The Love I Never Knew I Wanted

It had been two days since her interaction with those horrible crystals that had taken over the island. Since the moment she touched the one Chimera had broken, Aliana felt like she had been slowly dying. Her energy was gone, sapped as if some wraith had stolen the very life from her body. The excruciating experience of feeling her own children writhing in pain and fear within her was forever seared into her brain, replaying in her mind while she panicked for their safety. In the days before, the pups in her belly had been fairly active, kicking and wriggling about while they grew healthy and strong. But after she'd touched that damned crystal, the pups had gone unsettlingly still. They'd freaked out as if in agony for several long minutes after, and then they'd simply stopped moving. The first day she would feel the occasional kick or twitch of a paw or leg inside of her. On the second day, there was nothing. Just stillness.

Aliana was doing her best to keep from panicking, trying to keep herself calm and her blood pressure stable for the sake of her and Chimera's children. She'd refused to go anywhere near those crystals or the fireflies anymore, keeping virtually quarantined away within her alchemical study or the bedroom as often as she could. Those places were her sanctuaries, the only places she still felt any semblance of safety. She hid away, singing quietly to her children in her belly, silently begging and pleading them to move or do something to let her know they were still okay. Her heart ached to keep her babies safe. At long last, she was beginning to understand the motherly love she'd heard other women speak of. The desire to have all the evils of the world done unto her so long as her children were spared and left alone. Gods, she had been such an idiot! Why would she touch a strange crystal that appeared out of nowhere?! She should have been more careful! What sort of mother did something so reckless as to endanger her own puppies? She was being critical of herself, perhaps overly so, but she felt she deserved it for how stupid she had been. Chimera told her not to touch the crystals, and yet she'd gone and done it anyway. What a fool!

She didn't realize just how deserving she was of that criticism quite yet...

It was a quiet night at the end of the second day, and Ali had fallen asleep in bed waiting to feel some movement from her children. She's caressed her swollen belly with tender paws, still clinging to hope and praying to whatever gods acknowledged her for their safety, and hummed softly until her voice drifted off into quiet snores. Sometime after midnight, Aliana was awoken by something. Her sleep-groggy brain didn't realize what it was until in her near-consciousness she felt another sharp pain stab through her stomach. The clouded ash and snow fae gasped at the sudden pain coupled with a strong cramp, almost making her double over. It felt like someone had jabbed a knife straight into her belly. Her heart rate spiked, panic ensuing for the fear of her children. Was something wrong with them? What was happening?!

Ali didn't get long to dwell on her anxious worries before another stab of pain took her breath and a series of cramps twisted up her insides. She groaned and cringed, clutching at her belly as if she could protect her puppies by doing so. Her body tensed again, and that was when Aliana realized what she was feeling. Contractions. What? But it's far too soon! It can't be happening now! Another painful contraction made Ali cry out in pain, and then she smelled the blood. The familiar, coppery-metallic stench hit her nose like an unwelcome guest the moment her water broke, and Aliana's anxiety intensified. Something was very, very wrong. "Chimera?!" she called out to her mate sleeping beside her, terrified aquamarine eyes searching for him in the darkness of the night. She couldn't say anymore, her breathing turning into light hyperventilating as another painful contraction hit her. Hopefully he'd hear the fear in her voice and be able to piece together the rest.

"Aliana"