It was for this night, she had felt it. After a new birth pang, she had risen with a little difficulty of her covered of fur armchair and Lethé, laid down close to the extinguished hearth, had turned his attention towards her before approaching. Elwen turned the head towards him and without a word not being exchanged, each one known what the other wanted to say. The wolf came close to her and they left the small residence without anything to carry with them.
Elwen had still evil to be done with her blindness. That made that a few weeks only that she had lost the sight and to move in wood became increasingly difficult. With her large belly, she had finished by reclure herself in the small cottage where she and Raekwon had found refuge, rather than to risk a fall.
Moreover Raekwon was to be in trimmings. She felt his presence, even if she had said to him that she refused that he assists her for what was going to arrive. They had disputed on several occasions on this subject besides, but he had ended up yielding: Elwen would be confined like a she-wolf.
A birth pang. Elwen of sitting down while waiting for that it passes. The pain was growing, but not as much as her apprehension. Lethé feeling it licked his cheek of the young woman.
(In animal language)
“Don’t worry. I will make it. ”
She was raised then, alone, and carried on her way. It took them a good hour to rejoin the glade, which appeared still so close, a few days earlier. Elwen was relieved to see appearing the old stone circle. She was unaware of if the magic of this place would guard the child. But she wanted to believe it and try the whole for the whole. Even if she knew that the curse already ran in the veins of her daughter to come!. This thought haunted she since she had learned that she carried a child of Jöllwin. To advance was increasingly difficult. Not because of the pain, but most because of the fear which enclosed her heart. She arrived on the large central stone.
“Now, Lethé, leave me.
_ But Elwen…
_ Leave me, I must do it alone.
_ But you aren’t a she-wolf, nothing doesn’t oblige you there.”
Elwen had a fatal glance for the wolf, in spite of the darkness of her eyes. He lowered the head, the ears behind and the tail downward, submissive to this woman who was Alpha of the wolfpack, at least what remained of the wolfpack. He emitted a squealing then left slowly towards the neighbouring thickets.
Elwen let the moonlight then flood it her face.
“Ylia, goddess of the visions and the dreams. You have since the first day taken care on each descendant of your rebel angel. Hears for the nth time and protects that which soon will be born. Save her to fall under the yoke from Darkness, as I had the mistake to do it… Deaden this cursed share of her blood. I give you my life in exchange! ”
Elwen knocked her over the rock, the belly hard like stone, contracted in an atrocious pain. Elwen gritted her teeth and sat up with sufferings. A warm liquid ran along her legs. First surprised, she understood very quickly that the moment had come. She made a last effort to be raised and dropped her dress on the ground, discovering her body, the marks on her back and the stone of orichalch which deck out her sternum. Then she laid down with precaution…
The suffering returned regularly, in a way increasingly brought closer during all the night. And little before the rising sun, whereas the star, still hidden, coloured already the sky of unreal colours, the childbirth started. Elwen, already look worn out, felt the drops perspiration to run on her skin and in front of the imminence of the situation, she started to cry. To cry over the irony of the fate, over the disastrous destiny which awaited the child, over the disappearance of her father… She would have liked as well as he is there to attend this moment. How she could have guessed at this moment that Jöllwin had seen this scene, in the dream that Ylia had given birth to in his spirit, nine months earlier, and that he had believed it disastrous, because he was unaware of the cause of the pain of Elwen.
She howled her pain and her sorrow when Eloïne left her belly finally. Elwen, not hearing her shout, took fear. She sat up using her last forces, that of the fear, cut the umbilical cord with her teeth, tied it and taken the child in her arms, the eyes still drenched of tears. It was well a small girl, so small, so frail, who pushed finally her first cry when her mother seizes her. Elwen recovered to cry of joy and despair, hugging this small being against her bosom.
“Eloïne will be your name, because he means light in the language of my ancestors. In the language of your ancestors. And that your light moves away longest possible the threat which weighs on you, my darling. My child, my daughter…”
Raekwon stepped forward in the glade. He hadn’t broken his promise and had waited that the sun raise to join Elwen. But he had heard her cries of pain and had worried him sick. His companion laid sidelong on the stone, this small being crying between the arms didn’t put him at rest. Elwen seemed without life, the eyes closed, the members without force. He started to run and leaned over her.
“Elwen? ”
She didn’t answer, but he felt her breathing on his hand. He then seizes the cape which covered his shoulders and posed it on Elwen quasi-unconscious, and embraced her forehead in a sweat. Then he paid attention to the child. He knew that she wasn’t his blood, but seeing her, he been able to prevent himself to take her in his arms, in spite of blood and the sticky substance which covered the small body. She was so light. The child who hadn’t ceased crying calmed then and finally fell asleep in the arms of the warrior. Raekwon, tenderized and reassured that both are well sat at the sides of Elwen and they remained thus, all the three. A long time. Hoping at better days, hoping for the end of this damned war. And Raekwon hoping that the arrival of this child, although cursed, will bring back will to live to his dearly beloved. Elwen, her, thanked the goddess for having saved her, but still shudder at the future of Eloïne…
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