It was a tough pill to swallow, relinquishing her hard-earned control. In the immediate aftermath of her two recent battles, Vita Nova felt a high she'd never experienced before. Queen V felt completely in control of her own destiny. She realized, in these moments, that she didn't need a stallion to feel fulfilled. After being raised to be a prize - a trophy for the opposite gender - to determine her worth, she'd questioned everything Evaline had ever taught her. But alas, those thoughts had been fleeting.
The crushing weight of her snowballing health crippled her. Vita Nova was strong. But not strong enough to do it all.
So despite everything... Warsaw's blatant disrespect and infidelity - his failure to keep his herd safe and her uncemented position as his monarch queen, she handed the reins of leadership back to him.
There was too much at stake. For one, all the members of the Inlet herd whose safety she'd inherited. She couldn't with a sound mind say she was in a position to keep them from harm. She was barely equipped these days to rise to all fours each morning, let alone tend to her growing colts. The filly growing inside of her was angry - she was wrecking havoc on the mare's body, and threatened to be the downfall of Vita Nova's actual existence. With every new pang of pain that vibrated through her body, Vita Nova prepared herself for what she believed could be the very end. Would this spawn of Warsaw really be the thing that ended her life?
She was so big - her abdomen swelled to a size that nearly dwarfed her last pregnancy - one where she carried not one, but two foals. The swelling of where Xiomara had kicked her during battle had subsided, but the pain only worsened. Her muscles twitched and tensed in places Vita Nova didn't think was possible. There were days near the end of her term where she felt delirious. She hallucinated. Evaline appeared to her in the trees of Tinuvel spouting nonsense. She saw Shamwari. She saw Nephilim. She began to take this as a sign that her death was near.
She wanted to prepare her boys for her demise, but there were periods in the day that she couldn't even hold her eyes open. She wondered if she'd ever see Tavas again, and Nyah. She stopped eating and drinking. She slunk deep into the woods and shivered and sweat on repeat. She hoped she'd found a secluded enough spot that no one from the herd would ever find her carcass, when the time came.
The familiar pains of labor came right on time, and with the expected vengeance. Vita Nova gave into it, and pushed weakly when her body told her to do so. She cried out in weary, hearty moans for hours, maybe even days. Finally, she felt the body of Warsaw's child emerge between her legs, but the pain which roiled her wasn't over.
Vita Nova was too weak to even lift her head, let alone stumble to stand and free the grey filly from the sack and fluids that encapsulated her. Could the world be so cruel to kill not only this innocent babe's mother, but the child too? Her heart stammered in her chest at the thought of the filly suffocating. So she screamed. And screamed. As she rolled herself over, attempting to claw her way to the wet babe on the cold earth's floor. She opened her jaws and she licked, enough to create an opening. And then the darkness came for her. Slowly at first. It crept in from all sides, and she finally gave in, closing her eyes.
Mare | Evaline x Valentine | Smoky Back Splash | 15 hh | © Vinyl |
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