Chapter VII - The Birth of a Legend
The Legend of Leanna Page: Vol. I
You’re reading The Legend of Leanna Page, the page-turning mythopoetic queer literary fantasy. *Click here for the Table of Contents and start of Volume I*
Previously: Esta became friends with the fairy warrior Alizren and learned of the Alquorian law preventing fairies from raising children born of different hues. Later, Alizren and Stoman came into the cavern apartment hoping to move in and raise their coming child in hiding, for the baby would not be born of their own green color, but the purple of royals. Will Esta convince Byrdon to agree? Will any of them be safe if they do? Read on!
Esta gestured for Alizren and Stoman to wait a moment while she took Byrdon’s arm and pulled him across the hollow into the relative privacy of the opposite tunnel leading to Pavoline.
“My love, thou canst not mean to agree to this,” he whispered, flickering an involuntary glace toward the fairy warriors as he spoke.
“We must! Imagine if we were in their circumstance,” Esta tried.
“I hardly understand their circumstance!”
She sighed, remembering all she had chosen not to tell, and relayed what she had learned of the fairies from Alizren during her day in the Woods.
“Thou wert in the Woods?” Byrdon put all his effort into maintaining a low voice.
“Please, love, that is not the purpose now. They are friends to us, and they need our aid.”
“How can they be friends? They are fairies.”
Esta’s countenance twisted and she stepped back, astonished at the difference in their thoughts.
****
At the opposite end of the hollow, Stoman began to pace, inching back toward Masor with every turn.
“Patience, dear one,” Alizren whispered to him. “We have asked of them something great indeed.”
“Yes, and the last time we did so I lost my place as a warrior.”
“That was different, Stoman.”
They met gazes and understood one another in silence.
“How can we trust them?” He finally asked.
“They are our friends.”
“We have friends in Alquoria, yet we are not trusting them.”
Alizren scoffed. “Which Alquorian warrior shall we trust to protect the secret of our crime?”
Stoman sank. “Perhaps there is reason this is not done.”
Alizren’s gaze floated toward the ground then landed on the human couple as they continued to converse.
****
“Dost thou not see how similar they are?”
Byrdon nodded facetiously. “Indeed, with their wings and verdant hue? Dost thou not see the difference?”
“The exact hues of thee and I are not the same,” Esta said. “There is no knowing what our child will be. What if she emerged a bright blue? Wouldst thou love her?”
He rose one of his eyebrows. “Our child will not be blue.”
“Thou dost not know these things!”
“How would she be blue?” He nearly laughed.
Esta remained stoic. “That is beside the point. Wouldst thou love her?”
Byrdon realized she was sincere and mirrored her. “Of course I would.”
Relief overcoming her, Esta gestured to Stoman and Alizren. “Then thou seest how they are the same?”
Byrdon looked toward their guests.
****
“Stoman, art thou uncertain of this? Regardless of Esta and Byrdon, we two need to be certain.”
Stoman took Alizren’s hands and held them tight. “We put ourselves in grave danger with this.”
“Yes,” she agreed, having already given it great consideration.
“They would lock us under the pool for this.”
“Yes,” she agreed again. “That is why we must not be discovered.”
“If what they say is true, then the child will be different from us. We know nothing of raising a royal.”
“She will not only be royal. She will be ours.”
Stoman held back a torrent of concern. “What if she does not see it as such? What if, upon understanding what we have done, she resents us? What if she returns to Anwansi and turns us in?”
Alizren was silent. Her expression made it clear that this she had not considered in the slightest.
Stoman deflated, hoping she would have prepared some wisdom that would calm this particular concern, but she remained silent still longer.
With a hand over her abdomen, the fairy mother looked across the hollow to Esta. Suddenly, she smiled and returned to Stoman.
“Our child will not hurt us,” she said. “We will raise her well, and she will not wish us ill.”
Stoman wanted to smile, but faltered. “Canst thou be certain? We need to be certain.”
“I am certain,” she nodded, stroking Stoman’s cheek. “Our love will guide her. She may have the mind of a royal, but she will have the heart of a warrior. Perhaps—” Alizren glanced again to Esta and Byrdon. “—she will also have the friendship of humans! She will be like no one in our world.”
At last, Stoman smiled, encouraged by the loveliness of Alizren’s confident eyes.
“And she will be ours,” he said. He brought her close and they kissed, sparks of tenderness flying from each their wings.
****
“Their love is the same as ours, isn’t it?” Byrdon said, bashfully turning away from the fairy couple’s embrace.
Esta nodded, taking Byrdon’s hands. “We cannot forsake them.”
“I do not wish to, truly. It frightens me, I admit, but that is not really any change from our life at present, I suppose.” Esta chuckled. “Still, my love, we reside not even in a single room, but the single hollow of an odd cave. I have wondered if it will be sufficient space for three to live and grow, but six? We would be more tightly knit than I care to imagine.”
“There will be small difficulties in abundance, I am sure, but I cannot see that as reason enough to turn them away.”
Byrdon sighed and kissed her hands.
“Very well,” he said.
In that moment, both couples looked to each other and, as the humans smiled, met again in the center of the hollow.
“Welcome home,” Esta told them, and all broke into smiles, thanks, and embraces, soon setting to work adorning the space for its new inhabitants.
Stoman and Alizren would sleep in their shrunken form and thus required only a pillow, but their babe, too young yet to understand the mechanisms of her magic, would not be able to transform to her smaller size for a few years and would therefore need to sleep in her larger form. This they had considered and, instructing Esta and Byrdon to stand some feet back, Stoman placed their basket on the floor, decreased to the miniature with Alizren, and together they flew into the basket, emerging again holding a tiny bassinet between them. When they grew again to full height, holding the object, the bassinet grew with them to its useful size. The humans laughed at the clever sight.
“It can stand right beside Leanna’s,” Esta said, and Byrdon set about helping Stoman move it to its place while the expecting mothers sat aside on the beds.
“You have named it then?” Alizren inquired excitedly.
“Not I,” Esta whispered. Seeing that Byrdon and Stoman were beginning to engage in their own conversation, she elaborated for Alizren all that she would not share with Byrdon. “She told me her name last night. I had a dream, much like you had described. I cannot understand how, and I have not suffered Byrdon to know all, but I know the vision came from her. I can explain it no other way.”
“You had the dream! Incredible. Only magical beings have such visions before birth,” Alizren replied. “Perhaps I too quickly dismissed the connection between your child and the Jewel.” She said this involuntarily looking toward the store of provisions where she knew the tunnel to be hidden beneath. Esta interrupted her ideas.
“I dread to think of that horrid gem. All I wish is for it to be lost and forgotten. Please, refrain from its mention.”
“But Esta, it is an elemental source of magic. What if your proximity to the Jewel has allowed your baby to be born of its power? A magical human, unlike any being known in our world!” She smiled, thinking of her own child.
Esta tried to pacify Alizren’s spiraling thoughts with the remembrance that Byrdon and herself were devoid of magic, thus their child could not be otherwise, but it only spurred Alizren on.
“Remember, Esta, magic does not operate under the same assumptions as human genealogy. The same magic that allows two green fairies to birth a purple one, assuming the child’s essence demands it, and the circumstances fall in perfect order, perhaps could indeed allow a magical human to arise from two of the standard variety!”
“But then what kind of creature would she be?”
“I cannot even begin to speculate.” Alizren smiled in wonder but saw that Esta grew keenly concerned and at once regretted the eagerness with which she had conjectured. “All I have said before remains true,” she assured her. “You are good and kind. Leanna will be also.” Esta thanked her friend and, releasing her anguish, rested her head upon the fairy’s shoulder.
Alizren shifted with a sudden remembrance, speaking straight to Esta with renewed excitement. “You do realize, of course, that a magical child is born the day following the mother’s dream. Our children shall be born together!
Esta smiled and took Alizren’s hand, replying, “Then it is fitting they shall be raised as friends.”
Indeed, before long, both mothers began to feel their birthing pains and the fathers began to run about, preparing the home for the double event. Esta and Alizren comforted one another while Stoman and Byrdon pulled the larger cots apart and brought one to the opening of each of the tunnels. Byrdon then helped Esta lie down on the cot in the Masor tunnel and Alizren in the other while Stoman flew out towards Pavoline to fill buckets with water from the Woods to aid with cooling and cleaning. He marveled aloud at the magic of the tunnels when he returned again within minutes, then was brought back to his purpose by the howls of the mothers whose pains continued.
Stoman, with Alizren’s unvocalized approval, offered the human pair a variety of magic salves and potions they had brought with them which were used in Alquoria to ease births, but Esta and Byrdon politely refused, both still wary of magic. Their effectiveness, however, was quickly evident for, in a couple of hours, Alizren was flying above the cot in a final effort, at last releasing the baby into Stoman’s arms, wrapped in a blood-soaked cocoon of her own little wings. Alizren floated down and closed her eyes, exhausted, while Stoman disconnected the mother and child and cleaned the babe with a damp towel. A smile crept further and further up his cheeks as he peeled open the drying wings and first laid sight upon the lids of his daughter’s purple eyes. The tiny wings began to flutter and release their first lavender sparks as the child started to cry. Alizren opened her eyes and held out her arms, taking hold of her dear babe and turning the whole room to smiles. Stoman stepped away from Alizren’s side to begin cleaning from the mess, beginning with the bloody towel.
Byrdon noticed the towel and said, “Your blood is red.”
The fairy looked up to him, curious. “Indeed. What is yours?”
Byrdon smiled. “It is the same.”
They held one another’s gaze for a moment with increasing appreciation and understanding until it was broken by Esta’s renewed cries which returned all Byrdon’s attention to her.
“Thou art a marvel, my love,” he told her. “Hold onto thy strength.”
She grasped his hand, shaking her head. “Something is wrong, Byrdon. Feel the baby, something isn’t right.”
He let go of her hand and felt her womb, turning to her a moment later, trying to maintain a lightness over his concern.
“She’s spun around the wrong way, Esta.” Esta groaned. “Do not worry, my love. Surely, we can turn her.”
Over the next several hours, Byrdon made many attempts to turn the baby, but she would not be moved. All the while, Esta’s pains and worries continued increasing.
“I do not understand,” Byrdon said after another try. “I have followed every instruction; still, I cannot make her move even an inch.”
Esta bellowed again and fell against him in grief and frustration. Holding her a moment he suddenly shrieked in joy.
“Oh! She moved! Only slightly, and in the unhelpful direction, but she moved all the same. Return to where thou wert, let us see if she moves again.”
Esta was confounded but too exhausted to argue so she returned to her original place in the bed. Byrdon laughed in relieved amusement.
“She acts like a compass!” He cried. “Her head will only point in that direction.” He gestured behind him, and Esta followed the line of his hand with her gaze, knowing through the wall her child was pointing directly to the Jewel of Nebulous. A tremor ran through her as Byrdon gleefully continued. “Let us simply spin thee around, and inside thee she will turn accordingly!”
“No!”
Byrdon was startled but attempted sensitivity. “I know it will be painful to move now, but I am here to assist thee.”
“I will not move,” Esta declared. “Thou must turn the baby.”
“She is stubborn,” he complained.
“So am I.”
“But, dear, it does not seem that she wants to point away from her current direction.”
“She knows nothing! Wilt thou bend to her every whim when she is born? Turn her!”
Byrdon’s brow rose in distress. “I do not know that I’ll be able to, love.”
“Byrdon, please!” Esta cried.
At a push from Alizren, Stoman approached them with one of their special balms.
“May I offer this?” He said. “It is known to calm the inside child when it is stubborn.”
Esta nodded. “Anything. Yes. Just—” She took a breath to calm herself. “Just turn her.”
Byrdon wordlessly assented as well and Stoman stood by Esta’s bedside, covering the skin above her womb with the cool, clear ointment. It was some hours still before they reached full success, but soon enough Byrdon was able to begin turning the child’s head toward the center of their home. Although her pains persisted, Esta noticeably calmed and, with the assistance of another fairy potion, managed to push the child into the world, and into her father’s arms, before the end of the night.
“Show her to me,” Esta begged when Byrdon was cleaning her.
“She’s perfect,” he said, but the mother did not yet smile.
“Show me,” she said again.
Byrdon gently handed Esta the child, who was newly wrapped in a soft blanket. Her dark brown skin was smooth and faultless, and her little nose wrinkled with a sniffle and a cry. Esta brushed a tight black curl away from the child’s brow and gazed upon her sweet chestnut eyes. There was nothing unusual about her. She was a baby like any other. At last, with a sigh, Esta smiled.
“As I said,” Byrdon repeated. “She is perfect.”
Esta wholeheartedly agreed.
****
After restoring the home to its usual state, Byrdon built a small fire and Stoman made a light stew. The four parents stayed awake late into the night in awe of their children, their friends, and their abode. Now, the family sat as if in tableau; Leanna in the arms of Esta, Esta embraced by Byrdon, Stoman with his arms around Alizren, and Alizren with their daughter in her arms. They named her Kennedy. With deep feeling, Stoman bowed his head and kissed Kennedy’s violet brow. No one spoke. They only watched peacefully as the fire burnt down, the embers glowing and shedding a warmth throughout the cavern, a warmth which would carry on in love for years to come.
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