It began in the early evening. Dinner had not long been consumed. Arugru lay by the fire dreaming the dreams of contented canines, Rellas had opted to continue his whittling projects and I had settled down to read. It was a rather relaxing time but short-lived. The first contraction tore through my slender body like firey claws, ripping asunder my guts and pulling apart my spine. Panic wracked me; something must be wrong with my child! But as the pain subsided, ebbing away only to come crashing back shortly after in a fresh wave of searing agony, I knew what was really happening.
Rellas was banished to the workroom. Arugru was sent to find the hedgewitch. I... I confined myself to the bedroom, though I refused to lay upon the bed. The pain ebbed and flowed, wracking my body again and again. Long into the night we worked; the hedgewitch calling encouragement and I following every instruction of the woman with her head between my legs. I would have been horrified by the indignity, the intrusion of privacy, but I knew that this was how it must be. Besides, my mind had long since focused upon other things.
Would this ever end, I wondered? Was this pain some manner of punishment? Why had Cyfier abandoned me now when I had need of him the most? What had I done to make him hate me so that he would subject me to such suffering and leave me to my fate?
As the night passed by and my ordeal continued, I believe that I may have become quite delirious. I could have sworn that I was sixteen again; in the dark, in the camps, bruised, battered and used. Hush now, hush; not a sound. Yes, it hurts, it hurts so much but to allow even the faintest whimper would incite them further. To show your weakness now will only make it worse...
As morning's first light crept into the sky as but a light blush upon the horizon, it was over. Exhausted, weak, bathed in sweat, I lay there spent. Then came the first cry. Tiny lungs first filled, then expelled air in such a wail of protest and shock. Instantly, all thoughts of my own state were gone; I cared not, it mattered not. The only thing of worth here and now, the only thing that mattered, was the tiny bundle placed into my arms. I looked down into the red and wrinkled face of my baby, scrunched up in indignation, and I knew that it had all been worth it. I knew that I would do it again ten, a hundred, a thousand times more just to have this one shining moment with this most precious of beings.
Cybryn, my son.
