Beauty and the Beasts

On the other hand, Harvey didn’t find it peculiar, for most eagle beastmen were more or less like Muir as first-time fathers. He merely said, “Looks like Qingqing is in pretty good condition. But she should avoid going out these few days, lest an accident happens.”

Bai Qingqing felt her cheeks heating up. “Lest an accident happens…” An accident like what happened today? That was truly accidental, hur hur.

Muir nodded repeatedly, then asked with bated breath, “Are there more in Qingqing’s tummy? When will she give birth to them?”

Used to hearing such questions from the eagle tribe, Harvey replied calmly, “Usually a new egg will come out every two to four days. The eagle tribe’s gestation period is usually around a month or so. Actually, on the 18th day after mating, the first egg would be laid. As for the exact gestation period, it would depend on the number of eggs.”

Enlightened, Muir said he once accidentally heard a fellow tribesman mention their gestation period was one to two months. Thus, he found it strange that she was giving birth now even though her period had just come last month.

Counting the days, from the time her last period ended till today, about 20 days had passed. It just so happened that they were together, then.

“Oh, right.” Something suddenly occurred to Harvey and he added, “You can just place this egg at room temperature and incubate it after all the eggs are laid. The baby will break out of the shell after seven days.”

Muir froze in surprise again. Seven days…

Recalling how he had foolishly incubated the snake eggs for more than a month, Muir felt deeply ashamed of himself. He threw a dark look at Curtis.

As though he didn’t sense it, Curtis twirled his slender and long fingers around Bai Qingqing’s hair and played with it.

Bai Qingqing rolled her eyes about to look at Muir, then at Curtis, and she couldn’t help scolding Curtis silently: Sly old fox!

She had said that it was unscientific for eagle beastmen to incubate eggs. If the rest weren’t around, Muir would surely have starved to death incubating the eggs by himself. This was also the case for the other eagle daddies. Wouldn’t this be a trait that would lead to the extinction of the eagle species?

So it turned out there was a huge difference between the incubation periods of eagle eggs versus snake eggs. No wonder!

Harvey then reminded Muir to nourish Bai Qingqing’s body, before bidding them farewell.

Holding the egg to her chest, Bai Qingqing would rap against it with her fingernail from time to time, producing tapping sounds as she did so.

At the thought of a furry little bird scurrying out from within after a few days, Bai Qingqing’s lips arched in a satisfied smile.

“That’s great!” Now that every mate of hers had offspring of their own, Bai Qingqing felt exonerated.

Muir, on the other hand, felt a sense of desolation at having used up his chances of having Qingqing all to himself.

Although the City of Beastmen had a huge population, the females were few in number. Every year, the births of baby beastmen would cause quite a stir in the city. Moreover, a great many pairs of eyes had witnessed Bai Qingqing carrying the newly-born egg around flashily. In half a day’s time, news of her giving birth had spread throughout the entire city.

Shortly after, Winston and Parker rushed back home one after the other, the latter with his cubs in tow after teaching them to hunt.

“Qingqing.” After shaking off the leopard cubs, Parker dashed into the bedroom first. Before he reached Bai Qingqing’s side, he first detected a familiar yet foreign smell.

“You’ve really given birth?” Parker’s face was filled with shock. He flicked his itchy finger against the grey egg, making a “dang” sound.

Bai Qingqing slapped his hand away sternly. “Be careful!”

Would the baby eagle get a brain concussion from this?

Parker retracted his hand in embarrassment, then turned his head and looked around. He asked curiously, “Just this one?”

Bai Qingqing stroked her slightly bulged-up tummy and said with a gentle expression, “There’s more in my stomach. But it’ll only come out in another few days’ time.”

Parker was surprised. Looking at the resilient grey eggshell, it was evidently thicker and harder than snake eggs. He said affirmatively, “It must be that the eggshell isn’t fully developed yet. This won’t do. The eggshell has to absorb your nutrition. I’ve got to make you some soup from animal bones to nourish your body.”