Dragoncrest Cliffs This Is the Only Way to Be

All around her had been the constant comfort of pressure and the pounding of heartbeats, big and small. She was used to the pressure changing when her siblings or mother moved, but it wasn't troubling for her. Not until things became restless, and contractions began to disrupt the peace. 

Over and over again, she felt as though she was being squeezed, and in the lull between those times, there was one less heartbeat to feel, pulsing nearby, until the only one left was the strongest and loudest of all of them. Another squeeze- this one much more sudden and tighter than the others- left her feeling constricted around her middle for a moment, before she felt herself slip into space. Space that was colder, and didn't have the same presence of pressure. 

She felt something jostle her, rubbing along her belly and back, wiping across her face and she didn't like it. Overe and over, her tummy was rubbed until she opened her mouth with a cough, and dragged in a breath. She puffed a few times, and then she stopped. She felt nudged and rubbed again, until her lungs were stimulated to work on their own. She was pulled in toward something warm and soft- and through it, she could feel the distant, constant thud of her mother's heartbeat. She did not eat- she felt hungry, but didn't know what it meant. All she wanted was to get closer, feel nestled again, and take comfort in the heartbeat that now seemed so far away.