‘Your Earth was just one of many planets that were found. Jahn also told me this system was also a possible choice, but the ancestors of the people on Utopia ended up on Earth, and they reserved Utopia as a backup.’

‘Philip told Kyle the ring they found on Jahnville was over seventy thousand years old,’ Lee said.

‘Yes, that is probably about right,’ Aronha agreed.

‘But we don’t have camla on Earth. We have similar animals but not them exactly,’ Lee told her.

‘I believe they brought many different animals from home to Utopia to stock that planet, in case they chose it. They had already identified many similar animals on Earth to use.’

‘The problem on Earth was, I believe that one of the portals blew up after they went there, causing a massive volcanic eruption. Jahn believes it also caused a feedback or something which destroyed many of the portals on that planet, as well. This caused a new catastrophe on Earth.’

‘The Keltria people regressed when we lost contact with Keltria. The only peoples who remember their origins are the wizards, faeries and us. We moved across many continents until we got to the land you call the United Kingdoms to find the only working portal left. It took our people many tens of thousands of years to get there.’

‘Many forgot why we were always moving and stopped along the way. When we got to the portal, we found it no longer worked,’ Aronha informed Lee and then yawned. ‘I’m sorry, Lee, I’d love to discuss our history more, but I am exhausted as it was a long night. You can take your daughter home now.’

‘Just one thing, how is Drako doing, he says he is happy. I had him stay to learn how to help the faeries. He was my first loves, last egg. I was as surprised as Bellna when she told me which egg hatched,’ Aronha asked.

Lee told her with pride, ‘He is much loved. Even Ivan, who nearly died with Kim, takes every opportunity to babysit him. Drako tried to say sorry to him about what your brother did and won his heart. He has won many more too.’

Aronha was pleased, ‘His father was a dragon among dragons. Your Sean reminds me of him. I hope we get to talk again, Lord Lee.’

Lee bowed to Aronha and collected her clan to take home to the dome.

All was good, again.