The maunts and novices gathered around the comatose woman. Her skin was an unnatural shade of green. She had come to them on Lurlinmas around
nine months ago, and they had watched her belly swell and her skin grow terribly taunt. All that covered her was a thick black clothe against her tiny
breasts and grey clothe around her small waist. The maunts pondered if the child that grew inside the mystery woman's womb would be able to escape
its tight prison. Elphaba, Mother Yackle had said, was this woman's name.
"I think the time is growing near," said the Superior Maunt. "Go fetch Sister Doctor, we will need her." A young novice went to fetch the new maunt. A
hand formed on the inside of the stretched green skin and many of the maunts and novices jumped back. Sweat was beading on Elphaba's brow and her
face contorted.
"What's happening?" asked a new novice who had come to the Church of Saint Glinda a few months ago. She was a worrisome girl, trying to escape the
mayhem of the Emerald City.
"She's going to give birth, you ninny," replied an uppity novice. The Superior Maunt gave her a steely look and the novice looked at her apologetically.
Sister Doctor arrived and set up for the birthing. The green skinned woman's head tossed back and forth and she moaned. Water sloshed onto the floor
and the uppity novice renched onto the floor.
"Out, all of you!" stated Sister Doctor. All the people in the room but the Superior left. The Sister set Elphaba's feet on stools and spread the woman's
legs. "Since her water just broke, it may take a few hours until we get the little demon out." The Superior nodded and sat in a chair across the room.
Around thirty minutes had passed when the Sister gasped. "What is it, Sister Doctor?" asked Superior Maunt. The Sister shook her head.
"I don't understand, a few minutes ago she was only beginning to dilate, now she is fully dilated and pushing the baby through." Superior Maunt got up
and walked over to see what the woman was describing. Indeed, Elphaba had dilated fully and was subconsciously pushing the baby out. They saw the
crown of the child and Sister Doctor grabbed it. In a matter of minutes, the child was out and Sister Doctor had stopped Elphaba's bleeding. Superior
Maunt cut the child's umbilical cord and washed it. It didn't have the green skin of its mother, but its eyes were that same color green.
"The gender?" asked the Sister.
"Male," replied the Superior. She held the child underneath his arms and showed the Sister. The boy was chubby and his protruding belly slightly
overlapped his genital area. The boy then decided it was this moment he would cry. His cries alerted his slumbering mother and she lifted her head.
"Liir," she slurred before falling back into unconsciousness. The maunts looked at one another and nodded. The Superior Maunt took a towel and wrapped
it around the crying child.
"Then that will be your name," she said to the little boy. His teary eyes looked at her. "Liir." She looked at Sister Doctor and handed the baby over.
"And what shall be done with the child?" asked the Sister.
"Give him milk from the cow, and when the child and his mother are a little older, they will go to the Cloister of Saint Glinda in the Shale Shallows." Sister
Doctor nodded and left with the child.
"Liir," she kept whispering to the child. "What an odd but beautiful name."
The End
