Thanks to everyone who left comments, ideas, and predictions. They were all pretty much amazing and a few even made me want to change what I wanted to write (but didn't, you still get what I had in mind). I love hearing your predictions, feel free to leave them any time.
"I didn't come back until well after dark the next night. Everyone was asleep. The only noise in the house was tiny cries. I followed them and I went to her. I was surprised she was not with Mary; she was in a room all by herself in an area of the estate we seldom used. I stayed with her all night and held her little hand, not knowing what to do to try to help her." He stopped and looked at Vicki through his tears before he continued. "I didn't leave her side, and I was afraid to go to anyone, I was afraid that something would happen to her while I was gone. Sunrise came; I figured someone would be in to check on her or for her to be fed. No one came in, not even my mother. She was staying with us and was the only one outside my estate who knew. She was there to help for when the baby was born. I thought she would be in, be she never came."
Henry laid back down on the bed and rolled on to his side away from Vicki. His body shook as his tears increased. Vicki continued to listen tears falling from her eyes too.
"I picked her up finally for the first time sometime late in the day and went to find Mary, but Mary wasn't there. I couldn't find my mother either. I took her and went to my room. She died in my arms that night. She was buried the next day. I had the gardeners plant 2 white rosebushes, one on each side of her where she was buried. I still have her blanket. I don't know if Mary named her, but after she died I named her Angel. Not a very good name for a princess, but I thought it was appropriate. I found out my mother had to leave because her husband had been seriously hurt. Mary had left and gone to her brothers for a month, she told him she just needed to get away from me for a while." The tears had stopped and he started to sound angry. "She had left our baby with no intention of taking care of her. We never really spoke again after that, if we did, it was at court or around my father to maintain appearances. I know I wanted a son, because that would mean no one would be subject to my father's anger, but that didn't mean I wasn't capable of loving my daughter or didn't want her to be safe. When she was born, I ran because I was scared and confused and needed to decide what would happen next, but I had every intention of coming back and trying to protect them. Things were different back then. Being a man, being a prince, meant you didn't show weakness around others. It was undignified. It wasn't intentional to run away but I … you know, it doesn't matter, it doesn't sound right no matter how I put it."
They spent the rest of the night in silence. Henry was lost in his own thoughts, and Vicki really didn't know what to say. She couldn't even begin to fathom what he was feeling or thinking and thought it would be best to keep quiet till he spoke up again. He had rolled over onto his back, and she curled up against him, his left arm was under her head and wrapped around her body. Her right hand snaked up to wrap in his hair. If felt good just to lie there together until they fell asleep.
Somewhere in the sewers one of several cocoons is opened. The creature that was once a human goes out to collect.
As the new creature goes out to collect, and old one is discarded, no longer needed because it cannot collect enough and has become weak.
So, what do you think?
The "big bad" part will start to move a long a little better now.