Hercules sat with his face buried in his hands, the throbbing in his head punctuated by the burning in his eyes. He had long since fetched the midwife to his home, and had been banished to the den while she worked with Megara. The woman had insisted the amount of blood was nothing to fret about, that with a miscarriage it was the norm, and her loss of consciousness had nothing to do with the loss of blood. She explained something caused an imbalance in the body, and her body forced her to purge it. She had brought a jar of leeches with her to further drain the cause of this imbalance but Hercules had insisted against it. Something about draining further blood from her pale form felt wrong. All her chatting about the balance of miasma was beyond his understanding, and decided her 'cure' made little sense. He insisted she leave the leeches behind, and hadn't heard a word from the woman since. Being alone was the last thing he had wanted after being sent away from his own bedroom, and sent Pegasus out to fetch Ikarus and Cassandra. He knew they would help him during this trying time.
He looked at his hands, Meg's dried blood cracking as he flexed his fingers, scratching at the itch the crimson stains caused. Meg had regained consciousness while he waited for Pegasus to return with the midwife, and it was Meg who immediately understood what was happening. Her anguished cries refused to stop echoing in his ears, and he wished he had anything to scour that sound from his memory.
Hercules cradled a groaning, semiconscious Meg in his arms, beats of sweat rolling down his forehead and stinging his eyes. Some coherency returned and her unintelligible mumbles turned into words, but with her coherency also came the realization that her body was rebelling against her. Before she could fully grasp what was happening, she was aware of a gripping pain clutching at her insides as if Hades himself had wrapped his twisted fingers around her organs and were trying to tear them out. Her blurred vision focused and she realized she was bleeding, and quickly realized she was in the thralls of a miscarriage.
"No… no no no… no no!" She stammered, trying to sit up. She groaned and doubled over as another spasm of pain gripped her lower abdomen, stopping the words short in her throat. She could hear Hercules trying to coo and comfort her, but she would have none of it. She knew what was happening, and knew there was nothing she could do to stop it. All she knew was that she must have made a mistake somewhere. Guilt wedged its way into her mind, and no words would be able to pull that wedge from her mind.
Hercules looked helplessly at her, filled with relief that she was alright, grief at the loss of their unborn, then guilt that he could have any positive feelings of any sort at this moment. He tried his best to stutter some words of comfort, running his fingers through her hair, placing trembling kisses atop her head. Tears poured though his bloodshot eyes as he pulled her into a tight embrace, realizing that no words could take away her anguish. Before they could have a moment to wrap their minds around the event, Pegasus burst into the kitchen with an elderely woman who quickly demanded Herc step aside, and ushered his confused wife away behind the velvet curtains of their bedroom on the second floor.
Herc got up and went to the kitchen, attempting to make himself some tea to try and settle his nerves. He knew it wouldn't work, but the task would provide a temporary activity to distract him. He struggled with the flint to get a fire sparked and after a few frustrating moments threw the stone with all the power his muscles held, and it quickly vanished as a black dot far into the horizon. He sat down hard on the stone floor, and let the grief overwhelm him once more. Tears obscured his vision until he rubbed them away. He tried telling himself this was common, that all couples endured this, and they had more than enough time to try again for their first child. But logic wouldn't work. Not that it was something that could ever bring him comfort, but it seemed nothing could at this time.
Pegasus flew through the clouds, Cassandra and Icarus atop his back. He flew as fast as he could; knowing Hercules was relying on him. He somewhat understood what was happening. He knew that Hercules and the-other-one he knew as 'Meg' were having a baby human, their very own foal, and that something bad had happened to this foal-to-be and that humans needed other humans when bad things such as the loss of a foal-to-be happened. Hercules had sent him to get a special human, and to get his friends. Pegasus liked these two friends better than the special human. He remembered them from when Hercules was at the large building called a 'school'. The villa finally appeared, standing like a beacon atop the hill marking the edge of the suburbs that led to the edge of Thebes proper. He flapped harder, feeling a tighter tug on his mane. He ignored the discomfort, it was temporary. Hercules being sad would be longer, and getting home faster might bean Hercules would be sad for shorter.
He flew until he was only several yards away from the front door, forcing him to stop short launching the friends from his back. He snorted an apology, and tried to nudge them towards the doorway even as they were struggling to regain their footing. The tall female-friend tried shooing him away and disappeared into the doorway and the shorter male-friend who smelled of ashes gave him a gentle pat on the nose, uttering human-words at him before vanishing inside. He knew most of the human words, and wished he knew how to speak them. He wanted to comfort everyone with human-words the way they could comfort each other. The best he could manage was horse and bird words, but only Hercules seemed to understand those. Rather than return to the stables he laid in the grass, standing vigil should Hercules need him to gather others. He could sense, for lack of a proper word, the anxiety rising off all the humans, and it made him sad he couldn't sense any happy.
Hercules looked up just as his friends came rushing into the kitchen. He embraced them fiercely, wondering why he had allowed so much time to pass since the last time he saw them, and regretted that it took such tragic circumstances to bring them together again. He had seen them many times since high school, but it had been months from their last visit.
Icarus had certainly grown. Puberty had done the boy wonders. Still shorter than Cassie, she could now only boast two centimeters over him at best. His mass of singed hair had grown out and his old natural curls had returned. His deep olive skin betrayed the length of time he spent in the sun with his father, and even his red eyes had recovered from his crash to earth and regained their natural light brown color. The time spent outside had also bestowed him with an impressive set of muscular arms, and Hercules wondered how often Icarus had to reject admiring women.
Cassie looked nearly the same, save a more womanly figure. She looked no taller than their teenage years, and her auburn hair was as pin-strait as ever. A trait she often disliked, most Greek women had luscious curls, and she was cursed with lifeless locks. Hercules had oft told her not everyone liked the status-quo, and she had vehemently refuted him. He wondered as well how often she too had to fight off suitors. Despite her utter lack of any emotion that may even be mistaken as self-esteem, Hercules knew she was an attractive woman and wished she could just accept it for herself.
Hercules pulled back from their embrace, glad he had sent Pegasus with a written letter to spare him from having to say the words to explain his grief. He wasn't sure he could form any words. His friends gave him nervous sympathetic smiles. Icarus gave Hercules a hearty clap on the shoulder, biting his lip trying to keep his own composure together. Cassandra broke her eye contact, never comfortable at such emotional affairs. She had to be here for Herc, she understood that, but couldn't help but feel awkward nonetheless.
Her gaze moved about the room aimlessly, until her eyes fell upon a strange familiar sight. In a leather satchel that appeared to have been tossed half-across the kitchen, she saw a white flower with pink features strewn on the floor. She recognized that Lily flower quickly, and her discomfort grew deeper. She fought the urge to ask about that flower right away, and tried to ignore the nagging thoughts pulling at her.
"Herc… Gods Herc I'm sorry." She managed, rubbing his back. Hercules nodded at her, and she could see her words had caused his eyes to flash with tears once more. Her eyes looked around, trying to think of something to say, but all she could think of was that flower, "That's a pretty flower over there… gift for Meg?" She asked, hoping the question was not inappropriate.
"Flower?" What flower? He was confused, and saw her gesture at his satchel on the floor. He had forgotten completely about it. When he had walked into the house and was greeted with the sight of Meg in the kitchen, he had thrown the satchel and everything quickly became a blur. Was there a flower? He tried to remember why he even had the satchel. The agora… right. And that odd girl. Amarantos that's right. She had a name fit for a girl who sold flowers. "Oh… right the Lily. Yeah, some girl in the agora gave it to me. I remember she had a name I thought was funny for a girl who sold flowers… Amarantos."
Damnit! Cassandra knew she wasn't just being paranoid when she saw that flower. She would have to have a conversation to Amarantos. That stupid girl… She thought to herself. Stupid…
I hope you guys enjoyed this. Pardon the delay. The Pegasus section was fun to write, trying to keep Pegasus in character while keeping in mind he is a simpler mammal. It's difficult to personify non-human characters, so I did the best I could.
I struggled with the ending of this chapter, I wanted to introduce the fact Amara wasn't just a random character with no purpose. But I didn't want to imply she was some witch who caused the miscarriage or somethin' stupid like that. But I didn't wanna give a lot away... thoughts?