Eggy Arrangement - Final (Patreon)

Part 9:

The family sat across from me as I gave my confession in the small clearing outside town. Their faces were about what I expected given what I was telling them, I had to admit.

Grolog was the first to speak, nodding slowly as he thought things over. “I… may owe your mother a slight apology, then. Not a full apology, because she’d told me you were on board with the engagement plan when I paid for your ticket, but… still, some of the specifics of what I yelled at her about seem a bit uncalled for now.”

“W-what did you say to her?” I asked, slightly concerned.

“Well, when she said to… uh, to take your shirt off to show you were ‘really a boy’… I thought of someone doing something similar to little Zago and I… well, I said some things I’d rather not repeat,” the mountain of a man said, gaze falling to the ground.

“Ah,” I replied quietly, not sure what else to say.

“It was part of why we were all so focused on making sure you felt comfortable here,” Y’suk explained, smiling softly. “We worried your mother had been forcing you to live as a boy.”

“Oh… I… thank you,” I replied, feeling a smile spread across my face. “I… well, I do feel guilty now for… eh, even if I wasn’t actually lying, I thought I was, so…”

“Will say I’m glad you didn’t turn out to be a straight girl like you tried to convince us at first, since you’re so cute,” Eka said, shooting a smile my way that made my heart quicken.

“Did you want to go visit the mages while they’re still here?” Zago asked.

“The—oh!! I… how much does it cost? I still don’t have much money,” I replied, blinking as I realised that possibility had completely slipped my mind.

“It was free for me,” Zago said, grinning away.

“You had a waiver from Doctor Greenman though, dear,” Grolog replied.

“Could I get a waiver from Doctor Greenman?” I asked, having not realised that was a thing.

The family blinked, before exchanging a few glances. They then murmured a few replies that generally seemed to say yes, but there was a specific issue that came up: time.

The travelling mages only stayed for a day, and it wasn’t clear all the paperwork would get filled out in time, even if we rushed straight over to the Doctor’s office.

“Well, how often do these sorts of mages tend to show up?” I asked.

“Maybe… once or twice a year?” Y’suk replied.

“Oh,” I said, before giving a nod. “I mean, I could probably handle another year like this. My body doesn’t bother me much… I guess it’s like… uh, what was it you said about yourself before, Zago? Something about girl because… girl?”

“It’s a girl’s body because it belongs to a girl?” the youngest sister offered.

“Yes. That,” I replied. “… especially because elven girls don’t tend to have much in the way of curves, so I’d probably look about the same.”

Well, unless I lucked out and got my mum’s human figure genes with my body changed around, but that seemed unlikely.

-

Staring at the mirror, adjusting my dress, I was left with one clear thought.

“I should have gotten the change before I had the measurements done for this dress.”

“So it’s a little figure hugging,” Tua’rin said with a shrug. “You look good.”

“I think you’re the prettiest bride I’ve ever seen,” Y’suk added in a soft voice.

I found myself blushing. “I—gosh, than—wait.”

The eldest of my future sister-in-laws flashed a tusked smile. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

As a response I pouted. Until I remembered the blind orcish woman couldn’t actually see my (adorable, in my humble opinion) pouting, and had to grumble a little.

A knocking at the door distracted us from that conversation, however.

“May I come in?” my mother’s voice called out.

I let out a tired sigh. Sure, her whole scheme had worked out in the end. Plus, Eka and Grolog had also pushed for me to forgive her because they didn’t like me cutting out my own mother from my life. So that was why she was here, but…

But she was still on thin ice in my books.

“Depends what you’re after,” I replied, in a tone I’d used with her for years, having smartened up to her scheming long ago.

“I’ve got some jewelry that I think might go with your dress,” she replied.

Tentatively, I popped the door open a smidge to see the jewelry box she was carrying. The various necklaces and rings looked beautiful, if quite old. They were definitely elven, and of high quality.

“Family heirlooms I didn’t know about?” I asked, while trying to assess how much the various pieces had to be worth.

“Yep… well, somebody’s family’s heirlooms,” she replied, flashing a smile.

“And you’ve had it all swept for curses?” I asked, my eyes being drawn to a few pieces.

Until I realised my mother wasn’t replying, drawing my eyes up to see her looking lost in thought.

“You haven’t? These are clearly Elven… Elves love to curse things,” I said, staring at her.

“I knew I forgot something in my excitement,” she mumbled.

“About how your plans usually go,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.

“Well, can I come in? I want to see my little girl before she gets married,” my mother asked, putting on a sweeter tone as she closed the jewelry box.

The mix of the tone and the words led to me briefly losing my resistance to her. I stepped back so she could come in, and soon found myself doing a twirl in my dress to give her a full view of it.

“You look so cute!” she said, pulling me into a hug.

I found myself returning it, the joy of my mother so firmly accepting me as her daughter overcoming my usual resistance to her and her brand of nonsense.

“As much as I don’t want to break up this family bonding moment,” Tua’rin said in a soft voice, “the ceremony is scheduled to start in a few moments. You should probably get heading out.”

I gave a nod, breaking off the hug and double checking my hair in the mirror. Then I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and headed out, into the hallway of the temple. Walking a few paces, I entered the circular room at the heart of the temple, guests all around.

They were mostly friends of Eka’s family, since we were in her hometown, but there were a few other folks up from Dha’vin. Rolick and his family were sitting near the middle of the circular, the second row from the central platform. I was also surprised to see a couple other classmates. And, especially, two of my exes. Sure, we’d parted on good enough terms, but… the way they were studying me as I stood at my entrance to the room was rather intense…

Oh. Right. Since I was a girl, I was presumably their only known ex-girlfriend. Perhaps they were trying to work out what that meant about them.

Thoughts about anyone else in the room fizzle, however, as Eka walked into view on her side of the chamber. Her orcish wedding dress was beautiful, with red floral patterns on white fabric.  Her hair was also done up, the braids usually hanging from her locks wrapped around her head as a crown braid, a flower and bead decorated a hat that made her manage to look even taller.

The small orcish choir began to sing as we both walked down our respective pathways to the middle. I felt as if I was walking on air as we met in the middle, joining our hands together.

She smiled and my heart skipped a beat.

“You look beautiful,” she whispered.

A noise escaped my lips that was, perhaps, not the most dignified, before I managed to mutter ‘you too’.

“Well, that seems like a good start to a wedding,” a female voice said, drawing me from my thoughts.

The voice, of course, belonged to Eka’s mother, a tall Nymph with ice blue skin and white hair, a proof that northern Nymph’s looked quite different from the ones back in Elven lands. She was visibly wilder than any down south, wearing flowing robes and with a mix of wood and flowers in her hair.

“As a witness of the forest, I would like to ask, do you both love one another?” she asked, in her role as the officiator.

“With all my heart,” we replied in sync.

“Are you prepared to prove it?” Eka’s mother asked.

“Of course,” Eka and I replied, once more in unison, as we’d rehearsed.

“Let’s see the proof, then,” she replied, before clapping.

Within a moment there was a blindfold around my eyes. A number of voices because to cheerfully sing a chant of an orcish phrase that meant something akin to ‘Where are you my love? Are you my love?’. I joined the singing, listening for Eka’s voice while hoping I wasn’t butchering the pronunciation of the Orcish words too badly.

Various hands nudged me and spun me about as I tried to make my way to her voice, feeling her presence as I got closer. While I certainly didn’t think I had the power to locate her just by the bond of our love normally, here in the marriage hall there was magic in place to amplify the connection.

Even blindfolded, and with the increasing noise as the choir joined in the singing, I felt guided towards her. I could feel a few flickers of other bonds, as I noticed other voices stumbling over the orcish. My exes who’d come, filling the role of being part of the test of love. The slight lingering connection to them was nothing next to what I felt for Eka, however.

Despite being spun and nudged, I soon knew she was in front of me, and grabbed onto her hands.

“My love?” she asked in her rich and powerful voice.

“My love?” I replied.

“What love!” Eka’s mother called out with a clap.

The hall erupted in cheers as we took our blindfolds off, staring at one another for a moment, before she leaned down and pulled me into a kiss.

I had grown familiar with the feeling of her lips. The soft pressure from her tusks. We’d kissed many times in the past several months, but each kiss still felt as wonderful as the first.

“As Nature’s witness, I proclaim this marriage recognised!” Eka’s mother shouted cheerfully over the applause of the audience.

We broke the kiss at last, turning to be congratulated by a wave of friends and family. Most of mine seemed a bit confused by it all, having been used to the cold order of Elven ceremonies, but they also seemed to be having fun.

Soon food and drinks were being brought into the hall, a spread designed for Orcs, Humans, and Elves to share. The choir began to sing something with more energy, a few oversized Orcish fiddles joining them to start some songs truly worth dancing to.

I soon found myself lifted into the air, the various Orcish women letting out playful remarks of how tiny and delicate I was as they tossed me between them, a tradition I’d heard was falling out of fashion in most mixed Orcish marriages, but I found delightful. Being called small and cute filled me with a bubbling joy, and, at the end, I found myself caught by Eka, happily proclaiming that I was hers.

In the end, of course, even the wildest parties come to an end. Not that we stayed all the way, however. Eka and I snuck off towards the room for newly weds once we’d eaten our fill.

Collapsing onto the large bed, both of us still in our dresses, I rested my head against her midsection, feeling her slow calming breathing. While wondering if I could feel anything more. The reason I’d at last taken the plunge of changing, and why we’d moved the wedding up a little, to ensure Eka’s dress would fit comfortably.

“It’s going to be a long while before there’s any movement or kicking, you know,” Eka said.

“Well, apologies for being a little impatient. You get to feel being a mum already,” I mumbled, enjoying resting my head against her.

“Mhm, the morning sickness is delightful,” she replied curling around on the bed to largely surround me.

I rolled over, propping myself up to lean over her. “I’ll just have to help make it up to you with extra love and kisses then, I suppose.”

“I think you like the kisses just as much as I do,” she said, looking up at me with a large smile, showing off her impressive orcish teeth.

“We’ll just have to test that, now won’t we, my dearest wife?” I replied, before leaning in to kiss her once more.