Completed [Challenge] The Length Of A Day VI

[Tazrae]

Timestamp: 45th of Fall, 522 A.V.

The Kois Quas Dominion : Gold Lake (third season)

Tazrae had no idea how much time had passed at home in Syka. But for her, locked in the Dominion, she was fast approaching her 350th day. She’d kept track of the days almost instinctually at the big desk in her suite in a small blank notebook she’d found in a desk drawer. The captive had written, sometimes impassively, but with more feeling as time passed, about her stay in the Kois Dominion which they called Gold Lake. She wrote everything down, recording what she learned, little facts Lira or the trainer let slip and even the man’s name who had sired her children.

Lira had told her that it took humans roughly 280 days to give birth after they conceived. And she didn’t know how many days she’d been forced before his seed took root in her. Taz thought it had been for almost a season. But truthfully, the apathy of those times meant she wasn’t quite sure. She was huge now, uncomfortable, and even a morning walk with the trainer and Lira had her exhausted. She couldn’t see her feet and her breasts ached terribly. Lira assured her that the babes would come any day now, though Tazrae had a slowly growing terror of the whole thing.

She didn’t know if it was charging the Homefinder that did it or whether it was just time... but she was still shocked when her water broke. She wasn’t ready. Taz absolutely knew that as the truth. Why in the world couldn’t the babies have given her a single second of reprieve? Time to plan, pack, and see if she could do one last thing before she triggered the Homefinder. There was something on Sran’tuka’s mantle that she needed to take with her; something for Alric.

Tazrae wanted to go home. She never wanted anything more than she wanted right now. But Taz was losing hope and even the trainer whom she had slowly come to realize as her ally, was no closer to a plan to get her home. She could acutely remember Ialari marking her forehead and taking her to The Outpost, and her first glimpse of a Dominion there. The lines of power were everywhere, tracing out everything, bending to the will of the Domineer who crafted the place. In the case of The Outpost it had been Xyna. But in this case, it was Sran’tuka. He was a vile creature that still visited her periodically. Lira had hoped the children would come soon… today even. And she’d felt sure Sran’tuka would be around to check on her. As Taz sat in the puddle of her own uterine fluid and clutched her stomach, she noted the sun was just now rising. The same sun rose at the same exact place and the same bird flew across the same exact sky. It was always the same here. Nothing ever changed but her body.

Now it rebelled.

She had woke with a bad backache, and had been pinning her hair up to take a bath to relieve some of that discomfort. If she hadn’t dropped the hairpin, she wouldn’t have found the Homefinder. Events were lining up. She wasn’t surprised by it – by dropping the hairpin, by finding the Homefinder, and then charging it. What bothered her was that she had no time. Events were cascading, and she had no time to react to them. It bothered her that she couldn’t get comfortable and only felt a restlessness inside that was hard to hide. She had several times been inundated with the urge to take her Ixam form and climb the walls or run the desert. But she would do nothing that might harm the children she carried inside her. Tazrae had to believe there would be time enough for that after their birth, and after she was free and home. But now… now the time had run out.

The door opening didn’t surprise her, not really.

She knew he would come soon. She knew they would come soon. Immediately possibly. She didn’t know how Sran’tuka would know… but he’d know. The fidgety movement helped her a bit and had her almost calm until the door to the suite was opened from the outside and the lithe old man paced in. He wore a kind face with bright blue Kois eyes, but the soul behind them glittered with eager anticipation and wry cruelty. He came unescorted, so bold was he that he could manage the Wildling all on his own. And he walked up to where Tazrae sat frozen, half in shock half in denial, and smiled at her.

[Tazrae]

“You are so beautiful all bloated like a sow ready to spew piglets the length and breadth of a pig stye.” He said with a charming smile that was rife with insincerity. His words did not match his tone. Every time Tazrae was face to face with him, she swore she could see the skin of his body where it was bare to the air undulate as if the thing under the flesh casing didn’t quite fit there. “I have it on very good authority you will have them today.” He spoke. “I’m hoping for two boys. You are kind enough to present me with two children, instead of one, so I’m going to press my luck and say you are going to have boys.” The smile he gave her was chilling. “One for right now, and one for a spare.” He added, reaching up and rubbing his hands together in a gesture that came straight out of a mad tale.

A knock sounded at the door and Sran’tuka turned and barked over his shoulder “Come in.” The physician that Tazrae had been treated under for the whole of her pregnancy came in. The fact that he was here made Tazrae tense. She didn’t like the man and he set off her danger intuition. Fortunately, the trainer was usually present for his exams and he never left Tazrae alone with the man. Even then, his exams had been rough, abusive, and his hands had lingered places they didn’t belong. Now would be no different.

“You needn’t have dressed on my account.” The monster said, smiling slightly. “All we are going to do is relieve you of your clothes anyhow.” And he gestured and suddenly Tazrae found herself bare before him. She instinctively wrapped an arm around her swollen stomach, even as it rippled again. In the Dominion, his control was absolute. “Go lay on the bed. He needs to check you.” Tazrae turned everything emotionally off at that point and did as he ordered. She’d grown used to it, disengaging her emotions for the sake of her sanity. She endured the physician’s probing fingers, judging eyes, and the things he inserted to get a better look at things her body hid for a good reason. She endured it all, even his hands caressing her breasts as he ordered her to sit up. Her chest was extremely sore but she didn’t wince as was her reflex. The man milked her like a cow, running his hand across her breast and tugging at the nipple to give the monster who was watching it all a satisfying grin as her milk dripped down her swollen belly.

“She has no muscles left around her womanhood. Her milk has come in. She’s ready. Her waters broke. It won’t be long now.” He said as Tazrae froze. The doctor turned, went where he had set up his things, and pulled out a roll of leather that he unrolled to reveal a whole host of tools, most of which were sharp. “She just needs a little encouragement. We’ll give her a little something that should force them to put in an appearance.” He said, brandishing a vial out of the roll and turning back to where Tazrae was now sitting on the edge of the bed. She’d taken a cloth from her bedside and wiped the liquid off her breasts and stomach. Then she quietly set the cloth aside and studied the man approaching her with the wicked-looking vial. She knew what he was going to do with it, and there was no way she was going to let that happen.

The trainer stepped forward. “Let me assist you. She’s been in a mood all day.” He said, as if Tazrae were the most difficult woman on the planet. She hadn’t even seen him past her morning walk where she’d shuffled awkwardly and hadn’t wanted to walk because of her aching back. He laid a knee on the bed, grabbed her head, and tucked it under his arm, using that hand to hold her jaw open. Then he reached for the vial the doctor extended towards him and took it with a nod and a cruel smile. He pantomimed dumping the liquid into her mouth, but Tazrae didn’t taste a drop of it. The trainer somehow poured it into the thickness of her confined curls. She immediately began to cough, choke, and sputter like she was indeed forced to drink liquid.

The doctor, who was busy readying his tools, nodded in satisfaction.

[Tazrae]

“Lay her down again. I need her knees up and spread apart.” He ordered, coming up to her, a pleasant but false smile on his face. “This won’t hurt a bit and will speed things up to get you that much closer to being rid of those parasites you are housing within you.” He said, gesturing with his hands as the trainer arranged her on the bed. The man began pressing at her stomach, palpating it, before he stepped back, shook his head, and said. “They are in a good position. Now we wait.” He said, studying the woman as if she were a problem he needed to solve. This gave Tazrae a chance to get a closer at the tools the doctor had arrayed and she thought she saw what was old dried blood on some of the instruments. Were the doctors’ tools not even clean? There was no way he was coming anywhere near her with that thing. No way at all.

She started to struggle upwards as a contraction hit her hard.

Sran’tuka, as if sensing her rebellion, stepped forward and gestured. The bedclothes twisted up, grabbed Tazrae, and pulled her hard down into them, at the same time sections of the fabric of the comforter separated and formed almost human-like limbs that reached out and adjusted her position to the doctor's liking. Taz struggled against the bindings, trying to free them without losing control of her hard dispassionate façade. Frankly, she was terrified as yet another tendril of cloth broke off from its weaving in the bed sheets and wrapped up and around her pelvis, holding her to the bed firmer than the strongest man could. No longer able to buck, her birth canal exposed, the doctor advanced. He had a knife in his hand and made sure Tazrae could see it clearly. “I’m going to cut you open a bit more so the babes don’t tear you. I’ll stitch you afterwards. It’s better to be cut than to let them tear you.” He was just lining up the knife to carry out the operation when the door banged open.

Men and women - Benshira one and all – piled into the room, all of them focused on Sran’tuka and the doctor standing over her on the bed. Taz was busy riding the wave of a

Sran’tuka blinked, having been watching silently from the side then turned.

“Sir, we’re sorry to interrupt, but there’s a rift. We suspect another Dominion has slammed into this one. We need you. Things are coming through…” The person that seemed to be the spokesperson for the Benshira said to the monster inhabiting her grandfather’s skin. He growled, almost inhuman, and his skin rippled for certain. There was no doubt about it in Tazrae’s mind even as the current wave of tightness and pressure passed. Sran’tuka, belying his age, moved fast, heading towards the door. He was gone in an instant, and so too were the other Benshira. They were strangers. Tazrae didn’t know anyone else had been in here with them.

About then the entirety of Gold Lake shook. It shook hard, almost tossing Tazrae from the bed. The bedsheets that were imprisoning her loosened and she was able to struggle into a sitting position. That lasted for all of a minute before another contraction hit and she gritted her teeth trying to ride it out. Her trainer grabbed her, supporting her back, and easing her back onto the bed.

Meanwhile, the physician whirled with the knife still in his hand, using it to slash anyone that offered to get in his way, and fled. Suddenly, Tazrae was alone with the man she only knew as a ‘trainer’. Sweat poured off her body and her dressing gown clung to her form. She was uncomfortable in about ten different ways, none of which she could vocalize, especially when the contractions hit. She couldn’t stay on her rump either, supported by the man behind her. She pushed away from him, turned, and kneeled down on all fours, bearing down as her first child put in an appearance between her screams of determination. Tazrae had always heard stories of women birthing… how they labored deep into the night, sometimes sleeping in the middle of the progress. Hers, however, was fast and furious. While the first was born from her being on her hands and knees, the second was born while she was trying to stand up, in a squatting position because the contraction was so fierce it had her falling to her knees. The trainer, thankfully, caught that burden as well.

[Tazrae]

She looked up, teeth still bared from the contractions that were passing afterbirth, when Lira came rushing into the room. She clutched something in her hands – an hourglass – which had the trainer hissing…. “Did you get it?” Lira nodded frantically and tried to shove the thing at him. He had his hands full with a babe he was busy drying off and swaddling in cloth.

He’d gone to retrieve one of the doctor’s scalpels and seemed to notice the same filth Tazrae had. So instead of using one, he drew his own belt dagger and cut the cord first on one child then on the other, neatly tying off their abdominal cords with a strip of material he cut from his own shirt. “Tazrae, it’s a boy and a girl. They look good, both of them.” Lira, not wanting to interrupt, nor hold the thing in her hands anymore, set the Hourglass down on the nightstand beside the bed and stared.

Taz could barely speak; her voice was hoarse and she was still gathering herself. Panting, she told the man… “The girl is Khari. The boy is Kaysen.” She coughed then, grabbed the same towel she’d used to mop up the milk on her stomach, and began to wipe at the inside of her legs. Her thighs were blood coated and slick. She didn’t like the sensation.

“So, it's done then? What can I do?” Lira asked, sincere in her request to help. The trainer was still busy with the babes and still said nothing in his concentration. There was a sort of awe on his face as if these births were special to him as well. He held one of them, Tazrae wasn’t sure which one, up to his chest and muttered so softly and sweetly to the child that Tazrae lifted an eyebrow in surprise.

The need to be with her babies, to hold them, overwhelmed her and she stood upright as the last of the afterbirth passed and used the bedpost to lean against. She was pretty sure women weren’t supposed to roam around giving birth, but she wasn’t going to lie there and wait... wait for someone to tell her what to do. She knew what to do. She wanted her babies. The infants were small, tiny even, but no smaller than she’d ever seen in newly birthed children. She took two staggering steps towards the bed and reached for the first one that was already swaddled. Picking the baby up, she cradled it against her chest and let tears finally flow down her eyes.

Lira said something to the trainer, which he completely ignored or didn’t hear. Looking angry suddenly, Lira snarled. “Nyle. We have to get out of here. We have to get her out of here. We have the Hourglass. The children are born. We can’t wait any longer.” She hissed. Taz’s eyes went wide as she turned at stared at the trainer. Still clutching her baby to her chest, she saw that he had the other one tucked into his arms. Backing up a step, then another, Taz soon bumped against the nightstand and felt the Hourglass bump against her hand. She instinctually reached out and grabbed it to keep it from falling.

Gold Lake rocked again, with bits of plaster falling from the ceiling, showering the room with white dust from the ornately plastered ceiling.

Then something… something horrific that Tazrae had never read about or studied poured into the room. It didn’t open the closed door, but rather seemed to consume it then move through what was left after it had touched. It was like a black mist with tendrils outstretched in all directions. Where it touched the environment melted – the wood, the plush throw carpets, the paper on the walls – everything. Tazrae screamed, backed up a step, a babe and an hourglass clutched in her arms.

[Tazrae]

Nyle thoroughly assessed the creature coming through the doorway, tucking the baby up closer to his chest. Then he turned, glancing first at Lira and then at Tazrae. He met her gaze, his full of sorrow and regret, her infant… and his… still tucked up against him. “I did it for Kami. He took her ability to have children from her as a safety precaution. And I had the proper blood but was unsuitable as a host. If I hadn’t said yes, he would have given you to another and that man would not have been as gentle. I will love them both to my dying day and if this day is that, then I will love them beyond. But share them with your sister… she deserves them and you in her life. Tell her the whole story… all of it. For there’s never been anything but the truth between us.” He said, and held out the child to Lira. Lira ran forward and took the babe as Nyle turned and drew his sword against the creature, protecting the women. Lira’s eyes were streaming with tears.

They turned to exit to the balcony, but there was suddenly more darkness there. A thing identical to the one that had oozed through the doorway by dissolving the hardwood door was crawling up and over the high wall, cutting on Tazrae and Lira’s escape. It was the single most terrifying thing Tazrae had ever seen in her life. It was, in the daylight of outside, more like an acidic mist that had sentience and purpose. Whatever it touched was quickly dissolving under that same touch, including the balcony rain and floor where it stood.

Behind the women, Nyle uttered a word and the room exploded in fire outwards towards the creature there. He hissed over his shoulder, not seeing the other creature that was outside on the balcony. “GET OUT OF HERE. GO NOW!” He shouted, and the two women backed up, forced onto the balcony with the second creature. There was no room, no place to go until Lira glanced up.

“I can fly… I can take one with me. I can’t carry you or the other.” She said, confident but not confident… fierce but inhuman. And Tazrae suddenly realized the thing about Nyle and Lira. They looked alike…. close enough to be brother and sister or even twins. Without thinking, Tazrae nodded, and Lira began twisting out of her clothing, juggling the newborn, and backing away from the thing on the far side of the balcony. She was nude in an instant and she tossed Tazrae’s newborn up into the sky and then jumped after her, transforming. The woman took on the attributes of an eagle and snatched the baby out of the sky by its wrappings. One wingbeat, two wingbeats she was up and out of danger, with one of her Tazrae’s newborns with her.

Taz turned and glanced at who was throwing Reinmancy at the creature, trying one element after another in order to slow it down. He was in retreat though as well. Tazrae, trapped, shifted her jaw and realized the Homefinder was still in her mouth, tucked between her teeth and her cheek. She spit it out into the hand that was clutching the Hourglass, still holding the first infant close. She wasn’t sure how long she’d be on her feet, but it was now or never. She had to trust Lira… somehow Nyle too… to keep the other child safe.

“Home!” She shouted and closed her eyes. The world literally swallowed her whole, babe, hourglass, and all.

The next thing she felt was warm sand beneath her feet and the ocean breeze of a clear Syka afternoon on her face. She took two steps forward, staggered, and fell to her knees… protective of the baby and the Hourglass. Dear Gods… she started to fall over and instead took a knee and gently eased herself to her side, laying flat out the baby protectively and safely tucked still in her arms. She could feel its minor movements, a light struggle and a sharp mew of unhappiness as the mother’s arms went limp and she let the blackness claim her.

Words: 3640