Single Combat

by Nightwind

Celeglas issued a challenge to single combat to the Dark Rider, who he thought was perhaps the leader of the army which continually bore down on Kerri. I went to sleep a little early that day, so that I could watch the battle, so I was in Drendel's head that day. I was surprised as Drendel and I spoke, and she asked me to check if she was pregnant. I had the ability to check, but I came from somewhere that we could not have children, so I was untrained in all matters of maternity. I reached within her body, and turned my inner eyes to view her organs. Locating a womb there, I concentrated to see things very small there, and sure enough there was a lifeform in her womb, cozily attatched and getting nutrients from her bloodstream. I was startled, and I studied it for a few minutes, in all its intricacy, before I came back to Drendel's mind and gave her the answer she was already so certain of. "Yes, you're pregnant. Your baby appears quite healthy." She beamed happily, and lay her hands on her abdomen, peering through the sundrenched field to where Celeglas on his restless steed prepared for his charge at the enemy who was so far off that he seemed pitifully small and easily defeated by the large Sidhe man on the charger.

"I can't wait to tell him," she confided. "I didn't want to say anything until I was certain though. Thank you."

"My pleasure, and blessings on you three," I smiled. We shared a few moments of mutual happiness.

"I would like you to catch my baby."

I was completely taken aback. I had not even met her in the flesh yet, and she was asking me to do what she thought of as a supreme honor. And in addition, I was so conditioned to not know anything about children and childbirth. I didn't know what to say. My mind struggled with the concepts.

"What's wrong, Nightwind?" she turned inward towards me.

"I've never attended a birthing, I've never even held an infant."

Drendel tried to wrap her mind around that concept, since she'd been attending births for easily a thousand years, and it brought her so much joy. She tried to fathom why I seemed so afraid of it.

Meanwhile there was a commotion nearby, as the crowd watching the battle collectively changed from stillness to hurried movements. We both turned our attention to the goings-on outside Drendel's body. Drendel searched out the figure of Celeglas on the field, racing back towards us, relieved that he was well when a shadow fell on us. We looked up at the flash of a sword, the lathered steed, the enormous black-armored Dark Rider as his blade fell in an arc and sliced Drendel across the middle as he passed. Our ears drowned with the noise as people ran past us to do something, and Celeglas finally arrived, launching from his charger in a way almost like flight, it was morbidly amusing, as the scene faded from our view, the pain washed over us and launched us into oblivion.

Nightwind

Brenhani