Time slows for no one (closed to Reiko)

[Moonlit Raven]

I smiled at Ki, riding what seemed like an endless wave of pain. I opened my mouth to tell her thank you. Thank you for choosing to save my daughter, for not leaving us both to die. Instead I found my voice gone, as if the wellspring of speech had dried up, burnt out under the pressure. I bit my lip, feeling the fangs that had ran full out from the strain of this childbirth sink deep into my lower lip. It was enough for me to produce a noise, a small groan of protest against this newest pain.

Acid tore itself across my abdomen and despite myself I watched Ki, cut through layers of flesh, fat and muscle to reach my child. Through the pain and through the waves of gray that were beginning to lap at the edges of my vision I gasped out directions that need to be told.

“My daughter, her name is Verdandi Nito. Take her to the Concordian forest and follow the trail of red flowers. Someone will find you there. Demand to see Avery, she is his daughter.” There was a strange emptiness in me as Ki’s bloodied hands pulled my daughter from my body. I wanted to reach out and touch her, but the graying weakness held me down. Making even my head too heavy to lift to see where my daughter was laid.

I could hear her protesting squalls against the cooler, dry environment. I smiled at the small, cries of an angry survivor. Something tugged at me between the small stabs of pain as Ki desperately tried to close up the mess that was my body.

“Tell him I’m sorry for leaving. I didn’t know about Verdandi. Tell him she was his final act and she is my final gift to him. I wish I could hold…” Strangely sleepy and numb, I drifted. Grateful for a brake from the pain. The strange tugging returned, reaching deep within me, deeper and sharper than Ki’s blade. It pulled on me and at the last moment I realized, it was my soul seeking to flee its tormentor, my body.

No. A last hazy thought drifted through my mind before the gray darkness roll me and sucked me completely under.

[Reiko]

Ki listened to Elena's last request with an ache in her heart. "No, Don't say that, you'll be fine." The vixen said as she watched her friend sink away from the awake and laid too still to be good but Ki had to be sure. "Chiyo, please wash Verdandi, just pour some water over her and bring my a wet cloth."

"Okay mom." Chiyo said as she carefully took the child, who's screams were the only sounds in the den and they only grew louder when the young vixen washed the baby. "Don't cry, it'll be fine." Chiyo said with tears running down her face.

Ki took the break from holding the baby to check Elena for a pulse and she smiled a little bit. The girl wasn't dead yet. "Hold on, just hold on so you can hold your daughter." Doji said as she brushed Elena's hair and smiled. "I did what I could so please hold on." Ki wished the doctor was here to help but he wasn't and all Ki could do was this. "Maybe you can show your child to her father."

Chiyo returned and handed the clean but still screaming baby to Ki and the wet cloth and the nine tails washed the child.

"Please be okay, but I'll obey your request if you die."

"Mom, don't talk like that, Elena will be fine." Chiyo cried. "I know she will."

"You're right, she'll be okay."

[Moonlit Raven]

I found myself standing in a void filled with the same eerie colors as the crystal I had once picked up. Shivering, I held myself as I thought on the nightmarish months of sleep and nightmares that had come from the unnatural crystal. The colors rippled around me as if responding to my shuddering limbs. I grasped at my heart, feeling the silvered cord that connected me to my body thinning and straining as images slowly appeared within the colored void.

“Where am I?” I called out, my voice tinny and frail in the enormous empty space. After a moment there came a pressure, almost a noise. It grew until I covered my ears to try and block it out. Side by side images of my past, time with Avery and times that I happily lived in the sea side Inn and loved the owner’s son played out. Far away, blurry and almost impossible to make out a different set of images appeared. I could make out what seemed to be me, the places and people I didn’t recognize though I felt I should, as if they held some hidden meaning I needed to know.

Against the pull of the silver cord I stepped towards the hazy images. There came a curious burning sensation, as if a fine web that had been embedded into my skin was ripped out. In the moment before the cord snapped I felt what once was a slow steady beating, stutter to a halt. Light, colors and images all vanished, leaving me standing in darkness so black it permeated what was left of my being. Distantly, I thought I could hear the horrid laughter of the evil being that controlled those long ago dreams I had been forced into.

Blind and lost, without a way back to my body; I swam through a warm sticky ocean of darkness. The smell of iron, of blood was everywhere. Why am I here? My body died, I felt the heart stop. So why am I here? I thought I would see Heaven or maybe Hell. Anything but this unrelenting darkness. Desperate, I cast my blind eyes around searching for any source of light. Weeping, I added my own sad and angry tears to the fluid blackness around me and wondered what would become of my daughter. I hoped that Ki would quickly find Avery and that he would take came of my, our child.

A wail rippled through inky depths around me, I recognized the small angry cries. With a smile I followed them, pushing and kicking my away through the liquid depths. There was flash of amber light before I was thrust from the darkness. I felt a moment of alarm and pain then nothing. A curious weight, new yet long familiar weighed me down. I frowned, then realized that I could actually feel my skin move, the weight, gravity. Beneath my fingers sticky cloth sucked at my fingers as I moved them a little. Forcing my eyes open, I blinked at the bright light of day.

“My daughter, give her to me. How long was I, dead?”

Catch a hold of me before you post next. I need to go over a thing or two with you that has changed.

[Reiko]

Doji could only wait as she softly held the baby whose mother was hanging above death by a thread and the vixen couldn't do any more but wait and hope and look at the woman and then to her child and back and just hope that the woman would pull through.

Chiyo sat with her tail nervously twitching as she held her hands to her chest in prayer but when Elena spoke out her heart almost burst with happiness, the young Vixen almost pounced to hug the woman but she was stopped by Ki's foot.

"She's fragile now, the stitches won't hold if you are rough with her." Doji scolded her child and giggled a little and turned to the new mother and handed her the child. "Here she is. Please don't do much, I sown your belly up but I'm not sure how much it can take to open back up."

Ki smiled warmly. "You're girl's quite beautiful. I'm sure you can raise her to be a great woman. Motherhood's not easy but I know you're strong enough to do it."

Chiyo shifted for a couple of moments and was relieved and she looked at the little girl. "Umm... you think I could hold her when you're done. I never held a child before." The little vixen felt excited as she watched the little thing make delicate movements and to see the creation of life.

"Give the mother some time, Chiyo." Ki laughed and rubbed her child's hair. "Giving birth's not easy and this one was extra hard. She doesn't need a kit poking her nose into her right now but I'm sure you can hold Verdandi later."

[Moonlit Raven]

I stared down at the tiny face of my daughter as she fussed and wriggled in the blanket, in my mind's eye I also saw the face of my son. Sorrow infused my smile as I gently kissed my little angel, cuddling her gently.

"Hello Verdandi, I'm happy to finally see you. Your name means the present, and it is for you and the present I shall live for." The tiny long fingered hand caught my lightly prodding finger and grasped it in a grip firmer than I thought a infant would have been able to. In the still reddened and wrinkled face her eyes opened and my breath caught as Avery's verdant green eyes stared out at me from my daughter's face.

"You are your father's daughter, I hope that you don't break my heart too, my little love."

~~~~

Three months had passed since Verdandi had tried to force her way out of my body, since Reiko had cut my body open before both of us died. I felt a lingering stiffness in the healed muscles as I moved, but I was grateful to be alive and able to watch my daughter grow. Grudgingly, I thanked whatever gods seemed to be looking after me that my vampire side was as strong as it was. I knew that a fully human woman most likely would not have survived, nor would she have healed as fast I was. My scar was already starting to fade.

Nearby, under the watchful eyes of Chiyo and myself Verdandi wobbled as she attempted to crawl once more before flopping onto her rounded little tummy. I smiled at the sight of her grunting, rocking and flapping her little wings as she attempted to get to her hands and knees once more. It worried me that even outside of the womb Verdandi grew as fast as she had developed inside of it. I wondered if she would continue to grow and age at the same rate or if she would slow down. I had no wish to watch my child age and die long before I did.

No parent should have to out live their child. I had done that once and I knew I couldn't survive it a second time.

Glancing at our hostess, I decided that soon I would leave and head for Radsanth. I had imposed on Doji's kindness long enough as it was. Unsure of how to bring up the subject I went to help her prepare dinner for everyone. Keeping an eye on my child and making sure I didn't nick a finger took a lot of effort, more than once I had a close call.

"Doji? Can I speak with you after the kids are down for the night?"

[Moonlit Raven]

Due to the length of time I've been waiting for posts I've decided to go ahead and finish the thread.

A week had passed since I had spoken to Doji about leaving and despite her protests that I hadn't taken enough time to heal I felt it was time to leave. Unvoiced and rarely even touched upon in my thoughts was the cold, hollow sensation that had been present ever since I had woke up from my own death. Hugging the children and Doji I gathered up my pack and Verdandi, silently thankful that Verdandi was a quiet child. She rarely fussed over anything but hunger.

By the time I found the road that would take us back to Radasanth it was nearly noon. Taking shelter in the shade under the trees I fed Verdandi, played with her and napped a bit while waiting out the hottest part of the day.

Traveling with a small child turned out to be a major hassle, frequently I had to stray off the road in search of a stream to wash Verdandi and her diapers. It took three days to travel the distance that I could have covered, even pregnant, in one day. As the miles slowly, very so slowly trickled by I found my pace slowing as I had to travel farther and farther away from the road in search of water. Finally I gave up on following the road and instead resolved to follow the stream. As long as I keep moving west I'll eventually get there, and with my supplies dwindling I'll be able to catch something near the river a lot easier than I would on the road.

It was almost two weeks out from Doji's home, and I could feel the Concordian forest very close, as if it beckoned to me, calling me home. Ever so faintly beneath the lure of the forest I felt a familiar tugging of the bond I thought had been destroyed when I left Avery. It was faint, weak, easily ignored as I set up traps to catch a rabbit or three.

Not only was the trip long and drawn out, one night proved to be educational too. The first time I gutted and skinned a rabbit, Verdandi popped a large piece of raw, bloody rabbit into her mouth the second I looked away. Cringing and sick to my stomach I watched my daughter happily suck at the bloody piece of meat as if it were candy. From the sound of her wails when I took the meat away you would have thought that I had never fed her.

Snubbing a tiny piece of cooked meat she stuck her sticky bloody fingers in her mouth and burbled at me. Setting the meat to finish smoking I scooped up my daughter and we went to take a bath. In the fading light of evening I watched Verdandi splash happily in the water as she sat on my lap and thought about the newest oddity to crop up, her taste for blood. Gently, I poked a finger in her mouth and lightly rubbed her gums as she sucked at my finger. I was more than a little relieved to feel no teeth. I wasn't sure what I would do if any teeth were forming yet, Verdandi still looked normal for a child of her size.

[Skie and Avery]

The link that Elena shared with Avery was far more than just in her mind, and as the King was seated upon his throne, watching the moonlight shine down on an empty field, he felt it too. For far too long his heart had felt bled dry, as if the mere fact that he had nothing left to offer the world would keep the vampires at bay. There was no lure to an empty cup, after all. Lines of sadness were starting to settle in on his young face, ever so faintly, sleepless nights darkening the skin beneath his eyes.

It was all lost without her. When the tug of her presence so close to his Kingdom first came, he ignored it. There had been so many times his wounded heart had tricked his mind that she was near and he'd searched through the forest for her to no avail. There'd been hours spent laying at the gravestone of Netimrael, begging the gods to bring her back. He ignored his instincts now for a time, looking instead at the horizon. Despite his recent trip to Dheathain, he felt the end here.

Days had passed since he'd last moved from this perch, hours passing where he would stare unblinking at the skyline until the watering of tears over his dry eyes would force him to shut them, the stinging barely recognized from the pain of his soul. Without her, he was allowing himself to wither away. Worry and gossip was filling the conversations of the Moontae these days. When the King died without an heir, what family would take the throne? It would seem that the greatest dynasty of the Moontae was at it's end - and ending so pitifully as this.

The rain came inside the Moontae's territory and lasted for a week. It was one of the rare rains that was so contained within the enchanted space that it touched not Concordia. Still, when Elena and Verdandi bathed in Concordian waters, it came with the rain. Avery'd been laying at the throne, staring at a star he'd once sword had shone reflected in Elena's eyes as they'd made love, when the first drops hit him. The water came first, a few cold patterings against his skin. It wasn't so bad. His grief had been numbing everything around him.

It was once the rain really got started that it hit him, washing down like a tidal wave that threatened to rip him to shreds. He felt her, he smelt her. The tug came again, and this time could not ignore it. Standing, The King of the Moontae demon clan let the sensations of the bond flow through him, bringing back to life things that he had been so sure that he had killed. He ran, he flew, every muscle in his body intent on making it back to her.

That was how, as Elena had finished washing herself, letting the child play, a dark figure watched them in the trees. Avery had cloaked himself in the best of his illusions to watch. Most of his attention was on the girl. His heart stood still in his chest, for on the babe's back, pulsing gently as if she were using them for balance, two tiny wings. Elena was traveling with a Moontae child; his child.

Without really meaning to, his breath caught in his throat, and his breath was drawn from him in a gasp far louder than he would have liked.

[Moonlit Raven]

Unafraid of what may prowl under the darkening canopy, I relaxed flicking water at Verdandi and listening to her delighted and indignant squeals. Smiling, I watched my daughter, her unbridled happiness shone brightly in her green eyes. Those eyes reminded me of 'him'. I pushed thoughts away wanting to enjoy my time with Verdandi unspoiled by dark thoughts and worries.

A soft sound, at odds with the night noises around us, caught my attention. Aware but dismissive of my state of undress I scooped my daughter up into my arms and stood. Wary and more than a little angered at the interruption of relaxed play with my daughter I stared out into the darkness, my eyes shifting from shadows to shadow as I fumed at the loss of time. I had been seeking to imprint everything that was cute and babied about Verdandi into my mind. I would miss her quiet burbles and wet, toothless grins.

"Who's there? Show yourself! Only a coward would watch a mother and child bathe from afar." Backing out of the water, I slowly inched for our clothing and my sword. I resisted the urge to set my child aside, dress and hunt down whoever was out there. My heart pounded in an odd tempo, fear, anger and ... longing? Silently gnashing my teeth I chose to forgo clothing and reached for my blade as I laid Verdandi in the pile of our clothing and stood over her.

Tossing the heavy strands of my wet hair out of my face I stared at the spot my heart told me too. Something unseen watched.

"Come out, now." I hissed, my hands aching from the tight grip I had on my sword.

[Skie and Avery]

"A mother and child bathing together under my watchful eye are well safe," he said, letting his baritone carry over the winds. Would his voice make her vibrate with emotions so sweet and biting at the same time? Hers certainly brought both beauty and pain to him.

She was staring right at him. Her eyes were colder than they had once been. Did she know he knelt in the trees there? Once he had likened her eyes to the bark growing on the outside of their home. It was a color he loved, a color that had meant much to him. Now they were the color of grave dirt. He knew the coldness in them was for someone she didn't know, but was he really that much of a stranger? He must be, for her to keep this secret from him.

There was no excusing it now. Once his voice had been borne to the wind, brought to her ears, he knew that she would know it. He manned up to it, letting the illusions slip from his body like the water that spilled down her bare skin. Like velvet, like silk, the seemingly empty space of branch and leaves that "covered" him, but for all he saw it may have been velvet coated with stinging nettles and dripping with poison. Her face hit him like he had betrayed her by showing himself. She was hurt, she was angry. Her surprise caught him and he ducked his head, tearing his eyes away from hers in shame.

"Sleep," he urged. "Eat and sleep and I will watch over you, despite your sin. It's an awful thing to keep a child from her father, but tonight sleep as if you are an angel. Unholy choirs may just sing you to sleep, songbird." To see her blade flashing and to utter the nickname was like their first moments together all over again; to see her anger was like losing her again.

It might not have hurt so badly if he didn't know that the whole thing was his fault.

[Moonlit Raven]

At first I wasn't sure, the winds carried the voice to me. My heart leaped into my throat, thrumming a familiar song until my very bones snag in response. I wasn't ready, my mind still cried out, shouting about anger and betrayal and unforgivable actions. Time froze in a spill of molasses as the illusions Avery had hidden himself with slowly revealed him. Despite myself I drank in the beautiful lines of his body. I ached at the raw emotions in his eyes, etched in his face and wondered just how things got so wrong. Something so beautiful shouldn't hurt to see.

Old long nursed anger returned in the next heartbeat, something small and ugly in me was glad that he couldn't look me in the eye. I was glad he could not look me in the eye, I was sure he would see the longing and wistfulness I knew still sparked within me, nearly buried under months of anger and pain.

"My sin? MY sin? I have no sin Avery, or if I had had any it was washed away in blood and my death upon the birth of MY daughter." For a moment I stood, so angry I could not speak. I scored an oozing line across the inside of my lip with a fang as I gnawed upon it.

"The night is newly born and we have things to discuss and a child to share, for this one night,my love." As soon as the uttered and unuttered words left me I wondered at their merit. I was I able to withstand his presence, so close after so long? Or would we once again war with angry, hurtful words? I sought out his eyes, identical to my, our Verdandi. For ours she would be tonight.

Turning away I quickly donned my clothing then knelt to swaddled Verdandi, I was thankful for such a quiet child. Netimrael had never stayed silent for so long unless he slept.