Note: Content warning for active labor. Things get a little ... descriptive. You have been warned.
Chapter 5
The watches of the night crawled by as Cattie-brie paced the floor of their small home. Drizzt paced with her, offering his arm in her endless back and forth between bedroom, hallway, and study. He counted heartbeats between her winces and gasps. "It's every three hundred of my heartbeats that you—"
"Drizzt!" She whirled on him. "I know yer tryin' ta help, but sometimes yer way of helpin' is overbearing!" Her blue eyes blazed, and her chest heaved. She even set her hands on her hips. "Jist leave me be for a moment!"
"Fine." He hadn't meant to snap the word like that. Drizzt pressed his lips together, then took a deep breath. "You're just as stubborn as your father. Maybe more."
She glared daggers at him. "That's right, I am! Now give me some room to breathe!"
Drizzt opened his mouth and shut it before he said something he'd regret. He turned on his heel and marched from the study to the kitchen, and from there to the woodshed built onto the side of the house. He yanked the door open, but managed to shut it softly. He sank onto the chopping block, and his right hand came up to grasp the unicorn pendant. "Oh, Mielikki, but she's a fiery one! I'm only trying to help her. Why can't she see that?" His gaze fell on the carefully shaped wood for the cradle, leaning in a neat row along the inside wall of the little lean-to. "Help me to be patient and understanding. I know she's in pain." He blinked and sighed, rubbing his left hand over his face. "If only I could take her pain and bear it for her." He let the pendant drop.
His near-century of life had taught him something about patience, but evidently not enough. Perhaps he'd just learned to bite his tongue. Inside, a battle still raged. He sighed again. Menzoberranzan had taught him something about pain. More than anyone should need to know. Cattie-brie hadn't had that same cruel training, and he wouldn't wish it on anyone. He shouldn't judge her for her reactions now.
Drizzt stared at the curved pieces of wood for the cradle rockers, and his eyes lost their focus. From the house, he heard Cattie-brie moan again, and his hand involuntarily pressed against his side. He'd been tortured in a Menzoberranzan dungeon those years ago, and once, his sadistic captor had shot a dart into his side and left it there when she'd finally tired of other torments for the day. Whatever the dart had been dipped in, it made his muscles cramp and burn for hours. That insidious pain, ongoing, had weakened his resolve more surely than any of the other more intense cuts and blows inflicted on him. A snake-headed whip on his back or a boot to the ribs burst over his senses with brilliant white pain that dulled when his captor grew tired of it and left. The pain of the dart hadn't faded though, hour after hour, and he'd tried to curl up in a ball, but he was chained. None other than Cattie-brie had rescued him in the end.
Drizzt shook away memories of that torture. At times, the pain had been so bad he couldn't speak. His Cattie-brie had never … Suddenly, Drizzt froze. Pain so bad he couldn't speak. Cattie-brie had been unable to speak during the intensity of her most recent cramps. His eyes widened, understanding dawning like the pale strip of light on the horizon in the east. If that's how intense her pain was now, no wonder she'd snapped at him. He shook his head. He'd heard talk of intense labor pains, but he'd dismissed it as comments by those who had nothing else to compare it to. But he knew the level of pain where speaking was impossible, and crying out less so.
Drizzt's keen ears picked up another low groan from inside the house. He got to his feet, brushing sawdust from his leggings. His unicorn pendant swung out as he leaned forward to pick a sharp sliver of wood from his calf. Thank you, Mielikki, for helping me understand.
He slipped back inside quietly, but Cattie-brie was no longer pacing. A small cry came from the bedroom, and he hastened down the hall. The door was ajar. Drizzt peered in to see his soulmate writhing silently atop the bed, rolling back and forth with her eyes shut and her teeth clenched. He went to her at once and sat down beside her. "Oh, Cat. You're doing so well."
She reached for him when the contraction ended, and he pulled her close. Cattie-brie pressed her head against his chest.
Drizzt rocked her. "I'm sorry about before. I didn't realize how bad it was."
Cattie-brie choked out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "I'm sorry too, Drizzt."
He squeezed her tight. "You're doing so well, che."
She lifted her head. "Don't feel like I'm doin' well."
"You are."
"Aahhh!" Cattie-brie clung to him fiercely.
Drizzt held her tight, rocking her until the next contraction passed. Then he gently loosened her fierce grasp. "I'm going for Evka now."
She panted for breath. "Could still be—"
"Nin." He got to his feet.
She took two slow breaths and nodded. "I love you, Drizzt."
Drizzt reached out with two fingers to caress her cheek. "I love you too, Cat. With all my heart." He straightened up. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
She nodded, but her face tightened with pain again, and she didn't say more.
Drizzt hurried to the kitchen and pulled on his cloak. His palms tingled again as he laced his boots. Then Drizzt hurried out into the predawn light.
Evka Deepsilver marched along beside him on the trail, her short little legs churning to keep up with Drizzt's longer stride. He wished he could scoop her up and carry her as he'd done with Cattie-brie. At least Evka could see in the dark. And really it was almost light now. A brilliant sunrise was painting the sky with crimson fire, but Drizzt didn't notice it. "Please hurry."
The dwarven healer glanced up at him and snorted a laugh. "If ye wanted haste, ye should've come with a cart."
His brow knit, a sinking feeling in his stomach. "I should have. I should have left sooner. I should have hired a—"
"Easy, Do'Urden." Evka waved a hand. "I were jist teasin' ya."
He looked at her blankly, one hand clenching and unclenching spasmodically. "She was writhing with the pains when I left. She wasn't standing anymore. For all we know, she could be delivering the child at this moment, alone."
Evka put a hand on his arm. "Forgive me, Do'Urden."
Drizzt looked away.
He heard Evka blow out a breath. "Yer Cattie-brie always seems so tough and vigorous. Sometimes I be forgettin' that she's not a dwarf like her upbringing."
Drizzt nodded once. He gripped the unicorn pendant and looked back at her. "I know she presents herself that way, but she's not a dwarf. She's—she's a warrior, but she's also more delicate." He frowned. Delicate wasn't quite the word, but he couldn't seem to explain it.
Evka nodded at him. "Human."
"Right."
The cleric of Chauntea put her hand on her holy symbol, a stylized rose brooch with a curving wheat sheaf on either side. "I hear you, Do'Urden, and I did apologize. Now, d'ya accept it or not?"
He lifted his eyebrows. She was as straightforward as Bruenor himself. "I do. I'm just worried."
"Well do I know it. The husbands always are—if they be any good o' ones, leastwise. Here." She thrust her bag at him. "Carry this, an' I'll be able ta walk faster."
He caught the bag and nodded, slinging it over his shoulder as she quickened her steps. "Thank you."
Evka nodded again, eyes fixed on the curl of chimney smoke visible above the trees. "Earth mother protect her an' the little one. We'll be there soon." She looked at him sidelong.
Drizzt had his hand wrapped around the unicorn pendant.
"Forest queen too," Evka added. "An' all the good ones."
Drizzt huffed a laugh, the edges of the pendant digging into his palm. "Indeed."
They marched in silence for a while, and he glanced at the cleric again when she reached into her pocket and scattered a handful of seeds over a particularly muddy spot beside the trail without breaking her stride.
"What made you choose Chauntea rather than Dumathoin and the others?"
Evka looked up at him and smiled, her smooth chin and crinkling eyes looking kind and motherly. "We can choose who we like, as ye know, but I'd say she chose me."
Drizzt knew something about that. "How?"
She tipped her head to the side, eyes taking on a faraway look. "I were invited to a Greengrass festival late one summer. Story o' how that happened is a tale fer another day. Anyway, I went, and when I did, I felt like I'd come home, ye know what I mean?"
Drizzt nodded slowly. He remembered that feeling one night on the surface. "I think I do."
"Well, 'tis how it all began. Not that I mind livin' in the mines in winter, but now that spring's here, I love to be out amongst new life an' growing things. Want ta help their growth along too. Includin' birthin' new babies." She coughed. "Helpin' other women birth em' that is."
Drizzt smiled at the misspoken phrase. "Have you birthed any of your own?"
"Not yet I haven't, but I hope to some day."
He nodded. The break in the trees at the head of the path came into sight. Home.
Cattie-brie stood hunched over in the side yard, halfway between the cabin and the outhouse.
"Well met!" Evka called out.
Cattie-brie looked up, and Drizzt hurried to her side. "Cat, what's wrong?"
"I jist … I jist gotta get—" She lifted her chin to indicate the outhouse.
"Nope," Evka declared, crossing her burly arms just below the symbol of Chauntea on her cloak. "Into the house with ya."
"But I have to—"
"Chamber pot," Evka declared. "Know what yer meanin', but it may be something other than ye think."
Cattie-brie gripped Drizzt's arm, her face as red as when she'd had a sunburn last summer after all afternoon fishing at Maer Dualdon. "Drizzt, please! Just help me get there."
He looked helplessly between her and the cleric. "We'll go in just as soon as—"
Evka stepped between them and Cattie-brie's intended destination. "You'll go in now. I ain't deliverin' a baby in an outhouse, and I don't care if that ain't what's gonna happen next. They all say it feels the same aforehand, so I ain't taking no chances."
Cattie-brie glared at the cleric, and Drizzt steadied her as she suddenly tensed up with a little cry.
"Lean on me, che."
Evka took her other arm, and they waited a few endless moments until the contraction eased, then supported her between them and half carried her inside.
Cattie-brie gripped the wooden countertop just inside the kitchen door, hanging on until the next pain passed. Then she glared at Evka again and shook her head. "Stay there!" She stumbled to the bedroom.
"Sorry," Drizzt mouthed silently, handing the cleric her bag. She took it, unperturbed, and he followed his wife.
Cattie glared at him too, when he opened the door, but then her face softened, and her eyes glistened. "Drizzt. Jist turn around. Jist don't let her in until I say."
"Oh, Cat." He sighed and turned. "She's here to help you."
Evka was at the bedroom door already, one hand on it as Drizzt eased it shut, an apologetic look in his eyes. "Can you give her a moment?" he asked with the door ajar.
Evka frowned and pursed her lips, but she nodded. She raised her voice so Cattie-brie could hear. "I be comin' in shortly, Princess Battlehammer, an' I won't take no fer an answer."
Drizzt still had the door open a crack. He widened the gap a bit and patted one hand in the air. "I'll call for you."
"Ye already called fer me."
"Perhaps you could heat some water," he suggested, then closed the door all the way.
No footsteps in the hall said that Evka stood there for a moment, and then Drizzt heard her huff. "I'm the one who's supposed to say that!" she hollered.
Cattie-brie sat hunched over, eyes brimming. She swiped at the unshed tears with the back of her hand. "This is all goin' wrong, Drizzt," she said to his back. "Dunno why I ever picked her. Now she wants to embarrass me like this. Well, I don't wanna make a mess. Never been so embarrassed in my life!"
Drizzt sighed, wishing he could turn around and go to her. "If it really could be the baby getting ready to come out, then you want what's safest for the little one, don't you?"
She groaned behind him, deep and loud.
Drizzt's hand tightened on the doorknob. "Cat, I'm turning around."
"Hang on, Drizzt!"
He hung on. Barely. He heard a sound like something metal sliding across the floor.
"All right."
He turned, and Cattie-brie stood there, red faced and panting. "Guess it weren't anything." She huffed and grabbed onto the headboard of the bed. "So embarrassed, and nothin' even—aahh!"
Drizzt crossed to her side. "Let me help you lie down."
She clung to his arm, and he supported her, helping her sit on the edge of the bed.
"It's so hot. I want these clothes off."
It wasn't hot. He nodded, seeing the perspiration beading at her temples. Drizzt helped her with the buttons on her tunic and the laces on her leggings.
"Everything, Drizzt. I want it all off."
That seemed like a good sign the baby's arrival was imminent. Drizzt complied. This was the first time he'd undressed her and dreaded what would come next. He pulled back the covers and helped her swing her legs up.
"Gahhh!" Cattie-brie gasped out. "Gimme the sheet, then ya can let Evka in."
Evka pounded at the door not a moment later. "I'm comin' in now, Cattie-brie, and don't you concern yourself about making no mess. Childbirth is messy, so's ya jist gotta get over it!" With that proclamation, she opened the door.
The cramp had eased, and Cattie-brie blew out a long breath, then smiled sweetly at her midwife from beneath the sheet. "Feels like I'm two people right now. Feels like it's gonna be soon. Sorry about befo—Oh, goddess, help me! I'm gonna die!"
Evka strode directly to the bed and raised the sheet to Cattie-brie's thighs. "You ain't gonna die, girl. Yer jist havin' a baby. Think about that."
Drizzt pulled the chair over from beside the window and sat down, taking Cattie-brie's hand. "You can do this, che."
"I can't!"
"Ye can, and ye will," Evka proclaimed. She set her bag on the dresser and pulled a small amber-colored bottle from it, uncorking it. She rubbed whatever it was over her hands, then jammed the stopper back in. She looked at Drizzt. "I'm gonna see how close the baby is to comin'. Maybe ye'd like to make yer wife some raspberry leaf tea. Got the leaves in that clay pot in there." She gestured to her bag.
"Drizzt!" Cattie-brie clung to his hand so hard that she bruised it, but he didn't pull it away. "Don't leave me!"
"I won't, Cat. I'm here."
Evka sighed. "One o' those, eh?"
Cattie-brie glared at her. "What d'ya mean?"
"Some women like it to be jist women." Then she rolled up her sleeves, business like. "Pull yer knees up, and let 'em drop ta the sides." She raised the sheet, and Cattie-brie stared at her. "Drizzt can still leave the room," Evka reiterated.
Cattie-brie complied with the instructions with a frown, but she still clung to Drizzt's hand. "I need my Drizzt."
"I'm here, Cat. I'll be here."
"Then sit her up a bit."
Drizzt lifted Cattie-brie's shoulders, and he sat on the edge of the bed, putting one arm around her.
Cattie-brie grimaced. "Another one's comin'."
Evka straightened up. "Won't be long now. Not long at all. Good thing ye fetched me here when you did." She went over to her bag and pulled out a wrapped bundle of something. "Ye feel like pushin', girl?"
Cattie-brie groaned and nodded.
"Then push, and do it like ye mean it."
It was a relief to push. Somehow it made her feel like she was using the pain instead of fighting against it. But the intensity of it almost made her feel like it hurt too bad to do anything, that she just had to freeze until the terrible contraction passed.
Evka Deepsilver stood at the foot of the bed, practically between Cattie-brie's legs, but Cattie didn't care. The cleric nodded at her patient's efforts. "Good. Ye jist get ready ta push like that again. Gimme two or three good ones with each pain. Now."
Cattie-brie clung to the headboard with her right hand, her left hand gripping Drizzt's. She took a huge breath and pushed.
"Good. That's good. Jist rest a bit in between. Baby's definitely movin' down."
She wanted to cry with relief.
Drizzt smoothed back the hair from his wife's face and released a breath with her. "You've got this, che. I'm so proud of you."
"Aaahh!" She pushed again, took a deep breath, and pushed more. Then she fell back, resting on the pillow. "I ain't done nothin' yet!"
"You have. You're doing wonderfully." He looked up at the cleric. "Isn't that so?"
Evka nodded, but a shadow seemed to cross her face. She didn't look up. "Just rest through this next one, Cattie. Ye deserve a little break." She looked up at Drizzt. "Hand me my bag."
Drizzt reached for it with his free hand, still keeping his other arm around Cattie-brie. He handed the bag to the cleric, and she pulled out a towel, pressing it between Cattie-brie's legs. Drizzt was sure she'd frowned this time. The towel came away bloody.
"Evka?" he cast a glance at the towel as she looked at him, then back at her face. "That's normal?"
She pressed her lips together. "Push again, Cattie-brie."
Cattie-brie pushed, groaning loudly and releasing Drizzt's hand to cling to the bars of the headboard with both.
He shook his bruised hand a little, the other arm wrapped around her until the contraction passed. He looked toward the end of the bed.
Evka removed the towel and dropped it on the floor.
Drizzt stared. It was soaked with blood. So much blood.
The cleric reached into her bag for another towel, and then for a small pot of herbs. She looked up at him, fingers clawing at the lid, sealed with wax. "Open this."
Drizzt took it, pulling out his belt dagger to open it quickly.
"Drizzt!" Cattie-brie moaned, perhaps at the loss of his arm around her.
"Rest this time, Cattie," Evka instructed briskly. "He's just helpin' me, and helpin' you."
Drizzt handed the pot to her, recognizing dried yarrow powder.
Evka dug out a generous portion.
"Evka." He tried to keep his voice steady. Yarrow was to stop bleeding.
"Hang on, Do'Urden."
"Drizzt." Cattie-brie's voice sounded weak.
He put his arm around her. "I'm here, love."
"I'm so cold, Drizzt. I'm so tired." Then she fainted dead away.
Evka Deepsilver grasped her holy symbol and began to pray. Her hands grew warm as mercy from the earth mother flowed through her, and Cattie-brie's bleeding slowed. It slowed, but didn't stop.
She looked up at Drizzt Do'Urden, likewise clasping his holy symbol, his purple eyes wild and desperate.
"What's happening? What can I do?"
"Pray, Drizzt. I thought she were jist startin' to tear open afore I reckoned on needin' ta cut, but that ain't it. The afterbirth's comin' away too soon."
His eyes widened, and he half rose. "What does that mean?"
She turned to her cloth bundle and untied the lace that held it shut. Gleaming instruments clattered against each other on the end of the bed. Her eyes fell on the tiny sharp blade. "Means she's bleedin' bad, and that the babe's likely not gettin' enough o' her breath in it."
He came around to the end of the bed. "What can I do? Tell me what to do!"
"I'll pray again, but …" she shook her head helplessly. "I think ye'll hafta decide."
He clutched his unicorn pendant like a lifeline from a ship in a storm. "Decide?"
She took the blade in one hand and the holy symbol in the other. "Which one, Drizzt. Ye have to decide which one lives."
A/N: More to come.
Che = love
nin = now