Francine clenched her midwife's hand desperately, trying to restrain her screams. But even though the pain of labor was almost unbearable, she was smiling at the same time as she gasped and sweated. The soothsayer's words had come true, just like he'd said. Now all that was left was for her beloved sons to be born.
"Augh!" Pain spiked through her all at once, but then the tension on her womb lessened tremendously. One of her sons was born.
The midwife's hand in hers slackened. A shriek echoed through the air as the woman fainted dead away.
What could be wrong? Anxiously the queen sat up.
And she screamed too. Because the thing there, the thing she'd just given birth to, was not the beautiful boy she'd been promised. It was a dragon.
Strength flooded her limbs from nowhere and she seized the repulsive thing. It was scaly and cold and small—horrid. She hurled the terrible thing from her bed and out the window. Its terrible, almost childlike wails faded to silence as it sailed away, over the castle wall and into the twisted forest beyond.
The manic energy faded as quickly as it had come. Alone this time, as her midwife was still unconscious, the queen labored to give birth again.
When she felt the pressure in her womb vanish once more she was almost afraid to look. But this time it was human.
Exquisite relief flooded her as she took the sobbing infant into her arms. He was so beautiful, just as the soothsayer had said. A beautiful, blissfully human baby boy.
The queen gave not another thought to her other son, the lindorm she'd thrown away. It was an abomination, not a child. A monster. She could not love a monster, nor would she. A lindorm prince? Really, who had ever heard of such a thing?
AN: Short chapter is short. I'm experimenting on length with this fic, so it's unlikely any chapter will be longer than one time-skip section thingy.
Hope you enjoyed anyway! Reviews? Please?