9:31 Dragon, the first of Harvestmere.
It had been nearly twenty hours since her first contraction and she was positively howling now that she was being told to push.
"Just a couple more big ones commander. It's crowning."
The elf pushed, a tremor running down her spine as she screamed her anger at feeling so helpless, screamed it downwards untill she was out of air and fell back in breathless sobs. How could this possibly put her in this much pain? She hadn't shown for months, hadn't even known she was pregnant until one of the healer mage recruits had accidentally brushed against her in passing and nearly dropped all his potions at her feet.
And then Anders had confirmed it. Dear Maker. Lyna Mahariel, Commander of the Grey in Ferelden, Hero of Ferelden, Arlessa of Amaranthine, slayer of the Archdemon, The Architect, and the Mother... Pregnant.
And the father? He would never know if she had anything to do with it.
She remembered that night, when he had taken her aside and told her he couldn't run away from his duty anymore. When he had left her feeling colder than she had ever felt, colder than when her clan had camped in the mountains during winter and their meager tents and aravels did nothing to keep the wind from biting viciously at their skin. Lyna had stood, On that day nearly nine months ago, watching his back as he returned to camp, and observed the numbness that had crept along her arms and into her fingers until she was sure she had no limbs at all.
"One more!"
She felt a rushing sensation at the next push and heard a small whimper, not a cry like she had expected. Just some tiny exhausted sound as Lyna drew in her own ragged breath and listened to the sounds of the healers fussing about her, urging her to push once more to flush out the last of the matter occupying her womb. Sighing, and feeling herself shudder with the ghosts of her pain, she almost turned them away when they finally handed her a small bundle of cloth and pink flesh.
"It was a hard fought battle, Commander, but you have yourself a little girl..."
She was beet red and bruised from the long birthing process, her tiny face twisted in something that looked like defiance, hands squeezed into tiny fists to match. And when she opened her eyes Lyna felt her heart jump into her throat.
She had never been a mother before, and she did not know what to expect from new born babies, but she knew that those eyes...
A hand fell on her shoulder and Lyna's voice cracked, clutching her small delicate daughter to her.
"There has never been a child with two grey warden parents before... We have to expect there to be some side effects."
Those big, silvery eyes blinked at her. Looking exactly like his. Those big sweet things that had corroded her iron exterior the first day she had met him echoed in mercury hues in his child, and having just the same effect... It made her want to weep. The exhaustion had weakened her to the point that she nearly did. But the Commander of the Grey didn't cry in front of those she gave orders to on a daily basis.
What she did once the medical staff departed and she was finally left alone with her child, though? Well, that was her buisness.
