They had told her ahead of time and so, she was not at all surprised by the passing of water or the passing pains that crept throughout her body. In fact, she had been waiting some day or more before they had begun their entrance into the world. Lucy had been settled though not entirely understood but Beltane had done what she could to make the child comfortable before she busied herself with the next process. That meant keeping Lucy neatly tucked away in front of her, often held gently between her paws, as she focused on the childrens' journeys.

The first had come when the sun had begun to set; even within her makeshift den, Beltane had been able to enjoy the golden light as it poured across Iromar. It touched her only slightly, just enough to bathe the child in dim, warm light as she entered the world. She came quickly and Beltane was just as quick to peel her free from her confines. At first, the child was silent and still; her chest did not rise freely, and Beltane merely watched for some moments before she finally understood - this child, she knew, had surely been Wraith's own. Her stillness indicated such. It took her a minute or so to bring her breathing back, the child having coughed up fluid before releasing a piercing cry into the dim light. Beltane was pleased. Somebody lived inside the child's body and though the process had already worn her ragged, she moved the child to her abdomen, cooed an introduction to Lucy and then waited for the next to begin its journey.

The second did not wait long; she came less like a living being and more like a whisper. Beltane felt her arrive but barely felt her enter the world; instead, she seemed to fall to the earth with even more limpness than the first. Small, dreary, yet breathing all the same. She did not cry out even when she had been met by an eager Beltane doting over her. Alive and so, she was moved alongside her sister Sidhe, again presented to Lucy via word and Beltane again fell into stillness to bide her time. She slowed her breathing, refused to rise and swirl as others often did, too unwilling to bother those she had been waiting for. Yet, she knew another was still to come. Her body had grown weary and tired, but her nerves simply did not rest. With a flick of an ear and a chill up her spine, she could have sworn she felt somebody familiar slip in through the shadows and into the den. Yet, she knew it to be just her, the children and what remained of Wraith in the far recesses of their home.

It was the third child that took its time; longer than the other two. By the time of her arrival, the shadows had begun to lift from the moors and Beltane had managed to close her eyes but for an hour or so despite her creaking, aching body. Then, with another chill that ran down and up her spine like a cold breeze, her eyes shot open as she was greeted by the familiar pain. Yet, this child was unusual for when she arrived, she was very much alive. She kicked out and Beltane was forced to bite down on her own teeth before she was able to deliver her into the world. Her very arrival signaled Beltane's body to rest, her muscles going limp the moment the child was placed alongside her siblings. Beltane felt herself collapse, as if her body was water and air, her skin too hot but her bones cold. It was, after all, difficult work to become a place for souls to enter the world. And with that duty done, her body had gone into stasis so that she, too, might return wholly to their shared world.

And so she rested, though never truly and honestly. Despite her sleep and despite the weariness of her body, her ears and mind still hungered with curiosity and awe. Her children fed and rested, Lucy having been able to join her siblings finally, and Beltane dreamed of him - of Onias - venturing beneath a dark sky to find the moors in bloom.