The walk home felt like a dream, or more accurately, a waking nightmare. Eratz and Mercury walked side by side, their usual banter replaced by stunned silence.
The world seemed oddly quieter as if the universe had decided to acknowledge their situation by shrouding everything in an eerie calm. The moon hung low, casting a pale glow over them.
Finally, Mercury broke the silence.
"So, uh…" she started, her voice unusually small. "We're gonna have a baby."
Eratz nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the pavement.
"Yup," he said, the word coming out with the weight of someone trying to process a cosmic revelation. "A real, actual baby. Like… a human one."
Mercury stopped and turned to him, her hands on her hips.
"What other kind of baby did you think it would be? A Vulpan cub?"
Eratz blinked, his mind visibly stalling.
"Is there a possibility that a gene gets passed from our beasts to..."
