Duality

"What kinds of foods aren't we eating?" Laenda asked. Merla frowned.

"What Merla say?" Merla crawled up onto the bed, and tapped Laenda's fangs. "Made grammie teeth strong. Eat bone. Bones strong. Cheese. Milk. Momma need or milk make momma weak." Laenda started to think.

"The stuff to make bones strong is in milk?" She asked. Merla nodded. "I see. So that's what happens." She looked at Tazaa. "Mothers get weaker bones for a while after they breastfeed their babies. We've never known why. I guess we never thought about it." Tazaa frowned.

"You never mentioned that. Dammit, Lae, this is why things happen! You don't say anything! Did you even tell the healers?" Tazaa asked her with a growl.

"Why would we? It happened to my mother, and happens to all fangers." Laenda said. Tazaa rolled her eyes and stood up.

"I'm going to see Mother Queen, talk to Lix, and go see the senior healers. They should be told, and how to fix this problem." Tazaa looked at Merla. "Do you know anything else that would help?" Merla shrugged.

"Not eat food. Not know what food is. Milk cheese know." Merla said and nodded. "That all Merla know." Tazaa sighed.

"That's right. You're only a child." She leaned down and picked her up. "I'll talk to the healers, and see if they can see if there is something similar to cheese, and check it magically."

"Bones." Merla said. "Make soft?" Laenda nodded quickly.

"My momma used to boil bones to soften them. Makes a really nice broth. Maybe we've forgotten a few things the old ones used to do." She sighed. "We need to ask questions." Laenda said. Merla's eyes began to glow.

"The elders are always important, grandmother." Merla said in a full adult voice. "Send word to ask. I don't know the adult foods of the forest, but cheese, bones, and milk make stronger bones." Her eyes cleared, and she swayed a little before she yawned.

"Merla tired."

* * *

"Hm." Lixiss was pulled firmly against Vanya, while Lixiss growled at her. "Momma, I'm talking to my mother. Please be patient." She sighed.

"Sorry, mother. I never considered these things as I've never endured them." She frowned. "Are you taller?" Tazaa grinned.

"Merla made me stronger, at Duality's insistence. Normal orcs are not at their strongest. I am just over peak condition now." Tazaa said with a slight grin, then channeled manna into her hands. "She gave me a little gift so that I have the strength to protect her mate." Vanya's look intensified as she watched the pure manna cover her mother in law's hands.

"Can it return?" Vanya asked and watched as the manna was drawn back into her arms. "Interesting. It looks like it bleeds out of you, but doesn't."

"Merla called it a socket. She put in more veins, increased my manna storage, and gave me a new way to use it." She frowned. "Milk, cheese, and bones. I can chew them, an alteration of Merla's, but Laenda's mother softened bones in soups. We aren't weak, but we aren't as strong as we could be." Vanya slowly nodded.

"Agreed. We'll go with your idea. Talk to the senior healers, and let them know what you've been told. If they don't believe you, I'm sure they could scan you to see the proof. Since Lyra also nurses Merla, it would be a good idea to show the truth through her." Vanya said, and pursed her lips.

"Tazaa, I know you aren't fond of Lyra, and the things that have been done, but this is important to the tribe." Vanya said firmly.

"She is family, Mother Queen." Tazaa said. "She is Merla's mother, and Taen's wife. She may have disappointed me, but if I raise a hand to her, little Merla would break me in two." She rolled her eyes.

"Yes, she possesses a lot of power. If you don't keep yourself in check, her manna fog could be used as a weapon, as that assassin learned the hard way." Vanya smiled a small gentle smile. "She's still a child in many ways, even if she has a duality to her personality. She will react instead of thinking." Tazaa smiled.

"I know, as I've learned that the hard way."

* * *

"How did the healers take it?" Laenda asked her, with Merla nestled in her arms. Tazaa growled.

"Arrogant fools is what they are." She said angrily. She looked at Merla, and softened. "We'll need to prove our words with your mother, Lyra." Merla slowly nodded.

"Understand. Grammie, take to momma." She tapped Laenda's hand eagerly, but pursed her lips. "Legs weak. Fall over much. Need muscle." She said with a pout on her lips.

"It's not the lack of muscle, Merla." Laenda said. "Orc children are as strong as human adults. The problem is your control. You're still learning. Your mind has many things it's trying to do. Magical expressions. Growing your bones, and fangs. Working on your manna veins and core. It takes longer for an orc child to mature because there are so many things that need to mature." Merla thought for a moment.

"Grammie smart. Merla not know." She sighed, and snuggled in to Laenda's chest. "When sleep, watch over momma and Meena?" Laenda smiled gently.

"Of course, little Merla. We'll watch over them properly." She said. "Have you thought about helping Taen to evolve and grow stronger?"

"Painful." Merla said. "Momma decide, not Merla. If momma wants, Merla do." Her face looked a bit sad. "Not want hurt grammies, or momma. Still hurt grammies. Not like Merla." She sniffed.

"Baby, we love our granddaughter!" Laenda said firmly, while Tazaa knelt down in front her wife, and put her forehead to the top of Merla's feet.

"Merla is our granddaughter. She also fixed me, and made me stronger. The pain is nothing compared to the gifts." Tazaa said firmly. "Both Laenda and I have both agreed on this." She lifted her head. Both her own, and Laenda's eyes turned white as she made an oath.

"We belong to Merla."

* * *

"Lyra, Mother Queen has made this an order." Tazaa said firmly. Lyra took Merla from Laenda's arms and put Merla on her breast. "You are to eat more cheese, drink more milk, and eat more bone marrow, or bones softened in a broth." Lyra frowned.

"Is it really that important?" She asked quietly. Merla poked her chest, which made her grimace.

"See? You weaken while breastfeeding children. Milk rebuilds what you lose to Merla. We'll also check the diets of the strongest orcs, and the weakest. Clean meat is most common among the strong, but also vegetables, and grains." Tazaa said. "What is more common among the weaker ones is a lack of vegetables, cheaper meat, and sweets."

"Really? Sweets?"

"Sweets used as the main food make some of them fatter. More ground grains. We learned how to make human pastas, and the result hasn't been good." Tazaa said with a growl. "There are few things that come from the human world that is good for us." Lyra looked down at Merla and watched her smile.

"I have to get stronger, so I can watch Merla grow up." Lyra said softly.

"Merla has also agreed to help Taen grow stronger, but she's worried about the pain she will have to go through to get that way." Tazaa said. She flexed her fist, and coated it in manna. "Merla can make her stronger, but the immediate price is high." She drained the manna away, which shocked Lyra.

"How are you so strong, Merla?" Taen asked, seated beside Lyra, looked at her daughter carefully. Merla pointed up. There was no other answer required, especially when they felt two sets of eyes glare at them.

Their twin goddesses, Duality, are the reason they have Merla back in the first place. Those two unpredictable deities chose Merla, and made her strong enough to survive on their world.

Tazaa also glared at Taen. It was quite disrespectful of her to question this blessing. Merla was returned to their arms, after dying within Lyra's belly. She had been transported to a human world, strengthened, taken back to their abode, and strengthened again.

She was given back to them, and they were allowed to raise her, even though it was their fault she died in the first place. For Taen to question this was almost an insult.

Taen had no idea how angry Tazaa was either. She and her wife had submitted to Merla, and now looked at her as though she were another aspect, or another one of their goddesses. They even worshiped her to an extent, and it was encouraged by the twin deities.

Fayeth, the white winged deity, gently held Tazaa's mind within her embrace, and led her consciousness along this path. Due to their natures, it was also expected that eventually Merla would dominate both her grandmothers, and make them a part of her harem.

After all, why should Fayeth and Faylen be the only ones to physically worship Merla?  Their sight was on what Merla would do in the future, and who she would bring home with her when it was time.

The twin goddesses were perverted beyond orcish standards, and couldn't wait to enjoy their little lover once again.