Owl and the Void

The room was a mess with women from all over the village, draped in white gowns, hurriedly preparing utensils for the doctor. At just under three and a half feet tall, the gnomish doctor did well to let the human women do the leg work while he prepared for the task at hand. An crimson white owl sat in the rafters, watching ... waiting.

“How much longer on the sterile water Arilea?” Grandall huffed, wiping the sweat from his spectacles.

Gnomes, while extremely intelligent and amazingly agile, seem to sweat in abundance. Perhaps, it is due to their attraction to mead. Luckily enough, the night’s consumption had just begun when Grandall was summoned to the home of Sheanora.

“Not much longer.” Arilea said with a strained voice, taking the heavy water cauldron off the fire to let it cool.

“This one’s wasting no time at all and already in position, sooner the better, please” Grandall muttered, examining the clarity of his freshly cleaned “specs,” as he called them.

“Clean towels on the right, yes, right there.”

“Sutures on the table here.”

“Yes, good. We are almost ready.”

“Sheanore, how are we doing dear?”

The sedative Grandall had given her was beginning to show it’s potency. Sheanora could barely concentrate on anything for longer than a few seconds. She focused on the fire, trying to keep it steady. It began to move, dancing from side to side in a way that was almost entertaining. Sheanora closed her eye, the nausea creeping in. The pain began to lesson, as did her ability to communicate well. Her mouth was numb

“What did he give me?” she thought to herself.

“This is incredibly strong and the odd pain remains, why?”

Sheanora had been plagued by an unusual abdominal pain throughout her pregnancy. She had gone to visit Grandall many times with concerns but he was unable to offer any explanation. Sheanora worried night after night if something was wrong, but she knew something wasn’t exactly right. One night, while lying in bed, the pain became so suddenly intense, that she passed out completely, and the dream that night ... the whispers.

“Okay ladies, she’s dilating further. We can begin to push Sheanora!” Shouted Grandall.

Two of the ladies went to each bed-side gripping Sheanora’s hands as Arilea assisted Grandall at the foot of the bed. She had a warm blanket ready to receive the child. She loved this part of her trade. She loved seeing life begin, the first moments, the first breath. She had studied under Grandall for 6 years, indulging herself in the anatomy of the living creatures. He was highly sought after throughout the 5 kingdoms. Man, Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes and even a few Greisles had summoned him for medical aid. She had once witnessed Grandall repair a Fairies wing using a quartz magnifying lens and a pair of needles. Often, Arilea found herself pondering his age and origin. She had asked on several occasions in which he normally responded with “older than the big Oaks and beyond the moon my dear.” She always brushed this off with a giggle, but sensed some hidden truth to his answer.

“On three I want you to push. Okay, are we ready?” Grandall continued.

Grandall counted to three and Sheanora gripped the ladies hands tightly and began to push. The maids winced at the pain. Suddenly, Sheanora arched her back violently. The maids gasped as she clutched their hands so tightly fingers began to pop as the air was forced from the joints. Immediately she stopped pushing and let out a cry.

The owls eyes began to glow a deep shape of violet as it peered on from above.

“What is it my dear, what are you feeling?” Grandall quickly asked.

“My body”, she cried. “It feels like my entire body caught on fire.”

“The child must be agitating a nerve my dear, but I’m afraid we can’t stop now” Grandall stated.

A tingling sensation crept down the back of his head, behind his ears and spread down his spine; a fear. The sweat on his forehead suddenly turned cold. He had never felt a feeling such as this, in all of his years, ever.

“We must continue, again on three.”

“One, Two, Three!”

Shaenora pushed and once again the fire spread throughout her body. It pulsed from her abdomen. Pulsed through her arms and legs. Pulsed up her back and across her face; everywhere. She arched again, screaming. The maids released and switched hands, not able to bare Shenora’s grip.

Arilea jumped up, heart racing, and began to push down on Shaenora’s knees, keeping her feet in contact with the bed. She looked at Grandall with fearful eyes.

He glanced back at her in the same tone, wiping more sweat from his forehead. Sheanora’s heart was racing, her body on fire. She had soaked the bed in sweat with the agonizing pain of each push. Just as she was about to push again, the pain disappeared, completely. Her body somehow had gone completely numb of all feeling. She could no longer hear the voices of the maids or the doctor. There was no longer the smell of burnt oak in the cabin, and the light began to fade before her eyes. For a moment, she laid suspended in a nothingness, void of all senses.

And then, the whispers came again. She couldn’t understand them, they were neither male or female and the language was something she had never heard. They grew louder and louder, so high pitched she would squint if it was possible to move her eyelids.

“Grandall what’s happening, her body is frozen into place like rigor mortis. She isn’t moving, Grandall?” Arilea tried to move Sheanoras legs to no avail. “It’s like she is frozen in place.” she thought to herself.

Grandall placed his hands on her legs, “she’s cold as ice!” He blurted out, no longer able to keep a calm composure.

“We have to get the child out now, she is dying. Arilea, grab incision knife. Hurry now, not a moment to lose. Ladies, prepare the sutures. We are extracting the child abdominally.”

Arilae wiped the incision area with a strong alcoholic mixture and prepared to take the child once Grandall had opened the abdomen. Grandall took the incision knife and slowly made a cut along the lower abdomen.

“No blood.”

“What was that, Arilea?”

Grandall eyed her over his specs.

“There is no blood Grandall, her heart is beating, but she is not bleeding from the incision.”

“Keep focused.” Grandall insisted. “That’s not the only oddity going on here.”

He whispered under his breath as the chill returned to his spine.

Just as Grandall had made his way into the uterus, and was able to see the child for the first time, Shaenora’s body jerked violently sending the incision knife much deeper than he had anticipated. He jerked the knife back in an instant hoping to avoid cutting the child inside. He had failed, the blade had penetrated further through the uterus wall and cut into the child making a half moon incision on the right side of the chest, just below the collar bone.

“Damn!” he snapped.

Arilea looked at the knife, still in Grandalls hand. “Grandall! The Knife!”

He looked at the knife and immediately dropped it to the floor. The blades edge had a deep violet glow, like the embers of a fire, only purple. It was slowly dissolving right before his eyes. Grandall, trying to gather his senses, went back to the child. The child’s incision had the same glow on each side of the cut.

“It’s closing itself! Arilea, the wound is closing itself!” Grandall exclaimed.

Shaenora’s body began convulsing. Grandall, knowing her fate, reached into Shaenora, tore the uterus apart with his hands and grabbed the child. He pulled the lifeless body of the child out and placed it into Arilea’s arms. Grandall cut the umbilical cord, leaving the placenta inside.

The convulsions stopped.

“No point in extracting that now” he thought while looking over her lifeless body.

Arilea turned to take the child to the prep table for inducing breath and clean-up procedures. As she walked away, Shaenora’s hand shot up and took a death grip of Grandall’s arm, pulling him closer to her face. Her eyes shot open. Grandall’s blood ran cold as ice. The rose color draining from his face. She starred at him through dark eyes, no pupils, no iris. Her eyes black with a hint of deep violet. Arilea hearing the clatter whipped around. In that moment, Shaenora released his arm, dropped to the bed and died.

The air grew still, the sounds disappeared and the owl was gone.