"Did you hear that Mrs. Wesley had her puppies?" Marlysa asked to Anton as they sat down to dinner, a nice salad with lettuce, carrots, small tomatoes, and other fruits/vegetables that went well together.
Things like parenthood were big for many Animalians, and particularly those that had decided to conceive during the fall to early winter months as it meant that by late spring to early summer, many of the mammalian Animalians would be giving birth about now. With Anton and Marlysa employed with the Lyre School district, with Anton as the boys PE instructor and Marlysa as an aide and lifeguard for the girl's PE department they had plenty of opportunity to talk with some of the younger Animalians that were attending school there and that lead back to their own personal thoughts, concerns and hopes. During one of the girls PE classes, and specifically during one of the Freshman girls PE classes, Marlysa had overheard Sarah and Malice talking about the new puppies that Julia Wesley had given birth to. Their tails were wagging as quickly as the two Husky sisters could manage and they seemed very happy over that. Marlysa was happy for them, but it did remind her of hers and Anton's own hopes for a family.
Anton and Marlysa had participated in their own mating season and conceived on their wedding night in the late fall, which had made both of them happy. But unlike the mammalian Animalians, like Julia Wesley, with Anton and Marlysa being Green Iguana Animalians, that meant that Marlysa layed eggs. She laid them earlier than the mammalian Animalians would give birth, but they had to keep the eggs in a warm room with a large incubator. They also had to periodically turn the eggs so that one side wasn't "over-heated." They kept the times that the eggs needed to be turned scheduled so that they weren't having to cut out of work to turn them, and both were eagerly awaiting the day they hatched.
"I have heard that some of the new mothers have given birth or are about to," Anton commented, "You said..."
"Julia Wesley gave birth," Marlysa finished for him, "I overheard Sarah and Mary Alice talking about it in school today."
"Well, I'm sure they're happy with the new additions to their family," Anton answered with a nod.
"But you know what that means?" Marlysa asked her husband and mate.
"It means that soon our eggs will hatch and we will have a host of little ones to look after," Anton said slowly, "Something, I think both of us have been waiting for."
"It'll be a first for me," Marlysa said slowly.
"For me too," Anton smiled to her and reached over and gently took Marlysa's hand with his own. She smiled back with some great happiness. Marlysa remembered the care that Anton had given her before she was uplifted and in a way she had come to love him for it, and she was even happier to find that his care soon extended to even loving her back. That love had them both eagerly waiting for when their eggs hatched.
The two finished their dinner calmly and then moved to check on their eggs before going to bed. As they entered the nursery and approached the incubator where the four eggs that Marlysa had laid, however, they soon found a surprise. Two eggs rocked slightly and there was crack in one. In addition, there were sounds that seemed to emanate from all four. The sounds sounded sort of like a cross between a snake's hiss and chirps of a crocodile hatchling in a way. The sight was enough to bring Marlysa's hands up to her chest, as if trying to literally feel the hammering excitement in her heart. Her eggs were hatching. There wasn't the sort of hard cracking noise that one might expect with a bird's egg hatching, but then that was due to the fact that reptilian eggs were more leathery than bird eggs.
"They're hatching," Marlysa said softly and watched as Anton moved around and lifted the egg that had a slit in it, "They're hatching!"
Anton nodded as he looked down at the egg that he was cradling. There was a low slit in it and he noticed that the egg seemed to bend as the hatchling struggled to try escape the egg. At times he could see what looked like a flash of green inside the egg as the hatchling pushed on the shell. Eventually two tiny hands managed to peak through and pull down on one part of the shell and then pushed up with its head to climb out, giving a hissing chirp as it did so. The move also ultimately kicked the shell out and the hatchling fell backward into Anton's arms while the egg shell was kicked out to the floor. Marlysa was quick to join Anton and looked down on the infant, which brought it's little hands up to scratch the egg tooth on the of its little muzzle.
"Our oldest child," Anton said slowly and looked to Marlysa, "do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"
Marlysa blinked, "This has been my first clutch EVER. I didn't even lay any eggs before I was uplifted."
"But... I'd though you might be a bit more familiar with identifying... it's gender," Anton answered.
They did look down to the hatchling. It had the general body shape that mirrored a human infant's with the only differences being the presence of its tail and hands and feet that were more in line with a Green Iguana. It's head was as if they had crossed a human infant with a normal Green Iguana hatchling, in a since just like Anton and Marlysa were built, but obviously as an infant, which meant it presently lacked the secondary sexual characteristics in Marlysa's breasts or Anton's broad shoulders that would identify it's gender. And unlike a mammalian infant, like Julia Wesley's puppies, would still have a pretty good indicator of gender that would be visible between its rear legs as a female's vagina would be visible and a male would have its sheath for its penis being present. However, reptiles didn't have that. All of their equipment was held internally. There was a small slit between the hatchling's legs, but that was not an indicator of gender.
"We'll need to get them to the doctor," Marlysa said slowly, "she can do the examination and we can make sure that they're healthy."
Anton nodded as a second egg began to break open...