The changes started almost the next morning. She woke feeling strangely full, weighty almost, with a curious presence down in her lower belly. The old Aqua probably would have been confused at it, or uncertain as to what it really meant. But at this stage, she had absolutely no doubts. She had been pregnant with monster babies enough times to know the sensation by now.

Thinking of how her offspring’s father had worn a crown of icy antlers atop its head, Aqua decided it was for the best to stick around the snowy mountain in order to bear the Heartless in an area which it would be suitable for. She spent a few days traipsing across the mountain, trying to find a good spot to bunker down in, before settling for a deep crevasse in the side of the mountain that was crowned with tight-packed snow. The interior was safe and easily defensible, and the close walls kept heat in.

She was only glad it hadn’t taken a long time for her to find the location. The weight in her belly had grown faster and faster by the day, and though she wasn’t even a week out from being bred by the Winterhorn, she was already beginning to show, her belly a modest but noticeable curve that dimpled cutely when she poked at it.

The movement started not long after.

It was a few days after finding the crevasse that Aqua woke with a gasp in the middle of the night. There was a definite sense of something inside of her, something excited and energetic. She stroked her rounding belly with wonder, only to gasp again as the movement picked up, a tiny bump visible for a second or two on the roof of her belly.

She felt herself blush. The sensation of her baby moving around inside of her…