"Mother - 1. Birth" by Aida Vicens

Birth

            Kneeling, Donna put her hands upon her sister’s feverish forehead. She took a deep breath, looking around, searching some other way, but there wasn’t any. She knew Leith was going to die, her hip was too narrow, and she could no change that.

            But the child Leith was giving birth to was predestined to live. Being still inside her mother’s womb, the baby was moving, trying to get out of the trap Leith’s body has proved to be. There was still a thing Donna could do.

            She took the ritual knife lying beside the dying woman and held it up. Her voice sounded clear, rising in the warm fragrant air.

            - Listen to me, Mother, listen the voice of the one that’s called like you, Donna. You are the Mother of all, and I’m just your child, and I’m asking your help like a baby cries out for her mother’s breast. May your hands me mine, may your courage be mine, may the movement of this knife be smooth as your skin. Free Leith, your child, from that pain, let her come and embrace her spirit in your arms. Give me strength, Donna, to take out her child from her womb, let the baby live the life Leith is going to be deprived from.

            I beg you, Mother of We All, help my hands to do what they have to.

            A sweet presence was now around them, caressing them, a new strength had come to her arms. She had to, so she would. With a fast and precise movement, Donna opened her sister’s belly. Leith’s blood and fluids started to flow from the open wound, and the child moved again. Donna took the baby in her hands and raised the child above her head.

            It was a girl, a perfect little being that started to bellow as loud as her young lungs could.

            Donna laid the child upon her mother’s chest, and the baby elf searched her bosom and started to suck. Leith smiled weakly, and a veil covered her eyes. With a faint voice, she whispered:

            - Rûth…

            No one heard her voice again but in dreams.