"I expected the call from you a bit earlier," came Joseph's voice over the phone, "but I am glad to hear you two made it back home safely."
"Yess," Clemens nodded his head, "Sssafe and sound and back to the grindsstone tomorrow."
"That's the way it is for all of us I suppose," Joseph replied, "Molly's maternity leave will likely run out when the regular school year starts again and she'll be back to that... though that will be a bit helpful."
"Helpful?" Clemens wondered, as he hadn't gotten to ask his question yet.
"Yes," Joseph's voice answered, "I've had a fair amount of time off that I haven't taken and will be able to take it. Especially with Molly coming back when the school year starts. If I'm out when it starts again."
"If...?" Clemens began, a smile coming to his lips.
"I told you I wouldn't miss your wedding for the world," Joseph replied, "I'll have a lot to do to get things in order on my end, but I will be there for you. And Clemens..."
"Yesss?" Clemens answered.
"No wild parties," Joseph finished.
"Scout'sss honor," Clemens laughed.
The two then said their goodbyes and hung up. He then made his way into the living room where Jenny was waiting with the television already on to the same channel they'd seen the first update on. Despite the fact that the Animatrix Serum and the presence of Animal People was beginning to grow more and more 'normal' and was making the curiosity and "newsworthiness" of Animal People being less and less, there was still more than enough to warrant development. Especially because it was all so new, especially now that Animal People had been around long enough for them to begin having children and that was what was the big thing in that development. One of the later episodes of "Animal Tales," which was likely the inspiration for present news segments included one of the first Animal Person couples to have had children. Clemens had kept enough a close look at the series to learn that they did have a second season planned, but they hadn't gotten to that yet.
"They just went to commercial, but the update will be on when they come back," Jenny told him.
"Then I'm right on time," Clemens chuckled.
Clemens then sat down and carefully moved his tail so that he could hug Jenny with it. It wasn't a tight hug or a coil, but it did allow him to be close to Jenny, though he commonly had to stifle some laughter when Jenny found a spot near the tip of his tail where he was ticklish.
"So, what did Joseph say?" Jenny asked.
"He will be coming and wantsss no wild partiessss," Clemens answered.
"Party pooper!" Jenny teased, making Clemens shake his head.
The watched quietly until the news came back on and their special interest anchor began to cover.
"As we stated with our last program, we'be begun to cover some of the developments that have come as Animal People, the newest sentient and sapient races begin to have children, showing how our world is changing," the news man said on the screen, "in our last episode we covered a pair of Red Foxes and their family. Today we will be moving to a pair of New Yorkers that chose to become Animal People and are among our fine feathered friends."
The screen then displayed an on the site reporter with a man and woman who had both become American Robins. Both looked the same with a yellow-orange beak, nearly solid black eyes, a black head, and a dark gray body, with a reddish belly. The female was slightly smaller, but not by much, and her feathers looked a bit duller, but it wasn't noticeable. Neither Jenny nor Clemens could really identify the genders by their feathers or size. They had to rely on the clothing that they could see on the two bird people. Both wore lose fitting clothing that still looked fairly formal. The female's clothing was a dress while the male's was like a business suit.
"Thank you, I am here with Keith and Amanda Carlson, who as you can see have become American Robins," the reporter spoke.
The male, Keith, chirped, singing the same sort of song that both Clemens and Jenny had heard growing up, as Robins ranged throughout North America and in parts of Florida, they stayed all year around, though other parts of Florida were only part of its winter range. They watched as the female, Amanda, actually cuddled up to Keith as he chirped out the song.
"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me," the reporter said.
"You're welcome," Keith answered, "You're wanting to show how we're changing the world?"
Clemens and Jenny both noticed how the bird man spoke. While he didn't have the lisp that Clemens had, BUT he did speak slowly. His teeth and become his beak and couldn't bend and easily form words the way lips helped people talk and as such he had to use his tongue for just about everything. He managed, but his speech was slowed by it. What came as the real shock was when he reached out to shake the reporter's hand.
"In a way, mostly to see how the world is changing as Animal People begin to have families, and likely pointing to how they are adapting to new reproductive forms and means and how the world is adapting to them," the reporter responded.
As they shook hands, Clemens noticed the three fingered hand extend from the apex of Keith's "wing" with the long flight feathers running down from the wrist. The hand also looked somewhat like it was a copy and pasted version of his feet, but with only three digits, two fingers and one finger that functioned as a thumb. Normally one didn't think that about birds, but then Clemens did remember a story from several years back in which scientists were studying a bird species, the Hoatzin, in which its young had clawed hands. Now, Robins and the Hoatzin weren't closely related, but Clemens supposed that the Animatrix Serum created something where Keith and Amanda Carlson kept their hands, just like Clemens had kept his arms and legs.
"Where are the rest of his fingers?" Jenny wondered.
As the handshake continued on the screen, Clemens noticed a slight bit of movement in Keith's wing.
"They likely became the ressst of his wing," Clemens answered, "the workerss with our bat exxxxhibit will say that their wingsss are elongated fingers with ssskin attached between them. I'd imagine that hiss remaining two fingers are elongated and form the basssissss for his wingss and we can't ssssee them."
"I wonder if they can fly," Jenny then said off hand.
"From newss reportsss, people who have become birdsss cannot fly," Clemens answered, "while their bonessss have become hollow, like all birdsss, they are sstill too big and heavy to fly... though they can glide for short disaatanccesss."
Jenny only shrugged as they watched Keith and Amanda lead the reporter into their home, which looked like a rather upscale apartment where Amanda worked writing articles on ornithology while Keith worked on the stock exchange.
"Our little bundles came rather quickly after our transformations," Amanda explained, "we took the serum... went out, bought a whole bunch of fresh cherries... which tasted delicious... and well... I soon found myself swelling up and swelling up rapidly."
"Swelling up? In how long?" the reporter wondered as they went down a hall which had framed photographs of North American songbirds on the wall.
"About a month," Amanda answered, "the biggest surprise was that it wasn't necessarily bad news. At first I thought it was cancer or some other disease... so I went to the doctor, and their tests ultimately found nothing amiss, but wanted me to come back in for some x-rays and such, to see what was making me so... so big so quickly."
"Your children?" the reporter asked as they reached a large white door with a yellow warning sign on it. The sign depicted a bird nest with the depiction of a baby bird's head sticking out of it.
"My eggs," Amanda answered, "It turns out that I was pregnant and I had four eggs growing inside me."
She then opened the door to reveal a well decorated baby room with a large circular crib with pink and blew blankets wrapping the inside of the crib.
"I laid them in the hospital with no problems... and as much as I argued to be allowed to take them home, the doctors kept my eggs at the hospital in their incubators," Amanda continued, "they did a very good job of caring for my babies, but I wished I could have been there to do that myself. Once they hatched the doctors let me take them home, on the condition that they come in once a month for pediatric check ups and to make sure they're not sick or weak or losing body temperature."
Keith and Amanda both moved to stand by the crib as the reporter and his cameraman stood back and watched respectively. They soon heard what sounded like a series of little chirps coming from the crib.
"So how old are they right now? When did they hatch?" the reporter asked after a moment.
"They hatched about five or six months after they were laid, which would make them about two months old right now," Keith answered, and carefully reached into the crib and lifted out a lone chick that was loudly chirping for something. "They are growing healthy, but like Robins, and many other birds, particularly song birds, they hatched with eyes shut and with no feathers that have yet to fully grown in... different from say ducks or chickens that would hatch with a full coat of downy feathers."
Clemens and Jenny both noticed the pink skin and the blackish area where the baby's eyes were forming, but that the chick was tightly wrapped up in a blanket of its own. The rest of the interview focused on how they fed them and changed diapers and how the work had ended up in Amanda's ornithology articles.
"She laid eggs," Jenny stated.
"Yesss," Clemens nodded, "It would appear that many of the reproductive habits and methodsss of the animal transssfer over to Animal people."
And Clemens had suspected as much. Molly had gone into heat the previous winter and the winter before, though from what Joseph had told him that during Molly's first time in "season" she hadn't noticed it as George was still human and they'd figured they couldn't have a family then. It only became an "issue" when George became a tiger himself and they were wanting to start their own family. But the fact that Molly had gone into heat was a bit of an indicator that the animal side's reproductive habits carried over. This seemed to confirm that suspicion.
"Which means... it'd be likely if I become a snake... I'd lay eggs," Jenny said slowly.
"That would depend on the exxact speccciesss," Clemens answered, "many vipers give birth to live young... though they cannot crossbreed with pythonsss. Our biggesst fear here in Florida iss that the escaped African Rock will bread with the Burmessse... thankfully that hasn't happened, yet."
Jenny slowly nodded, "Though... a one month pregnancy and then five or six months incubation... wouldn't that still be premature by human standards?"
"Probably, though that iss not present in reptiles... though with the obviouss differencce that birds are known to actively raissse their young," Clemens commented.
"So... I suppose we'll have to wait and see how a more reptilian family runs," Jenny commented.
To that Clemens nodded.