A warning: There is a line detailing a disturbing scene regarding childbirth. I'll put a whole bunch of asterisks as a warning before the line.
Ha~
Humming let out a sigh.
How did it get to this point?
She looked out the window at the full moon, hanging high in the night sky. The lord's castle was built atop a high hill. From inside her room, she had a very clear sight of the moon, with nothing obstructing her view. Holding the egg in her arms, Humming let out another sigh.
Behind her…
"Please! Let me go! Let me go! There's a pregnant woman waiting to give birth!"
Bang bang!
Allen was still pounding on the locked door, shouting for them to let him out. His hands and arms were already swollen red after hours of persistent, non-stop beating, but he didn't seem to care.
He had screamed his voice hoarse but that didn't deter him as he continued to shout, "I have to go! Damn it!"
He kicked, banged and shouted, but no one outside the presumably empty hallway responded. Taking a deep breath, he ruffled his already messy hair nervously.
"Allen, stop it. You're only going to injure your arm. You think they're pretending not to hear?" 1
Humming, who had already given up rebelling a few hours ago, calmly stopped him.
"Haa… God damn it!" Allen sat down impatiently, buzzing with nervous energy and gritted his teeth.
It seemed that screaming and knocking on the door for hours was a bit difficult and had taken a bit of a toll on him. Though his face was flushed from over exertion, it had an unhealthy pallor.
"...Humming, how are you this relaxed?"
"I'm not relaxed, I'm resigned, Allen. This egg won't allow me to let go, so what can I do? Until the wizards arrive, we have no choice but to stay prisoner here. Fortunately, the wizards should arrive sooner than expected."
"Did Kalia contact you?"
"I don't know, but since we still haven't returned, wouldn't she know something happened especially when we haven't contacted her? Actually, that's my biggest concern."
At Humming's sigh, Allen closed his eyes.
"She's not one to wait patiently."
'Yes, that's what I'm most worried about.'
At Humming's melancholy mumble, Allen also put a hand to his forehead.
'You're not going to come all the way here with that heavy body of yours, right?'
No matter how much Kalia is worried, she won't wouldn't move around too much when she could possibly give birth today or tomorrow.
'I'm sure she'll be more careful with how much I warned her.'
But…
"It's weird. I don't feel good. This feeling…" Allen jumped up again and paced back and forth nervously.
His complexion was white with worry.
"Take it easy, Allen. Doesn't she still have a few days left till the due date? You said that she had more than 10 days left, right?"
"Not all pregnant women give birth on the expected due date. There are times when you go into labour before or after the due date."
That was the case with Allen's wife.
Her contractions came three weeks earlier than scheduled. Because of the premature birth, the baby was much smaller and vulnerable than the average baby. His wife had hyperventilated while she was enduring the labour pains. The village's elderly doctor had to rush to help give birth mid-drinking. At that time, Allen was just a student studying medicine, so he had no choice but to leave everything to her doctor.
'…I'm sorry, both of them were too weak.'
To his dismay, these were the words that the doctor said when he came out after five hours of hell. Even then, the old doctor smelled of alcohol.
He couldn't believe it. However, when he rushed into the operating room, the whole room was a sea of blood. It was not until later that he found that all the blood was from her unnecessarily bleeding out.
******The tiny, fragile skull of their child, barely the size of a fist, was distorted by both the forceful grip and being forcefully pulled out. 2
'...No, no, no. Not a chance!'
Allen hurriedly pressed his fists down on his eyelids, trying to chase away the feelings of despair he had felt that day. He thought he had almost forgotten it, but sometimes, it all came back to him incredibly vividly.
'Something like that should never happen again.'
Allen's eyes were blood-shot from his rubbing.
"And there's no law saying that that will be Kalia's circumstances." 3
"...Hey, don't tell me you really think it'll happen to her? I hear you're in pain for hours?"
"The hours of labor vary from person to person. Furthermore, if you're as insensitive to pain as Kalia, she may have her uterus fully open up but still only ask: 'It only hurts a little?'"
Humming agreed with Allen's last words.
Her insensitivity to pain was strange. It seemed as if she doesn't consciously feel pain.
"That's a bit worrisome4."
At Humming's worried agreement, Allen banged on the door again.
"Anyone, please, let us out! If you're really worried, we'll be back tomorrow morning! So please let us go!" Hearing his muffled voice echo through the empty hallway outside, Allen broke out into a cold sweat.
At the same time, Humming, who had been resigned to their fate, revitalized and began to search for another way out. She glanced out the window. It was a long way down.
'…..We can't jump out of here, can we? Since it's a stone wall, I think we can slowly climb down.'
The walls of the castle were built with large stones. If she was careful, she could find footholds against the textured stone walls and climb down. At most, it's about 4 stories high, so why not climb down a little and just jump?5
The problem was the egg.
How was she supposed to carry this egg down with her?
'Should I carry it on my back in a baby swaddling bag? Are there any strings in this room?'
She turned her head to search the room for something to use as string or cloth. At that moment, a chilly sensation gripped the back of her neck. Subconsciously, she registered that she didn't hear the sound of banging anymore, but instead, heard the sound of something collapsing. Her head snapped to Allen's direction, only to find him collapsing to the floor with a thud. A long black shadow cast from between the cracks of the door, over where Allen had been standing. 6
"….Oh, f*ck7," Humming unconsciously let out a curse.
She had been trying to only say good and nice words, making an effort towards Kalia's prenatal education, but right now, she couldn't help but curse. She broke out in cold sweat and tucked the egg tighter into her embrace as she backed away from the door.
Click
The door that hadn't been opened no matter how much they knocked, was opening.
***
'Oh, by the way, I had something I wanted to tell you, but I almost forgot.'
Kalia looked out the dimly lit window and recalled what Mrs. McCanna had told her a while ago.
'Didn't I tell you that my husband is working as a gatekeeper at the lord's castle? My husband was on watch all night and came home just a little while ago. He told me that….. Humming and Allen came to the castle this morning. Something happened, I think. I don't know what but the lord said he would send the two off tomorrow. It was probably because he recognized familiar faces that my husband asked people who worked in the castle what happened. They said they brought in something, and that… it caused some trouble. I think there's a problem'
'Yes, apparently magic explodes every time they try to remove the item from Humming's arms? What kind of magic item do you think it is? Anyways, they said that the wizards would come tomorrow or the day after but the lord told them to keep the two of them in the castle until the wizards come.'
It seemed that there was something wrong with the dragon egg. Kalia was worried about the two of them and wanted to go to the lord's castle right away, but decided to wait a little longer. She didn't think the matter would be solved just by her blindly visiting them. It didn't sound like they were trapped nor did they do anything wrong so there shouldn't be any major problems with them staying there for now. Above all else, her moving around recklessly would probably worry the two of them more than them having to stay at the castle. Knowing them, the two would try to get back within a day.
So, there is no need for her to move. Especially since Allen was constantly nervous about when she would give birth since she entered the last month in her term.
It's a little daunting that there's been no communication from them in the castle, but they weren't aristocrats who could contact each other every day or two.
"By the way, it's weird that my stomach keeps tightening…"
The problem was that the condition of her stomach was currently a bit unusual. Today alone, there were three sets of contractions. Once in front of the Fairy Forest, once when Mrs. McCanna left and now, another. The tightening contractions were strange.
'….This can't be a sign, right?'
Kalia lay down on her bed, attempting to settle down comfortably for the night. She tried not to move as much as possible to give her body a rest. Fortunately, it started to rain little by little outside. The soothing sound of the rain soon harmonized with the sound of her pounding heart and the pitter patter gradually eased her troubled heart.
Listening to the lull of the rain with her head on her soft pillow, Kalia let out a long breath and gradually, her breathing soon grew steady and deep.
***
Squeak.
'Oh my god!'
As the rusted door slowly swung open, Humming took another frightened step back. Allen, who had suddenly collapsed, was a crumpled heap on the floor and showed no sign of getting up. She hurriedly pinched her nose with one hand just in case, but she didn't smell anything strange.
'Who,who is it, all of a sudden?'
The opening door hit Allen's fallen thigh and stopped.8
Humming had no choice but to stop retreating at the feeling of a wall against her back. The shadow that had fallen through the door cracks was now cast on the ground next to the fallen Allen as whoever on the other side approached.
Seeing as she had nowhere to retreat to, Humming decided to stop hesitating. With shaking hands, Humming reached out to open the door. Her trembling eyes fell on the figure of a man and in that moment, the height of her fear, before her brain could register what she was seeing, Humming's heart felt like it was going to explode.
'Oh it's-'
"What's going on tonight, my lord?" Humming greeted the man at her door.
It was the Viscount Shelton, the lord of the castle.
When she opened the door, the moonlight from the window fell over him to fully reveal his nightgown-clad figure. He came inside with somewhat unnatural movements, all the while with eyes focused intently on her. Thinking that his eyes were strange, Humming inched closer to the wall.
A male nobleman visiting in his nightgown at this hour…
Warning bells went off in her head and Humming urgently tried to stop him from approaching.
"Stop, stop, don't tell me you're thinking of doing something weird. You're not like that, are you?"
The lord came closer without answering her.
'Oh, my god, he must be crazy!'
Possible scenarios crossed her mind. Her intuition kicked in and she tried to slip past the lord from the side, but was caught by his hand.
"Oh, my God! You crazy man! Allen, what are you doing? Get up!"
The struggling Humming got tangled with the lord and fell to the floor. At the same time, Humming accidentally dropped the dragon egg in the struggle and hit the floor with an audible thud.