Wake Me Up, I'm Living A Nightmare [Birth]

Tyranis had been restless in the days following the meeting although he couldn’t quite place why. For days his sleep had been plagued by nightmares; One where he met an army of giant wolves at his borders, ready to rip his people to pieces, one where he saw his reflection in a pool to find himself covered in the blood of his people, and a particularly horrible one where Aranea laid with her spine bent backwards like a crescent moon, sobbing through bloody tears that he had failed her. It was after such a nightmare that Tyranis woke with a start, trying to slow his heart  enough for him to breathe again. It had taken him one particularly horrible moment to remember that his love had chosen to take a separate den since her pregnancy but found himself unable to compose himself enough to go back to sleep.

He needed to see her. Now.

He walked slowly from the mouth of the cave along the path of the winding river within the mountain, his heart pounding wildly with every step he took. He turned a corner within the cave and froze. Naudir was standing in front of Aranea’s den. His heart clenched and for one wild moment he could almost smell blood and death. “What happened?!” Tyranis cried, his voice stricken with terror as he ran full tilt toward the mystic woman. He very nearly ran into her in his panic but came to a sudden halt at the mouth of his lover’s den. “Aranea?” He asked fearfully, something was wrong, that much was clear; her face was contorted with pain and her breathing was unnatural. He stepped toward her gingerly and settled down beside her, his eyes roaming for signs of blood or broken bones, but there was none, only the shallow curve in her abdomen where his children were growing…It couldn’t have been that, could it? So soon and with her barely showing? Could it have been because she was so young? Or worse, what if something had gone wrong with the pregnancy? His mind was reeling, and no matter what he did nothing seemed to be able to calm him down.