heda redhawk’s labour began as so many do with the first time mother: in surprise. it is because until such an event takes hold of you, there is no way to understand what you might expect.
her night had been restless, tossing beside caracal until dawn warmed the sky to dove-grey and rose-pink. at that point, heda, knowing she would not sleep again, had emerged from their lovely den to greet the morning.
the branches and stones upon the top of their home had become tangled with lovely flowering ivy and a climbing salt-clementine, and it was there heda stood in first sunglow before she trotted to the very top of the greenhills, its waving grasses high enough to brush just the midpoints of her shoulders.
thank you. as always, heda turned to prayer, tilting her head back and eyes raised to heaven as she praised in quiet reverence the everlasting splendor which god had given to her and to caracal. she prayed for the land which lay around them, for the inhabitants of the main world — for bartholomew, that god still guided his steps and would one day bring him home.
and yes, and as the light of morning grew into a sweet honey which poured across the island, which bathed her in shimmering gold, heda was bent near in two by a sudden and galvanizing pain which wrapped her in a deep, bone-breaking anguish.
a lake of water from inside her own body sank into the earth, moistening her paws, the inside of her thighs.
the cry echoed through the island, shock tied in tendrils to agony; the young woman in white robes calling now for @Caracal.
she leaned in sorrow and knowing and awe upon her mate as he guided her back to their den, heda doubled twice more with the force of her contractions.
and yes, she was afraid, but as she lay back upon the soft skins and the armfuls of lavender lay beneath, dried into a fragrance that hung upon them both; as heda clutched his paw, the gilded eyes set in their silver tracery beheld that of her husband. ”give your fear to god,” heda exhorted caracal, comprehending in some ancient way that the same force she worshipped was to bestow upon her the greatest trial of her loyalty to his will.
and a tribulation it was.
i will test you as i tested bartholomew in the lion’s den.
heda’s cries were resplendent and tormented as the morning’s hours seemed to stretch into a nothingness where time went to die. no shift of her body gave her relief. when the pain ebbed she asked for water. when she could stand again, heda walked in small circles along the flowery clearing she had devotedly sculpted, in which she meant to raise their young ones and teach them the first beauty of the home that god had given them.
if caracal spoke, heda did not hear him; her eyes were fixed upon some distant point or closed; her mouth working in prayer, her brow knitted.
at length she lay down again, and cried out to god as the agonies descended upon her twisting form once more, begging for his mercies.
trust in me, heda.
”i do, lord!” she choked beneath gritted teeth.
surrender your fear to me.
and in the next moment, which seemed to be an eon, heda screamed again, and at last gave up the last touch of trepidation for her own mortality.
i give you a son.
@Simeon, firstborn.
all of her was set ablaze with a riotous sense of glee; transfixed, she answered the call of her instinct and set the boy free from the caul. a perfect, beautiful child already with a touch of coloration about him that she knew must come from her husband. heda began to weep; she looked in glory for caracal, glancing toward his face with trembling, smiling lips as she carefully guided the pup to her belly.
”thank you, god,” heda breathed out, and lowered her head for a small time of rest.
it returned, the ocean of iron nails which drove into her bones and left her sobbing, guttural sounds wrenching from her throat as the primality of a thousand unnamed ancestors drove heda almost to madness. but she reached out for god again, and as the morning moved to afternoon, she delivered not one but two, a pair of graystone boys who embraced one another in a single caul as their mother laboured to bring them both breathside.
@Malakai and @Judah, touched by heda’s tears, and though their small folded ears would not hear for many days, she whispered again her gratitude to god as she cleaned them to the down of ducklings, heard their first breaths, and settled them beside simeon to marvel, for she could not look away.
not until the midpoint of the afternoon did her anguish begin again, and heda felt almost she could not bear it again, not again; her eyes ached with the tears she had shed, and every muscle around her ribcage seemed taut to snap.
trust in me, heda.
”i do,” and the golden eyes rolled closed, and the brow narrowed, and with the last of her strength and a final wavering shriek, heda delivered a daughter, @Dinah, to the holy island and to caracal redhawk.
determined despite her weakness, she smoothed the girl’s face, seeing only her husband in the tiny closed and ruddy features, and not until she heard a cry would she relinquish the only sweetharbor daughter to the fullness of her breast.
rejoice.
and oh, she did, closing her eyes with a whisper to god as the light of afternoon flowed across the island and turned the waves to azureite.