A Hound in the Woods

Truth

I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you wouldn't believe. If I cannot satisfy one, I will indulge the other.

Once a week, Angharad would walk to the settlement to check on the pregnant women in the settlement. One named Kara was close, and her baby was growing quite large. Angharad warned her to limit her diet and to drink nettle and bethroot tea to prepare for the birth. The other woman, named Beth was about five months into her pregnancy. She had been incredibly sick the first few months. Angharad was worried that she wouldn't be able to carry the child to term. However, after rest and ginger stewed with rosemary and honey to relieve her nausea she soon recovered and was carrying nicely.

Sometimes Sandor would come with her, but would stay to the edge of the settlement. Most of the settlers avoided him. They were frightened of his stature and his fierce appearance. They didn't get to see the soft side of Sandor that lie beneath the hard exterior. Sara and Meril once tried to sneak up behind him. They were giggling, whispering, stumbling, and breaking twigs under foot. It was a pathetic attempt to startle him. He waited for them to get closer before he spun to them, growling and baring his teeth. The girls screamed and ran off, laughing the whole way.

Angharad went alone to the settlement today. Sandor was busy building the barn for the animals. People in the settlement greeted her politely as she went to Kara's tent. She was trying to tug a dress onto a squirming little girl with messy, straw-like hair. Angharad caught the girl and helped finish dressing her. Kara was short of breath and rested a hand on her great, swollen belly.

"Let's get you laid down so I can measure your belly," Angharad led Kara to a cot in her tent.

"I'm so big, I can scarcely get back up on my own," Kara confessed.

"I think that means you can go into labor any day now." She took a length of twine and placed one knot at the bottom of the center of her ribs and pulled it taught over her belly past her navel and down to her pubic bone. The string was a knuckles length longer than she was where she measured at the week before. "Have you had any contracting pains?"

"A few shocks, no more than one or two a day." Kara sighed, rubbing the sides of her stomach.

"That's good," Angharad pulled Kara's knees up to check how far she was dilated she was. "That means your labors should begin within the week. Have you felt the baby kicking?"

"Yes, the little bugger keeps putting his foot up into my lungs."

Angharad chuckled. It was good that she could feel it kicking up, that meant he was oriented the correct way to be born. Angharad probed her fingers into Kara, she could feel the opening, barely as wide as the tip of her middle finger.

"You are starting to open," Angharad pulled her hand out and cleaned her fingers. Kara reached out and took Angharad's hand with a worried look on her face.

"I am nervous for this birth. This is the largest I've been in my four previous pregnancies." Angharad took Kara's hand in both of hers.

"I understand your worry, it's only natural. When the time comes, I will be there with you, along with all of your loved ones. We will do this together," Angharad assured her. Angharad hid her own concerns. This birth could easily go wrong. Angharad helped Kara up and went to check on Beth.

Beth's belly was small for how far along she was, but Beth had a long torso and plenty of room for a baby to grow in before growing out. She had just started to feel the baby kicking and moving around. Angharad assured her that as long as she could feel the babe move once a day, that all was well and that they would begin to make plans for the delivery in a few months.