Screams echoed down the long corridor. Loud, animalistic screams of gut-wrenching pain that made all those who could hear wish they could claw their eardrums out of their heads. The corridor had not been occupied by anyone in many years, but tonight it was filled with activity. A dreadful storm was raging outside; rain lashed against the walls in a fury, and wind howled through the trees. Lightning lit the sky in near-constant flashes, but even the booming of thunder could not drown out the pitiful screams coming from the room at the end of the hallway.
A small-framed, inconspicuous looking woman burst into the room just as a tiny infant's screams joined those of the woman in the bed. The mother lay there, panting, her spun-gold hair plastered to her forehead. Blood stained the sheets on the makeshift bed beneath her shaking legs. The midwife had a tiny red-and-white splotched infant on a table nearby, examining the child. It was a girl.
"Ah, Neylena," said the midwife. "You certainly took your sweet-arse time getting back 'ere. I 'ad to catch the babe all by meself." She scowled at her apprentice. "Take after the mistress, there," she said sternly. "Get some clean sheets on the bed afore I take me strap to you. 'Ow do you expect to ever become a midwife when you can't even stay put for five minutes when I tells you to, ay?"
"I apologize, Mistress Ferryl," Neylena said quietly. Her voice was soft and melodical, and did not grate at one's ears as Ferryl's did. Without another word, she moved towards the weeping mother. With gentle hands, she took a soft cloth and began to wipe the drying blood from her legs. When she was clean, Neylena pulled the soiled bedclothes from beneath her as best as she could without jostling the girl.
"Give 'er some 'Ochle to 'elp with the pain," Ferryl ordered, swaddling the infant in a thick blanket. "I've got to go tell 'em she's born the babe." She did not need to specify who "they" were; Neylena knew the arrangement as well as her mistress, having been privy to it since the moment the girl on the bed – Marica - had realized she was with child. Ferryl dipped her hands into a basin of warm water, rubbed them vigorously together and began drying them on her apron as she bustled out of the room.
Neylena moved towards the infant, who had ceased her wailing and now merely whimpered like a newborn kitten. She picked up the child and brought her towards her mother. "It's a girl," she said softly, placing her in Marica's arms.
Marica looked down at the infant with no real interest. She would not be keeping this baby; she knew that already. She did not want to. She was only sixteen, after all. Even if her father had allowed her to, she would not have. "Take her away," she sighed, pushing the baby back towards Neylena. "I'm tired."
"Don't you wish to name her, my Mistress?" Neylena asked uncertainly.
Marica paused, and looked down at the infant once more. Her eyes were open, staring at her mother with that curious look that only newborns can achieve. They were a dark velvety blue color, with flecks of grey, green, and lighter blue. They put one in mind of looking at stars on a clear night. "Gemyn," Marica said finally. "Her name is Gemyn."
A/N: For anyone who has read this story before, I've been looking it over and decided to completely revamp it. I started this back in 2004, and since that time I've grown a lot as a writer, and now that I've fleshed out an entire plotline, I've found that my original story didn't really fit. It was getting to be too much of a hassle to re-do it chapter by chapter, so I deleted the old story and re-wrote the entire thing. Granted, large blurbs of it are exactly the same as the original, but I've changed Gemyn's origin story a LOT (because the original just seemed stupid, honestly) and some other things are different too. Anyway...I hope you like it, and would love to hear your thoughts!
xoxo
Melissa