Breathe.
Solace drags the clean, icy air across her lips and a contraction ripples across her abdomen. The frost was thick around her, reflecting the moonlight in minuscule fragments. Likewise, the water of the bay is alive with silver light; everything around them seems to be painted in the cool colors of winter.
The child was early, just by a bit, but Solace hadn't had time to worry. Tangerine had told the mothers to be that another princeling would be among them before spring, and with that information, Solace had let thoughts of her pregnancy fall away from her mind - making way for more pressing matters. Between the plague, kingdom shuffling, and missing children there had been plenty of fires to be chased. But nature will not be denied, and now that the process of birth has been set in motion there is no denying it.
But the late winter air feels good on her skin as she walks along the shore, lifting her wings to let the breeze caress her sides.
Another early contraction causes the pale mare's eyes to flutter and her pace to slack, but when it has passed she knows it is time to find Kagerus. With their three youngest believing themselves grown, their nest had been relatively empty, and she finds her mate alone as she had expected. "Kag?" Solace calls into a stand of naked birch where they had spent the night before. "Come take a walk with me, and keep my mind off..." she draws another sharp breath as her belly jumps, and she gestures with a toss of her head back towards her barrel, "this."
we are the ever-living ghost of what once was
Kagerus
![[Image: SOLACEpagedoll3.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/GH0k24P1/SOLACEpagedoll3.png)