DISCLAIMER: Not mine.
Author's Note: Guys......REVIEW!!!!!!! I mean it! PLEASE?????? Pretty please?
~~Chapter Two~~
**Agrona's POV**
It had been a long three months since I had left my cottage. I had been summoned to the royal palace nearly three leagues away at the request of Queen Rhiannon to ensure that the final months of her pregnancy went smoothly. She knew of my powers and wished me to preside while her baby prince was born, and to prophesy over him when he entered the world.
It had been with some reserve that I had left my cottage. I had been growing my rampion in the garden, and it was nearly time for harvest. I was uneasy for these greens were of special value to me. They blossomed only every fifty years, and within the leaves resided magical properties of which would give any magical creature who partook of them everlasting life. As I was already three hundred and twelve years old I needed to eat a plant a month in order to ensure my immortality, and as the rampion only blossomed every fifty years, if I missed a harvest, it could very easily spell my doom.
As I rode my pony the last mile home I began to reflect upon the last twenty four hours with some unease and tightening in my chest. It had been a difficult birth. I could remember the sweaty, humid room, lit only by firelight from the hearth. The Queen was a petite, frail thing should never have had to bear a child. She was much to light, her bones to fragile, and her pelvis to narrow. But she had struggled through. Crying, screaming, praying, cursing, she had fought, gripping the pillows about her and releasing feathers when she had torn them to shreds with her violent jerks.
"Oh God help me!"
"We're almost there hon," the midwife had reassured her in a soothing voice, her face dripping with perspiration, gray curls sticking to her forehead, "Just a little longer."
The Queen writhed on her down mattress. Face illuminated by the firelight, drenched in sweat, she moaned and tossed her head, the stupid woman had not eaten properly during her last trimester. If she had she would have weighed another twenty pounds. But she had not wanted to gain weight from the pregnancy and had only pecked at her food. Now she was paying the price of vanity.
I observed all this from the shadows of the corner of the chamber, standing in the cold of the stone walls, away from the oppressing heat of the bedside. It does not suit me to reveal my gnarled face to many. It is easier to control situations from an objective, reserved, viewpoint, when everything is visible.
A scream sliced through the thick air, and I heard a high-pitched wail from the bedside. The baby had emerged. There was a round of applause and many jubilant cries from the birthing area as the little Prince shrieked in indignation at being subjected to this indignity. I edged into the light, pulling my cloak closer to shroud my face.
The Queen was collapsed and panting on her down pillows as the midwife and aids cleaned up the infant and wrapped him in silken blankets. Raising up with great effort, Queen Rhainnon took the baby in her arms and smiled down upon him.
"So, you're the one I went through that for?" she said softly, caressing his forehead with her palm. She leaned closer to him and whispered, "You were worth it."
"He's beautiful milady," the midwife murmured.
"Yes he is," she paused and seemed to be meditating on something until finally announcing proudly, "He shall be called Christian, in honor of the faith we kept through his difficult birth."
I approached the mother and her babe. All other nurses and aids scuttled away as though repelled by my presence. With firm hands I lifted the child from the Queen's arms and turned his face to the golden light. It was young and smooth, soft in the warm glow, untainted by time and knowledge. I closed my eyes and allowed my subconscious to overwhelm thought. Images began to flash through my mind.
"I see a great enigma ahead...a high barrier..." I murmured. There was a cage...with a golden bird with in...silent screams filled my mind...
"Christian will cross the barricade to free a golden bird from an unlocked cage..."
More screaming...darkness...
"...there will come a great blackness from a fall..."
Blood...then...my own face flashed before my eyes... open mouthed in horror...pale and cold...a face of death...
My eyes flew open and I beheld a roomful of anxious faces staring raptly at me. I took a few deep breaths. My death...I examined the child in my arms...the infant I cradled would one day bring about my own demise.
He was so fragile, so delicate. If I were to wrap my hands around his neck I could cut his thread of life in an instant. I shifted ever so slightly to cover his mouth with my left hand, to stifle his cries...until the silence of the room brought me back to reality. I was being watched.
"Agrona?" the Queen addressed me in a worried voice, "Are you all right?"
I removed my hand from the sleeping infant's face and returned him reluctantly to his mother's arms. Restoring my doom to safety.
The pony's hooves clip-clopped on the hard worn road and I gripped the reigns harder, as though they were the infant I wished to crush. I was only about a hundred yards away from home now. I could just see the dark silhouette of my cottage in the distance, dwarfed by the colossal stone wall surrounding my garden. Something wasn't right. I could sense it like a foul stench, the aura emitted from my home.
Reaching my front door I dismounted and hobbled inside as quickly as I could. Nothing inside was amiss. Newts eyes, toad warts, and dragon's liver still labeled and arranged alphabetically on their appropriate shelves. I pulled open the back door and stumbled onto a mound of silver coins. In slight confusion and mild disgust I kicked the majority off the step and into the carrot patch. Then I saw it. My rampion was gone. I crouched low to examine the earth and found it to be loose, as though my greens had been pulled from the ground. Only a few malnourished patches remained, those in the dark corners where the sun could not shine and warm their leaves. Already they had split open to pollinate and the leaves fell to the ground like long women's braids.
From over the garden wall I heard joyous singing floating in the evening breeze.
Author's Note: Guys......REVIEW!!!!!!! I mean it! PLEASE?????? Pretty please?
~~Chapter Two~~
**Agrona's POV**
It had been a long three months since I had left my cottage. I had been summoned to the royal palace nearly three leagues away at the request of Queen Rhiannon to ensure that the final months of her pregnancy went smoothly. She knew of my powers and wished me to preside while her baby prince was born, and to prophesy over him when he entered the world.
It had been with some reserve that I had left my cottage. I had been growing my rampion in the garden, and it was nearly time for harvest. I was uneasy for these greens were of special value to me. They blossomed only every fifty years, and within the leaves resided magical properties of which would give any magical creature who partook of them everlasting life. As I was already three hundred and twelve years old I needed to eat a plant a month in order to ensure my immortality, and as the rampion only blossomed every fifty years, if I missed a harvest, it could very easily spell my doom.
As I rode my pony the last mile home I began to reflect upon the last twenty four hours with some unease and tightening in my chest. It had been a difficult birth. I could remember the sweaty, humid room, lit only by firelight from the hearth. The Queen was a petite, frail thing should never have had to bear a child. She was much to light, her bones to fragile, and her pelvis to narrow. But she had struggled through. Crying, screaming, praying, cursing, she had fought, gripping the pillows about her and releasing feathers when she had torn them to shreds with her violent jerks.
"Oh God help me!"
"We're almost there hon," the midwife had reassured her in a soothing voice, her face dripping with perspiration, gray curls sticking to her forehead, "Just a little longer."
The Queen writhed on her down mattress. Face illuminated by the firelight, drenched in sweat, she moaned and tossed her head, the stupid woman had not eaten properly during her last trimester. If she had she would have weighed another twenty pounds. But she had not wanted to gain weight from the pregnancy and had only pecked at her food. Now she was paying the price of vanity.
I observed all this from the shadows of the corner of the chamber, standing in the cold of the stone walls, away from the oppressing heat of the bedside. It does not suit me to reveal my gnarled face to many. It is easier to control situations from an objective, reserved, viewpoint, when everything is visible.
A scream sliced through the thick air, and I heard a high-pitched wail from the bedside. The baby had emerged. There was a round of applause and many jubilant cries from the birthing area as the little Prince shrieked in indignation at being subjected to this indignity. I edged into the light, pulling my cloak closer to shroud my face.
The Queen was collapsed and panting on her down pillows as the midwife and aids cleaned up the infant and wrapped him in silken blankets. Raising up with great effort, Queen Rhainnon took the baby in her arms and smiled down upon him.
"So, you're the one I went through that for?" she said softly, caressing his forehead with her palm. She leaned closer to him and whispered, "You were worth it."
"He's beautiful milady," the midwife murmured.
"Yes he is," she paused and seemed to be meditating on something until finally announcing proudly, "He shall be called Christian, in honor of the faith we kept through his difficult birth."
I approached the mother and her babe. All other nurses and aids scuttled away as though repelled by my presence. With firm hands I lifted the child from the Queen's arms and turned his face to the golden light. It was young and smooth, soft in the warm glow, untainted by time and knowledge. I closed my eyes and allowed my subconscious to overwhelm thought. Images began to flash through my mind.
"I see a great enigma ahead...a high barrier..." I murmured. There was a cage...with a golden bird with in...silent screams filled my mind...
"Christian will cross the barricade to free a golden bird from an unlocked cage..."
More screaming...darkness...
"...there will come a great blackness from a fall..."
Blood...then...my own face flashed before my eyes... open mouthed in horror...pale and cold...a face of death...
My eyes flew open and I beheld a roomful of anxious faces staring raptly at me. I took a few deep breaths. My death...I examined the child in my arms...the infant I cradled would one day bring about my own demise.
He was so fragile, so delicate. If I were to wrap my hands around his neck I could cut his thread of life in an instant. I shifted ever so slightly to cover his mouth with my left hand, to stifle his cries...until the silence of the room brought me back to reality. I was being watched.
"Agrona?" the Queen addressed me in a worried voice, "Are you all right?"
I removed my hand from the sleeping infant's face and returned him reluctantly to his mother's arms. Restoring my doom to safety.
The pony's hooves clip-clopped on the hard worn road and I gripped the reigns harder, as though they were the infant I wished to crush. I was only about a hundred yards away from home now. I could just see the dark silhouette of my cottage in the distance, dwarfed by the colossal stone wall surrounding my garden. Something wasn't right. I could sense it like a foul stench, the aura emitted from my home.
Reaching my front door I dismounted and hobbled inside as quickly as I could. Nothing inside was amiss. Newts eyes, toad warts, and dragon's liver still labeled and arranged alphabetically on their appropriate shelves. I pulled open the back door and stumbled onto a mound of silver coins. In slight confusion and mild disgust I kicked the majority off the step and into the carrot patch. Then I saw it. My rampion was gone. I crouched low to examine the earth and found it to be loose, as though my greens had been pulled from the ground. Only a few malnourished patches remained, those in the dark corners where the sun could not shine and warm their leaves. Already they had split open to pollinate and the leaves fell to the ground like long women's braids.
From over the garden wall I heard joyous singing floating in the evening breeze.