You Will Be a Mother Too

Peri snuggled next to Sarevok to chase away the chilling night air in the low light of the dimming ambers of their campfire. Traveling the plains had been marginally better than crossing the desert, and better than that, they had been able to buy steppe ponies from peaceful Tuigans they had encountered. Sarevok, though, had to make do with a half-wild mustang Imoen had named 'Fuzzy'. His attempt to ride a pony, after the Tuigan salesman had convinced them that the strong animal could carry such a large man, was still a cause of much sniggering to the sisters. While the pony indeed was capable of carrying Sarevok, it was simply located too near the ground so Sarevok's legs dragged the sand. Peri smiled at the memory.

The pregnancy had advanced to a state where it was slightly visible. It felt so odd, having another person gaining strength and life inside of her. She could not understand how anyone could undergo the pain of violently ending that development. While she understood what a horrible situation an unwanted childbirth could put a woman to, the feeling of the presence of the yet undefined person, her child, was far too powerful for her to even imagine doing such a thing. The morning sickness was easier now, but the downside was that she got tired so easily. She would rather let herself be sawed to pieces than admit that, but the long rides really exhausted her. Jelena forced her to eat lots of healthy food, and after a lot of strong-arming from the combined forces of the whole family she had agreed to eat better than the rest of them. Finally Sarevok had pointed out that it was not really for her, but for the child. That had made her comply.

The Golden Way... she guessed it was called that because of the shimmering desert sands, and the land of legend awaiting in the other end of it. But for now it seemed to be dirty brown and grey, and had been for a while. The tradeposts, the vinegary wine and stale water... the occasional bandits easily chased away, the tent villages... how long still?

- "Sar?" she mumbled.

- "Mmmm?" He was half asleep.

- "Why do you think there are fewer and fewer caravans coming from the East? I would like to hear stories of what is waiting for us."

- "I don't know. Perhaps something is hindering them."

- "That's bad for a lot of people. All these nomads who have the trade posts along the road. Thesk. Telflamm. And the bandits too, I guess. Merchants..."

- "True, but what I care about most is that your child would be born safe, and we are in the middle of a zone we know nothing of. Still, we are better able to protect ourselves than most."

- "Mmm. Good night, bro. Love ya."

- "Good night, Peri. Can't wait to become an uncle."

Peri started to drift asleep. For a while her dreams had just been vague surreal recollections of the bumping back of the pony, the child moving inside of her, the occasional falcon scanning the skyline, Imoen drinking from her wineskin...

but now she instinctively felt that this dream was something different. It had a meaning.

She was in a warm and humid bamboo grove. She had never actually been in one, but she knew what they looked like, having seen pictures in both Candlekeep and the decorations of the Kara-Turan restaurant in Telflamm. She could see a very attractive woman with ethereal golden skin and long shiny hair sitting in the grove, singing a strange, exotic melody. The woman could not see her yet. The woman had pointed ears like an elf, and her eyes were large and dark. She was holding a sleeping infant in her arms. Peri approached her.

- "Hello, Peri," she said, her voice musical. Her eyes were like a reflection in a deep dark pond.

- "Hello," Peri said. She believed the woman would explain herself.

- "Look... there is my lover," she said, pointing to a man who couldn't see either of them. He was a Kozakuran by the looks of it, a small man, but with passionate eyes, shiny black hair, and brave stature.

- "This is my grove, Peri," the woman continued. "It is not for us to meddle with humans... and yet... I fell in love the moment I saw him."

- "I see no wrong in that," Peri said, lost as to who this was and what she wanted to tell her.

- "Watch..."

A battle. A little force of troops where her lover also fights... greatly outnumbered by a troop wearing other kind of insignia, in a killing frenzy, burning everything in their way. Enraged men and women, hacking the bamboo grove in pieces. The woman, her skin blistering, wailing, as the flames lick the trees, her feet bleeding as the swords and axes cut the bamboo, trying to protect the screaming child. Peri, frozen in time, unable to help.

Her lover, despaired, suicidally running into the flames, fighting his way to the child and the woman, finding his lover dead. Crying on his knees for seconds, but then grabbing the child and running.

Again, the peace of the grove.

- "See, Peri? It was my daughter. It was Mei. I am dead, but she lives in Kozakura. You will be a mother too. Help my daughter when you meet her."