Lyanna screamed so loud she was sure it could be heard all the way to The North. The screams rang through the walls in Storm's End, and her cries flowed in the halls. She was spread out on the huge bed in her chambers, a few pillows at her neck, and many thick sheets underneath her. It was very important that the bed didn't get completely tainted.
She had suddenly broken waters while she was walking in the woods. She had been walking alone for once; because of her new chambers, her windows were now at the ground floors, and were easier for her to climb out unnoticed.
Ever since she had gotten with child, people had centered on her health and the safety of the baby. The maester had insisted that her chambers should be relocated to the ground floors, so she did not have to climb the stairs. Other than that, she was almost never allowed to be alone. It was lucky some of the guards had found her lying in the dirt, just outside the forest.
She felt the pain starting again; it came in waves. It started in her lower back, then burned through her stomach, then continued down to her lower parts, and ended somewhere in her legs. She let out an abysmal cry, deep in her throat, and the maester told her to take a deep breathe, and think of Robert waiting outside. The tears rolled down her cheeks.
Robert Baratheon. He was waiting outside the door, waiting to see his new-born child. The thought made her nauseous. When she was done giving birth, he would march inside the room, probably drunk, take the baby from her arms, to show it, proudly, to the people in the castle. Just the thought of his ugly, stinking hands on her baby, nearly made her sick.
Those filthy hands, Robert's hands, were clay compared to his hands. His hands..
Lyanna's mind wandered for a while, imagining the soft feeling of his hands on her body. She loved the way their hands had looked when they had been entwined: Her pale, cold skin, against his hand, olive coloured and warm..
Her breath suddenly slowed, and she could hear the maester praising her for calming down.
"Keep going, my Lady, and it will be over soon. Keep breathing slowly, the way you just did now." He said, not sounding that reassuring at all .
"Aaaarrrggg!" Lyanna shrieked, as a sharp pain coursed thru her body once again.
She tried to remember his eyes, the eyes that somehow reminded her of an animal's eyes, a dangerous predator, yet protecting. The deep, black ponds she had fallen in love with.
Her breathing slowed down a bit again.
"Yes, that's it Lyanna." The maester chanted.
As she closed her eyes once more, embracing the pain, she thought of his hands on her swollen belly. She pretended for a moment that he was in the room with her, holding her, kissing her on her long, brown hair. She could almost hear him whispering near her ear:
"Lya, I will see you again"
The way he had whispered before kissing her goodbye, the last time she saw him, seven months ago.
The pain was agonizing, and she was relieved when she felt the baby 'fall' from her, and upon hearing the wail coming from it, filling the sizzling room.
Suddenly the room went silent. One could still hear the baby yowling quietly, but the people were dead silent.
Lyanna came to her senses, and looked up between her spread legs, trying to see, and panicking slightly.
"I want my baby." She stuttered.
One of the maids turned around to face her. Lyanna met a pale face with frightened eyes.
"It's a boy, my Lady, but his.. His.."
"What is wrong?! LET ME SEE HIM!" She commanded.
The maester turned around, and handed her the bundle with her son, stiffly and without making a single sound.
She felt the soft bundle in her arms, and heard the lax breathing of the baby in it. As she looked in his eyes for the first time, she felt her whole being, body and soul, melting together in a single intensity of love. She could feel the warmth burning inside of her, and she loved her son from that moment, and knew that she would love him forever. But she saw something else in his dark eyes, something familiar…
She froze in an instant, as her eyes travelled upon her child. There was one thing about him that was impossible not to see:
He had dark olive skin.
Robert, the big brute, entered the room on the second, laughing, and demanded to she his heir.
"I'm curious to meet the strong boy, who can make my Lyanna scream from the bedroom louder than I can…"
He stopped midsentence, glaring at the child nurturing in her arms. His facial expression went from surprised, confused, sad and then to downright fury. This was the emotion she knew furthermost on his face, and she held the child closer, desperately trying to look for an escape. Robert's face grew redder by the instant, his knuckles white.
Luckily the maester laid a hand on Robert's shoulder, just as he took a step towards the bed.
"My Lord, it would not be right.., The Seven tells us that a mother and her new-born child are sacred!" He said trembling.
Robert stopped, hesitating, and looked at the baby for a while longer, then at Lyanna. She met his eyes and saw the betrayal he felt towards her. She held his gaze, and felt his fury upon her, before he turned around and called in five of the men outside.
"FIND HIM!" He roared so loud the baby started to cry again.
The men looked utterly confused, and one dared to ask:
"Who, my Lord?"
"PRINCE OBERYN MARTELL!"