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The Pain in the Mother’s Womb
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By: Nathan P. Guest
The land was green and new. The rebirth races only existing for a little over 200 years now, life was good, and the rhulisti were getting use to their new existence, slowly forgetting their former lives little by little each day.
It is the 11th King’s Age, and many births have come about this year. One of interest is from a well known and liked couple, the male known as Lyar Th’ Annel and the female known as Krysa Se’ Charla. Both are respected as they are part of the organization to study up on the age before and retain its knowledge so that they may learn from the mistakes they caused in their former lives. They were expecting and Krysa was several months from being due.
They lived in a small village known as Cranash, and where part of the local knowledge hounds of the area, a small, but devoted organization dedicated to learning about the mistakes they caused in their former lives when they were they rhulisti of the Blue Age.
Krysa went about her day as normal, studying up on the notes she made about some of the projects she had witnessed done during the Blue Age. Her husband Lyar doing the same, every once in awhile comparing notes with her to see if they had come to the same conclusion on a particular subject.
Soon they both stopped and made dinner. Once that was finished, they took their meal outside and enjoyed it in the open spaces and took in what the world had become, and what it would become with time now that they were no longer the masters of the world, but now its protectors of sorts, the pyreen. As they were finishing up their meal, Sarla Ka’ Zennel, the village’s elder, also knows as a High One, came to visit.
Both Krysa and Lyar greeted her affectionately as Sarla bowed and got closer to Krysa to inspect her stomach. “I tell you child, the visions of your unborn that I have seen are a little unsettling. I say we be cautious with its upbringing and watch for clues.” Sarla stated matter-of-factly scowling as she rubbed her hand across Krysa’s exposed belly. Krysa merely removed her hand and looked Sarla straight in the eyes, with a cold look about her “I will raise this child properly, don’t you worry. I have faith that Lyar and I will be great parents.” Sarla made a sniffing gesture then turned to sit down and face them both. “I’m not so sure it will be you and your husband’s fault, these visions are very hazy at times, but I don’t see that being the catalyst. What if no matter what you do it follows the path I have seen in my visions? I’m telling you child, I have seen his image, and it isn’t pleasant. I have also seen a bit of the future, and I do not like what I see. The future looks bleak, but maybe because it doesn’t look like the present and I just fear change again. However, I know there will be no warning when the changes come, they will just happen, and it will be too late to reverse the course.” Sarla sighed, looking at them both and watching the expressions on their faces turn from stoic to angry. “He?” Krysa questioned. “It’s a he? I was so hoping for a girl.” She stated slowly as she began to calm down from being angry at Sarla for telling them what the gender was. “All I will say Sarla, is this, just give us your blessing and be on your way, I will raise this child proper, and it will have all the love it wants. It will have a pleasant and full childhood.” “Very well, I will give you my blessing and hope that you will heed my warning when the signs come and do whatever you must do before it’s too late.” With that Sarla nodded to them both, and got up and left.
Krysa and Lyar watched her leave their site and began cuddling as Krysa started to sigh, not understanding why Sarla was receiving the visions she was about her unborn child and what exactly was going to happen, and just how bad the changes were going to be.
At that moment Krysa suddenly started feeling great pain as if she was going into labor. At first she ignored it, since she had some false alarms earlier and they usually went away in a few minutes. However, these pains continued on for about half an hour before Lyar finally noticed her displeasure. “What is it?” he asked. “I think I am going into labor this time my love.” she responded while gripping his hand tightly and squinting at the pain. “It’s too soon, you still have several months to go” Lyar stated as he slowly lowered his wife to a laying position in hopes to make her more comfortable. “Well, boy or girl, it is ready to come out!” Krysa screamed as the pain increased ten fold.
As Lyar beginning removing some of Krysa’s clothing so he could expect her more closely, he noticed that her water had indeed broken, but also, there was a lot of blood as well. Lyar hurriedly removed the rest of her clothes and put his hand on her stomach and begin to mumble an incantation of healing. His hand began to glow and grow warm, warming up Krysa’s delicate skin as well as she began to settle down some but still in a decent amount of pain. Lyar ended the healing after seeing that the blood had stopped some and prepared Krysa for birthing. At that point Krysa screamed as she gave one final push and then collapsed, almost unconscious. Lyar was barely quick enough to catch the baby as it came out of the womb…and was stricken in horror! What he saw was their worse nightmare come true. The babe had a normal human head for the most part, but with a drooping chin, a smaller than normal jawbone, and flat cheekbones. He also had a rounded-hunched back, with longer than normal gangly arms that ended in small barb talons where his finger nails should be. The babe wept and wept as Lyar noticed that, for an instant, he thought he saw a crown of lightning flicker into existence over the babe’s head. Cerulean blue eyes sparkled up at Lyar and suddenly the babe stopped weeping and instead a sneer replaced it.
Krysa struggled to sit up and look at her baby, saw her husband’s expression and then looked at the babe and screamed, falling back down on the soft, grassy earth and mumbling softly to herself as her tears continued to flow.
Sobbing, all Lyar could say was “It’s a boy Krysa…it’s Rajaat, our little boy…she was right…”
(To yet be named)
It was late into the night as Lyar touched his wife’s, Krysa, hand and bent over to kiss her goodnight, whispering that he loved her and that soon she would find it in her heart to let go of the fear of their newborn son and awaken once again.
Months have passed since that faithful day of Rajaat’s premature birth, which caused Krysa’s mind to close in on itself, causing her to slip into a coma, and every night since then Lyar has made a point to visit his wife, with Rajaat safely caressed in his arms. Lyar’s hope is that she will one day forgive herself for whatever she blames herself for, and lets go of her fear and accepts the fact that they have a deformed child, a child prophesized by the elder Sarla that would bring about evil things if not stopped.
Lyar couldn’t believe it, refuses to believe it, but so far she was right about two things, that Krysa was indeed carrying a boy, and the child would be physically deformed. Whether the child was mentally handicapped as well was hard to tell at this point. Still, it wasn’t enough for Lyar, he needed more proof and refused to give up that maybe what Sarla saw was a false vision of sorts brought on by emotions and other negative intrusions that caused her to misread whatever vision she received. Sarla was still tight lipped about just exactly what she saw, which only reinforced the fact for Lyar that maybe it would not come true.
It was Rajaat’s change of mood from cooing to constant squirming and beginning to fuss that made Lyar come back from daydreaming. He thought way too much about this so called prophecy, it was time to stop worrying about it and worry more about raising Rajaat properly, and unfortunately by himself, since he had no idea when Krysa would wake up again, if at all. Lyar let Rajaat look at his mother one last time for the night before bundling him up and leaving the room she stayed in at the healer’s hut.
Looking up at the stars as he walked home he let out a sigh, it felt good to be working on moving on, it was better for him and Rajaat that he succeeds in doing this. He will continue to see his wife every night before bed, that was good for all three. He just wasn’t going to waste any more time worrying about Sarla’s vision, or last try not to. Tomorrow will be the dawning of a new day for Rajaat and himself, and Lyar was going to make sure it was as positive as can be.
Sarla walked around and surveyed the landscape. What was once green was dying very quickly before her eyes, leaving only a grayish layer of dust behind. In the distance she heard screaming and shouting, weapon on weapon clashing, and in general the sounds of battle going on all around her. She wasn’t sure where she was, but it certainly wasn’t home. She began walking calmly, then running at full in order to top a hill to get a better look at things.
What she saw took her breath away. Hundreds, if not thousands of people where fighting one another and dying. One group was lead by mostly humans, with a few dwarves here and there, while the defending group was entirely elves. The elves were outnumbered 100 to 1, and couldn’t take the pounding they were receiving much longer. Soon the lead elf sounded the retreat, and most of the army turned around and fled as a few stayed behind to cover their escape.
The scene she saw before her was brutal, and it brought tears to her eyes as she looked at the landscape and what it had become, grayish, dust-like material mixed in with blood, more elven than human. Then suddenly a booming voice was heard across the countryside which seemed to be laughing in a deep throated sort of way. Twin cerulean blue eyes sparkled in the sky and looked down at Sarla as it began to speak, jaw dropping, shaking with fear, Sarla listened as much as she could.
“Now woman, you see my beautiful work of art, the day will come when it will be reality! All that live now shall perish, and those that once were will reign again! Beware crone, for your days are numbered, and no one will be able to stop me!” And with that Sarla awoke, her body drowning in her own sweat and shaking. All that she could get out was a whisper, “It’s worse than I thought, he must be destroyed now before it’s too late…”, and with that she passed out, exhausted.