THE EGG

Following the cries of a baby, Marina, Judith and her daughters found themselves in Araxie's room where they witnessed something extra beyond normal.

Araxie had transformed into a mermaid and that wasn't all,- she had layed a huge egg! Neither Trion nor anyone else had ever witnessed something like that before.

Trion had lived with merpeople for such a long time and had never seen something of a sort.

"Do mermaids lay eggs?"Marina hurried to ask because her instincts were telling her that something was really wrong.

"No Mother in-law. I... I have never seen this before. What's happening with my wife? Araxie dear... open your eyes and tell me."Trion called but Araxie was unconscious.

Meanwhile, Tia found the diary but had no time to read it through so she decided to take it with.

On her way home, she wondered if the book contained the information she wanted that's why she sat somewhere and looked through and thankfully she did find the information she wanted.

It stated that;

``When a merman mates with a human and chooses to make her his life partner,the woman would become a mermaid after certain rituals (marking and mating).

However that won't take away her human nature,- For that reason she would be able to live healthy on both land and in water.

And when it comes to pregnancy, she would carry the baby in her womb for nine months like any other mermaid however, there are some other cases that would arise just in case she's expecting a set of twins.

No mermaid has ever given birth to twins because we're not blessed with them. Human mates would definitely possess such blessings but it's unfortunate that those same blessings would cause so much pain and bad luck to the mother for nine months and that's why it is wise to poison and eliminate one of the babies before they're born.

In such cases, a woman would lay an egg at certain point as it would depend on her fertility strength. Our ancestors would destroy the egg immediately after it's layed because it becomes impossible once it has hardened.- The longer it stays, the harder it becomes!

And once it's hardened, no matter how hard you hit it, it would never break till its hatching period which is after nine months.

Once the need to keep it arises, one must keep it in water till the hatching time. The other baby would grow normally inside a mother's womb.

Life is very strange in a way that the one who will spend nine months inside the mother's womb will never get to spend much time with her once it's born because after birth, that child would belong to the world. He or she would be a total and complete human while the other who grew up inside the egg would be a merperson and all these would make them super extraordinary from the other earthly twins. Their bond would be special and the love between the two would always keep strong and so would their enemity in case of any misunderstandings. And if at all their mother happens to see them fighting, she'd go blind instantly and nothing in the world would ever heal her EXCEPT;-

......(Blank space).

"There's nothing written here.

Oh gosh, that means we have to destroy the egg immediately otherwise Araxie's life would forever be in danger."Tia breathed as she stood up on her legs.

With her heart racing so faster, she teleported straight to the palace hoping to stop things from falling apart but she fell down to her knees when her eyes landed on the huge egg besides Araxie who laid down on the bed in her mermaidal form.

"Damn it!

This is very bad!"a word escaped her mouth and everyone fixed their attention on her.

"Do you know what it means?"Marina who was deadly worried about her daughter asked.

Ignoring her question, Tia quickly got up and said, " we have to break this egg right away. We don't have another choice."

Tears were rolling down her face and Trion could tell that breaking the egg was something like committing a sin otherwise his mom wouldn't look that shaky when ordering some men to break it.

"Wait! Why should we break it when there's a baby in there."

"A baby?"Tia's eyes fell widely open on hearing her son talk about the baby. She always wished to be a grandma and Trion, a father but right then circumstances were as such that they had to kill his baby to save the Mother from going blind.

"Yes mother. There's a baby inside this egg. It was crying a moment ago and... I don't know how I will explain this to you but when it cried, I....I.. felt I was so much attached to it. I wished to break inside and carry it in my arms."

His words were so touching especially for Tia who wished to break the egg hence killing the innocent baby. Ignoring her son's emotions, Tia ordered the servants to carry the egg and go break it from somewhere far away from the castle.

Everyone was left placing fingers on their mouths after the egg slipped out these three men's hands and fell down but surprisingly it didn't break.

"What kind of magic does it possess."Tia sounded shocked. "This means it has already hardened, oh no!

What do I do now."she looked pale and everyone could notice that she was bothered.

"I hope you're not doing anything wrong Mother,huh? Why do I have a feeling that you're trying to take away my child's life?

I won't let you take this egg from here, never!"

"Trion my son. Do you really look at me as your enemy. Tell me dear... when did I change and became someone who wishes ill for you.

Of course no Mother would ever compromise when it comes to her child's happiness and I'm one of those mothers.

I will never do anything to break your heart on purpose."she said before she added thoughtfully, "I'm sorry son. I have to do this to save your wife. I'm sure you'd have chosen your wife if you were given an opportunity to choose between the two but I didn't want to cause you so much pain for I know that you love your child as much as you love your wife and it'd be difficult for you to choose that's why I'm doing it for you.

Saving your wife would give a happy life to two people and that's Araxie and her unborn baby."Tia thought as they walked out of the gate.

They were about to close the gate from behind when Araxie's angry voice spoke that made the castle's walls to crack down.

"Where are you taking my baby?

And who gave y'all permission to lay your dirty hands on my precious son?

Tell me right now."she yelled at them while she walked towards them.

"Don't dare take any step further!"Tia ordered out of fear. Her biggest fear was almost approaching.

"Hey, don't dare stop me today otherwise I'll forget that you're my husband's Mother!"

There was exchanging of harsh words between Tia and her daughter in-law Araxie because of their different decisions concerning the egg.

On returning home, king Beryl's happy face dropped immediately after seeing how angrily both Tia and Araxie seemed with each other. He tried convincing them but no one was willing to listen till he asked them to bring the matter to his table and at the end of it all, everyone was so disappointed in Tia.

It's very common that the consequences of a defeated mother in-law are always felt by the daughter in-law and that's what happened to Araxie.

Such a situation caused a big rift between Araxie and her mother in-law Tia which later forced Trion to take his wife back to the Sea leaving the egg behind under King Beryl's, Marina and Judith's supervision as it was written that it shouldn't get anywhere close to the Sea till it's hatched.

After spending some months without her son and daughter in-law, Tia finally realized her mistake.

Her intentions may have been true and good but her decision was wrong.

Separating a child from the mother would never be a good idea no matter what the reason is!

Araxie was resting in a cave, admiring the beauty of the sea when a soft hand touched her shoulder from behind.

Turning around had become impossible since she was heavily pregnant already.

She guessed that it was one of her friends because she had made everyone her friend and even allowed them to get very familiar with her despite being a queen and that made her everyone's favorite.

She was still waiting for the merperson to show herself in front of her before she realized that it was none other than her mother in-law.

"Mother!"she called and began crying right away. Their misunderstanding was nothing compared to the way she missed her.

"Araxie dear."Tia replied before they embraced each other in a tight hug that seemed like forever.

"How are you and the baby."

"We're fine Mother.

How's my son.

I mean the egg."

"It's fine."