begin again

The very moment the outside air met with the body of Natalya's final newborn, she was consumed by the  fierceness of her first emotions and feelings - the little heart that had been pumping routinely in the womb sped up, the child's first real breath of oxygen was so quick and deep it managed to shock the little thing. It shocked her so greatly that in the exact second that gulp of air was sucked in, it was forced right back out in the form of an indignant yelp.

She failed to be deterred, however, and the fiery girl, having been thoroughly cleaned by her mother and presented at her belly, latched on quickly, not hesitating to push her siblings out of the way in order to feed. It didn't take long for the girl to tire out, and to snuggle up beside her dying mother - it seemed that she was so painfully unaware of everything, of her mother's illness, of her father's struggles and of her older siblings, so focused on the sole need to feed (as every newborn is), but such things would be discovered in time. Such things, along with the girl's recklessness, spitfire attitude, brazen demeanor - her disregard for most things and her obsession with others.

But for now the child, to be named Mnemosyne and known and Mneme, slept on, curled beside a sister and brother and completely content in dreamland oblivion.