My name is Yoshida Shuta, and at thirty-two years old I landed a smokin’ hot young wife. I won the jackpot. And sure, some complicated circumstances led me to spend the first night of my marriage sleeping alone, but now, at last, my wife and I were truly a couple, body and soul.
If I had to name one problem, it would be the fact that my one-eyed monster got a little too eager and pushed the cart into the barn before the horse, lifted off with too many thrusters and burned up in the atmosphere, overhunted the great buffalo of the plains. Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more. But I suppose stuff like that (blowing out your engine at the start of the race, dropping your cell phone in the bathtub, you get it) happens in long-term marriages, too, so there’s even a certain charm in that.
Once we affirmed our feelings for each other, we lay entwined in our small bed. But there was still a major mood-killer in the way.
“Kweeee!”
“Sh-Shooter…?”
“Mm?”
“Don’t look now, but. Um. There’s a fat frilled lizard in our bed…?”
“Erk, well, we can’t have that. Things got too steamy before I could tell you about my trip, so I completely forgot to get to Basil.”
Oops.
Once we got back to the village, the baby basilisk remained in the basket where he slept, and someone had brought him to our house along with my other things. The little guy slept through most of the journey, but he must have felt left out while Cassandra and I were exploring our love for each other by the light of the magic lantern. At some point, he snuck out of his basket and crawled into bed with us.
I wanted the basket to be a kind of bed for him, but Basil must have thought of me as a father; when night came, he always crawled up to cuddle wherever I was passed out. It was cute as hell, but right now it was a bit of a mood killer.
“So, um. I was about to explain, and then this all happened, but…he’s a baby basilisk. They’re a type of dragon, like wyverns.”
“He’s a type of wyvern?!” Shocked, Cassandra scooted away from him on the narrow bed.
There was no reason to look so terrified, right? But her fear was intense enough to almost get me scrambling away from little Basil. I scooped him up in my arms and stroked his head.
Cassandra looked at me fearfully. “Are you sure you should do that, Shooter?”
“Hm? He’s just a baby. His teeth haven’t even grown in yet, so even if he nips you, it doesn’t hurt. Besides, I was the first thing he saw after he was born. I think he might have imprinted, like how a bird fixates on the first thing it sees and recognizes that as its parent.”
“What does that mean, ‘imprint’?”
“It means that as far as Basil is concerned, I’m his guardian. Oh, I named him Basil, by the way. Basil, be nice and say hello to mommy!”
“Kwee kwee kwee!”
“Um, n-nice to meet you, Basil.”
I had alleviated some of Cassandra’s wariness, so I held Basil out to her. I thought I saw her flinch, but she took the baby in her arms and held him close.
When Nishka the Scalesplitter cuddled the little guy, I always worried he’d suffer death by her huge, delicious, smothering…force of personality, but there was no risk of that with Cassandra. She was a more modest person in just about every way.
“That’s a good boy, Basil. Now you be sure to listen to what Uncle Shuta and your mother tell you from now on. I have to go into the forest to hunt sometimes, so you’re going to protect your mother while I’m gone. Understood?”
“Kwee kwee ppthhb!”
As I reached to pat his head, Basil actually snapped his toothless beak at my fingers. The little bastard!
I didn’t know how to tell whether Basil was male or female at this point, but I knew one thing for certain—he was a needy little guy. He was extremely clingy with Nishka and Yoi, too. The only exception was Mari, but she was about as good at dealing with animals as she was with people, to be honest, and I’m sure that came through loud and clear to the baby basilisk.
“Um, Shooter?”
“What is it?”
“Why do you call yourself his uncle and not his father? If I’m supposed to be his mother, that would make you his father, wouldn’t it?”
“I suppose you’re right. When I first started talking to him, I called myself ‘uncle,’ so I guess it just stuck. Also, I killed his actual parents, so it feels kind of wrong saying I’m his dad.”
I stroked the base of the baby’s throat with a rueful smile. Basil looked up at me, then Cassandra, then back again with a wondering look on his face. I doubted he could understand what we were saying, but that didn’t make me feel less guilty.
“Cassandra?”
“Y-yes?”
“I’m sorry I brought him here without asking. I know it’s goofy, but I was just, ah, so eager to experience family life, I thought maybe it wouldn’t be too soon in our marriage to have kids. But I’m sorry for springing a child on you like this.”
“N-no, it’s fine. I can treat it like a rehearsal for when we really are blessed with a child.”
“That’s a nice thought. Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’ll do my best to raise him well.”
In the dim light, I could see the look of courage and determination on Cassandra’s face. I felt like I was slowly getting better at reading my wife’s expressions.
“It’s just—” I broke off.
“Just what?”
“He’s going to eat kind of a lot. He’s just a baby for now, so I’ve got it under control, but even now he eats tons of fish every day. And when he grows up, he’ll be larger than this hut.”
“He will…?” Cassandra’s voice trailed off. “What are we going to do when he gets bigger?”
I didn’t want to think about that yet, so I offered a half-hearted answer. “I’ll, uh, talk to Wak’wakgoro. Maybe he can help us hunt?”
And hey, it might take fifty years or more for this dragon-kin to reach full size. In a world like this—in a town with no indoor plumbing—who could say if we’d live to see that?