Comfortable…Yeah, right. Giving birth was the farthest thing from comfort. I was laying in the bed with my legs spread apart, midwives and servants milling about. I was drenched in sweat, and I had difficulty not crying out every time a contraction hit. It almost felt like I was going to explode. I was having a hard time listening to the midwives when they told me to breathe in a certain way, and I refused to push when they told me to.
"I'm not having this kid until my husband's here, and you're dead," I snarled angrily at Otome. He laughed mockingly.
"If it's time for the baby to be born, I doubt you're going to have much choice there," he replied, still chuckling. I growled in fury.
I really didn't want my child to became a slave to this monster. I didn't know how many of these servants were children of girls like me, that Otome had killed. Of course, there was a possibility that he might eat my baby, too, depending on how strong he/she was.
I shrieked as another contraction hit. Getting smacked around by monsters twice my size? No big deal. Giving birth? A whole new playing field.
I swore viciously, some words that usually shouldn't be uttered on the human plane, and most of them directed at Otome. He looked amused, if nothing else. I entertained myself in the minutes until the next contraction imagining all the awful things I would like to see happen to him.
"Oh," Otome said casually. "I do take requests. What should you like your baby named if it's a girl?"
"You bastard," I gasped.
He nodded. "Uh-huh. And if it's a boy?" He set his hand on the pillow close to my head. I snapped at it, hoping to bit off a finger. He moved away too quickly.
"You just wait until I get this bracelet off," I hissed. "I'll rip you to pieces!"
Otome patted my head, but moved away before I could retaliate. "Strange as it may sound, I'm not very threatened." He looked up at the head midwife. "Come and get me after she delivers." The midwife nodded, and then Otome left the room.
**************
Throughout my life, I had always heard all these horror stories about birth. But I had never though that it could really be that bad. Several hours of agonizing labor had made me a believer. I didn't know why it was taking so long, though. Was something wrong? But the midwives bustling about didn't seemed worried, so I decided to keep my cool. Relatively speaking. I was sure the midwives had heard every single curse word in my vocabulary at least ten times, but I didn't really care anymore.
I was surprised when Wakana hurried in. She looked around worriedly at all the people around the room, before hurrying to my bedside. She stood on the tips of her toes to whisper in my ear.
"There's four strange men who want entrance into the kitchen," she whispered. "They say they know you. Should we let them in?"
I grabbed Wakana's hand gratefully. "Yes," I hissed. "Please do. And hurry."
Wakana scurried from the room, and instantly, the dank castle seemed to glow. Kurama was here! He'd found me! I was so happy. So, so hap-
"YAAAAAHHH!" I screamed, as agony wracked my body. I arched my back and squirmed, desperately trying to find something that would alleviate the pain. Nothing worked. I squeezed my teary eyes shut, wondering if I'd be able to live through this. Oh, the pain…
I wasn't aware of how much time passed. But suddenly, the agony that threatened to tear me apart was gone. I felt a dull ache, but other than that, nothing. Then the most beautiful sound I could think of hit my ears. A soft, slightly yipping baby's cry.
I craned my neck to see. A sweet, yowling, blood-and-other-stuff-covered baby was being held by a midwife. I sighed happily, and watched as the midwife cleaned the baby off with a towel. I held my arms out, and the woman handed the baby to me. A girl. How adorable! And very inhuman. She had strawberry-blonde fuzz on the top of her head, and no regular, human ears. Instead, she had large fox ears, the same color as her hair. I peeked in the towel she was wrapped in. Yep, just as I thought. She also had a bushy blonde fox tail. Wait - not one fox tail, but two! She was just too cute! She opened her eyes to blink up at me. She had strange, multi-colored eyes. Before she closed them again, I counted at least four of the colors of the rainbow. She was the loveliest thing in the world.
"Sonata Kiyoko Minamino," I smiled, greeting my baby. She cooed, responding to my voice. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one midwife gesture to another, and the second one left the room. Oh yeah. I forgot where I was. And now that Sonata had been born, I was going to get…This was bad.
I held Sonata tighter against me. "Hurry up, Kurama…" I whispered quietly.
If you have a good memory, you'll remember that in the earlier chapters, I had named the baby something else. I decided to change it, because it didn't seem right. So ta-da!
Crap...That was a really short chapter...