Iseliandas - The Dark Age
Prologue
The Dream World
THE SOUND OF CRYING echoed throughout the neighborhood. It wasn't a cry of fear, agony or anger, but that of a newborn baby.
"It's out!" the midwife exclaimed as she held the baby in her arms. The newborn's eyes were wide open, its gem violet eyes glimmering in the light of multiple candles. It hollered as it's skin, alien to the new atmosphere outside it's mother's womb, was touched by the cold of night, although they were inside a lofty house. "Hand me the sisscors!" she directed. A young man, looking around eighteen or nineteen, possibly youger, snatched the metal sisscors and walked over carefully to where the midwife was. He knew what he had to do. He saw it multiple times, having accompanied some nurses and doctors in the past, volunteering to help them. That was how their community was run. Everyone knew each other and if anyone needed assistance with anything, someone was always there to help.
He carefully knelt beside the baby and gently put his hand under the umbilical cord. In an instant, the newborn turned its attention to him, its eyes still large and welled with tears. It stopped crying for a moment, as if with his touch, even though the cord wasn't exactly apart of it, the baby knew whose had it belonged to. The young gentleman smiled sweetly at the baby as it blinked its large violet eyes at him, observing his face and his hands. "It's okay", he whispered to the new born. "Everything's going to be okay."
With a steady hand, he opened the sisscors cut the cord, leaving a couple inches dangling from the newborn's navel. The baby suddenly cried again, now that it was completely apart from its mother.
The gentleman stood and backed away as the midwife took the child to a nearby table to clean off the blood and other gunk that was on its skin. He stowed the sisscors in a container filled with a blue liquid that emitted an alcoholic stench. Then the young man walked to the side of the bed, sitting next to his wife, who was still panting from the painful experience.
He held her hand reassuringling, caressing her silky soft skin with this dark Native American fingers. Then the midwife returned after several minutes, carrying a soft red bundle in her arms. "It's a healthy baby girl", she told them with a genuine smile.
She gave the baby to the wife and helped her lower the little thing onto her chest, where she could see her newborn's face. The baby girl's face was round, her cheeks a fluffy red tint. Her eyes were still open, but sleepiness evidently was beginning to take over. "She's so beautiful", the new mother whispered. Her eyes brimmed with joyful tears.
Her husband looked lovingly at his baby girl. His entire face was lit up with an everlasting hope, that this child would hold the key to a promising future-one without war and one without hurt or hate. Then, the new parents gazed into each other's eyes, momentarily forgetting the pain and surprise that engulfed their minds and hearts. The rest of the world disappeared and there was only the three of them, happily together and on a new journey in life. They did not know what the future would hold after today, but they surely would face it together, as one prideful, peaceful, united, loving family.