It was time. Yet, somehow she felt it ought to be too early. Winter was still raging around her, the fury of a storm so intense that she was forced to land much sooner than she had planned. Of course it had been stupid of her to attempt to fly anywhere in her pregnant condition but the usual glen had felt so crowded lately, cramped and dull and boring. Restlessness brought her off, away on one last journey, one last adventure before she would be grounded indefinitely.

Maybe even permanently? No, the shadow mare couldn't believe that any child of hers would be born without wings. She might lack a lot of things in life - dreams, foresight, patience - but she had always had the blessings of the wind. It had carried her through life for eight years now, and with luck it would continue to guide her path for many years to come.

The Blackbird landed gingerly in the deep snow at the nearest space big enough to hold her - a vast open plateau where the snow danced in the whistling wind, forming little fluttering tornadoes that rose and fell around her. It was still daytime but the sun was nowhere in sight, obscured by the heavy clouds and the drifting ice. She stumbled in the deep snow as the wind caught hold of her outstretched wings, and just then a sharp convulsion forced an involuntary groan from her throat, a sound that was torn off and swept away before it had hardly left her tongue. Desperately the mare looked around, searching for a place - any place - that might offer some shelter. But all she could see was white, snow and ice and the winters chill, until... something tall, paler than even the snow, caught her eye. It was a tree, a gleaming white trunk of some unknown specimen that had taken root in the middle of the field, white as ivory and barren as befitting the season. It wasn't much, but she could not afford to be picky. Urged on by another contraction Shadow made her way over towards it as fast as she could and huddled down on the leeward side, listening to the howling wind and her own pounding heart.

She had wanted him to be there when it was time. How she had hoped that she would have her lover by her side as she gave birth to her second child. Last time Midas had been there, had watched over her and protected her when things went wrong, sheltered her son from the obnoxious father whom she had been unable to forgive for imposing such a change on her, unbidden. Now, as she rode out the waves of pain, Shadow regretted her harsh words, the cold attitude she had showed Carnesîr. He should have been allowed to stay, should have been invited to attend like she had now invited Vadim. But oh, how was he supposed to know that it was time, or even where she were? This was far from the protection of the Deep Forest, off her usual beat and not at all a suitable place to deliver a child.

But the foal was coming, and there was nothing more Shadow could do. Her body was unwilling, remembering the pain and injury of last time, and with the tension the progress was slow. Minutes passed, then hours; the storm ebbed away and darkness fell, and as she collapsed into the snow for the last push the mare found herself staring helplessly up into a midnight sky, starry where the wind tore gashes in the swiftly flying clouds. A full moon was slowly rising. She stared at it, almost forgetting her pain and loneliness as she drowned in the beauty of its pearly glow.

How long had it been since she last saw at the moon, properly looked at it? Shadow couldn't remember. She had forgotten how serene it was, how magical.

"Watch over me now" she begged it, her voice but a whisper, tired and hoarse. "And if not me, watch over the child. Safeguard its life, if I don't make it. Please... anything so that it might live."

It was time.

The contraction that followed cut through her in a stab of horrendous pain, she felt how, just like last time, something ruptured within and a hot and sticky something gushed out between her legs, too thick to be birth fluid. Screwing up the face against the pain she tried to endure, struggled to contain herself, big her jaws together so hard the teeth might crack.

But it was too painful, and as she got swept up into the final throws of labor a lonely, desperate cry rang out, riddled with pain and longing.

"Oh... oh nooooo.. VADIIIIIIM!"

In the midst of her struggle the sound of feet shuffling through snow drew Shadow's attention. Scared and bleeding she turned her head weakly, sweat frozen into glittering frost upon the dark hide, and for a fleeting second her heart swells with hope, with a feeling so warm and bright and powerful that tears pool in her eyes.

Then he spoke, and her eyes saw not the tall silver stallion she had wished for but a chubby stranger, runty and weak and disappointingly not Vadim. The mare closed her eyes against the void of disappointment that opened in her heart, shocked by the sheer strength of her own emotions. When had Vadim become so important to her? Since when had her feelings for him deepened to the point where she'd rather be alone than in the presence of anyone else at this important moment?

The stranger spoke and she had to strain her ears to hear him over her own hoarse breaths and pounding heart. Badger, plants, bleeding... oh. He was a healer? She cracked open a pained eye and glanced at the faded, dry leaves he placed by her, suspicious and wary but in too much pain to argue. She reached out and lipped them closer, knowing she had to do what she could if she were to deliver this foal and live to lick its coat dry.

The herbs were brittle and crumbled between her teeth, sharp in taste and parching her throat as she struggled to swallow. Whether they would help or not she didn't know, but it was worth a shot, right?

But... go. Where? She was in no state to go anywhere at this point, the foal was coming to the world any moment now. The blackbird thought desperately about herds, safe havens, and in the snowy landscape beneath the glittering stars she said the name of the first place she could think of.

"Basin... it's close. I know someone there..."But before she could explain about her adventures with the Haruspex earlier that same winter the sound of a voice pulled her attention away.

Out of the darkness he came running, and for a second time her heart swelled with relief, hope and... that feeling she didn't dare call by its proper name. Like a vision he appeared on the snow-clad field, tall and strong and handsome, and Shadow reached out for him with a grateful smile, pained but radiant.

"You came!" She leaned into his touch, savoring the warmth of it and imagined that her pain stepped back, diminished slightly because of it. Whether it was true or not she would never know, because no sooner had she begun to say something than another surge of pain washed over her as the contractions continued.

She was allowed no rest; with a groan of agony her head fell back into the snow and the world disappeared in a hazed blur as her body followed ancient instincts, inherited from her mother, and her grandmother before that, in a line unbroken since before time.

There was no time to leave for a better suited location, because there, on a mountain plateau covered in snow, a small foal was born beneath the midnight sky.

Shadow ignored her own pain and the incessant bleeding that, while gradually slowing, continued to stain the snow, and struggled around to examine her second born child. She brushed a dark nose over the neck, chest and legs, examined a pair of weakly flapping appendages - wings that one day would grow feathers and soar through the sky - and touched a long tail, complete with fuzzy wads of hair. A little filly, so small and pale that she almost vanished against the wintry landscape, and so cold to the touch that the mare gasped in horror and snapped her head towards the healer.

"What is this, what's wrong with her? Is she... but she's moving!"

Helplessly she looked between Badger and Vadim, unable to speak - why was the child colder than death, yet breathed and stirred feebly in the icy air?


___________________________________________

@Badger , @Erthë , @Vadim

They had no answers, no more than she did. Perplexed and worried Shadow watched the child as it staggered onto weak legs, anxiously hovering as the little life wobbled, fell, and started to cough. It was a horrible sound that cut through the mare like icy shards, and it drove her to rise even though the strain made black spots dance before the eyes and caused the world to revolve and lurch dangerously. She was dangerously weak, she could feel it, and she would need a healer really soon unless she were to fall down and become unable to rise again. But every thought of her own predicament was pushed to the side in favor of her firstborn daughter.

The mare ignored the thick, salty smelling liquid that kept oozing slowly from beneath the tail. Instead gentle lips comforted the pale filly as the cough dragged out, lipped and licked and cleaned the damp coat until it was free from foul mucus and the lass had stopped squealing and squirming about. They had to hurry, had to get going, but even though she nodded and agreed with Vadim in a quiet hum the blackbird made no attempt to walk anywhere until the foal was able to stand properly and had found her teats.

Not until she felt a tiny, cold sigh of contentment against her inner thigh Shadow looked up from the hazy, weary snoozing of the little wooly frizz on the pale rump.

"Alright then" she murmured, inwardly terrified of the increasing numbness in her limbs and the prospect of the long, arduous journey on foot they had ahead of them. "Let us go. Badger, you don't have to follow if you do not wish. You have already saved my life... Words alone cannot express my gratitude."

Violet eyes lingered thoughtfully on the pudgy healer, quizzical but unusually kind. Regardless of his answer however it was high time to leave. Shadow collected her daughter and reached for Vadim to lean against his strong shoulder as she started towards the winding path leading down from the plateau.

As they left she noticed how the filly threw a long look over her shoulder at the pale tree they left behind, standing alone in the moonlight. The shadow mare smiled quietly, but didn't say anything.