“This will be the last time……”
He rubbed down the goosebumps prickling up through his skin and grumbled. The frozen forest was packed so densely with trees that warm air barely passed through — swimming at the waterfall now would be enough to kill him with cold.
He wrapped his arms around his rounded belly and waddled into a run. His body had always been so light, and the heaviness and bulk of it felt awkward and strange. He let out a long sigh and gave his belly a small knock, and the egg moved around wildly inside, as though annoyed.
“Ugh!”
He stopped mid-run and sank down, clutching his stomach.
“S-sorry. That hurts! It hurts, so stop moving……”
He pressed his palm firmly against his belly to calm the egg down and patted it. Even after that, the egg went on hurting him for quite some time before finally going still, as if satisfied.
“Phew……”
Groaning, he managed to straighten his knees and moved forward carefully — rubbing and patting his sulky belly, more cautious than he’d ever been, afraid the dull ache that lingered might set it off again.
The mildly ridiculous thought followed that once he got home, he should drink a cup of tea to put the egg to sleep.
In a month, the group of Tree Folk that had left for the Bikan Mountain Range would return. That much time had passed. Ollie stroked his belly, which showed no sign of going down, and sank into thought.
Even as he ate chicken eggs and woodpecker eggs, the large egg inside him hadn’t come out. There was nothing particularly wrong with his body either. Apart from being unable to absorb vital energy, the egg sat inside him quiet as a mouse.
“This really does feel like being with child.”
He muttered the thought to himself as he rubbed his belly, and the egg trembled in response. That too had become familiar by now. Whenever he touched his belly or spoke to the egg, it would respond as if answering back. As time went on, the egg’s responses grew more frequent. There were times it moved on its own in the night and woke him from sleep. He looked down at his stirring belly and let out a small lament — he really had eaten something strange.
“When exactly are you coming out.”
The hand resting on his belly moved up and down on its own, against his will — as if laughing. He stared down at it in wonder, and before long a laugh burst out of him. The feeling of being a mother with child was both absurd and baffling.
“Alright then. Come on out soon, little one, and stop giving me trouble.”
He murmured the playful words and dropped onto the sofa with a thud. The thought that he looked no different from a woman at full term hit him with a hollow laugh.
“You have to come out before spring……”
For now he could cover his belly with thick clothing, but come spring that would be impossible too. Anyone who saw his protruding stomach, Masa especially, would obviously find it strange. Even so, he thought with his usual easy-going attitude that no matter how long an egg sat inside a belly, it couldn’t stay there forever — and he stroked his stomach.
It was strange. The egg was something he’d swallowed to absorb vital energy, nothing more — yet it responded to his every word, and it no longer felt like mere food to him. Even now, at his touch, the egg was trembling and resonating with him.
Holding that unfamiliar feeling, he took a sip of lukewarm tea. Whenever it decides to come, just please let it be before spring.
As if in answer to his wish — that very night, Ollie was jolted awake by a pain crashing into his belly. His eyes flew open and his trembling hand reached down to touch his stomach. He felt the surface rolling and churning, the vibrations growing violent. And the more they did, the more his pain swelled without end.
“Aaargh!”
Ollie fell off the bed with a thud. He rolled across the floor clutching his stomach and cried out. But his screams, trapped inside the hollow of the tree, only echoed around the room and couldn’t find their way out. Cold sweat ran down him and his whole body shook with chills.
“Ngh…… aaah!”
Even curled around his stomach, the pain wouldn’t ease. He pressed his face to the floor and swallowed the tears streaming down it.
Normally, once an egg has released all its vital energy, it passes out of the body on its own. There is no particular pain. It comes out easily, wrapped in mucus.
Only now did Ollie realize the egg inside him had become a problem. This was no ordinary situation. He should have gone to see George sooner, or come down from the forest. But regret was too late, and with no way to cut his belly open and take it out himself, all he could do was roll around on the floor.
“Agh…… hh…… ngh!”
In that moment, Ollie felt the egg shifting, breaking free from the vital energy pouch. It’s coming out! The egg is trying to come out! Barely able to keep his body steady, he turned onto his front and spread his legs.
His body instinctively found the most comfortable position, and he bore down. Even through the pain, he could feel that getting this egg out was the only way to find relief. He raised a hand and rubbed his stomach.
“Come out……. Come out. Ngh, damn it!”
Another wave of agony crashed into his belly, and he fought back the urge to pass out and pushed again. When he felt the egg almost entirely clear of the vital energy pouch, he bore down hard one final time.
“Ugh…… hah.”
Out! Get out! He screamed the words inside his head over and over and squeezed his eyes shut. A sticky liquid began to seep from the opening. When he felt the wetness spreading between his legs, a faint smile crept back onto his face. Almost there. He bore down once more. He pushed the egg along with his hand.
“Agh!”
In that instant, the enormous egg slipped free from between his legs. A raw, stinging pain followed in its wake.
“Haa…… ha……”
He let out a ragged breath and collapsed forward onto the floor — legs still splayed wide, unable to bring them together at all. Between them, the egg covered in sticky fluid twitched on its own. Through the cracks spreading across its surface, a flash of blue light gleamed for a moment. And then Ollie lost consciousness.
His eyes snapped open. In the dim darkness, faint candlelight barely did its job across his small room. Still not fully coherent, he tried to work out why he’d fallen off the bed and ended up sleeping on the floor.
He reached for his belly — and where he expected fullness, his hand met flat, slack skin, different from usual. He shot upright. Everything came flooding back at once. There was no need to look around. The egg, still coated in sticky fluid, was right there between his legs. Unlike before, its surface was partially cracked now — cracked enough that if you looked closely, you could see inside.
The egg cracked! Ollie scrambled toward it in a flurry. An inexplicable anxiety wrapped itself around him. His first thought was to grab a dry towel and clean it off.
He forced strength into his shaking legs and got to his feet. He was heading to the cupboard where he kept his towels when a sound hit his ears — a sound that had no business being in this house.
Crack —
Like the sound of an egg splitting open. His heart lurched, and he slowly turned his head.
The egg was breaking. Along the deep cracks spreading across its surface, pieces of shell rained down onto the floor. He stood there, mouth hanging open, watching — when a plump, pale arm suddenly thrust out from inside.
“Aaah!”
He screamed before he could stop himself. The arm that had shot out moved around this way and that, then froze at the sound of his scream. And then the egg began to break apart again. Ollie held his breath and watched the hatching.
Before he knew it, the entire upper portion had crumbled away, and through the gap, glistening hair appeared. Another pale, plump arm emerged, and then the whole egg collapsed entirely.
“……”
Ollie’s mouth had fallen open as far as it would go. He wondered for a moment whether this might be a dream — but then the raw ache between his legs brought him back to himself a little.
The baby that had just been born from the egg was unlike any ordinary baby. Full, abundant hair. Eyes wide open and clear. A gaze that was fixed directly on him. Ollie, who had learned the bare minimum about newborns from books, was certain — that was no ordinary baby.
He couldn’t bring himself to go near and watched from a distance, when the thing that had emerged from the egg began to stagger toward him. It’s walking!
“Aaah! Don’t come near me!”
At the sharp cry, it stopped dead — but then ignored him entirely and took another step forward. The tottering gait looked precarious, but the more startling fact was that something born only moments ago was walking at all.
“You…… what are you.”
He asked the foolish question. The child didn’t seem to understand his words, and simply kept coming toward him — one step, then another.
With nowhere left to retreat in the small house, he could only watch helplessly as it approached. At last it reached Ollie, and as if it had been waiting for this moment, it broke into a wide smile and wrapped its arms around his legs.
The warm weight and heat against his calves made his heart drop. Hot and damp. A sensation he had never felt once in his life. He reached his slightly trembling hand down and tapped one of those plump little arms. At that, the arms around his legs loosened, and the child gripped one of his fingers tightly. A hand so small it could barely close around just his index finger.
Ollie sank down to the floor. At this lower height, his eyes met the child’s. Between the wide-smiling lips, a full set of teeth was visible. Ollie felt, truly, that this impossibly strange being was not as unfamiliar as he would have expected. It wasn’t as frightening as it had been at first. The raw ache between his legs and the child’s warmth hit him at the same time.
