Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Just as I nod, taking what strength I can from his words, the pain begins escalating again, making me need that very strength more than ever. I’ve been through many hard times, too, many struggles and battles, but nothing compares to this. To fighting through contractions that have only gotten worse with the hours I’ve been in labor. To being able to see an end in sight when the pain is blinding. To desperately cling to the reward awaiting me if I can just be strong enough to bring it about.
As the pain wraps around my back, I tighten my grip on Halun’s hand and grit my teeth as I bear down.
“There we go,” Sinad encourages me. “Keep pushing.”
A scream builds and builds in my chest, but I contain it, knowing I need every ounce within me to continue trying to bring my baby into this world. When Sinad tells me to stop pushing, though, I fall back and let that scream out. It echoes through the garden behind the bathing hall. My head slumps to the side, and I find a vision that I need so badly right now. Many beams of light, shining up from the ground. My eyes follow the many trails into the sky, until they’re swallowed by clouds. My baby will be the cause of another beam soon. I just need to get through this.
“This should be it,” she says. “I need you to give this push all you have.”
“You can do this.” Halun kisses my hair. “You’re stronger than you know.”
“Halun,” I whimper his name because it’s all I feel I can do.
Halun brings his mouth to my ear. “You are my warrior, Luna. Never forget that.”
“Hold me, Halun,” I demand. I plead, really.
Halun goes behind me, his legs spreading around me, his body propping up mine. Just his strength behind me is its own balm as the next contraction comes.
“Now, Luna!” Sinad exclaims.
I push with everything I have. And when it feels like I have nothing left, I reach down into a part of me I never even knew existed and give a little more. It’s what’s needed, because the next second, I feel my baby push through the damn ring of fire I’ve become far too accustomed to during this labor.
A sigh bursts from me and I look down my body to where Sinad holds my baby. She’s vigorously rubbing, though, instead of placing my baby to the land like I was told she would.
“What’s wrong?” I croak.
“Grandmother?”
I find the same mixture of dread and hope in Halun’s voice that I’m feeling right now. She doesn’t even spare us a look, though, just continues rubbing at what I can now see is my baby’s chest. A too-still chest. Her murmured words only frighten me more.
“Breathe,” she urges my baby. “Hallalah awaits you.”
“No,” I sob, my eyes closing. I don’t want to see. I don’t want this to be the only way I ever see my baby. Still. Gone.
But then my sobs cut short at the sweetest sound I have ever heard. My baby’s shrill cry. My eyes snap open and I see not just my baby’s chest moving, but its arms and legs flailing. And I can see clearly now that our baby is a boy. Our son. Sinad’s relief is clear from the smile upon her face. Halun’s is clear from the sigh that leaves him, rustling my hair against my cheek.
Sinad places our son to the ground and the grass around him curls towards him, blades settling on his skin.
“All of Hallalah bows to its future king,” she says. “Even the trees.”
I look beyond my baby to find the flowers inclining towards him, and when I look higher, the trees are indeed bowing in a way I would have never thought something so sturdy could. A light brings my attention back to the ground where the grass around my son begins to shine, getting brighter and more encompassing, until it covers my baby wholly.
When the light allows me to see my son again, he has a crescent moon exactly like his father’s on his forehead, markings all along his chest and arms. Sinad lifts my son from the land and places him to my chest. I feel his little heart racing against me, his little fingers on my upper arms.
“Hello, my beautiful prince,” I whisper to him. “I’m your mama. I hope you know my voice from me talking to you all these months.”
Halun’s hand reaches around us, smoothing our son’s black hair down. I notice the tremble in his hand and bring my lips to the back of it.
“Our son is here,” he shakily says. “Thank you, Luna.”
I open my eyes to respond, but then the light shooting into the cloud far above catches my attention. My son’s light, announcing his birth to Hallalah, announcing the heir to the whole world. Soon, his bell will ring.