Awakening, Quickening

Out of the Tomb part 1

As soon as she got into a sitting position, though, her huge belly became a huge problem. It jutted out in front of her like a russet-covered hill, its weight forcing her to sit cross-legged and straight-backed, head leaned back for balance; an extremely uncomfortable position. To top it off, the instant she sat down she felt the strangest sensation she'd ever felt before--something inside was moving around. Small but forceful twists and thumps, making her whole body quiver.

That's a baby, she thought. A real baby. What do I do?! I don't know anything about babies, or having babies! All I know is magic, and how to survive...

Another memory rose unbidden from her mind; helping a dog, (her pet perhaps?) give birth. The large, friendly-looking animal quivered and cried, its legs spasming; then curled around and tugged a puppy out from under itself with its teeth... Harmony gagged, suppressing nausea. Will I have to deal with that? She thought. What if I'm all alone?

Suddenly Harmony noticed Muse was making an awfully strong attempt to break the sound-barrier between them, flashing lights and thumping wildly against the barrier. When she saw Harmony looking, she dropped to the ground and 'stood up' in the form of a small elf child, and gestured frantically down the dark tunnel they'd come down. Harmony dropped the sound-barrier and immediately noticed the clicking sound had grown significantly louder, and was joined by a soft rumbling. A soft red glow rose from the red floor tiles, all flashing in unison now, beneath Muse's feet. Muse projected to her a vision of a strange machine that looked like a whirlwind of blades and feet. "I've seen these before! Muse commented. "while you were asleep. They come and tear away everything that isn't in a grave, they give off bad energy".

With a sigh, Harmony heaved herself to her feet and set off again down the passage in the opposite direction, Muse bouncing along behind her as a purple squirrel, harrying her with agitated squeaks.

Harmony's mind couldn't seem to grasp the situation; even though they were running from something that seemed dangerous, her thoughts kept wandering back to that mysterious rolling, kicking sensation. "Baby's awake" she thought, feeling it quiver again.

She remembered her own mother telling her that, once—somewhere bright, and happy, a long time ago, when Harmony was young. "Look, Harmony– the baby's awake!". And then she had let Harmony touch her belly, and Harmony had felt a hard, rolling feeling under her mother's skin. When was that? Where was that? Harmony shook her head...she couldn't remember. The flashing red tile-lights and growing rumbling sound were increasing; she wasn't walking fast enough.

A sudden sharp rise in the sound level made Harmony turn to see a strange mechanical creature roll around the corner behind. It wasn't exactly a machine–it had eyes that twitched and shone a light in front of it– but it was all metal, no visible flesh at all, and 'walked' by rolling on three huge wheels covered with small metal feet, each foot shifting forward by a turning ball of some sort that acted as a kind of gravity-center in the 'leg' part. At the sides, a variety of blades sliced through the air with deceptive slowness, turning and swishing only a hair's breadth from the walls of the hall; more blades sliced in front, and along the floor. There was no room to let it pass; only the cobwebs on the domed ceiling were left untouched.