Molten wings beat, sparks floating in a swarm of ash. It stands on its hefty hind legs, claws grazing the sheets of the bedding where it stays, strangely mounted on the rather thin footrest.
Doctors mill around the heaving woman, her legs wide as the child crowns.
Her face is flushed and her breaths are laboured, but her eyes stay trained on the end of the bed.
It hasn't moved, she knows why. The creature's eyeless holes are trained on her inner thighs. It's gangly arms are poised at its sides.
She grips the sheets tight with one hand, the other hidden in the mound of pillows behind her head.
"It's coming, breathe again and push" she does. Determined eyes watch the beast at her feet and her grip on the blade tightens.
The mother knows she will never hold her child, yet the will to fight cheers her on. Her actions may determine the child's future and she is willing to risk it.
A nervous laugh, followed by needy wails.
It's born. But, the creature remains still. Watching.
The mother is unnerved by this. Second guessing.
"It's a girl" the doctor sighs.
Breaking her guard, she steals a glance at the child. Her child.
Her resolve renews and she steels waiting on the thing at her feet.
A nurse aids the doctor and the umbilical cord is severed.
Then, like clockwork.
It bursts forth and she springs to intercept, freeing the igneous broadsword.
It reaches the child. She cuts at the head, but severs its ghastly hand instead and it retaliates, tail knocking her into the headrest.
With the child in hand, it turns on the woman, tearing her to shreds before digging into the floor.
On the floor below, there are no reports of a disturbance.
The doctors are puzzled. With no complications during the delivery, it's shocking when the mother flat lines. Followed immediately by the child.
The detatched hand twitches.
Emerging from the dark clay that covers the landscape, a tall man in drab clothing carries an infant in his one good hand. Trailing blood from his other arm up the walkway to the only structure in this massive cavern of geysers and molten rocks.
This is just my vision of Trina's kidnapping in the fan fiction story War of the Immortals by Tsubasa K. Kruger. A tribute of sorts. Except for the Holly dying, that didn't happen in the actual story.
