Adalaya and her companions found themselves taking rest within the solace of a cave. The bitter winter season winds had come to ignite the land in a fury of white powder. To most, it would seem that the destruction of Morgaideign had brought the gods great joy. To show their appreciation, they blessed the land with snow, aiding in the protection of the surrounding lands. Even miles away, the sounds of crumbling rock and burning fire was heard, until the screams of Adalaya came to overthrow them.
The pain of a child's coming had taken her over. Fluid had come to flow heavily from her sensual regions in a river of blood and water. Reia and Emerald had managed to lay her down, searching frantically for anything that may ease her pain. Akar'gamon, however, was the only dragon in their company inside the cave; the rest sat watching over their home for the evening. His fire heated the stone refuge, everyone was cold, except for Adalaya.
"Oh, gods be good to me! See this child from my womb and into loving hands!" She screamed, her hands clutching at the swell of her belly. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt. Sensations of ripping and burning ran through her entire body as the unborn child began to make its way down its passage of birth. She had been laboring for nearly seven hours, and still, the child had yet to greet the world. Reia had set herself to the task, asking only minimal things of Emerald as she worked her magic in attempts to free her niece from the gut-wrenching pain of labor. "Do not scream girl; you will only make things worse." Spoke the witch. She saw her niece's legs spread wide and her feet placed firmly onto the stone floor. "You are ready, on my command I want you to push as hard as you can, then take a few breaths and see it done again."
Adalaya nodded and closed her eyes as another wave of pain rushed through her belly. "Push!" Reia commanded, her hands waiting to catch the child when needed. Doing as told the Princess bared down and screamed. Fire seemed to envelop her loins, every single inch of them. For several moments she pushed through the pain, took a breath and repeated her actions. "I can see the head beginning to crown. You are doing wonderful dear. The pain will cease once you have passed the shoulders." Emerald moved to kneel beside her new found friend. She watched in awe and shock, knowing it would not be long before she too had to endure such things. Akar'gamon watched the spectacle as well his large nose angled between Adalaya's legs.
The Princess took the woman's hand and allowed her own to fist about it. Emerald whimpered slightly at her strength. "Push!" Again the young woman gave it everything she had; she could feel the child making its way down her birth canal. She had never given birth, but she felt as if something was wrong. "Aunt Reia! Something doesn't feel right; I feel something pressing upon bone!" Reia moved one hand to her stomach and began to feel around. She looked down as a steady stream of blood began to flow from around the child's head. "Adalaya I need you to stop pushing. Stay calm and breathe through the next pain that shall come. I believe that your placenta has detached. If I do not get the child out and rapidly, we may lose it."
The woman's eyes grew large with shock. "No! Not after all this! Not my boy! Get him out of me now!" Reia turned upon heel scanning their surroundings for a blade. She found none that had not already been tarnished with the blood of others. She looked to her mount and then to his feet. "My friend...I will need your assistance. I need you to cut her from her sex to her posterior. Hurry." Akar'gamon lifted a single talon and saw it encased in his breath of fire. In one small motion he saw Adalaya cut open and suddenly the pain came to release her. She leaned her head back and became dizzy. "Aunt...I fear I can not hold on any longer, please." "Hush now girl, gather your wit and bare down now!"
One push was all it took, and suddenly a child lay lifeless in the arms of its great aunt. It was pale and covered in the blood of its mother. The infant did not cry, for several long moments, the cave fell silent. Adalaya looked down between her legs as best she could. "What is it? Why does it not cry?" Reia began to forcibly pat the child's back, leaning down to suck fluid and blood from its nose and mouth. After what seemed like an eon, the baby began to wail, and everyone took in a breath of relief. Their joy was short-lived, however, as Reia came to notice the babes deformities.
"Adalaya, you have given birth to a baby boy and baby girl." For a moment, the Princess smiled until the weight of her kin's words truly sank in. She had only come to pass one child, how could it be so? "What do you mean?!" With a sorrowful heart, the black witch, at last, came to show her niece the horror that laid within her arms. A child healthy and strong, a boy was the dominant infant. He was perfect in every way except for one, a smaller fetus connected to his right hip. She was much smaller and still did not cry in tune with her brother. The being was not larger than a newborn kitten but somehow held a heartbeat able to be seen through the transparency of her flesh.
Adalaya looked on in shock and horror. "The gods have cursed my children for my actions." Reia shook her head. "No this is common when a brother takes his sister to bed, and a child is created from their lust." "How will they survive this way?" She questioned painfully. Emerald stood up and looked the child over. "There was a child born similar to this in my old village. One large one small, both living and connected at the back. The larger of the two was saved by removing, the smaller one shortly after birth. Perhaps with your expertise in healing, you may be able to save one of them."
Reia began to look over the child noticing that they seemed to be connected only by flesh and not bone. "I must see one of them to their end, which would you have me save my dear child?" It took only a moment for the children's mother to decide. "The male save my son so that I may raise him to change the world." With a nod, Reia moved the infant to a nearby flat rock and looked once more to Akar'gamon for aid. The Wyvern made his way over and extended his talon to her which soon saw the two siblings torn apart. Gathering a stone from the fire Reia saw the wound sealed with heat before applying a medicinal cream onto the flesh of the boy. She wrapped him in her cloak and saw him handed to his mother for the first time.
"Be easy with him, with the gods help he may survive." The woman held her son close kissing his forehead. "My blessed child, how lucky you are to have been born into the hands of witchcraft and have mercy shown to your soul." The child still wailed in pain, his arms and legs thrashing within the cloak. "Keep him still my dear, as best you can." The second child was carried out into the snow; it was not long before she came to perish. With her passing came both grief and reassurance, one soul had paid for the life of another. Adalaya found contentment with such a truth as she peered down into the eyes of her first child. Reia saw the little female buried deep beneath the soil, speaking a silent prayer over the short memory of her life.
Without her knowledge, there within the flickering glow of a freezing cave, the once dim-witted and abused girl had given birth to a dark future. The child in her arms the beginning to an end that no one could have ever seen coming.
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