Proserpina
She was heavy with pups. This she finally realized. Once the mushrooms started to decay and fall off and the wind washed away their spores, she'd been feeling better...only to figure out that she had been in fact, pregnant. But by the time she realized this, she was far too into her pregnancy. She had assumed all her fatigue and moodiness and everything in general was because of the sickness, but it turned out to be deeper than that. She cursed herself for being so careless, and she knew exactly how it had happened. Not only had she gotten sick from the pirate party, but she had foolishly been careless and gotten herself pregnant.
But what terrified her even more...was the fact that she dreaded what was to come. The vision she had seen in her dream haunted her, and she dreaded giving birth. She didn't know if that would actually happen...or if the Fallen God had shown her a premonition. Her heart hammered hard against her chest as she headed back to Aerie's borders. The Abraxas woman was returning from a failed hunt, the worries about everything that might come weighed so heavily on her mind, that she hadn't been able to focus on her tasks. Her belly was round and heavy, and she feared it would be any day now. She had no idea what she would do...how she'd explain it to Eli or anyone else should they ask. Had they even noticed? Did they care? She hadn't questioned any of her family when they decided to have pups of their own, so maybe she was just overthinking things...but then again...none of them had seen what she had in her dreams. Or maybe they did, and they remained quiet about it. Still...those who had pups before her had healthy, normal children. Or at least, as much as what one would define normal. She feared for hers, and they hadn't even come out of the womb yet...but she could not deny nor ignore what she'd seen.
On the verge of losing control of herself as panic began to grip her the more she thought about it, she stumbled to a halt and tried to regain control of herself. She slowly lowered herself to the ground, eyes closed as she tried to take deep, calming breaths. The generally composed woman had been feeling herself fall apart since the visions...and as hard as she believed her God would not abandon her, she was deathly afraid she might be punished for being so careless...or perhaps her God assumed her straying from her path...she didn't know. She took one more deep breath, and when she felt she had calmed enough to continue, she stood.
And then the first labor pain hit. She gasped from surprise and whimpered from the sudden pain. Her insides felt like they were constricting, her belly felt like it was tightening and a sharp pain hit her like an arrow. She cried out with the pain, eyes squeezing shut from the suddenness of it as she inhaled a sharp breath. Was this what being in labor felt like? She uttered a sharp call for her companions who were somewhere nearby, but while waiting for them, she attempted to walk on her own in an effort to reach her den.
The sharp pains, however, would nearly keep her rooted in place. She struggled to keep her composure, struggled to take a proper breath of air. She crumpled to the ground, legs shaking as her breath became ragged. She wasn't even on Aerie's side of the border yet! She was close...another couple dozen yards and she would be in the safety of the borders. "I-Isra! Namid! Th-they're coming!" She managed to cry out, words strangled by pain, desperation, and panic.
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