my heart never stops beating for you; birthing

[Errant]

Though he had never shared his concerns with Lea, Errant had been worried.

Childbirth is not an easy thing even for a healthy young mare, and not so long ago Lea had been the very opposite of healthy – she had been dead. Errant might have meddled a bit more than he had in the past (clover isn’t usually so abundant and the sun so warm), but he has always operated by the mantra that what others don’t know won’t hurt them. At least when what they don’t know is done in their best interest.

So when Lea disappears to give birth, Errant paces outside the cave. It is not his place to be beside her (that would belong to a mother, sister, or older daughter, and none of those are here in the Tundra) but he waits anxiously until they emerge.

He peers into the darkness where he can see two figures. One is his Lea and the other must be their youngest child. It’s a girl, he hears, and Lea has named her Xiah. The girl says she is cold and Errant does as any good parent would, and heats the cave to a comfortable temperature. Not quite warm – because she needs to learn to live in the world outside her mother – but at least not as cold.

“She’s beautiful,” he tells Lea, and then lowers his head so that he will be at eye level for the filly, whenever she manages to make her way toward him. “Hello Xiah. I’m your dad.”