This thread contains discussions of pregnancy and childbirth.
If this makes you uncomfortable, please skip the entire thread! — CJ

Mystaria was on the quest to find Tenzin. She had heard of the masters from the mouths of other gembounds. The ones she knew of so far was Astraea, Nemean, and Tenzin. She decided to look for Tenzin just out of random choice. Why was she looking for Tenzin? She had things she needed to know, and a very important question to ask. She walked to the waterfall and started calling Tenzin's name at that moment. She called out loudly so she could be heard. She looked around the waterfall carefully. She had heard whispers from other gembounds that Tenzin was around here. She called out a few more times, then kept quiet to see if her calls made it to the ears she needed to listen.

@Game Master CJ

Tenzin stirred from meditative sleep, listening again for the sound of his name, and then passed through the waterfall curtain to greet his vistor. Small, as most of them seemed to be—to him, anyway. He nodded to her, settling beside the pool so that he could lower his head far enough to see her eye-to-eye.

"Hello," he said finally; she knew his name, but what was hers? "What might I call you, Emerald?"

@Mystaria

Mystaria's eyes widened as she looked at Tenzin eye to eye. Tenzin was birdlike and huge, very huge. She pushed her surprise down and spoke to the large bird respectfully. "Hello, Tenzin. My name is Mystaria. You see, I was searching for you because I have a question and a request. Is there a different way to have a child other than giving life to a stone? And if there is can you tell me how?" She asked him because he was a master. As a master there was a great chance he could know something. Mystaria looked at the large bird with pleading eyes. They had bodies right? Isn't there a way to bring a child into the world than just giving life to a stone? There had to be!

@Game Master CJ

"Mystaria," he echoed, confining it to the aura of her emerald. He was intrigued by her request, but could not fathom how the idea came to her. The gembounds knew nothing else, what would push her to seek such a thing?

"Yes," he answered after a while, though he was visibly confused as he thought about the mechanics in his head. "But for you—for gembounds? I'm not sure... it is possible, I suppose. Some of you do not have the... means to reproduce like other creatures, some of the lessers, for example." Well, he didn't really want to get into that topic, so he shook his head and tapped a talon on the stone as he thought.

"Hmm, for you," he said quietly, voice trailing off as he regarded her curious eyes. Would it be possible to harbor a fetus, had she a womb, with some sort of continuous act of give life? "Tell me, Mystaria, would you continue to seek this path if it may endanger your life?"

To think that he might have once shared her quest, seeking out alternatives together with Astraea, before Dawa came to them like a blessing.

@Mystaria

Mystaria listened to Tenzin very carefully as she sat in front of him. She didn't know that as a female she had the means to carry a child. But then a serious question came from Tenzin. Was it worth endangering her life? There was one answer to that. Mystaria spoke with her voice completely sure of what she was going to say. "Yes. Even if it would endanger my life, I want to go down that path. I want to know how to have a child in a different way." Mystaria had never been sure of anything in her life. This is what she wanted. She waited patiently to see what Tenzin was going to say next.

@Game Master CJ

Normally, he might reject this idea, or others that were too different—for fear of being hunted for knowledge he was not intended to divulge. But he could not deny himself that he felt a pity and a softness for this request. The gembounds reproduced by magic chrysalis, and to him—and to other Masters—he knew that meant they were spawned beings, and not necessarily children. That did not stop the gembounds from assuming themselves as family, and even going so far as to call each other by the delicate titles of immediate family members.

He nodded to her answer and was quiet for a moment as he thought.

"This is a theory," he said after some time spent humming and sighing to himself. "You know, probably, how it works normally. You give your magic to a life-bearing gemstone, and it makes a chrysalis to grow the body in, yes?" He clicked a talon and continued on before she may be able to answer. "I do not know if it could work, but it is possible that you may be able to give life to your own stone—which is possible on its own—but harbor it, somehow, in your own body... In a weaker sense. A longer sense."

"It will not be easy, and there is a high probability that you could die," Tenzin continued plainly, his voice dropping to a near-whisper. "It will—the child will need constant magic from you, to grow, and even the natural processes of a body developing a second will be draining on its own. You will need extra food, extra water, extra sleep. You will be sick. You will be sore... I can try and supplement the magic loss, but the rest of it you will have to do on your own—oh,"

He realized then he had gone on quite the rambling.

"My apologies... Does any of that sound like something you wouldn't want to do? If you feel comfortable trying it still, we can give it a shot. Again, I can't guarantee it will work or that you will even live." He frowned at the idea. He could revive her stone if anything, but secretly, he hoped it did work.

@Mystaria

Mystaria listened to Tenzin and felt a bit concerned at the risks he stated. But she was willing to put in the work. She spoke with complete sureness in her voice, unwavering. "No, I want to do it. I know it's risky, but I want to do this Tenzin. I've never wanted anything more in my life. Just two questions. How will I get the child out of my body? And in what part of my body will it grow?" She sat as she listened carefully. This was something new she was doing, so she just needed to know those two things to be ready to do what she was about to do. Mystaria was about to do something no gembound has done before.

@Game Master CJ

He smiled at her conviction. All right then, they would try it.

"Oh, good questions," he mused, nodding. "The child comes out on its own, when it is ready. You will know. It may be a few cycles until it is ready, unlike normal, where it only takes one. And when it comes out, it will be younger and weaker than normal. You will have to take extra care to look after it or it will die." Well, he assumed it would work like normal childbirth, but of course, he couldn't be sure. It was magically aided, so that posed new risks, and left blanks where he might have known an answer.

"It grows in something called a womb, near your tummy, though some gembounds do not have them; we will know if you do, if the give life succeeds". He hoped. Or it would spawn a chrysalis in her and she would die.

He turned away from her and ushered her with the swipe of a wing into the cave behind the waterfall.

"Return here each day to rest," he said, focusing on a corner of the den. "Let me see..." For a moment, he was still as he focused on transferring his magic to the space he had pictured—and a turquoise chunk of his stone broke free of his chest, floating gently to hover above the ground where it cracked and bloomed, growing into a floating shard barely three feet tall. It emitted a soft light, illuminating the cave, and continued to hover inches from the ground.

"This is my magic. I can only sustain it here, but if what we are about to try is successful, you will likely need it." In truth, he was not sure that he could extend his well, and he was slightly proud of himself for having done so. But he could already feel it was weak, and it weakend him, too. It would not last long, three cycles at most, but hopefully that was all the time they would need.

"Now, let's see," he cooed, glancing down to her. "Do you know how to give life and give stone? Try them, with stone first. Picture it as a little cave in your own belly. Will the stone to be there—it may be painful as it moves there, but you will be all right. When you think it is there, coax it with give life, but be careful. Just enough to wake it up. Just enough to let it know it can breathe in your magic for as long as it needs to; don't give it all of your magic at once." He was watching her carefully, worriedly. "Do you understand?"

You can choose to roll give stone/give life, but they do not have to succeed!

@Mystaria

Mystaria noted that the child needed extra care when it's born. She knew she would be the most caring, devoted mother there was. Especially since her soon to be child would be small and weak. Once inside Mystaria glanced around Tenzin's den and it seemed very spacious. She watched with amazement as Tenzin's stone created a floating shard as it made the room softly lit. Mystaria decided she would make the schedule to hunt and rest in Tenzin's den afterwards. She focused and followed Tenzin's instructions. She first used give stone to move a piece of her stone into the womb she didn't know she had. It kind of hurt but it was bearable.

She successfully used her give stone spell. Now she used give life to give a little of her magic to her stone to wake it up. Once it was done, she felt different, as if she holding something precious in her midsection. Her eyes widened with joy. "Tenzin, I think it worked! I'm holding a child, I can feel it!" She looked to Tenzin with a grateful expression. He truly was a kind creature, no doubt about that!

@Game Master CJ