Oakley lowered his head. “We will see when the time comes.”
Gu Mengmeng didn’t force the issue but just stood up and headed out. She paused as she was passing Oakley and spoke after a brief silence. “I just hope that you will not do anything that you might regret.”
Oakley didn’t reply. Elvis carried Gu Mengmeng and left with brisk steps.
Time passed very fast and on the fifth day, Collin rushed into the stone castle to say that Sandy’s tummy hurt badly and looked like she was about to give birth.
Gu Mengmeng immediately had Elvis carry her and rush over. When they reached the stone house, they could hear Sandy’s gut-wrenching shrieks as she cried out her name. “Gu Mengmeng… Gu… Mengmeng… is she here yet?!”
Without a care for anything else, Gu Mengmeng charged inside to hold Sandy’s hand. “Here, here. I have come now.”
Sandy’s forehead was drenched in sweat and she clutched back at Gu Mengmeng’s hand. She gasped nasally, “Painful… so painful…”
Gu Mengmeng dragged Bode over and shoved his paws into Sandy’s hands. “This was the bloke who caused you to suffer so much pain. Just bite him whenever you can’t bear it. Bite off this paw and I will hand you the other one!”
Sandy gripped Bode’s arm and nodded solemnly at Gu Mengmeng.
Gu Mengmeng had given birth before, but she didn’t have any experience delivering a child…
She recalled that when she was giving birth, Lea had held her head while Elvis was the one who delivered the babies.
Should she… call Elvis over?
But that felt rather inappropriate.
Bode’s heart ached as he watched Sandy suffer. But he had to go lick off the afterbirth from the newborns.
He looked around in a panic before shouting, “Collin.”
Collin had just entered bearing a pot of hot water. He hurried over the moment he heard Bode. “What?”
Bode grabbed Collin’s hand and passed it over to Sandy. He looked at Collin. “You have to take my place this time. Next time when Sandy bears your children, I will return the favor.”
Collin looked confused and before he had time to understand what was going on, Sandy bit down on his hand. Collin growled in pain. “Roar…!”
Elvis and Lea both jumped in fright.
It was usually the females who screamed during childbirth. Why was it the males who were crying out instead at Sandy’s?!
Gu Mengmeng’s heart ached for Sandy. She cleaned a small piece of animal skin with warm water before sitting beside her on the bed, using it to wipe Sandy’s face. “Sandy, control your breathing, don’t hold your breath.”
In Sandy’s eyes, Gu Mengmeng was her pillar of strength. She felt panicky and helpless and had no idea what to do. So she just did whatever Gu Mengmeng asked of her.
“Adali, clean this skin.” Gu Mengmeng tossed the animal skin in her hand to Sandy’s other bear partner. Adali was also spinning around in a fluster. Hearing Gu Mengmeng’s command, he obeyed like a robot and washed the animal skins one after another. Having washed one, he would pass it to Gu Mengmeng and take over the used one to rewash it.
Overly anxious, Adali tore quite a few animal skins as he was washing it. As someone who was not afraid of tearing open a prey’s chest and gutting it, his hands were trembling non-stop now.
Gu Mengmeng shouted at him as she wiped Sandy’s face. “Why are you in such a fluster! I am here overseeing things, what do you have to be scared of? Calm down!”
At Gu Mengmeng’s shout, all those males who were at their wits’ end suddenly calmed down. They nodded and stood in a line by Gu Mengmeng’s side, awaiting her instructions.