The Light Mother - Stories and Text Pastebin

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The Light Mother By kvent on 26th August 2021 10:09:06 AM

-by adingdongblog@tumblr-
The sun had just come up over the horizon, casting golden light over the temple ruins. The dew on the overgrown grass glistened, almost dazzling Leila as she climbed the broken, stone steps. She smiled at the sight; it was truly beautiful. It could only have been a sign that this was the right thing.
Her mother was a fallen priestess of the Light Goddess Avdona, failing her duties as the keeper of the temple and allowing it to fall into ruin. The temple still stood, but the rock structure was crumbling, and its grandiose halls stood empty and soiled with age and disuse. No one had stood in this place in eighteen long years, and even before that, worship of Avdona had fallen out of favor in these past few decades, since the Empire had taken over the land.
Leila alone was the one to restore the temple and give Avdona the glory she deserved.
Today was Leila’s eighteenth birthday, the day she would ask the Goddess to accept her as her priestess. She had followed all the requirements asked of the clergy. She had abstained from laying with men, even turning down a few marriage proposals. She had kept her body pure and clean, free of excess wine and always keeping with exercises to keep herself strong.
She was a petite woman, standing at just under five feet tall, and her deep olive skin was smooth, darkened slightly by the sun. Her black hair was piled atop her head and held in place with a number of decorative pins. Her dress was a pale cream, fitted just underneath her small breasts. Beneath the empire waist, the dress flowed freely down to her ankles in an excess of material. Two straps held the dress up over her shoulders, lightly adorned with golden thread.
She had worked for hours to carefully adjust the dress to her measurements after finding it amid her mother’s belongings. It was the only appropriate clothing she had for the task she held in front of her.
Lifting the hem of her skirt up as she climbed the steps, her bare feet tread carefully on the uneven steps. The large wooden door leading into the temple was loose on its hinges, but it came open with a haunting creak when she tugged at the handle.
The door opened into the main hall of the temple, and she looked around in sorrow and dismay at the bug eaten and water damaged silks hanging from the walls. The windows were cracked or broken, and grass had overtaken an expanse of the floor underneath a hole in the roof. Birds chirped from nests made in the rafters, and light streamed within through the cracks and holes.
In spite of the damage, the temple remained beautiful. There was something calming about the animals who had made this place their home, and how the sunlight never ceased to cascade through these windows. The temple was in ruins, yes, but even the ruins were lovely.
At the front of the hall, past the ruined prayer benches and pews, across the time weathered carpet and up a few more crumbling steps, stood the altar.
Leila gasped as she approached. A crack in the roof spilled sunlight directly onto the statue of the Goddess, expertly carved. The Goddess was dressed in garb much like Leila’s, delicate curls of hair falling over her shoulders, and she had one hand raised up toward the light. She looked up, away from her congregation, up to the sky.
Leila took a few steps closer to the altar and then fell to her knees. She lowered her face to the ground, completely prostrated before her Goddess.
“Dearest Lady, Giver of Life and Light, Mistress Avdona, please look on me, your humblest of servants, and judge my soul,” she said, eyes closed tightly. “I beg of you to look past the sins of my mother and pardon me for that which I could not control. I strive only to serve you as my mother should have, to perhaps undo some of the damage her neglect has brought to your temple. Judge me, take me, and I am yours. I shall strive to do anything you ask of me, my Lady.”
For a long moment, she simply lay there, hoping for some sort of sign. And she received it, in a way. Her body felt very warm suddenly, as though the sun were shining on her. The odd part was that it was centered on her belly, underneath her, pressed to her knees and to the stone floor she was lying on. There was no way the sun could warm her there.
It had to be a sign. A good one.
She lifted herself from the floor, tears of joy forming in the corners of her eyes as she looked up at the statue, bathed in the morning light.
“Thank you, my Lady,” she said quietly, clasping her hands to her chest. A cool breeze went through the temple, but it did nothing to dissuade the warmness within her. She had truly been blessed.
Her first order of business was to clean up the temple. There was only so much she could do on her own, but she would do all she could. She first set about removing the rotten bits of carpet and furniture from the temple, dragging it out the front door. But even as she pulled the first dilapidated table out the door, she felt a sudden bout of nausea.
She rushed away from the steps and into the grass, leaning over to vomit her breakfast into the grass. How odd, she rarely took ill, and now that she was finished, the bout of nausea had all but faded completely. There was a twinge in her stomach then, like a cramp before her monthly blood, and she rubbed her flat stomach until it eased. She went back to work.
The nausea did not return, but the cramps did, worsening as she worked. A particularly bad one saw her dropping an entire load of silks that she was trying to salvage right onto the floor, and she leaned against a wall for support. Her monthly blood was not due for a few more weeks, so this was a strange occurrence, and things did not normally get so bad.
Had she misinterpreted the Goddess’ will? Her eyes turned back to the immaculate statue, still bathed in pale sunlight, and she rubbed a hand over her sore stomach.
What she found surprised her. There was a slope to her belly that hadn’t been there before, an incline to the normally flat expanse of her stomach. Startled, she bunched up her dress, pulling it up and staring down at her stomach to confirm what she had felt. Indeed, there was a small bump there, like that of a woman just discovering her pregnancy.
She dropped her dress in shock. How could this be? Her blood had come on time every month, and she had never laid with a man! There was simply no way she could be pregnant!
She thought of the sign from her Goddess, the pleasant warmth centering on her stomach. She pressed her hands to the tiny bump that had formed and looked up to the altar again.
“My Lady?” she asked, her voice a whisper.
Her belly cramped up again, and she winced in pain, bracing herself, and then, her hands there on her stomach, she felt it. Her belly was expanding, right there under her hands.
This was definitely a sign. The Goddess had impregnated her! To what end, she did not know, but she had been blessed, filled so full with life that she could feel the child grow within her. She moved forward again, overcome with adoration for Avdona, and she knelt again in front of the statue. Her belly pressed against her thighs as she lay herself out before the Goddess.
“Oh, sweet, kind Mistress Avdona, I am but your humble servant, and you have blessed me so kindly,” she whispered. “I thank you for this gift. I do not understand its meaning, but I am yours, wholly and entirely, and if bearing a child is what you ask of me, I shall do it gladly. My Lady. I am honored. I am overwhelmed by your generosity.”
She lay there, thanking the Goddess over and over, until another cramp twisted inside of her, and she felt her belly press further against her legs. She pulled herself upright and noticed with a twinge of excitement that her stomach now pushed out the fabric of her dress. She looked at least five month gone. Smiling, she ran her hands over her belly and marveled at it. She could feel the child moving within her.
It was harder to get up off the floor now, but she managed it. At the rate she was growing, it was likely she would give birth within an hour or so, so she decided to clean and work as much as she could before then. In spite of her words and her conviction that she would do anything necessary for Avdona, she was afraid of what was coming. She knew very little about pregnancy and childbirth, and she had only heard stories of the terrible pain that was labor. But she was certain the Goddess would protect her.
The cramps were painful and irritating, but they were temporary and only served as a distraction from her work. The larger she became, however, the harder it was to do much of the heavy lifting. Well, she would have to do that later. Something in her reminded her that she would need supplies for the birth, so when she looked about seven months along, she started gathering things.
A bucket of cool water from a nearby stream was carried in front of the altar. She made a small bed out of bits of carpeting and torn silks. She cut out a square of the softest material she could find to use as a blanket for the child.
And all the while, she grew. Her back ached and her hips were forced to widen as her load increased. The skin of her stomach stretched and grew very sensitive to touch. Her breasts filled and rounded, her nipples growing and beginning to leak. The material of her dress, once bunched with an over abundance of room, began to grow taut, the stitches on the seam straining. Each cramp grew progressively more painful, but the heavy orb of her stomach showed no signs of stopping its growth.
She began to get concerned. She had had little interaction with very pregnant women, but she imagined she could not possibly get much bigger. Perhaps there were two children within her, or even more.
The growth finally started to slow, her rounded belly sagging down low on her frame so that if she sat, it hung down between her legs, but the cramps were only gaining in intensity. This must be labor, she realized with a pang of apprehension.
She could no longer get to her knees to pray, so instead she prayed as she paced in an attempt to alleviate the pain.
“My Lady…ohhh, it hurts, my Lady…please, please be with me…help me…help me birth your child, your gift to me, please…ohhhhh, ohhh, it hurts! Oh, Goddess, please, it hurts so much,” she moaned, her arms cradling her enormous belly as she walked. “Oh! There’s so much pressure! I need to…I need to push…oh, sweet Lady Avdona, I pray, please…please…be with me…”
Hands braced on a pew, Leila squatted down with her legs as far apart as she could get them. The seams of the dress finally ripped with the motion, a giant hole appearing in the front of the dress and exposing her laboring belly. She pushed, tucking her chin against her chest.
“Hnnnngh…hoo! Ahhh!”
Nothing seemed to happen. Her body must not be ready yet.
She straightened up again, wiping the sweat and tears from her face and began pacing again, still feverishly mumbling a prayer under her breath.
This continued for a few more contractions. Each one, she would find herself squatting down and pushing, although she only allowed herself small pushes to try and relieve the building pressure within her. It was obvious the baby was not ready yet, and pushing needlessly would only exhaust her early into the process. That would not do at all.
“Ohhhh…ohhh….my Lady, this…it hurt so much,” she moaned as she paced. “Ohh! Oh, there’s so much pressure. Gods above! How do people do this? Ohhh! Oh, it’s coming! My Lady, it’s coming! Hnnnnngh!!”
Leila squatted down again, her legs so far apart that they burned, her thighs quaking as she gave another push without really meaning to. Something inside her finally moved, and she heard a quiet pop from within her. Water poured out of her opening, spilling all over the stone flooring of the temple and soaking her legs and her dress. She didn’t know what it meant, but the pressure had abated somewhat, at least.
She fell forward to her hands and knees, her belly so rounded out that it dragged against the floor. She rocked back and forth, her breaths coming in short, quick pants. The soaked material of her dress clung to her legs.
When the next contraction came, she was not at all prepared. It came much sooner than she expected, giving her barely thirty seconds of respite, and it was far stronger than the last. Her belly rose up off the floor as it squeezed in a contraction.
“Oooohhhhaaaaaaahh!!” she screamed. Now was the time to push, she expected, so she did, putting everything she had into it. Her fingers dug into the dirty stonework and her toes curled, and within her, she could feel the child’s head descend into her birth canal. It hurt like nothing she had ever endured before, and her screams echoed through the temple.
When the contraction ended, she decided it was time to disrobe and make her way to the small bed she had made. The child must be coming soon. She only had time to slide her dress off before another contraction shook her, and it took her two tries to get her undergarments off.
With her underwear removed, she slid a hand over her groin and discovered that there was a bulge growing there. It must have been the child’s head, nearly ready to come out! A trill of excitement went down her spine. Very soon, she would meet this child, this gift of Avdona!
She had turned and sat her bottom down on the stone to get her underthings off, but she found the position difficult to push in, since her belly was so large it hung over her groin area. But before she could get up to her feet, another contraction squeezed down around her belly.
“Ohh….ohhh! Ahhhhhhh! Hnnnnnnnnnngh hooo! Goddess, please!” she howled. She was in a half kneeling position, on one knee with the other foot planted on the ground, and her fingers were laced on the underside of her huge belly, pulling up while she pushed down. “Hnnnnngh! Oh! Oh, it’s burning!!! I’m going to tear! This child is going to tear me apart!”
For the child’s head was beginning to emerge, her vaginal lips parting slowly to allow the head to descend. It formed a teardrop first, and then into a wide circle that grew and grew as the child came down. But the contraction ended, and she felt the head slide back within her.
The position had seemed very good for pushing, and Leila was too exhausted to move, but she did long for the comfort of the small bed she had made for herself. Well, there was precious little time to move anyway, and she was certain she’d enjoy it once the child had been born.
When the next contraction came, she pushed again, screaming and crying and feeling like the child’s head was tearing her apart. She reached a hand down between her legs, and her fingers encountered the hard skull of her child, covered in hair and birthing fluids. She began to weep, still pushing, feeling as it emerged further, slowly, and finally, this time, when the contraction ended, the child did not slide back in. She was fully crowning at last.
She tried again to move toward the bed she had made, but she felt she could barely move her legs, between her utter exhaustion and the tip of the child’s head wedged within her. The next contraction came almost immediately after the last, anyway. She only managed to pull her knee back down so she was resting on her calves, spread wide apart.
Shoving her chin down against her chest and pulling her massive belly up again, she pushed. “Mmmnnnnghh! Goddess! Oh, it hurts! I can’t!! Oh, please, my Lady, help me! Hnnnnghhh! It’s tearing me apart!!!”
With one last massive shove, the baby’s head shot out of her, along with a good deal more birthing fluid. She panted, reaching down to cradle the child’s head lovingly.
On the next few contractions, she planted one hand on the wooden pew next to her and rose up so that her thighs were supporting her as she pushed. Her free hand went down to support the child as it turned within her and the shoulders began to slide out. Her screams filled the cathedral, and the nesting birds above her fluttered away in distress.
When she got the shoulders out, she reached down and pulled the child free. It slid out of her in a gush of fluids, and she gasped in relief, sinking down into a resting position again.
The child was a girl, and Leila started weeping again when she saw her. Dark hair like her mother’s covered the baby’s head, and her skin was the same shade of olive as Leila’s. Leila cradled her miracle baby to her chest, barely even acknowledging her still rounded stomach. The cord still trailed down to her opening, and if she shifted too much, she could feel it tugging inside of her.
“You are a miracle. You are a blessing,” she told the baby, and leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead. For a moment, the sunlight seemed to sparkle in the place Leila had kissed her. “I’ll call you Dora, for that means gift.”
She carefully levered herself up into a standing position, carefully cradling little Dora. It was still very difficult to maneuver, her body still wide and ungainly. She pressed a hand to her belly as she carefully walked over to her bed. It was still hard, and she remembered what she had thought earlier about there being more than one child.
“Oh, my Lady, my Goddess,” she exclaimed tiredly as she settled into her little bed. “I fear I lack the strength to birth another!”
She balanced Dora atop her large tummy and carefully offered one of her nipples to the babe. Dora latching on eagerly, opening her dark eyes for a moment to look up at her mother as she enjoyed her first meal. Leila smiled, overwhelmed with the love she had for this strange child, but her mood faltered when she felt her belly contract again. It wasn’t nearly so bad as before, but it was enough to force a groan from her throat.
She didn’t want to disturb the baby, so she spread her legs apart, giving small pushes on each contraction, and breathing carefully and slowly on each contraction. To her surprise, she felt something else moving down inside of her, but it was much too small to be another child. Instead, the afterbirth slid out onto the bed, connected still to the baby’s belly.
She wasn’t really sure what to do with that, so she simply moved it aside, laughing at herself and her confusion. Dora continued to eat eagerly, and Leila reflected that she simply couldn’t believe she had given birth to such a large baby – a baby who had not yet been conceived that very morning!
A powerful thirst overcame her, and she reached for the water bucket and the small wooden cup she had found with it. She took a long drink and then used the water to clean the birthing fluids off of Dora. As she did so, she felt her stomach begin to twinge again. Well, there was no afterbirth now, she thought with a sigh. There was definitely another child within her.
The water seemed to rejuvenate her some, and she noticed that, no matter how much she drank, the bucket remained full. She thanked Avdona and then moved to wrap Dora in blankets, lest she get cold.
That was the moment she realized it: Dora was much too big to be a newborn.
Still suckling at Leila’s tit, she looked up at her mother and gave a big, toothless smile. She had the appearance of a six month old baby now. Of course, Leila thought. She had grown so quickly in the womb, it wasn’t a surprise that she had grown so quickly since being born. There was a quiet concern that the child still within Leila’s womb was growing at such a rate too, but she suppressed the thought. The Goddess would not give her a trial she could not endure, she was certain of it.
The contractions increased in intensity at a quicker rate than the first labor had, but she supposed her body was already prepared for birth this time. When they got to be too much, she carefully set Dora down, now big enough to sit up on her own.
“Be a good girl, darling,” she said, breathlessly. “Mommy is going to get you a little sibling, okay?”
Dora burbled happily, and Leila shifted forward off of the bed and onto her knees again. She laced her hands below her belly again and let out a cry as she pushed again. Water gushed from her again, and the process began again.
The second delivery was no less painful than the first, but it was quicker. As the child’s head slid down between her lips and came to a full crown, she realized that it was not nearly as big as its sister, who had begun to crawl during the interim. It was the size of a normal infant. She sobbed a thank you to her Goddess as she pushed and ended up on her hands and knees as it emerged. She was barely able to catch it in time.
This child was a boy, with a head full of hair as dark as his sister’s. She carefully cradled him, this time to her other breast, and nudged the nipple into his mouth. He latched on as eagerly as Dora had.
“I will call you Jesse,” Leila said gently, smiling at her son. She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead, like she had with Dora, and this time, the sparkle of light there was no mistake. “My gift. My treasure.”
She passed the afterbirth while he fed, and she drank more of the water. Dora was playing with the water too, giggling and lapping it up from her tiny, chubby hands. The sunlight glistened off her wet skin, and she looked positively radiant.
Leila’s belly had not changed in size at all from when she had gone into labor with Dora, and it was still hard to the touch. She nursed Jesse until the contractions started in earnest again, and then she set him aside as well. He was growing at the same rate as Dora.
“My Lady, my dear Goddess Avdona,” Leila huffed, laboriously getting to her knees before the statue. Her stomach tightened harshly, but she clasped her hands together and tilted her head upwards. “I would never deign to question will, but how much more must I endure? Please…have mercy on me…”
The sunlight seemed to shift, falling over her body like a warm embrace. Some of the pain eased a little, but she remained as pregnant as ever. Another contraction squeezed down on her middle, and she cried out in pain as water gushed out from between her legs yet again. The answer was clear. Avdona was with her, but her work was not yet finished.
The births did not get easier. Some of the children were bigger than others, making their arrivals more difficult, and the pain never got any better. But the water refreshed her between each child, and by nightfall, Dora was big enough to get water for her mother and help her clean the newborns. Leila’s stomach never shrank, never softened, never was without child, and she only had a brief respite of nursing before the next child was on its way.
She labored through the night and all the next day. The moon shone brightly into the temple and the children crafted torches to stave away the darkness. She birthed in every position imaginable, at a rate of one nearly every hour. The children came and they grew. Dora mopped the sweat from her forehead and brought the cup of water to her lips when she was simply too tired. Jesse caught the children she pushed out when she was too exhausted to do it herself.
The other children busied themselves around the temple, and Leila watched with a feeling of awe as her children mopped the floors and cleaned away the filth and dust. One of the children gathered flowers and filled the window sills with brightness and color. One began to weave the old silks together in order to fix them.
The temple was slowly filling with color, with life, and with joy.
Another day, another night, another morning, and the babies continued to come. The children gathered rocks from the hillside and carried them back to the temple. They carved them to fit in the cracks and holes in the walls. They hung cloth over the broken panes of glass in the windows. They polished the altar and gathered wood for the offertory fire.
The fourth day, some of the children – now adults – fashioned themselves clothing and went down to the nearest village to acquire glass and cloth and tools for more restoration. They brought back fresh wood and bedding, and they fashioned a surprisingly comfortable birthing chair for Leila to rest within. One of the children gathered herbs and mixed them with the blessed water, creating a tonic to ease the agony of childbirth.
The morning of the fifth day, Leila noticed that the births were slowing down. Labor lasted long and was less intense, and the deliveries came first every two hours, then three, and so on. That evening, she cradled the head of her one hundredth child, her cries echoing through the temple as she pushed with all her strength. The shoulders slipped out, one at a time, and she cradled her newest daughter to her chest.
Her stomach, which had remained rigid and rounded for these past five days, sagged at least, with little left within to round it out any longer. It now felt odd, she realized as the child latched onto her breast and she kissed her on the forehead. Even though it had only been five days, it felt much, much longer. After she passed the afterbirth, her stomach shrunk down inward, flattening to her body as though she had never been pregnant at all.
“Well, Daria,” she said to the child, as big as a three month old now, “it looks like you are the last of my special gifts.”
She felt a warmth deep within her stomach again, much like the first one she had felt back before this had started. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she cherished the feeling.
When Daria had had her fill of breast milk, Leila handed her to another of the children. “Why don’t you rest, Mother?” Jesse asked, seeing that she was no longer pregnant.
“I think I shall,” Leila said, standing up with surprisingly little pain. She helped herself to another glass of water and then allowed Jesse to put together a little nest of pillows and blankets. Basking in the glow of a busy temple filled with life and joy, Leila sank into the nest and closed her eyes.
Leila dreamed. There was a woman in front of her, leaning over her, and her body was made out of pure golden light. The woman reached her hand down and caressed Leila’s cheek. She was smiling, that Leila knew somehow, even though she seemed to have no real form.
The woman was, unmistakably, the Goddess Avdona.
Leila could not pull away and bow, as every part of her demanded she do. But Avdona did not seem to be offended.
“My Lady,” Leila gasped, tears rolling down her cheeks. “My Lady, truly I am blessed, that I, your humblest of servants should gaze upon your form!”
“Oh, child. My darling Leila.”
Avdona’s voice was a song, a chorus of voices syncing together in a perfect harmony. Leila never wanted to hear anything else as long as she lived.
“You are my truest servant, little Leila,” Avdona continued. “You are the first priestess to truly dedicate yourself wholly to me in generations. My child, you have saved me from fading to obscurity. Long ago, I had many servants in these parts. But they were eliminated when the Empire came through and demanded the worship of Vyjun instead. All I have left are these broken down temples.
“Your mother, dear one, was the last left in the line of my priestesses, and I entrusted her with the care of this very temple. The day she became of age, she too came to me. She too prostrated herself before me and pledged to me her life. But her faith was too weak. When she realized she was pregnant, she fled the temple, where my powers were not as strong. She remained pregnant, but it was indistinguishable from a normal human pregnancy. She hid away her priestess robes and pretended as though she had been taken advantage of by a man.”
Leila was struck by this information. She had had no idea of what her mother’s betrayal had entailed, only that it had happened. “Then – that child…”
“Yes, my dear child. That child is you,” Avdona confirmed. “While I am not your parent and these children are created through other means, there was always a little of me in you.”
“My Lady…my Goddess…thank you,” Leila managed, tears pouring down her cheeks. “There is no greater blessing than to know this.”
Avdona smiled and leaned forward. She pressed her lips to Leila’s forehead, the way Leila had kissed each and every one of her one hundred children.
“So you continue to devote your life to me?” she asked.
“Oh, my Lady! Of course! I am but your servant!”
“Good. Then I bestow upon you the title of Light Mother. You will be revered in my temples and remembered by my followers for eternity, and when it is your time to pass from the world, you shall join me in my home. But Leila, this is contingent on your continued devotion. I have more work for you.”
Leila was overwhelmed by this. She had never expected to be anything but a humble priestess of a mostly dead religion. Just being within this beautiful temple for her mortal life would have been enough.
“Anything, my Lady,” she breathed.
“You have done well, child. You have given birth to a hundred children who will follow me and keep my temple for me and procreate and spread my faith to their children. You have given me a congregation and a following that will last for generations.”
Avdona’s hand came down from Leila’s face, coming to rest instead on her flat belly. Again, she felt that warm feeling bursting pleasantly within her stomach.
“But that is only in one area. Light Mother, even now you carry another child of the light within you. Outside of my influence, you will have the typical amount of time before it will come, so you must find my next temple by that point. Then you will give me another congregation. I will guide you as best as I can, but my influence is weak outside of the temple.”
The idea of going through hand birthing a hundred more babies like this was admittedly not something Leila was looking forward to, but she could not deny that she was blessed with a holy mission. If this would help her Lady Avdona, then what question was there? Besides, she loved each and every one of those children, and she would miss them when she had to move on.
“I will, of course, follow your wishes,” Leila promised. “I am happy and blessed to carry your child, my Lady.”
Avdona smiled and stroked her cheek once again, and then she woke up.
41 weeks later
“Are you certain you don’t need to stop, Miss Leila?”
Leila fought to keep the wince off her face as the child within her enormously round belly shifted downwards and another contraction squeezed down around her hips. There were still a good deal of steps to climb before they made it to the old, broken down temple.
The young man serving as Leila’s guide up the side of the mountain, a young man by the name of James, was only worried about his charge, she knew, but she was certain she had to be within the temple before the baby came. He had been the only one in town willing to lead such a heavily pregnant woman up to the old, abandoned temple, and even so, she had had to pay him a considerable amount of coin.
“I’m sure, James. In fact, it’s imperative that we don’t stop now,” she told him, cradling her heavy stomach with a grimace. “We need to…uh, mmmh, ohhhh…we need to get to that temple quickly, I think.”
James’ face went very pale. “Uh, um, are you, are you having the baby right now? I don’t think we can get back to the village very quickly, and I don’t, I don’t know anything about – ”
“It’s all right. This is a temple of the Light Goddess, Avdona. Her followers will help me,” she assured him.
“Ma'am, I, uh, I don’t think there’s anyone there. It’s been empty for years.”
Leila smiled, pressing forward up the steps. The sun came out from behind the clouds, and she could feel that familiar, radiant warmth cradling her and easing the pain just a little.
“Don’t worry. They’ll be here soon enough.”

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The sun had just come up over the horizon, casting golden light over the temple ruins.  The dew on the overgrown grass glistened, almost dazzling Leila as she climbed the broken, stone steps.  She smiled at the sight; it was truly beautiful.  It could only have been a sign that this was the right thing.

Her mother was a fallen priestess of the Light Goddess Avdona, failing her duties as the keeper of the temple and allowing it to fall into ruin.  The temple still stood, but the rock structure was crumbling, and its grandiose halls stood empty and soiled with age and disuse. No one had stood in this place in eighteen long years, and even before that, worship of Avdona had fallen out of favor in these past few decades, since the Empire had taken over the land.

Leila alone was the one to restore the temple and give Avdona the glory she deserved.

Today was Leila’s eighteenth birthday, the day she would ask the Goddess to accept her as her priestess.  She had followed all the requirements asked of the clergy.  She had abstained from laying with men, even turning down a few marriage proposals.  She had kept her body pure and clean, free of excess wine and always keeping with exercises to keep herself strong.

She was a petite woman, standing at just under five feet tall, and her deep olive skin was smooth, darkened slightly by the sun.  Her black hair was piled atop her head and held in place with a number of decorative pins.  Her dress was a pale cream, fitted just underneath her small breasts.  Beneath the empire waist, the dress flowed freely down to her ankles in an excess of material.  Two straps held the dress up over her shoulders, lightly adorned with golden thread.

She had worked for hours to carefully adjust the dress to her measurements after finding it amid her mother’s belongings.  It was the only appropriate clothing she had for the task she held in front of her.

Lifting the hem of her skirt up as she climbed the steps, her bare feet tread carefully on the uneven steps.  The large wooden door leading into the temple was loose on its hinges, but it came open with a haunting creak when she tugged at the handle.

The door opened into the main hall of the temple, and she looked around in sorrow and dismay at the bug eaten and water damaged silks hanging from the walls.  The windows were cracked or broken, and grass had overtaken an expanse of the floor underneath a hole in the roof. Birds chirped from nests made in the rafters, and light streamed within through the cracks and holes.

In spite of the damage, the temple remained beautiful.  There was something calming about the animals who had made this place their home, and how the sunlight never ceased to cascade through these windows.  The temple was in ruins, yes, but even the ruins were lovely.

At the front of the hall, past the ruined prayer benches and pews, across the time weathered carpet and up a few more crumbling steps, stood the altar.

Leila gasped as she approached.  A crack in the roof spilled sunlight directly onto the statue of the Goddess, expertly carved.  The Goddess was dressed in garb much like Leila’s, delicate curls of hair falling over her shoulders, and she had one hand raised up toward the light.  She looked up, away from her congregation, up to the sky.

Leila took a few steps closer to the altar and then fell to her knees.  She lowered her face to the ground, completely prostrated before her Goddess.

“Dearest Lady, Giver of Life and Light, Mistress Avdona, please look on me, your humblest of servants, and judge my soul,” she said, eyes closed tightly.  “I beg of you to look past the sins of my mother and pardon me for that which I could not control.  I strive only to serve you as my mother should have, to perhaps undo some of the damage her neglect has brought to your temple.  Judge me, take me, and I am yours.  I shall strive to do anything you ask of me, my Lady.”

For a long moment, she simply lay there, hoping for some sort of sign. And she received it, in a way.  Her body felt very warm suddenly, as though the sun were shining on her.  The odd part was that it was centered on her belly, underneath her, pressed to her knees and to the stone floor she was lying on.  There was no way the sun could warm her there.

It had to be a sign.  A good one.

She lifted herself from the floor, tears of joy forming in the corners of her eyes as she looked up at the statue, bathed in the morning light.

“Thank you, my Lady,” she said quietly, clasping her hands to her chest. A cool breeze went through the temple, but it did nothing to dissuade the warmness within her.  She had truly been blessed.

Her first order of business was to clean up the temple.  There was only so much she could do on her own, but she would do all she could.  She first set about removing the rotten bits of carpet and furniture from the temple, dragging it out the front door.  But even as she pulled the first dilapidated table out the door, she felt a sudden bout of nausea.

She rushed away from the steps and into the grass, leaning over to vomit her breakfast into the grass.  How odd, she rarely took ill, and now that she was finished, the bout of nausea had all but faded completely.  There was a twinge in her stomach then, like a cramp before her monthly blood, and she rubbed her flat stomach until it eased.  She went back to work.

The nausea did not return, but the cramps did, worsening as she worked. A particularly bad one saw her dropping an entire load of silks that she was trying to salvage right onto the floor, and she leaned against a wall for support.  Her monthly blood was not due for a few more weeks, so this was a strange occurrence, and things did not normally get so bad.

Had she misinterpreted the Goddess’ will?  Her eyes turned back to the immaculate statue, still bathed in pale sunlight, and she rubbed a hand over her sore stomach.

What she found surprised her.  There was a slope to her belly that hadn’t been there before, an incline to the normally flat expanse of her stomach.  Startled, she bunched up her dress, pulling it up and staring down at her stomach to confirm what she had felt.  Indeed, there was a small bump there, like that of a woman just discovering her pregnancy.

She dropped her dress in shock.  How could this be?  Her blood had come on time every month, and she had never laid with a man!  There was simply no way she could be pregnant!

She thought of the sign from her Goddess, the pleasant warmth centering on her stomach.  She pressed her hands to the tiny bump that had formed and looked up to the altar again.

“My Lady?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

Her belly cramped up again, and she winced in pain, bracing herself, and then, her hands there on her stomach, she felt it.  Her belly was expanding, right there under her hands.

This was definitely a sign.  The Goddess had impregnated her!  To what end, she did not know, but she had been blessed, filled so full with life that she could feel the child grow within her.  She moved forward again, overcome with adoration for Avdona, and she knelt again in front of the statue.  Her belly pressed against her thighs as she lay herself out before the Goddess.

“Oh, sweet, kind Mistress Avdona, I am but your humble servant, and you have blessed me so kindly,” she whispered.  “I thank you for this gift.  I do not understand its meaning, but I am yours, wholly and entirely, and if bearing a child is what you ask of me, I shall do it gladly.  My Lady.  I am honored.  I am overwhelmed by your generosity.”

She lay there, thanking the Goddess over and over, until another cramp twisted inside of her, and she felt her belly press further against her legs.  She pulled herself upright and noticed with a twinge of excitement that her stomach now pushed out the fabric of her dress. She looked at least five month gone.  Smiling, she ran her hands over her belly and marveled at it.  She could feel the child moving within her.

It was harder to get up off the floor now, but she managed it.  At the rate she was growing, it was likely she would give birth within an hour or so, so she decided to clean and work as much as she could before then.  In spite of her words and her conviction that she would do anything necessary for Avdona, she was afraid of what was coming. She knew very little about pregnancy and childbirth, and she had only heard stories of the terrible pain that was labor.  But she was certain the Goddess would protect her.

The cramps were painful and irritating, but they were temporary and only served as a distraction from her work.  The larger she became, however, the harder it was to do much of the heavy lifting.  Well, she would have to do that later.  Something in her reminded her that she would need supplies for the birth, so when she looked about seven months along, she started gathering things.

A bucket of cool water from a nearby stream was carried in front of the altar.  She made a small bed out of bits of carpeting and torn silks. She cut out a square of the softest material she could find to use as a blanket for the child.

And all the while, she grew.  Her back ached and her hips were forced to widen as her load increased.  The skin of her stomach stretched and grew very sensitive to touch.  Her breasts filled and rounded, her nipples growing and beginning to leak.  The material of her dress, once bunched with an over abundance of room, began to grow taut, the stitches on the seam straining.  Each cramp grew progressively more painful, but the heavy orb of her stomach showed no signs of stopping its growth.

She began to get concerned.  She had had little interaction with very pregnant women, but she imagined she could not possibly get much bigger.  Perhaps there were two children within her, or even more.

The growth finally started to slow, her rounded belly sagging down low on her frame so that if she sat, it hung down between her legs, but the cramps were only gaining in intensity.  This must be labor, she realized with a pang of apprehension.

She could no longer get to her knees to pray, so instead she prayed as she paced in an attempt to alleviate the pain.

“My Lady…ohhh, it hurts, my Lady…please, please be with me…help me…help me birth your child, your gift to me, please…ohhhhh, ohhh, it hurts!  Oh, Goddess, please, it hurts so much,” she moaned, her arms cradling her enormous belly as she walked.  “Oh! There’s so much pressure!  I need to…I need to push…oh, sweet Lady Avdona, I pray, please…please…be with me…”

Hands braced on a pew, Leila squatted down with her legs as far apart as she could get them.  The seams of the dress finally ripped with the motion, a giant hole appearing in the front of the dress and exposing her laboring belly.  She pushed, tucking her chin against her chest.

“Hnnnngh…hoo! Ahhh!”

Nothing seemed to happen.  Her body must not be ready yet.

She straightened up again, wiping the sweat and tears from her face and began pacing again, still feverishly mumbling a prayer under her breath.

This continued for a few more contractions.  Each one, she would find herself squatting down and pushing, although she only allowed herself small pushes to try and relieve the building pressure within her.  It was obvious the baby was not ready yet, and pushing needlessly would only exhaust her early into the process.  That would not do at all.

“Ohhhh…ohhh….my Lady, this…it hurt so much,” she moaned as she paced.  “Ohh! Oh, there’s so much pressure.  Gods above!  How do people do this? Ohhh!  Oh, it’s coming!  My Lady, it’s coming!  Hnnnnngh!!”

Leila squatted down again, her legs so far apart that they burned, her thighs quaking as she gave another push without really meaning to. Something inside her finally moved, and she heard a quiet pop from within her.  Water poured out of her opening, spilling all over the stone flooring of the temple and soaking her legs and her dress. She didn’t know what it meant, but the pressure had abated somewhat, at least.

She fell forward to her hands and knees, her belly so rounded out that it dragged against the floor.  She rocked back and forth, her breaths coming in short, quick pants.  The soaked material of her dress clung to her legs.

When the next contraction came, she was not at all prepared.  It came much sooner than she expected, giving her barely thirty seconds of respite, and it was far stronger than the last.  Her belly rose up off the floor as it squeezed in a contraction.

“Oooohhhhaaaaaaahh!!” she screamed.  Now was the time to push, she expected, so she did, putting everything she had into it.  Her fingers dug into the dirty stonework and her toes curled, and within her, she could feel the child’s head descend into her birth canal.  It hurt like nothing she had ever endured before, and her screams echoed through the temple.

When the contraction ended, she decided it was time to disrobe and make her way to the small bed she had made.  The child must be coming soon.  She only had time to slide her dress off before another contraction shook her, and it took her two tries to get her undergarments off.

With her underwear removed, she slid a hand over her groin and discovered that there was a bulge growing there.  It must have been the child’s head, nearly ready to come out!  A trill of excitement went down her spine.  Very soon, she would meet this child, this gift of Avdona!

She had turned and sat her bottom down on the stone to get her underthings off, but she found the position difficult to push in, since her belly was so large it hung over her groin area.  But before she could get up to her feet, another contraction squeezed down around her belly.

“Ohh….ohhh! Ahhhhhhh!  Hnnnnnnnnnngh hooo!  Goddess, please!” she howled.  She was in a half kneeling position, on one knee with the other foot planted on the ground, and her fingers were laced on the underside of her huge belly, pulling up while she pushed down.  “Hnnnnngh!  Oh! Oh, it’s burning!!!  I’m going to tear!  This child is going to tear me apart!”

For the child’s head was beginning to emerge, her vaginal lips parting slowly to allow the head to descend.  It formed a teardrop first, and then into a wide circle that grew and grew as the child came down. But the contraction ended, and she felt the head slide back within her.

The position had seemed very good for pushing, and Leila was too exhausted to move, but she did long for the comfort of the small bed she had made for herself.  Well, there was precious little time to move anyway, and she was certain she’d enjoy it once the child had been born.

When the next contraction came, she pushed again, screaming and crying and feeling like the child’s head was tearing her apart.  She reached a hand down between her legs, and her fingers encountered the hard skull of her child, covered in hair and birthing fluids.  She began to weep, still pushing, feeling as it emerged further, slowly, and finally, this time, when the contraction ended, the child did not slide back in.  She was fully crowning at last.

She tried again to move toward the bed she had made, but she felt she could barely move her legs, between her utter exhaustion and the tip of the child’s head wedged within her.  The next contraction came almost immediately after the last, anyway.  She only managed to pull her knee back down so she was resting on her calves, spread wide apart.

Shoving her chin down against her chest and pulling her massive belly up again, she pushed.  “Mmmnnnnghh!  Goddess!  Oh, it hurts!  I can’t!!  Oh, please, my Lady, help me!  Hnnnnghhh!  It’s tearing me apart!!!”

With one last massive shove, the baby’s head shot out of her, along with a good deal more birthing fluid.  She panted, reaching down to cradle the child’s head lovingly.

On the next few contractions, she planted one hand on the wooden pew next to her and rose up so that her thighs were supporting her as she pushed.  Her free hand went down to support the child as it turned within her and the shoulders began to slide out.  Her screams filled the cathedral, and the nesting birds above her fluttered away in distress.

When she got the shoulders out, she reached down and pulled the child free.  It slid out of her in a gush of fluids, and she gasped in relief, sinking down into a resting position again.

The child was a girl, and Leila started weeping again when she saw her. Dark hair like her mother’s covered the baby’s head, and her skin was the same shade of olive as Leila’s.  Leila cradled her miracle baby to her chest, barely even acknowledging her still rounded stomach. The cord still trailed down to her opening, and if she shifted too much, she could feel it tugging inside of her.

“You are a miracle.  You are a blessing,” she told the baby, and leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead.  For a moment, the sunlight seemed to sparkle in the place Leila had kissed her.  “I’ll call you Dora, for that means gift.”

She carefully levered herself up into a standing position, carefully cradling little Dora.  It was still very difficult to maneuver, her body still wide and ungainly.  She pressed a hand to her belly as she carefully walked over to her bed.  It was still hard, and she remembered what she had thought earlier about there being more than one child.

“Oh, my Lady, my Goddess,” she exclaimed tiredly as she settled into her little bed.  “I fear I lack the strength to birth another!”

She balanced Dora atop her large tummy and carefully offered one of her nipples to the babe.  Dora latching on eagerly, opening her dark eyes for a moment to look up at her mother as she enjoyed her first meal. Leila smiled, overwhelmed with the love she had for this strange child, but her mood faltered when she felt her belly contract again. It wasn’t nearly so bad as before, but it was enough to force a groan from her throat.

She didn’t want to disturb the baby, so she spread her legs apart, giving small pushes on each contraction, and breathing carefully and slowly on each contraction.  To her surprise, she felt something else moving down inside of her, but it was much too small to be another child. Instead, the afterbirth slid out onto the bed, connected still to the baby’s belly.

She wasn’t really sure what to do with that, so she simply moved it aside, laughing at herself and her confusion.  Dora continued to eat eagerly, and Leila reflected that she simply couldn’t believe she had given birth to such a large baby – a baby who had not yet been conceived that very morning!

A powerful thirst overcame her, and she reached for the water bucket and the small wooden cup she had found with it.  She took a long drink and then used the water to clean the birthing fluids off of Dora.  As she did so, she felt her stomach begin to twinge again. Well, there was no afterbirth now, she thought with a sigh.  There was definitely another child within her.

The water seemed to rejuvenate her some, and she noticed that, no matter how much she drank, the bucket remained full.  She thanked Avdona and then moved to wrap Dora in blankets, lest she get cold.

That was the moment she realized it:  Dora was much too big to be a newborn.

Still suckling at Leila’s tit, she looked up at her mother and gave a big, toothless smile.  She had the appearance of a six month old baby now. Of course, Leila thought.  She had grown so quickly in the womb, it wasn’t a surprise that she had grown so quickly since being born. There was a quiet concern that the child still within Leila’s womb was growing at such a rate too, but she suppressed the thought.  The Goddess would not give her a trial she could not endure, she was certain of it.

The contractions increased in intensity at a quicker rate than the first labor had, but she supposed her body was already prepared for birth this time.  When they got to be too much, she carefully set Dora down, now big enough to sit up on her own.

“Be a good girl, darling,” she said, breathlessly.  “Mommy is going to get you a little sibling, okay?”

Dora burbled happily, and Leila shifted forward off of the bed and onto her knees again.  She laced her hands below her belly again and let out a cry as she pushed again.  Water gushed from her again, and the process began again.

The second delivery was no less painful than the first, but it was quicker.  As the child’s head slid down between her lips and came to a full crown, she realized that it was not nearly as big as its sister, who had begun to crawl during the interim.  It was the size of a normal infant.  She sobbed a thank you to her Goddess as she pushed and ended up on her hands and knees as it emerged.  She was barely able to catch it in time.

This child was a boy, with a head full of hair as dark as his sister’s. She carefully cradled him, this time to her other breast, and nudged the nipple into his mouth.  He latched on as eagerly as Dora had.

“I will call you Jesse,” Leila said gently, smiling at her son.  She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead, like she had with Dora, and this time, the sparkle of light there was no mistake.  “My gift.  My treasure.”

She passed the afterbirth while he fed, and she drank more of the water. Dora was playing with the water too, giggling and lapping it up from her tiny, chubby hands.  The sunlight glistened off her wet skin, and she looked positively radiant.

Leila’s belly had not changed in size at all from when she had gone into labor with Dora, and it was still hard to the touch.  She nursed Jesse until the contractions started in earnest again, and then she set him aside as well.  He was growing at the same rate as Dora.

“My Lady, my dear Goddess Avdona,” Leila huffed, laboriously getting to her knees before the statue.  Her stomach tightened harshly, but she clasped her hands together and tilted her head upwards.  “I would never deign to question will, but how much more must I endure? Please…have mercy on me…”

The sunlight seemed to shift, falling over her body like a warm embrace. Some of the pain eased a little, but she remained as pregnant as ever.  Another contraction squeezed down on her middle, and she cried out in pain as water gushed out from between her legs yet again.  The answer was clear.  Avdona was with her, but her work was not yet finished.

The births did not get easier.  Some of the children were bigger than others, making their arrivals more difficult, and the pain never got any better.  But the water refreshed her between each child, and by nightfall, Dora was big enough to get water for her mother and help her clean the newborns.  Leila’s stomach never shrank, never softened, never was without child, and she only had a brief respite of nursing before the next child was on its way.

She labored through the night and all the next day.  The moon shone brightly into the temple and the children crafted torches to stave away the darkness.  She birthed in every position imaginable, at a rate of one nearly every hour.  The children came and they grew.  Dora mopped the sweat from her forehead and brought the cup of water to her lips when she was simply too tired.  Jesse caught the children she pushed out when she was too exhausted to do it herself.

The other children busied themselves around the temple, and Leila watched with a feeling of awe as her children mopped the floors and cleaned away the filth and dust.  One of the children gathered flowers and filled the window sills with brightness and color.  One began to weave the old silks together in order to fix them.

The temple was slowly filling with color, with life, and with joy.

Another day, another night, another morning, and the babies continued to come.  The children gathered rocks from the hillside and carried them back to the temple.  They carved them to fit in the cracks and holes in the walls.  They hung cloth over the broken panes of glass in the windows.  They polished the altar and gathered wood for the offertory fire.

The fourth day, some of the children – now adults – fashioned themselves clothing and went down to the nearest village to acquire glass and cloth and tools for more restoration.  They brought back fresh wood and bedding, and they fashioned a surprisingly comfortable birthing chair for Leila to rest within.  One of the children gathered herbs and mixed them with the blessed water, creating a tonic to ease the agony of childbirth.

The morning of the fifth day, Leila noticed that the births were slowing down.  Labor lasted long and was less intense, and the deliveries came first every two hours, then three, and so on.  That evening, she cradled the head of her one hundredth child, her cries echoing through the temple as she pushed with all her strength.  The shoulders slipped out, one at a time, and she cradled her newest daughter to her chest.

Her stomach, which had remained rigid and rounded for these past five days, sagged at least, with little left within to round it out any longer.  It now felt odd, she realized as the child latched onto her breast and she kissed her on the forehead.  Even though it had only been five days, it felt much, much longer.  After she passed the afterbirth, her stomach shrunk down inward, flattening to her body as though she had never been pregnant at all.

“Well, Daria,” she said to the child, as big as a three month old now, “it looks like you are the last of my special gifts.”

She felt a warmth deep within her stomach again, much like the first one she had felt back before this had started.  She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she cherished the feeling.

When Daria had had her fill of breast milk, Leila handed her to another of the children.  “Why don’t you rest, Mother?” Jesse asked, seeing that she was no longer pregnant.

“I think I shall,” Leila said, standing up with surprisingly little pain.  She helped herself to another glass of water and then allowed Jesse to put together a little nest of pillows and blankets.  Basking in the glow of a busy temple filled with life and joy, Leila sank into the nest and closed her eyes.

Leila dreamed.  There was a woman in front of her, leaning over her, and her body was made out of pure golden light.  The woman reached her hand down and caressed Leila’s cheek.  She was smiling, that Leila knew somehow, even though she seemed to have no real form.

The woman was, unmistakably, the Goddess Avdona.

Leila could not pull away and bow, as every part of her demanded she do. But Avdona did not seem to be offended.

“My Lady,” Leila gasped, tears rolling down her cheeks.  “My Lady, truly I am blessed, that I, your humblest of servants should gaze upon your form!”

“Oh, child.  My darling Leila.”

Avdona’s voice was a song, a chorus of voices syncing together in a perfect harmony.  Leila never wanted to hear anything else as long as she lived.

“You are my truest servant, little Leila,” Avdona continued.  “You are the first priestess to truly dedicate yourself wholly to me in generations.  My child, you have saved me from fading to obscurity. Long ago, I had many servants in these parts.  But they were eliminated when the Empire came through and demanded the worship of Vyjun instead.  All I have left are these broken down temples.

“Your mother, dear one, was the last left in the line of my priestesses, and I entrusted her with the care of this very temple.  The day she became of age, she too came to me.  She too prostrated herself before me and pledged to me her life.  But her faith was too weak.  When she realized she was pregnant, she fled the temple, where my powers were not as strong.  She remained pregnant, but it was indistinguishable from a normal human pregnancy.  She hid away her priestess robes and pretended as though she had been taken advantage of by a man.”

Leila was struck by this information.  She had had no idea of what her mother’s betrayal had entailed, only that it had happened.  “Then – that child…”

“Yes, my dear child.  That child is you,” Avdona confirmed.  “While I am not your parent and these children are created through other means, there was always a little of me in you.”

“My Lady…my Goddess…thank you,” Leila managed, tears pouring down her cheeks.  “There is no greater blessing than to know this.”

Avdona smiled and leaned forward.  She pressed her lips to Leila’s forehead, the way Leila had kissed each and every one of her one hundred children.

“So you continue to devote your life to me?” she asked.

“Oh, my Lady!  Of course!  I am but your servant!”

“Good. Then I bestow upon you the title of Light Mother. You will be revered in my temples and remembered by my followers for eternity, and when it is your time to pass from the world, you shall join me in my home.  But Leila, this is contingent on your continued devotion.  I have more work for you.”

Leila was overwhelmed by this.  She had never expected to be anything but a humble priestess of a mostly dead religion.  Just being within this beautiful temple for her mortal life would have been enough.

“Anything, my Lady,” she breathed.

“You have done well, child.  You have given birth to a hundred children who will follow me and keep my temple for me and procreate and spread my faith to their children.  You have given me a congregation and a following that will last for generations.”

Avdona’s hand came down from Leila’s face, coming to rest instead on her flat belly.  Again, she felt that warm feeling bursting pleasantly within her stomach.

“But that is only in one area.  Light Mother, even now you carry another child of the light within you.  Outside of my influence, you will have the typical amount of time before it will come, so you must find my next temple by that point.  Then you will give me another congregation.  I will guide you as best as I can, but my influence is weak outside of the temple.”

The idea of going through hand birthing a hundred more babies like this was admittedly not something Leila was looking forward to, but she could not deny that she was blessed with a holy mission.  If this would help her Lady Avdona, then what question was there?  Besides, she loved each and every one of those children, and she would miss them when she had to move on.

“I will, of course, follow your wishes,” Leila promised.  “I am happy and blessed to carry your child, my Lady.”

Avdona smiled and stroked her cheek once again, and then she woke up.

41 weeks later

“Are you certain you don’t need to stop, Miss Leila?”

Leila fought to keep the wince off her face as the child within her enormously round belly shifted downwards and another contraction squeezed down around her hips.  There were still a good deal of steps to climb before they made it to the old, broken down temple.

The young man serving as Leila’s guide up the side of the mountain, a young man by the name of James, was only worried about his charge, she knew, but she was certain she had to be within the temple before the baby came.  He had been the only one in town willing to lead such a heavily pregnant woman up to the old, abandoned temple, and even so, she had had to pay him a considerable amount of coin.

“I’m sure, James.  In fact, it’s imperative that we don’t stop now,” she told him, cradling her heavy stomach with a grimace.  “We need to…uh, mmmh, ohhhh…we need to get to that temple quickly, I think.”

James’ face went very pale.  “Uh, um, are you, are you having the baby right now?  I don’t think we can get back to the village very quickly, and I don’t, I don’t know anything about – ”

“It’s all right.  This is a temple of the Light Goddess, Avdona.  Her followers will help me,” she assured him.

“Ma'am, I, uh, I don’t think there’s anyone there.  It’s been empty for years.”

Leila smiled, pressing forward up the steps.  The sun came out from behind the clouds, and she could feel that familiar, radiant warmth cradling her and easing the pain just a little.

“Don’t worry.  They’ll be here soon enough.”