A/N: Big thanks to Senigata for his help in this story and the ideas contained within, and to MarleNadia for helping with names!
I hope you all enjoy this wholesome fic!
It was cold up here, cold and dry and empty. That was what Sarah thought of the village that would be their new home, her husband Owen somehow convinced to move here by the words of a mere courier. How he had convinced her, she had to wonder, but now she knew it had been a steal of a deal, at least. Just so empty...
But it was cleaner than Junon. It wasn't noisy with the sounds of a million souls, the sea, and the groaning of the settling steel piers and platforms that made up her former home. Nibelheim wasn't rank with the stench of wet rust, stagnant sea and sunbaked asphalt. It wasn't riddled with crime, or busy with too many people. Nibelheim was peaceful and unassuming.
Cloud and Tifa had been more than helpful their first day here. The house was free as promised, a little ways away from their own home with its additions and children's toys that littered the tiny front yard. Their new home was larger than it needed to be, though, and it required wood burning and coal to keep it warm. A far cry from what Junon was, but again, there had been promises that they were looking for better energy sources to keep new residents happy.
Sarah watched from the kitchen window as a few snowflakes began to fall from the gloomy, gray afternoon sky. She sipped from her mug, thinking of the last few days. Tifa was fast becoming a friend, always willing to help if she needed it. They looked to be about the same age by her reckoning, but Tifa had six children in their home, four of them babies! She was told they were all adopted, but Sarah doubted it, a feeling in her gut said it wasn't true.
Curious, but it still wasn't her business. They had helped fill the fridge, showed them old goat and sheep farms if they wanted to try their hand at that instead of the traveling WRO job Owen still had, and even invited them to dinner. Perfect neighbors, for the most part. Some would say too perfect, but what they needed as they settled down was perfect.
She turned to the wood burning stove, and stirred the stew Owen had prepared before heading out to one of the (relatively)close by villages for a few more supplies. There was a chance Nibelheim would be closed off if it snowed too much, though Cloud didn't seem worried about it despite being a courier. With that in mind, her husband had left an hour ago, and now she kept watch over their supper.
It was dark when he returned, the air colder and holding the threatening scent of snow when he opened the door to let himself in. Owen held a traveler's pack over his shoulder, now full with whatever he had bought, and he took it over to the table and started unpacking. "How's everything?"
A hello would've been nice. Of course, it was probably her fault that he was so bland towards her, anyway. "Quiet. How was your trip?" Sarah asked as she pushed away some of her thick, light brown curls from her dark gray eyes.
He shrugged as he pulled out a large tin of cocoa. "They barely had anything we needed at the village, but obviously, there were a few gems."
Sarah took the can and stowed it away in a cupboard, followed by a dozen more cans and packages of dried herbs and spices. Owen left the house again, and returned with two large bags, one of rice and another of beans, and a sack of potatoes. He was a tall man, and he carried them in effortlessly, and she remembered fleetingly when he had done the same to her two years ago.
Soon, everything was stowed away, then they settled into a quiet supper. Sarah swirled the stew in her bowl, then looked over at Owen, who was focused on his meal. "When will you have to travel for the WRO again?"
His deep blue eyes went from the contents of his bowl to her, then to the wood beam ceiling as he seemingly collected his thoughts. Then, they went back to Sarah. "Couple of days. They said I'll have to go to Rocket Town."
"Oh. That's not too far away." Relatively, that was.
Owen nodded. "I'll be gone for a week, unless the pass is snowed over."
"I hope that doesn't happen. I'll...be lonely with you gone."
He blinked his eyes once, then a weak smile came to his face. "I'll be lonely out there, too."
"Hm." Sarah looked out the dark window, the water tower invisible in the glum night. "You'll still have more people to talk to."
"More people will come here. Cloud's not wrong about people settling away from the cities. We're just getting an early start."
But to what end for us?
It felt like a blur, the short time Owen was around. They had just gotten settled, and he was off again. Sarah truly did miss him, but there had been a bitterness between them the last six months, mild but palpable, making Owen seem distant. Perhaps he would grow out of it, she thought; after all, he had made plans for them to settle down here, half a world away.
She watched as his car left Nibelheim behind, disappearing behind a wooded bend. Slowly, she turned to look at the water tower, the stoic guardian of the town square. Marlene and Denzel, Cloud and Tifa's oldest children, played near it. With not much hesitation, Sarah decided to give Tifa a visit, instead of getting lost in her own thoughts.
Sarah knocked on the door, and a few moments later Tifa answered the door, her deep red eyes lighting up when she recognized her neighbor. "Sarah," she began to greet, "what can I help you with?"
"Oh, well, I thought I'd come over to talk a little, if that's alright."
Tifa nodded and smiled warmly, moving out of the way to let Sarah in. The house was busy looking, yet still relatively tidy, and she wondered how Tifa managed that. The floors were wood and the walls white, and the kitchen had a rather large table in the middle that was draped in a rich, red fabric. The four babies were in a playpen fence nearby, babbling amongst themselves or staring at their mother's guest.
"How're you enjoying Nibelheim so far?" Tifa asked as she put her teapot on the stove. "I know it's a far cry from Junon or Edge…"
Sarah sat on one of the chairs at the table, the soft cushion to be found preferable to the hard wood underneath. "I guess I just need to find something to do, with Owen gone."
"Oh. Well, maybe there's not a lot to do at first, but the countryside and woods are pretty safe to explore. Parts of the mountain, too." Tifa took out two mugs and started placing tea bags in them. "Or I could show you some crafts. I learned how to do a lot of sewing and cooking when I was younger...It's a bit of a necessity out here." She looked back at her guest. "Or, I can show you some martial arts, if you'd like to learn that."
"Hm." Sarah didn't mind the thought. Learning something, anything, would be better than being left to her thoughts. Her head slowly turned towards the playpen, filled with four happy babies. Snapping out of her thoughts, she again looked at Tifa and nodded. "I'd love to!"
Tifa studied her, then smiled warmly. "We can do something tomorrow morning if you'd like. Martial arts takes dedication, but it's very fulfilling."
After a few more minutes they both had a mug of hot tea, smelling of lemon and some spicy, familiar herb. Sarah held her mug and looked into the murky depths as she breathed in the aroma. It was so relaxing, the heat and fumes…
Come to Me.
"Huh?"
Tifa tilted her head to the side. "What's wrong?"
Sarah blinked a few times, then sighed. "...Nothing. I thought I heard someone, that's all." She finally sipped her tea, the liquid warming her in a way her sweater couldn't. "I could use a few pointers on cooking, to be completely honest. Owen is the cook, not me...but, I'd like to surprise him when he gets back. If I'm not asking too much of you, that is."
"Of course not! I'm looking forward to spending more time with you."
It was nice to hear that from someone, and a smile formed on her face. She could actually look forward to the week, despite the nights being lonesome. Sarah continued to drink her tea and chat with Tifa about this or that, like places Cloud had been, or Junon's rise to become the new seat of world power with the WRO. For a time it felt like she was somewhere else.
A baby crying interrupted their conversation, and they both looked over to see one of the babies grasping the plastic cage wall and looking at Tifa with need in their wet, blue eyes. Tifa excused herself to walk over and pick the baby up, then came back to sit in her seat. She looked over at Sarah with a hesitant look in her red eyes. "Would you mind if I…"
Not your biological children, you said?
Sarah shook her head. After a moment, Tifa moved the side of her red sweater up, did something with her bra, and then the baby was brought to feed off her breast. Her eyes went to a small, dark birthmark on his back, but quickly took in the sight of everything. A pang went through Sarah's heart as she watched; she couldn't help but look at the needy, chubby baby, the content look on Tifa's face…
Tifa must have taken notice, because as she adjusted her hold on her child, and gave a reassuring smile. "Oh, just wait until you have a baby!"
Bitterness grasped Sarah's heart, and she looked away, towards the wall. The painting of faeries dancing around a tree stump in the woods was a good thing to focus on. She found herself chewing on her lip, and feeling the stare of her neighbor into the side of her head. Finally, after a stressful sigh, she confessed: "...I...can't have kids."
"...You can't?" Tifa's voice was full of uncertainty.
Sarah shook her head, then finally looked back at Tifa. She swallowed and licked her lips, remembering the talk in the clinic, the wedge between she and Owen… "They said there was nothing they could do for me. It was because of the severity of my Geostigma before it was cured, and where it was located." Right over her womb, and her hand instinctively went to the area right below her belly button.
"...I see. Well…" Tifa looked down at the baby, who seemed about done with his meal. She fixed her bra and sweater, then began burping the little boy. "Cloud and I...had a bit of an issue, too. We came here to visit our old hometown after it was abandoned, as you already know. Nibelheim used to honor the mountain god here, and they always used to say that you visited the cave at the base of Mount Nibel to ask for a fertility blessing.
"That's what we did when we came back here. And you know, it was funny, but there were four newborns waiting for us here, in the town. In this house." The baby let out a string of satisfied burps, then Tifa cradled him in her arms. Her smile grew amused at the look of disbelief on Sarah's face. "Ask Marlene and Denzel if you don't believe me. I'd have a deflated tire around my belly if I had all four of them at once!"
That made sense, Sarah had to admit as she drank the last of her tea. Still, finding four babies in a backwater was so farfetch'd! It had to be a coincidence, because Cloud and Tifa didn't come off as people that would murder for babies, at least in her opinion. But they had left Edge for here; what was the missing part of the equation? Was it truly the mountain?
Should she be so skeptical, in a world with materia and meteors, and the Lifestream that stopped them? A world with giant, angry monsters that attack cities out of the blue? If there was a god that could give her a child, and one that looked a lot like she and Owen, would it be that strange, all things considered? "Maybe I'll make a short visit up there." Not like it would hurt to do so.
Tifa beamed at Sarah's suggestion. "I hope you get a blessing. Maybe it won't be as dramatic as ours, but...the mountain works in mysterious ways."
She hoped so, even as she finished her trip to Tifa's home after several hours of trying new skills with her and even helping with the babies. They were so happy and chubby and cute, and Sarah just wanted to hold them forever. Tifa went over their names...Stella, Zack, Lily and Glenn. She found it odd that they all had a similar birthmark on the middle of the backs, though they seemed harmless enough.
Marlene and Denzel were coming back to the house as she was leaving, done saying her farewells to Tifa. She looked down at them and thought maybe they looked a little like Cloud and Tifa, but not so much as the babies did. They were walking her way as Denzel began to say something to his adopted sister.
"I swear I saw something out in the woods, but maybe it was a deer laying down. I couldn't tell." The blue eyed boy looked up at Sarah, and she heard as both children greeted her. "Hi, Mrs. Fisher."
"Hello, you two," she replied back. "I'm just going home after helping Tifa out with your siblings."
Marlene brightened at the mention of the babies. "They're so cute, aren't they?! When Cloud and Tifa brought them home after their trip, I couldn't stop holding them!"
So, maybe the babies had been found. Slowly, Sarah nodded as Denzel halfheartedly rolled his eyes. "They're adorable. I'll come over tomorrow to play with them again."
Come to Me.
Sarah was in a forest of darkness, the moon and stars blotted out. The sound of some creature tapping rotten logs played distantly in her ears, making a chill run down her spine. All the while some force, small at first but gaining strength, called out to her. Called in her.
Come to Me.
The force made her walk towards the sounds. Afraid at first, then more curious, Sarah continued. She walked and walked into a forest full of web and the baying of creatures just out of the corner of her eye. Before she knew it, she was standing at the base of a mountain, the peak covered in unusual spikes.
Come to Me.
She stared at it as the dark, swollen clouds swirled slowly above it, ominous yet serene. Her feet planted to the earth, she could do nothing but watch as an infinite amount of spiders poured out from the center of the swirl, their yellow eyes glittering like stars in the heavens, and all of them on her. They cascaded down like creeping jewels of jet and amber.
Come to Me.
They fed into a cave, a cave that glowed mako green within. The mountain groaned as the earth shook, then a thousand amber eyes blinked into existence on its rocky surface. Somehow she knew those orbs were staring at her. And when she couldn't bare to stand its stare any longer she cast her gaze downward, towards a million egg sacs surrounding her.
Come to Me.
Sarah rubbed her forehead as she walked away from her home, the crisp, mid-morning air making her headache spike when the wind blew just a little too hard. She heard the sound of metal on metal and rock music played at a quiet level. Cloud was out in front of his house, fiddling about with his sleek, black bike. He looked up, and he raised his blond brows in greeting as she came over for a small chat.
"You okay?" he asked as he rubbed a smudge of grease from his thumb with a dirty rag.
She gave a weak shrug. "Just a tiny headache I woke up to."
"Hm. Had a strange dream?"
Sarah stared at him warily. "How did you know?"
"It's happened to me before. I'd get a really weird dream, and then I'd get a headache." He shrugged his shoulders, then looked at her earnestly. "Remember anything?"
Her grey eyes looked down at her feet and flickered back and forth, trying to remember anything worthwhile to speak of. Finally, Sarah looked back up at him. "...I remember a lot of...well, spiders. And their...egg sacks…" It was embarrassing to admit it out loud.
"Oh, Well, they say spider eggs in dreams means you'll have lots of kids."
Sarah frowned at him. "Where did you hear that from?"
Cloud let out a low, short chuckle. "It's just an old Nibelheim superstition."
She had to wonder how that, of all things, would be interpreted positively. But people thought bats were lucky in Costa del Sol, so why not spider eggs for many children? Perhaps it was a slightly dark joke, and nothing more.
"So, what brings you out so early?"
"I...was going to take a walk. Towards the mountain," she said hesitantly. Sarah wondered if Tifa had said something, because a faint smirk was forming on Cloud's face.
"Go that way," he said as he pointed towards a path that had a large rubble pile on its left, "and then take the path that goes to the left. The cave isn't far from there."
She felt her cheeks blushing, but he gave her a gentle, understanding smile. "The mountain will change your life around for the better. It did for ours."
Nodding quietly while swallowing, she excused herself to walk towards this cavern that supposedly housed a mountain's god. The large rubble pile came into view rather quickly, and it was still strange to look at. It looked to have been a very large house that had burned down and collapsed upon itself, covered in leaves and a few fallen branches. She wondered if they would ever rebuild whatever was there.
The trail's woods shielded her a little from the wind, and she adjusted her knit cap. A little bit of snow and a larger helping of frost coated the ground, revealing footprints going back and forth at certain places. Some small, some larger. The smaller ones didn't follow the trail to the left, however.
She supposed Cloud or Tifa had been up this way rather recently, and they told the children to stay away...was the cave inappropriate? Sarah supposed she would know when she got there. She felt nervous, almost silly, though no one but Cloud and Tifa would know why she roamed up here. She was alone, so why did she feel this way?
At least she felt warm.
A noise came to her right, a crunch of twigs and leaves. Sarah looked, but could see nothing. If it was a person or a monster, it would have been easy to pick out in the bramble...Maybe it was a rabbit? She had heard the sound before. No, she had to keep going, then she could leave for the town. The sound didn't repeat.
The cave wasn't hard to find, but hesitancy gripped her as she peered in. There was a faint glow that filled her heart with equal parts trepidation and curiosity. I have seen this somewhere before. There were no strange sounds that would alert her to something being there, so, she slowly walked in to get a better look.
The patterns and carvings on the round walls reminded her of a spider's web and other, unspeakable things that made it clear this was a fertility god's realm. In the back was what looked like a flat stone surface fused to the wall with some bowls and bottles, and a carving that made her eyes burn and her brain spark like flint on steel.
It was part stone and part materia, glowing blood red. The dim light seemed to pulse in the mako light that emanated from the edges of the cave floor. The 'god' looked more a bizarre monster, looking like a satyr with eight eyes, a pregnant belly sagging over its hips, and overly large fangs jutting out of its mouth. Eight spider legs, four on top with human hands that held green orbs in each, and four reaching down with points that held him up, completed the monstrosity.
It had been a bad idea to come here.
Her mind was barely working as she tried to peel her eyes away from the statue, and she stumbled into the wall behind her. Leaning on it, she took a few deep breaths. She had to clear her mind after it had been violated by the sight of that thing. No, that couldn't be a god, not that. That thing was ungodly. The place she was in was ungodly.
With a final, heavy sigh, Sarah felt she had recovered enough to escape. But what of Cloud and Tifa? Had this been a joke? Or was it something far more sinister? She couldn't quite see either with how kind they had been. It made as much sense as the statue behind her, the statue that was making a clicking noise.
No, that sound was right behind her.
Quickly turning around, she found the most hideous creature looking up at her from the center of the cave. The face was a mesh of goat, spider and man, and it sported spider legs not unlike the statue's. Before she could scream, it tucked in its bulbous abdomen and sprayed her with silk. First her mouth, then up to her head; she was stuck to the wall. After looking over its work, the creature left.
It felt like forever as she struggled in her silken prison, all the while avoiding the gaze of the statue. Sarah screamed helplessly into her gag, the high pitch eventually turning to coarse bellows. Tears welled and released from her eyes as time went by. Eventually, though, her eyes widened as she heard the sound of human feet coming into the cave entrance.
"Sarah?"
She shouted into the silk after Cloud queried her name. Soon he came into view, his face a little worried and his cheeks pink from the cool mountain air. He tore off the gag carefully, and she took a large drag of air through her mouth. "Cloud…" She shook her head. "Was this some sort of joke?" Sarah rasped.
He shook his head. "No! Ah, here, drink this, it'll help get you outta this…" Cloud produced a flask that looked to hold a few mouthfuls of liquid. He opened it, then brought it to her lips.
Having little choice, she drank the concoction. It tasted bitter and astringent, and a strange burn pooled into her belly that slowly grew. She almost gagged after he withdrew it. "...What was that?" She licked her lips.
"It's a potion made from herbs and roots from Nibelheim, river water, and a good helping of Dugafel venom," he explained. "The venom is safe to ingest, it's only dangerous if you get bit."
"...D-Dugafel?"
"Yeah. That little guy right there." Cloud pointed at the monster that had wrapped her up...What?
Her breathing quickened as a few puzzle pieces began to fall into place. "You...them…I'm...I'm a sacrifice…"
He frowned. "Of course not. This is a Dugafel, that's what we call them in Nibelese. 'The Helpers from the Mountain'." Cloud patted the queerly shaped head of the grotesque being, and it rubbed its palps together. "They don't require sacrifices."
Sarah shook her head. "No, I-I mean that...it…" She didn't want to call it a god.
Cloud quickly looked towards the statue, then back at her again. "Niblrung requires offerings, but not how you're thinking," he said quietly as he came closer. "Niblrung will give you the family you want. He wants big families in Nibelheim, not human sacrifices. He wants many children, like spiderlings in the spring."
The thought of her giving birth to spiders made her violently shake her head. "No, no! I don't want it! I don't want it!" she began to sob, still struggling even as Cloud took a step back.
"Shhh. Everything'll be alright." He smiled serenely at her. "You'll be a part of the mountain soon, too."
And then the Dugafel wrapped her head up, and her senses were muted. She could breathe through the silk and hear the thump of her heartbeat, but everything else escaped her. Everything, except the expanding warmth from the potion and a strange thrum reminiscent of static that grew with each passing, claustrophobic minute.
You called out to Me.
You came to Me.
I have come to embrace you.
She screamed in her prison as something inside her was irreparably changed.
It had been a week since Owen had stepped foot into his new hometown, tired from his trip to Rocket Town and puzzled over Cid's creepy friend's warning when he mentioned he now resided in Nibelheim:
"Stay away from the mountain."
That Vincent fellow had never said why, however. He was peculiar, and dressed like a red nightmare. Maybe he was a little crazy. It was just a strangely shaped mountain with an odd geological history, nothing to be feared. Unless, Owen thought, Vincent meant the Nibel dragons that lived on the upper parts of the Nibel range.
Parking his car in the small alley next to his home, he thought of Sarah and the disappointment of her barrenness that had put a cloud over her usually sunny disposition. He had, and was still disappointed about it, but he had promised to himself that he would make them a new life here. Even if they only had each other, it would be quiet and closer to the planet.
Maybe they could adopt, like Cloud and Tifa had…
Flowers from Rocket Town in his hand, he knocked on the door. A small gesture for sure, but he wanted to see her smile again. Everything would be okay.
The door opened, and he was greeted to a beaming smile and grey eyes that shone like moonstones. He had to smile despite his surprise at her demeanor; instead of quiet and sullen, she looked like the woman he had married again. "Sarah! I've missed you." He brought the flowers towards her.
She took the golden flowers from him, her smile widening. "Oh, Owen, thank you! I thought I wouldn't see flowers until the spring…" Sarah moved out of his way and towards the kitchen, where she began to set up a vase.
"I know how much you love flowers…" As he came in and closed the door, he noticed the smell of cooked meat and boiling pots on the stove. "Been busy with Tifa?"
"Mhm," she replied as the flowers were neatly placed into the glass vase. Sarah turned to him and slowly began to walk towards him. "She's been teaching me a lot of new things."
"That's good to hear." Owen looked her up and down. "You look like you've finally settled into the country life."
Sarah nodded, and help his hands in her own. "You could say I've gotten into the Nibelheim spirit!"