[private] I couldn't utter my love when it counted; birthing

[bethlehem]

I can get there on my own. you can leave me here alone.

It is excruciating.
The time in-between.
The first thing she ever does is grimace.

Because the pressure is unbearable and it’s so cold she can’t catch her breath. She is acutely aware of the heat of her mother’s breath and the feverish way she kisses her but she shivers, too. And when she finally opens her eyes they are a bright, vibrant green. Freakish. The teeth fanged so that when she moves her tongue in her mouth it comes away bloody.

How bitter the iron taste of her own blood as she blinks through the darkness, her vision shifting to something new – something she has no control over. The edges of things soften, morph into bright colors so that she can see her mother clearly in the dark. The girl still grimaces as she fights her way to her feet, sways and shudders.

Snaps her head around so quickly that she loses her balance when the two of them are joined by another warm body. A figure that pauses at the edge of their space. A breath escapes her like a hiss.

She cannot see him smile. She does not see the way he glances at her mother and says, “just like her mother.” But Bethlehem can see every inch of their daughter. The scales and those bright green eyes. All that venom. He looks then to Adna and that ghost of a smile remains. “She’s beautiful,” he murmurs as the child hisses and spits and staggers to her feet again.

BETHLEHEM

I'm just tryin' to do what's right. oh, a man ain't a man unless he's fought the fight.