Chapter 20: Problem Solving

“Are you sure that you can do this?” Gary asked Taweret as they walked down to the medical bay in the den.

“I am more than capable of doing this, my mortal pal,” she replied.

An hour had passed since the whole meeting had taken place. It was getting later that night, but Kiroko had made the announcement in the den that any male Yuki and female human couples were to report to the medical lab at the earliest convenience. Taweret, Fumi, and Gary had been walking together as they saw more of the place. Even in her towering form, there was enough room for the hippo goddess to not hit her head on to the ceiling.

“I hope it does...” Fumi said. “So much is being wagered on this.”

“Don’t worry, Fumimoomoo,” the hippo goddess said as she almost danced when she walked. “If I can’t do it, then no one can.”

“Fumimoomoo?” Gary questioned her.

“Yeah. What you don’t like me calling your wife, Fumimoomoo?”

“I ... ok,” he said as he chuckled a little bit.

“See? I want you guys to relax. Enjoy the time that you have together. I see so much potential here at this den and what you rats are capable of doing that would be beneficial. Our numbers would practically quadruple overnight. I can come in and party out with you women all the time!”

“Before you know it, your parties would last for weeks-long to allow all of our family to participate,” Fumi said.

“I certainly hope so. If I had it my way, we would party every day. I know that Xuanwu is getting really close to creating a Coalition baseball game.”

“Xuanwu?”

“Oh, don’t worry about her until later,” Taweret said, waving her hand. “Awesome tortoise friend of mine, though. Everyone keeps mistaking her for a man, and she always trips on her own feet, but I love the idea of her having a sports game that we can all play. What do you think? Think I should be a cheerleader for it?”

Taweret walked ahead and turned around to look at them. She put one hand to her hip and posed like somebody was taking a photo of her. She had a big smile on her face. Fumi rubbed her furry chin as she looked at the hippo goddess.

“I can see you becoming a cheerleader,” Fumi replied. “You have the moves for it.”

Gary looked at their location. They were at the edge of the hallway that had a red and white carpet, the sign that they were near the medical facility.

“Thank you, now I will have to see if Xuanwu will agree or not.”

“We are almost there,” Gary pointed at the hallway.

Taweret looked at the corner that they needed to take. They resumed their walking to the place they needed to be.

“This place,” Taweret asked. “It is the place that you take care of the injured or sick?”

“Yes,” Fumi replied. “This place is mostly for humans, but we have it for everyone that may get potentially hurt. We have four Yuki that are specialists in surgery and medicine. We have a reception area where we will be at and the medical facility itself where you will...”

“Work my magic?” Taweret helped finish. “Of course, I will!”

They made the turn as they looked at the door that led to the medical area.

“Here we are,” Gary said as he walked ahead. He reached the doors as he pushed open the doors to the medical room.

As they stepped inside, they were in the reception area as expected. It had a series of chairs to one side of the room that had a television for guests to view. There was a small booth that consisted of a reception desk. Mostly, the medical facility was small enough that the reception area was just a waiting area and nothing more. With it being at night and the fact that it was late at night, the TV was off. There was nobody even at the reception desk except for a phone to call somebody if needed.

“We normally don’t have much activity, except in an emergency, obviously,” Fumi said. “The doctors even have their apartments purposely next to here, so if there is the need for it, they can just get up and come here immediately.”

“What about going into labor?” Taweret asked.

“Actually, since we give birth with little to no problems, we can actually deliver our pups right at our apartments if need be. I did that with Akari. Gary was right with me when I brought our daughter to this world right from our own home.”

“Hmm ... I wonder if we arrived too early?”

Taweret didn’t need to overthink longer when it came to that question. The door to the medical center opened up in the reception area to reveal a female Yuki to greet them. She had a stethoscope around her neck, along with a set of blue scrubs that she wore. She had a brown and white fur to her as her tail twitched at the sight of the three.

“Ah!” the female Yuki replied in a Japanese accent. “You must be the goddess that Kiroko told me about. My name is Doctor Mikka Yuki.”

“Hello, Doctor Mikka,” Fumi addressed her. “You already know me and my husband, Gary. This is the goddess Taweret, an Egyptian deity.”

The doctor walked up to shake the goddess’s hand. Taweret’s large hands engulfed hers with the simplest of ease.

“I was told that I was needed here, but I don’t entirely know what it is about,” the doctor said.

“Do you have any couples that have popped in yet?” Fumi asked.

“Yes, we have one. They heard the announcement that was made overhead and came in right now. I think they knew about the hippo goddess that was here at the den earlier and came in as soon as they could.”

“I will need to talk to them,” Taweret said. “I might be able to help them out. I might be able to grant something special to them.”

The doctor smiled and opened her hand to gesture to the medical room. “Come with me. They are waiting for you.”

“We will remain out here,” Fumi said to Taweret as she gripped her husband’s hand. “Good luck, goddess.”

With that, they all separated as Fumi and Gary had a seat in the reception area, and Taweret walked with the doctor.

The adjacent room that the hippo goddess walked into was moderately sized. It consisted of four beds with a variety of surgical equipment. It had all the tools and medical equipment to provide healthcare to the people that lived in the den itself. On one of the beds was a couple that sat there. There was a human woman that looked like she was dressed in the latest fashion worn by the Americans of the time period. She looked like she was of European descent and had black hair. She wore a dress and a shirt. She was sitting in a chair that was by the bed.

Her husband was a different case altogether. He was an adult male Yuki. Taweret was able to note the noticeable differences that the male Yuki had, including the lack of breasts. This male had short brown hair that flowed down from his rodent ears. He wore blue denim shorts and a green t-shirt. He had the typical pink tail that extended from his backside and overlapped the bed that he sat on. He had gray fur to him and had blue eyes.

“This is Kaito and his wife Melissa,” Doctor Mikka said. Both of them looked at the hippo goddess with wide-open eyes.

“Hello!” Taweret explained as she approached them. “My name is Taweret. I am sure that you have heard of me this whole day as word spread through the den.”

“Taweret...” Kaito addressed her in a Japanese accent. “I saw you at the arena today. I was one of the Yuki that fought Ryujin in that mock engagement. It is an honor to see you.”

“We are welcomed to be in your presence,” Melissa greeted her in an American accent. “We never thought there were other non-human people that existed besides my husband and his family. We always kept an open mind, and we are happy that we did.”

“I am always happy to meet new people,” Taweret said as she extended her hands outward. “We are usually in human form just like Kaito has. We do this to make sure that the human mortals don’t get alarmed of our presence. Although ... I wish it weren’t always like that. I very much would like to be my true self among the mortals. Instead, we have to be our true forms only in a select few places. I am glad to be in my true form here in this den.”

“Have you enjoyed your time here at the den?”

“I have had a wonderful time here,” Taweret replied with a smile. “I have seen nothing but good hospitality. I do understand my overwhelming size, though. You Yuki are so tiny.”

“We saw the different variety of people you had with you,” Kaito said. “You had no issue with how you operated together.”

“That is because the Coalition that your family is going to be a part of is all about equality and understanding.”

There seemed to be some light that filled their faces as Taweret had said that. They seemed to be very happy to hear of it.

“Is ... that really true?” Kaito asked.

“Yes. You don’t believe me?”

“No ... it isn’t that ... it is just...” He paused as he tried to form the words he needed.

“It is just...” Melissa tried to answer as well but couldn’t.

“I understand,” Taweret said as she put her hand to her heart and breast. “I have heard the stories of how the male Yuki and human females are treated. Is it true?”

“Yes...” Kaito replied, keeping his head down. Melissa remained quiet. “The family prefers females over males from being born. In the last twenty years, families have wanted pups, and the females are the only ones that can do it. As a male ... it doesn’t work no matter how hard we try. It is ... a source of shame.”

“Kaito has been a wonderful husband to me,” Melissa said as Kaito reached his hand to her. She gripped his furred hand in return as she continued. “We had been childhood friends that got to know each other.”

“I heard about the surface rats and the den rats...” Taweret gestured with a question.

“We are ... I am a surface rat,” Kaito implied. “I grew up in Tokyo and moved to the United States when I was younger, along with my two sisters. I was ... always teased as I was the male. So few males are born in the family as it is.”

“How many males are in the Yuki family?”

“About ... over fifty ... but no more than a hundred. Men are just so rare that we are unique.”

“Even though your sisters and cousins mistreat you?”

“Yes ... we are second rate citizens to our people. Even my wife is looked at as a failure for not being able to produce offspring. Our family is all about wanting to produce pups to keep the family lineage going.”

“How long have you lived in the den?” Taweret asked.

“We moved to here about five years ago,” Melissa replied. “Even though we were quite happy on the surface, we wanted to be in a place that my husband could keep his true form all the time. I love him dearly. I find him to be adorable.”

“I can’t blame you,” the hippo goddess said with a smile. “I find the Yuki to be very cute looking.”

“Obviously ... it is just trying to live in this environment ... it hasn’t been too bad, but...”

“You want to feel like you are a part of the family and the team that you have created here...”

“We really want to be treated as equals...” Kaito said. “Human women are essentially looked at as a direct threat to human male/female Yuki relations. My wife has even been attacked physically once here while she was being teased by some of the women.”

“Oh my!” Taweret gasped a little bit. “Have you brought this up to Kiroko?”

“We did, and she assures us that it would have been dealt with, but ... it does not change things.”

“I am so sorry about that.”

Kaito shook his head. “It is the way of things. I am just happy that my wife and I are together. I love her very much.”

“And I would do anything to be with my husband,” Melissa said in turn. Their hands gripped harder as they looked at each other.

The hippo goddess put her hands to her waist. “Well ... I want to ask you two. Do you want to have children?”

“Yes!” Melissa replied with an exclamation. “We have wanted to have children since we got married ten years ago. Sex has been great, but we want more.”

“It is more than that, too,” Kaito explained. “I want to have children to prove myself to the family. We are the minority, and we deserve the same treatment as the others enjoy. Of course, we also genuinely want to have children too.”

“Let me ask you,” Taweret said. “Do the males go into heat?”

Kaito shook his head. “No, I never experienced what the females had to go through. I kind of considered myself lucky. It is ... easier for women to have sex than men. I imagine looking at my wife and telling her that I have to have sex or I die. She would have looked at me rather strangely.”

“I ... wouldn’t have,” Melissa replied with a smile.

“I mean, at first. Now obviously, that wouldn’t have been an issue.”

Taweret looked at the doctor that was in the room. She was looking at her clipboard but staying quiet. “I think that I would like to try to use my magic to help them. I would like to have some privacy. Mind in letting me do my job?”

“Absolutely!” the doctor replied. She left the room as Melissa and Kaito had a shocked look on them.

“What do you mean by that?” Melissa asked.

“Kaito, Melissa, I might be able to resolve your problems. Do you know the legend about me?”

“We know that you are an Egyptian goddess but not much more than that,” Kaito answered.

“I am a fertility and childbearing goddess. My magic and abilities reflect on helping those conceive and have children. I am responsible for helping women go through a safe pregnancy. We have been discussing with O Yuki San and Kiroko in not only bringing the Yuki family into the Coalition but to give equal rights to all Yuki. We have learned that male Yuki do not produce sperm, which is the cause of infertility. I have the power to fix that. Would you like to...”

“Yes!” Kaito said as he hopped out of his bed. His eyes were wide as he looked up to the towering goddess. His tail even began to wag a little bit.

“You truly have this ability?” Melissa asked her.

“I am Taweret, the hippo goddess,” the hippo said as she put her hands to her hips. “If I can’t do it, then no one can!”

“Tell me what needs to be done!” Kaito said. There was much excitement in his rodent eyes. For the first time, the hippo goddess saw hope in the couple’s eyes. They knew that they would be the first of many in a road for fair treatment in the family. There was no way they were going to say no.

Taweret looked at the privacy curtains as she reached up to them and began to pull it over to give the couple the privacy they needed. She looked back and was direct with them.

“I will need to apply my magic exactly at the source of where the issue is at. I will need to physically touch your genitals,” the hippo goddess informed them.

Kaito thought about it for a few seconds. He looked back to his wife, and she nodded her head in agreement. Taweret remained quiet to let them think.

“If it means fixing this, then so be it,” Kaito said. He didn’t seem to be annoyed or against the idea.

Taweret gave off a rather stoic and experienced confidence that it was convincing enough. Her giddy and sometimes playful expressions were replaced with a professional reaction and display for the couple.

The male Yuki began to unbutton his pants, in front of her. His furry fingers found his way to the metal button as he popped it open. He then dragged the zipper down and then pulled his pants down. He had a set of underwear where there was a noticeable bulge.

“I admire your brevity,” Taweret told them.

“We are used to this,” Melissa said. “Besides, we are in the right place for this. We have been trying for a while, and the family tries to come up with a solution at times to see it fail.”

Kaito wasn’t wearing any shoes as he took his pants off completely and placed it on the bed. He then went and grabbed his underwear and pulled it down in front of the hippo goddess. Taweret responded as she took a knee on the hard tile to put herself within the same height as Kaito. The underwear came down as his member sprang free from the linen confines. He then pulled it down all the way, removed it from his feet, and placed it by his pants. He now stood bottomless, looking at the hippo goddess. He didn’t seem to be nervous at all with everything that was going on.

The hippo goddess took a close look at his member. He was like most anthro animal male aspects when it came to genitals. His penis was enclosed in a prepuce or foreskin until excited or aroused, of course. There was a patch of extra gray fur near the top that could be considered similar to pubic hair. His testicles hung below the penis, obviously. Since his frame was less than a human, his genitals were naturally smaller ratio wise but only by so much. Taweret was quiet, and she watched his testicles and remarked on what was happening.

“When you two have sex, do you still climax?” Taweret asked him.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Do you ejaculate?”

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Sperm makes up very little of the ejaculate,” Taweret noted to him. “Human men may be infertile and never know it since the ejaculate itself never really changes. I was observing your testicles really closely and noted something that was happening.”

“Oh...” Kaito nodded. “I guess you spotted it too.”

“Yep, I notice that your testicles are not moving around in the scrotum. Human men and actually all males with outer testicles can be observed seeing the two testes move to help regulate temperature for sperm. Yours are not doing it at all. It is a sign that your body is not producing sperm at all. Have you experienced any discomfort in sex or pain in general?”

“No, everything feels normal.”

“Hmmm ... I just needed to know all that before I start working my magic. I might be the best at all this, but I do know some male fertility deities that also work with this sort of thing and helping others with various problems.”

“Male fertility deities?” Melissa asked.

“Yeah. The Coalition has fertility and virility deities in our ranks. Not all of them have the abilities that I have. We even have an Egyptian virility god ... Babi. He is a walking erection all the time, but he has the magic to cure all humans that have impotence.”

Taweret, without further attention, reached her hand towards his genitals. Her gray hand was so big that she only used one finger to touch him. One finger was almost the width of his arm. She was cautious as she pressed her warm finger to his testicles. He took a deep breath as he remained quiet.

“I am going to begin to use my magic,” Taweret instructed him. “Remain still, this won’t take long, but I need you to focus on your body. I want you to picture Melissa becoming pregnant.”

He remained composed as he closed his eyes. His testicles sat on the finger of the hippo goddess. Melissa was quiet as she watched the scene unfurl. The finger of the hippo goddess began to emit a small amount of light as it made his genitals radiate with light. Taweret focused her mind as she pictured the thoughts of helping the male Yuki. She remained composed but determined. Kaito was imagining seeing his wife as the other female Yuki were in the den. He pictured her with the same distended belly. He imagined seeing her give birth and raising a baby together.

A slight frown developed on the hippo goddess’s face. She continued to focus her magic. The light was glowing intensely, but the light was fading away and pushing back. She tried to keep up with her magic, but her frown remained. She shook her head a little bit.

The tension was quiet in the room. Melissa could watch the facial inflections from the hippo goddess. It didn’t look good, and she started to get worried. She was tempted to say something. She could see the light glow from her husband’s testicles, but the magic and light faded more and more.

Finally, the hippo goddess pulled her finger and hand away from Kaito. The light completely disappeared as he opened his eyes. He was looking at Taweret that was shaking her head.

“Is it done?” he asked.

Taweret observed his scrotum closely. She could still see no activity that was going on. She looked at her hand, closed it, and then reopen it again. She was displeased. His wife was worried.

“Is everything alright?” Melissa asked.

“This ... I haven’t had this much difficulty with this for some time. I am convinced that, whoever made O Yuki San and the form she has now, did a poor job in transforming her. Yes, she can reproduce normally and amazingly with no help with magic at all, but he or she was not thinking about the males that she would give birth to. Essentially, I feel like whoever did this was both seemingly good at it but was a novice spellcaster at the same time. I am having to undo that mistake, and it is proving difficult to do so.”

“Do you feel different, honey?” Melissa asked her husband.

He shook his head as he looked at his genitals. “I don’t ... feel different.”

“I am afraid my magic was not able to fix this problem,” Taweret said as she thought about it. “This ... is a major problem.”

“You can’t fix it?” Kaito asked. She saw the look of a man that was seemingly dejected. Melissa sighed and looked down. They both had looks of sadness that filled their eyes. Kaito reached his hand towards his wife as they shared their sorrow together. Even the hippo goddess was bummed and at a loss.

“My magic can’t fix it ... but I remember being able to do this,” Taweret told them. “I helped a man long ago that was infertile. I cured him, and the man must have had ten kids after I solved it. I will need some time to figure this out. Go ahead and get dressed. I need to have a talk with the others so I can go through my solutions that I was able to do in the past. I just need to remember what I did.”

“It’s alright...” Kaito said remorsefully. “I am used to this. It seems that nothing can fix this ... it is life...”

“Hey...” Taweret told them. “Don’t give up. I am the great Taweret. I will find a way to fix your problem.”

With that, the hippo goddess got back on her feet. She walked out of the curtain as she had her hand to her chin. She was deep in thought as she realized that she had a significant problem on her hands. It was the first time she had genuinely failed in something in regards to infertility.

“You know, I wonder if they are ever going to use the simulator to help women that are in heat,” Gary asked his wife. They were both seated in the reception room, waiting for the hippo goddess to exit the room. The TV was still off as they spoke to each other.

“That was one of the reasons why Cassandra developed the simulator in the first place, but ... she admits she’s still not sure if it would work,” Fumi said. “She was talking about the fact that it took so much power to generate everything that it wasn’t practical. Every time we have a female Yuki go into heat, we would have to power down the den. The adoption program they had in place is doing its job. Human men and women that have no home get to be raised here and have a husband or wife waiting for them. Everyone is happy here.”

“You always say that, but is it?”

Her rodent eyes looked around as she thought about it. “I admit I am used to living on the surface. Everything is so ... plastic and artificial here. I enjoy living with the human mortals on the surface even if they don’t truly know what I am.”

“I am too,” Gary said as he went and gripped his wife’s hand. She responded by wrapping her hand around his.

“I understand the issues that you have, husband. So much is happening.”

“Actually, I do want to apologize for my reaction earlier at the labs. I just felt like I am breeding stock.”

“You are far from that, my darling husband. I always love you.”

“I saw you in how you tried to help the others at the den when it came to ... the great mother,” Gary commented. “I am proud of you for doing that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You suggested Taweret to use her powers to try to help male Yuki/female human couples in these dens. You might have just changed the entire course of events for the dens with what you did, and it would help get rid of discrimination towards the minorities that live here.”

Fumi smiled. “You are happy with me?”

“Of course, I am.”

They looked at each other for a few seconds. His head went to hers as they passionately kissed each other on the lips. He broke the kiss as she rested her head to his shoulders.

“I was thinking...” Fumi suggested. “I am hoping for a boy.”

“You were?”

“I have your father’s name that I want to name him. I never had the chance to meet your dad. I think it would be the greatest honor to give him that name.”

“But, the chances of having a boy are so rare...”

“The family has endless amounts of money. We will keep producing pups until we have a male. Taweret might be able to find a way to resolve the female Yuki so that male pups can be born more easily.”

Gary pressed his head to her rodent-like ears. For a moment, they flicked as the ears touched his hair. “I guess we will keep having children until we have a boy.”

Fumi felt like falling asleep as they waited for Taweret to show up. She continued to talk to him. “I would like that husband,” she put her other free hand to her stomach. “It won’t be much longer. I can feel it. It just feels like I can go into labor anytime now.”

“I am ready when you are.”

They didn’t get a chance to say much more to each other when the hippo goddess disrupted their moment as she left the room she was in. Fumi and Gary snapped out their romantic dream as they turned to look at her. They could immediately see the disturbed look in her face.

Taweret was balling her fists and looking tense. She began to pace back and forth in the room. She almost seemed to be cursing herself as her crocodile-like tail swung around hard.

“Taweret,” Fumi said as she let of Gary’s hand and stood up. “What is wrong?”

“It ... it didn’t work...” Taweret said as she stopped and looked at the female Yuki. “I can’t undo the erroneous magic that is set upon the male Yuki,” she looked down and looked defeated. “I can’t help them...”

Gary stood up and followed his wife as she walked up to the hippo goddess. Fumi approached the goddess and put her hands to her leg to comfort her. Taweret simply nodded as she looked down and away from her.

“You tried the magic, and nothing happened?” Fumi asked.

“Yes ... it was like my magic was being dampened when I used it on him. It was powerful, whatever was there.”

“No...” Fumi reacted as she sighed. “I really hoped it would have worked. Have you tried anything else?”

“I just used my magic. It didn’t work. I don’t know why it was different than last time...”

“You managed to do this before?” Gary asked.

“Yes ... I tried it for a human mortal that couldn’t have kids. He begged me to help him be able to conceive with his wife. I used my magic, and it fixed the problem for him. I just wish I knew what was different.”

“Maybe it is just because of the different species that is the issue.”

“There has to be something that I am missing,” Taweret said.

“What about the other deities?” Gary asked. “Surely they can...”

“No,” Taweret said. “Their powers will never rival mine. Parvati and the other fertility deities would be in the same situation as I am right now. We can’t combine our powers on this either ... I just know that I am missing something ... ugh...”

“It is a matter of trying to think. What was different that occurred when you helped that human compared to today?”

The hippo goddess tapped her finger to her chin as she thought about it. “It was so long ago ... it was during the Egyptian Empire’s days. I was so used to helping women during the time period. There were male fertility deities that helped out the males...”

“Are you sure you shouldn’t try contacting the Coalition of Deities on this matter?”

“I am the best that they got on this. The magic I felt resisting was intense. His mind was there for it, but his body fought me hard. I didn’t have this resistance when I had worked with the other man... , but it was so long ago. Try living for over four thousand years and try to remember everything so clearly,” the hippo goddess said, shaking her head. “We don’t age, but we might as well be the geriatrics of mythics. You, human mortals, may die in a hundred years, but with us, our biggest problem is trying to remember what we did a hundred years. I might not even be the same hippo gal that I was a hundred years. I might have been ... a crocodile.” She turned her head, and her eyes went and looked at her crocodile tail. She gasped. “Oh, no! That is what happened, wasn’t it? I was a crocodile that turned into a hippo. I am in mid-process of it!”

“What about Opet?” Fumi asked.

“What about her?”

“She is your daughter, right?”

“Yeah, I had her back in the days of the Ancient Egyptian Empire.”

“Well, she looked just like you.”

Taweret smiled. “You are right ... I was just overreacting. I just can’t think clearly with this situation looming in my mind. Everyone is counting on me to help fix this problem. The couple even told me their situation. They need to be treated equally and fairly to the others of this den. The problem has to be resolved if they are to become members of the Coalition. I am that hope...”