The young wizards were made to fertilize the Tree of Life two more times. Each time they made token efforts to resist, but they all remember what had happened to Manfred. Each time they fertilized it, the black bark of the tree seemed to grow shinier, and new buds seemed to form on the tree.
And then, two days later, they saw it. A giant bud, not like the others, on a low lying branch. Within another day it had formed completely. It was a seed, a dark, black seed, the size of a finger.
"Careful," Sanjay snapped, as Selvanna ever so gently removed it from the tree.
********
"I should be the one!" said Zaragoth. Cunha and Sanjay just looked at her.
"I am the High Priestess of the Church of Penance and Humility," said Zaragoth. "I should be the one to incubate and bear the seed which brings the Compassionate One into the world."
"Are you finished?" Cunha asked.
"I don't know. Am I?" Zaragoth asked.
"You have been selected," said Sanjay.
"I have?" said Zaragoth.
"She has?" said Selvanna.
"She has," said Sanjay.
"Oh!" Zaragoth cried. She hugged Cunha tightly. Then she automatically moved to hug Sanjay, and then realized what she was about to do, but Sanjay actually nodded and smiled, and she hugged him too. Then she found herself hugging Selvanna, which was awkward. "Wish me luck, big sister," she said.
"Always," said Selvanna sweetly.
"Well," said Zaragoth, taking a deep breath. "There's no sense in delaying the inevitable. If you would all leave now, my darling husband and I have some very important work to do!"
Cunha isn't her husband. He's mine
, thought Selvanna.
But as she turned to go, Zaragoth said, "One moment, Sister."
Selvanna turned.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
Selvanna looked at her younger sister blankly.
"The seed." Zaragoth held out her hand.
"Of course, Sister," Selvanna smiled. She walked up to Zaragoth, and with a smile still painted on her face, handed Zaragoth the seed.
"That woman!" Zaragoth hissed, as Selvanna left. She found herself trembling with rage.
"Hey," said Cunha, grabbing her by the arms. "Who has just been given the ultimate honor to incubate the Compassionate One's entry into our world?"
"That would be me," Zaragoth sighed.
"Then let's get to it," said Cunha, giving her a kiss.
********
Zaragoth's spirits were much higher the next morning. She talked non-stop about how Cunha had lovingly filled her with his hot wax, fertilizing the seed within her.
Dog and Zaragoth chatted about it in low tones.
"From the way she's talking, she makes it sound like it took all night to do," said Dog Man. "Does it really take people that long?"
"You're a dog," said Zebrah contemptuously. "Two minutes, and you're done."
"And how long does it take you?" Dog Man asked, sticking out his tongue.
Zebrah looked away.
********
Zaragoth's mood, while high, started to sink a bit the second day when she didn't immediately start baking a meat pie. Sanjay had told her that it would be unlikely any pregnancy she had ever had, and the meat pie should form within a day or two.
On the third day Zaragoth was concerned.
On the fourth day Zaragoth was worried.
And then Sanjay stepped in, and performed a humiliating examination. When he emerged from his spelunking of Zaragoth's Sacred Gorge, he shook his head.
No.
No!
********
Selvanna tried to hide her smile as she watched the young Wizards fertilizing the tree of life again. The druid girls once again obediently aroused and sucked at their candelabras and then had them insert themselves in the proper holes.
And then two days later, they had another seed.
********
"Selvanna will do it."
"What?" said Zaragoth. "I thought I was getting another chance-"
"You had your chance, Zaragoth," said Sanjay. "You have never baked a meat pie before. Selvanna has, twice. She will be the one to bring the Compassionate One into the world."
Selvanna hugged her shocked sister. "Wish me luck, Sis," she said, in a mocking tone.
And then Selvanna found herself in a bedroom with her husband.
She looked at him nervously. It had been years since they had shared a bedroom together, much less.... After Cunha had started with Zaragoth, he still let Selvanna juice him from time to time, but less and less frequently, and over the course of a year she gradually herself totally bangstick barren. Selvanna was simply a nanny, who also happened to be a mother to his children.
But now they were placed in the same role again.
Selvanna wrapped her arms around him. "It seems, husband, that you were meant to fill me with a meat pie once again."
"Yes," he said, unsmiling. Selvanna would have given anything to know what he was thinking right now. He pulled her close, but just looked at her.
"Kiss me," she said, trying not to sound too needy.
He looked at her for a long moment, in the way he used to, and she shivered, and then he did. Selvanna felt his lips pressing against his, and suddenly it was like old times again.
Selvanna felt the
jizz
rising in him, and he the
ahmen
in here, and before long they were ripping their clothes off with abandon. And then Selvanna solemnly handed Cunha the seed, and lay back and raised her knees.