The howls of rabid beasts followed her as she limped slowly through the forest.
"Please, let me make it in time…" she pleaded silently to the gods.
A cry escaped her lips and she leaned forward clutching her swollen stomach. The baby was coming! She was about to give birth in these cold unforgiving woods with the hounds of darkness tracking her every move.
"Ach!" she bit chapped lips that were almost cracked from dehydration. It had been so long since she was able to draw a decent breath, much less take a break to drink water or rest. Another contraction made her pause, clinging to a nearby tree for support.
She felt weak. She cursed herself inwardly. No – she was weak – or at least she had been. If it wasn't for her weakness, she would have been able to escape these monsters. She wouldn't be fearing for the life of the poor babe about to come into the world.
Her dark ebony hair hung down in lank ribbons and clung to her face every time she leaned forward, huffing as contraction after contraction took her breath. Her skin that used to glow like fine ivory was now blotched with the gray of fatigue. Still, the dignity in her carriage was apparent. Though in pain, far from home, and suffering more than she ever could have imagined, Miriam still seemed every bit the queen she was.
A howl split the air and jolted her back into the present. She had been sinking into the fog of pain that was throbbing out from her abdomen, about to lie down and deliver her young then and there.
There was no time to rest! She had to get to safety! For the babe…
***
They didn't catch up to her that night, and in a thicket of briars, Miriam, Queen of the Imperial Isle gave birth to not one, but TWO little girls while on the run from the armies of the Houndmaster Gerald. It was pitch black and freezing cold. The night was still, the only sounds in her ears being the awful baying of hellhounds and screams she stifled by biting down on her own arm. Between contractions she prayed they wouldn't find her and that the next push would be her last. After what seemed like ages her young daughters struggled out into the world.
Maybe it was that they were born with a strong survival instinct, or maybe it was just that cold, but the babes didn't cry out loud! They whimpered and sobbed as she held them to her bosom, thankful that the pain of birth was at an end and amazed at the new life that clung to her bosom.
"Oh! My children!" Miriam panted through her tears, pressing soft kisses to their heads. "May you live! May you live…"
Then right before her eyes, a miracle took place! Her lips parted in surprise as the babe whose head she had just kissed began to glow with a soft warm light. The babe's head was briefly haloed in light, and then her soft damp curls changed from black to fiery red, glowing like hot coals even after the light faded away. Miriam chuckled softly too tired to do much more. Was that magic? She pressed a kiss to the forehead of her redheaded babe, then to the forehead of the other and fell into an exhausted slumber. Her last words to them echoed deeply in her heart as she clutched them to her chest.
"My darlings, may you live…"