The Freedom of Slavery Ch. 12

Okay, this is a long awaited chapter, so enjoy!

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Lezar and Kalba came back with a few minor wounds and most of their men were in the same boat, but one or two needed immediate medical attention and were dropped off at the medical facility. Luckily, the wounds were not life threatening, just deep and needing to be stitched up.

"The mongrels were pretty damn good, Jedo and Katar got jumped and had their necks chewed on and chests scratched up, but killed the bastards before they could really do much damage.

No major vessels were bit, amazingly, and Jedo made sure he kept a souvenir; one of his attacker's teeth got imbedded into the muscle in his shoulder when he used the hilt of his sword to knock the rest out and get it off him. We wanted to display the mutilated bodies as a warning, but we decided we are not quite barbaric enough for that and so we dug a massive pit and lit the bodies on fire. Kalba also kept a souvenir, but his is at least useful."

Kalba then came forward with a leader token and a massive pelt. "I thought we could use this to train our warriors on the scent of Canids and then turn it into a front door mat. Or maybe we could use it for target practice. Much more useful then a tooth."

"Yeah, but it makes a great story about how badass Jedo is. Maybe he could start a collection, a tooth for every Canid he kills. I know I will." Jahar said.

"Are you not forgetting something you bunch of bloodthirsty curs? We have a guest who is also a Canid, who wants us to rescue his fellow Canids, and who does not need to be further stressed after nearly being killed by the mongrels you just finished torching.

Take that piece of shit flea-bitten mangy mongrel's excuse for a fur coat out of my house then get your asses ready to mount another rescue or I can get you ready to be torched."

"Yes Warlord General, I'll just pop into the medical facility to get patched up then I am on it, but I do need a guide. Will our guest be up to it Gobin or should I just follow the tracks and hope they lead all the way there?

I am sorry honored guest if I insulted you; I personally consider you and your brethren to be a separate species from Canids and more like us than them. I would be honored to rescue your sacred order from our enemies." Lezar said, with a nudge at Kalba who was trying to escape back out the door.

"I concur with Lezar, and I hope you accept our apologies. I ask for forgiveness for speaking without being sensitive to my audience and would be glad to save your fellow brethren."

"By the time you get back, Aton should be good to travel if he is carried for the first 24 hours. I know that the temple of the Holy Order of Anubis is out in BFE and at least 4 days travel from here, so he should be back to fighting form by the time you get there.

As Aton said to us, there is a least one dire wolf in the mess and about 20 battle packs to clean up, so take the army and whoop some ass. I want to start collecting these leader tokens like the Germans collected the Roman eagles, so

I am expecting at least 20 when you get back. I also want a tooth from the dire wolf to compare size differences." Gobin ordered, hoping to get a more macho image so he could feel like a Warlord.

"Gobin, dude, just show the troops what you can do with a scalpel and no one will fuck with you. I saw what you did to that prisoner that Helius wanted help interrogating. He didn't even notice he had been gelded until the next day, and that was only because you let him go the next day.

I know how much of a badass you are, so save the posturing for the little punks who will need it." Lezar told his brother, laughingly.

With that parting shot, Lezar and Kalba got rid of the pelt and took care of their wounds before coming to pick up Aton and getting the army packed for the journey and the rescue.

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This rescue mission was a great first field test of the communications network and the training of the warriors. Ilan got a work out too as his supply trains brought in extra medical supplies and brought home the bodies of fallen warriors.

Luckily, of the 150 warriors that were sent to battle, only 10 died, and after the first one that died in transit, a medic that had been working to save his brother and drained his own life energy into his brother, Gobin met the healers rotating back to base and went into the field himself, determined to make sure that the healers took care of themselves and those brought into their care.

After 4 days in battle, the dire wolf had been sniped by a stealth fighter using his throwing knives to finish him off before he finished off Lezar.

Needless to say, the fighter was well rewarded with an extra medal of valor, which the whole ceremony needed to take place after the cubs were born because the highest ranking officer did the ceremony, and she was very pregnant and while not sick with worry, was not happy about her mate not being with her.

It took a total of a month to find all the mongrels, but the siege had been broken after 15 days, so the Anubites were able to make their way through the camp, helping the war-weary warriors with morale and the healers with fresh helping hands.

Aton and his brethren arrived a week before all the warriors were confident they had killed all the Canids involved in the siege, as did most of the army. Only Lezar, Kalba, Gobin, and two other battle packs were left with the clean up.

The Daughters of Eris had been involved with the siege, and their cloaking abilities had allowed for the enemy camp to be hidden for quite a long time. When they saw that the army had left, they thought the whole army had left, so they took down the cloaking barrier and when the dust settled from that last battle, the souvenir total came to: one bracelet of the Daughters of Eris, one dire wolf tooth, and 22 leader tokens.

Most of the warriors had also started making necklaces of Canid teeth from each of their kills, and the number of teeth from that was rather impressive, with a total of 140 kills.

With one month until the cubs were born, Kali was impatient for them to just be born already, having had little to do but lay and worry or focus on learning the ceremony for bestowing battle honors.

"Ok, one eye of Horus for valor in battle, one ahnk for every life saved through perseverance in healing, one scarab for each promotion in rank, and one sun for each year served in that rank.

The falcon of Horus is the symbol for a lalzan or higher and two means malzan, three is a nalzan, and four is a palzan, of which are supposed to be defenders only having earned that right, but the male that saved Lezar is a palzan who trains stealth fighters correct?" Kali projected, tired of trying to figure out all these ranks and symbols and the ceremonial words while her mate was still not here.

"Gobin is two days out, is healed from the scratches he got when a patient was struggling, and conserving his energy so he can be here with you and not pass out the second he walks through the door.

You will have to give every person who was out there medals, including Gobin, so the least you can do is learn to identify them so you can call them by their rank like they deserve. Speaking of, what should be on his lapel?" Jahar scolded, understanding in his voice.

"Before I place his new medals, he will have 65 ahnks, two scarabs, two falcons of Horus, 19 suns, which still confuses me, and 8 eyes of Horus."

"You earn the first 15 in active warrior ranks halzan, jalzan and kalzan, and battle packs are able to pick defensive or offensive duty when they reach lalzan.

Defensive duty would take 5 years to get to the next rank, but offensive raises your rank in two years, defensive duty palzans are required to retire, but offensive palzans are simply switched to defensive duty until the full 20 years are finished.

In the case of recent events, if you can still function as an active duty fighter, you may petition to be put into the field and we call it the warrior's right. A warrior has the right to defend his family as long he is not a liability on the field.

Some, like Mandar and his brothers, chose not to invoke that right because they know that training is as important as fighting or that they could be better elsewhere."

"Okay, that makes sense, some of the ways you do things here differ vastly from how it is done on Earth, but I think it is for the better. No one is forced to learn more than basic self defense, no one is drafted into the army and forced to fight, and you even have options open for ways to keep a warrior's pride even if they are old or less capable due to war injuries.

You don't even wear uniforms except for the ceremony, which is smart if you have to shift into cat-form to kick some ass. Valor medals are what I think they are right? They are given if your actions save another's life while putting your own at risk?"

"More than that, you have to have been willing to sacrifice your life for the person you are saving, which is rarely an issue, but some of the younger warriors try to one-up each other with their medal count and they do something brave just to get a medal. Once you have proven yourself willing to do so, any further acts of valor are rarely questioned."

Just then, Kali realized why she had been antsier than the situation warranted. She started feeling labor urges, the urge to make a den and find her mate, who often did the delivery with a doctor supervising.

"Jahar, get the den started and I'll give Gobin a reason to get his ass home now."

"Oh gods, why did you have to start this early? You should have another month yet."

"Not according to them!"

"Gobin, get your ass home now, your cubs decided to arrive early!"

"You are still just in the urge stage right? Ask the gods, beg them if you have to, to give you another day, though at this stage you could have anywhere from a few hours to a week until they come. Helius has helped me deliver cubs before; make sure he is with you and Jahar just in case.

I am going to shift to cat-form and run like hell, but it will still take me at least 12-16 hours to get to you. Hang in there, cubs are rarely a problem, even early they can come out with very little post-natal care needed, but even so tell the tsarzan so he can have his physician on alert."

"Just get here in one piece and be ready to greet your children."

With those reassurances of her mate moving like a bat out of hell trying to get home to help her bring their cubs into the world, she headed off to see how the den was coming. There were plenty of pillows, vats of warm water and blankets, the fegentes and magentes her cubs started with laid out along with her fegentes and her focantes.

She made sure to tell Jahar what Gobin had said, and the tsarzan was put on alert, these were the start of the army of awesomeness after all. Lezar and Kalba were also running with Gobin, and Helius and Ilan were with Kali and Jahar, so this was going to be one massive family event, a bonding that was needed for them all to feel like a family.

With all the preparations and a moody pregnant female to keep happy, they had not really been bonding all that much and this was seen as a major make-up for that lost time.

"Xixi, please make my cubs wait for my family to be together to greet them. Grant me this one joy in this time of war."

"Of course dear, we are fickle, not cruel. If we didn't grant you this, I would have to get really creative in my personal name-calling to make up for it. We are giving the travelers some psychic Red-Bull, courtesy of Zorcon. I think he just wants to see his grand-babies meet their mates, the big softy."

"I'll tell him you said that, just to see the look on his face."

It turned out, with the psychic Red-Bull, nine hours to make a trip that should have taken 48 was indeed a record, go god power! Gobin and the others washed up and were greeted with a massive buffet of food when they went to check in on the mother-to-be.

"Get your asses in here and eat, Xixi can't make them wait much longer and I am sick of all the damn kicking! Gobin, eat and deliver because I think your son is coming first."

Gobin greeted his mate, grabbed some food, used the focantes to see where the babies were positioned, and said, "Mate, I do believe you are right, I am surprised he didn't pop out hours earlier. Also, they look full term, so this may be because of our demi-god status that they grew so quick. Now give one massive push so I can greet our son."

Kali gave one massive push and the male cub just slid right out. Gobin caught him in a damp blanket, got him out of the womb sac, and rubbed the fluids off his fur while encouraging the mucus out of his mouth, nose and lungs.

After a few seconds, the cub gave a massive cough and roared his displeasure, just like the lion coloring he had, though he also had a couple of black and white stripes of royalty on his back and chest.

"His name is Leandro, lion-man. Here comes one of your daughters, hand him to Jahar, then Ilan."

Gobin handed Leandro to his other father, then Jahar handed him to his mate after he cut the cord. Gobin got ready to catch his first daughter.

"You ready to push?"

"You ready to catch?"

"Then give me my first daughter."

With a push, Katerina was born and held by both her fathers before Kalba got to hold his mate. Jasmina went to Lezar and Iris went to Helius. Katerina was a leopard, Jasmina was a tiger and Iris was a panther, though it was hard to tell if she had rosettes or spots, but like their brother, they had the royal stripes.

"Alright, give me a few minutes to recover, then bring them back to nurse so I can interact with my cubs. Oh, and you may want to stay back for a few minutes while they are feeding, or I will not be responsible for limbs being sliced off."

After a final quick physical by Gobin, each of the cubs was brought over to nurse and Gobin sat near Kali's head to tell her what he found.

"They are all fine, Iris is currently the runt, she had a slight rasp in her breathing that is slowly evening out, so she is fine. Katerina needs to have her ears looked at more closely, as I think I did not manage to get out all the fluid but that can wait until she is done eating.

Within a couple of days, not today, they need to go to the medical facility to examine their human and hybrid forms for smooth transitions, but I think they look beautiful and healthy."

"How long will I need to stay in cat-form? I want to actually hold each of my cubs like I would if they were born human."

"You only need to do it when they are hungry, so in a few hours after they have eaten and rested, you should be fine to hold them each individually. I will go get some of the play toys we have been collecting."

"Good, the last thing I need is to all of a sudden have four crazy cubs pouncing on me and themselves because they became active before they should.

If they were able to be born a month early, does that mean they might be active little terrors in a few days? Will their eyes open within a day? I am sick of all the damn surprises!"

"Well, Zathena or Xixi should have some answers, but I think you should expect almost full developmental time needed for a cub for each of the stages, though they may put on weight faster."

"I think I will get some answers, but I have missed you so stay with me for a little while, okay."

"I missed you as well my mate, our cubs are as beautiful as their mother."

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Kali decided to try her luck with Xixi first, but if Xixi passed her on to Zathena, that was fine as long as she got some answers.

"Xixi, I have a few questions and I don't know if they fall under your purview or Zathena's."

"It is about the cubs, right? Well, until a week has passed they are still under my guardianship as they are considered by the gods at least to have survived well enough to be protected by Zorcon or Zathena.

To answer your question about how they are going to develop, they will take about six days to open their eyes and crawl, two weeks to start standing for short periods of time, and their baby teeth should start coming in at two weeks as well.

They won't be actively walking and playing until week three and by week six, you can start weaning them fully to solid food. To first start giving them solid food at about three weeks, start with meat ground into small chunks and soaked in milk. The meat should be cooked until they are fully weaned, and each week make sure there is less liquid and more solid.

Add some mashed fruits and vegetables on a side platter at week five, as well as some fish. After they have been weaned fully, you can start taking them outside on leashes.

Trust Gobin with the medical aspects, he has a whole pantheon of gods and a whole mortal family who will skin him if he is wrong, so he knows not to take chances."

"Will all of my cubs follow this same time frame?"

"Highly likely, we are talking about demi-gods here."

Then Kali had a very scary revelation. "The 'Army of Awesomeness', it is not going to survive is it? My cubs will die in this war, won't they?"

"I can not say for certain, Set and Loki will be trying their damnedest to kill you all, that's for sure. But, often we gods become so attached to the mortal pawns we create that we call a truce. Set and Loki both have done so in the past, as have we, so both sides proceed as if that possibility is the eventual outcome.

That is the only bit of order that Set and Loki willingly embrace, because surprisingly both are very protective of their families, and they always contribute some DNA in the process of making their armies.

Do not let it upset you, because you have the most power to affect the outcome. You have the power to contact them yourself, but I caution you from doing so until you can bargain a truce. Make the most of the destiny you have been given, and make us proud."

"Thank you, with all these powers and all the training I have been getting, it makes it seem almost too easy. Please tell me you didn't bring Murphy's Law with you? That would royally suck!"

"Well then it royally sucks, Murphy was one hitchhiker we could not get rid of, hence the over-preparation."

With that parting remark, Xixi left Kali to explain to Gobin what he should expect for the cubs' growth rates. By the time the new parents had finished comparing information, Leandro lifted his head to let out a massive burp.

This prompted the brothers to poke their heads through the door, which then got them growled at for their bravery. Gobin got up with a kiss to Kali's head and went out to talk to his brothers.

"So, when can we be with our mates, brother?" Lezar pleaded.

"Are they healthy, is she fine, are they napping now?" Jahar asked.

"I will be going back in there in a minute to make sure everything is good. I am sure Kali won't mind if you were in human-form over by the other wall.

Jahar will go in first, as it is his mate that just gave birth, and then one at a time you all can probably visit. I will ask her though when I go back in. Now, are you all good or do you have more questions that need to be answered right now?"

"Can we tell the tsarzan that it went fine, or should his physician come by for a visit anyway?" Kalba asked.

"Tell him that we will be going to the medical facility within the week, everything went fine."

With his brothers reassured, Gobin went back in to check out Katerina's ears and Iris's breathing. With a more thorough cleaning, Katerina was put back for a well-deserved nap. Iris's breathing was deemed normal, but Gobin used his corantes and focantes to make sure the lungs were fine, and when he was reassured that that was the case, Iris also was placed back to snuggle with her littermates.