Birthing Legends: My Womb Creates SSS Monsters

Chapter 267: The Perils of Sleep and the Glory of Breakfast.

Back at the campsite, the peaceful silence of the Heaven’s Crib barrier was broken by a low, pained groan.

Johnn tossed and turned beneath his bedroll, his brow matted with cold sweat. In the depths of his sleep, the world was a blur of fire and screaming. He was running, his legs felt like lead, heavy and slow, reaching out toward a fading silhouette.

"MOTHER! WAIT!"

His fingers brushed against the hem of a dress made of light, but the more he ran, the further she drifted into the white void of his memory. The desperation in his chest tightened until it felt like his heart would burst.

"Mother!"

Johnn bolted upright, his shout echoing off the thin fabric of the tent. His chest heaved, his eyes darting around the small, shadowed space in a panic. For a split second, he didn’t know where he was. The smell of smoke from his dream lingered, replaced slowly by the scent of morning dew.

"...Mother?" he rasped, his voice cracking.

He blinked, rubbing his face as the reality of the forest settled in. Then, his eyes snagged on the bright light filtering through the tent’s flap. The birds were singing—not the ominous shrieks of the forest monsters, but the cheerful, rhythmic chirping of a morning that had long since broken.

"F*ck!" Johnn cursed, scrambling out of his bedroll. "I slept... I slept through the whole night? How is the sun up already?!"

Panic surged through him, each heartbeat thundering louder than the last.

"SHT! SHT! Madelaine... she’s been alone the entire night... OUTSIDE!"

He hadn’t meant to leave Maddy alone for that long. He practically fell out of the tent, his hair a chaotic mess of "bed head" spikes, his face still puffy with sleep and his clothes rumpled.

"Maddy?! Madelaine, where are you?!"

He shouted, stumbling into the clearing with his morning face on, eyes squinting against the blinding morning sun, desperately looking for any sign that his partner hadn’t been eaten while he was busy dreaming of the past.

Johnn stumbled into the open air, his heart hammering. The sight that met him sent his panic into overdrive. Thick, white smoke was drifting across the campsite, obscuring the treeline.

"Madelaine! No, no, no!" he roared, his voice thick with sleep deprived terror.

He immediately dropped into a jagged fighting stance, his hands trembling as he prepared to face whatever fire breathing nightmare had dared to attack while he was dead to the world. He scanned the haze, expecting to see a scorched battlefield or a pack of monsters. But as he sucked in a desperate breath to shout her name again, his nose twitched.

The smoke didn’t smell like sulfur, burnt pine, or monster musk. It smelled like... sizzled fat, wild herbs, and toasted meat.

"Johnn! For the love of the gods, shut up!"

Maddy’s voice cut through the fog. She appeared from behind a veil of steam. She looked perfectly composed, not a hair out of place, not a speck of soot on her skin, looking every bit like an annoyed mother whose Saturday morning lie in had been ruined by a rowdy teenager.

"You’re shouting too loud, too loud in the morning!," she scolded, gesturing with a wooden spoon. "And believe me, we’ve had enough of the screaming, you acting like that, Mandrake! Get over here and calm your head!"

Johnn blinked, his brain struggling to catch up. He looked at her, then at the sizzling breakfast, then back at his own hands. Feeling self conscious about his disheveled state, he began frantically rubbing his hands through his hair, trying to flatten the sleep spikes that made him look like a startled porcupine.

"Sorry! I just—I saw the smoke and I thought—wait, is it flat yet?" he asked, still batting at his hair.

Maddy let out a long, weary sigh, her eyes dropping from his face to his waistline.

"Not that head, Johnn. The other one," she said, her voice flat and clinical.

Johnn froze. He slowly looked down. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he realized that, in his frantic rush out of the tent, he had completely forgotten the natural biological consequence of a long, deep sleep. His thin traveling trousers were providing absolutely no cover for his very prominent "morning wood."

"A-AH!"

He let out a strangled yelp, his face turning a shade of red that rivaled the glowing embers of the fire. He instantly doubled over, clutching his midsection and turning away from her so fast he nearly tripped over his own boots.

"I—it’s—it’s just—it’s the sun! It’s the morning! I’m sorry!" he stammered, his cool "adventurer" persona having officially died a shameful death in the morning light.

Johnn scrambled back toward the campfire, practically folding himself in half to hide his embarrassment. He sat down on a log with a sudden, awkward thud, his face still burning a bright crimson as he tried to focus intently on his boots.

Maddy didn’t tease him further. Instead, she stepped forward and handed him a heavy wooden plate piled high with a meticulously prepared meal. It was a masterpiece of morning nutrition: thick slices of seared protein for muscle repair, roasted tubers for complex carbohydrates, and a side of sautéed wild greens packed with essential minerals.

She topped it off by handing him a steaming clay cup of herbal tea, the aroma sharp with ginger and honey to kickstart his circulation.

"How... how did you even find all this?" Johnn stammered, looking from the gourmet spread to the scorched wasteland just beyond their camp. "The forest was literally trying to eat us alive last night, and now I’m looking at a high tier breakfast, betten than at the tavern!?"

Maddy just settled onto her own log, her expression calm and unbothered.

"Just eat, Johnn. The tea will help with that ’fog’ in your head, and the food will get cold if you keep interrogating it. We have a long trek ahead."

Still stunned, Johnn took a tentative bite of the protein. His eyes widened. The flavor was incredible, before he knew it, the embarrassment was forgotten, replaced by the primal urge to fuel up. He began to eat with gusto, taking large bites and washing them down with the warming tea.

Watching him practically inhale the meal, a small, genuine smile touched Maddy’s lips. She picked up her own plate and began to eat with her usual clinical elegance.

"Better?" she asked softly.

"Mmph," Johnn managed through a mouthful of tubers, nodding vigorously.

The tension of the previous night had completely vanished, replaced by the domestic quiet of a shared meal.