Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

68 Righteous Vengeance

Time Immortal, Fields of the Lost, The Ruined City, The Underworld

Mara

My feet are sore. I hold my belly, round and protruding, with one palm while the other hand is held out for balance over the pebble-strewn ground. Every so often one of my feet slip on the loose rocks. Gired and Rasted always catch me, every time, but it makes my heart leap; which makes the baby kick hard.

It's hard to walk when you can't see your feet.

The closer I get to my baby's soul, the larger my belly is. At one point I had to stop and lean on Gired while the baby flipped and spun inside me. My spine feels like cracking and just a few moments ago my breath started to become shallow. I think she's kicking my lungs.

Every part of pregnancy I am hastening through like a galloping horse in the races. It's terrifying, but my feet won't stop stumbling over the ground. The bond is yanking and pulling me forward. It is an undeniable, inexorable force.

The urge to shield my unborn child from this place continues to shove my shoulder blades further and further into the Ruined City deep in the Fields of the Lost. I am feeling every bit of motherly instinct that females have when they are faced with the fear of their child in danger.

Where is my child? What could be happening to her? She is somewhere, hurting, alone, without her mother, without me.

She has fathers and a grandfather and grandmother, a beautiful big sister, and Erra. She will be loved and already I miss her.

I am only a couple of weeks pregnant.

The urge to vomit makes me stop walking. I heave, wondering what could possibly be making me ill now. Doesn't sickness come earlier in pregnancy? I look like I ate Momo; I must be close to the end.

Thane and Thelios' blood gushes out as I heave over the ground. Their blood hits the grass and bursts into flames. Rasted gently moves me out of the way as Gired stomps on the fire. I keep purging my body, and they keep moving, until a trail of burned grass and ash is left in a meandering trail behind me. It mixes with the ash of souls' tears that creates the topsoil in this damned place.

When my stomach is empty I feel better. My back is killing me, and I can't see my feet, but at least I'm no longer nauseous. That's improvement.

I whimper as a shot of pain darts down my side into my leg. I reach out and Rasted is there to lean on as Gired massages my back.

"Don't touch me!" I snap. "You are not the males who should be rubbing my pains away!"

Gired backs off, wisely, his shadowy eyes reflecting what I swear to all the gods, especially War those idiots, is amusement.

Mishu makes a soft cooing noise. They are trying to be cute, to make me smile, but no one can smile when they are this big. I feel like a boat laden with jars of pig fat, listing to one side because some idiot loaded it unequally.

I start to sniffle. "I'm so fat," I tell Momo.

He shakes his head, 'no' so rapidly that I think he's going to pop his head right off.

"Yes, I am. I can't see my feet, but they're fat, too, aren't they?" I sob.

All five of my gargoyles are are shaking their heads. Harku is quaking on my feet, brushing off the tops of my sandals. Mushu is tugging at my hands, chattering in his grating-stone voice. Alnue looks at me as if he wants to lecture me but doesn't have the words to describe how stupid I am.

I start to laugh. I laugh until it hurts, literally, when the baby presses on my lungs and cuts my air short. Spots dance in front of my eyes, so I sit on the ground quickly, before I faint. Harku issues a little squeak and moves out of my way just before I squish him.