That night when they made it home Bjorn was excited. He was giddy that he finally got to learn new magical spells. Once they were back inside Bjorn was about to read the create soul stone spell book when he thought about it for a moment. He would only be able to create 2 maybe 3 soul stones each day with his mana regeneration and mana pool. It would be significantly better for Meira to be the one to learn that spell. As a matter of a fact it would also be better for Meira to learn the soul trap spell. Even though Bjorn was starting to get over his aversion to killing, Meira still never hesitated when something needed to die.

  So even though it pained him slightly he handed both books over to Meira. She graciously accepted them and without hesitation she read both books. Bjorn was a little sad to watch the books crumble to dust, and Meira was fortunate enough to actually learn both spells. At least it was better than nothing.

  That night before they went to bed Meira leaned over and gave him a kiss. “Don’t worry about the spells, I know you wanted to learn them, but I think I might have a way to rectify that sadness.”

  “Oh? And how do you plan on doing that?” He thought that she was trying to imply that she wanted to get frisky.

  “That’s a secret that you will find out soon enough.” Meira said with a mischievous smile on her face. Much to Bjorn’s dismay she didn’t proceed to get frisky, instead she turned over and proceeded to go to sleep. Bjorn lay there for hours awake, his mind racing, contemplating what she meant, before he too eventually drifted off to sleep.

  Over the next several months things started to change around the farm once again. Bjorn completed the stone bridge. But that project took considerably more work than he expected it to. All because he decided to roll the stone bridge project into another project he wanted to do. Two feet back on the bank of the river on each side he dug down until he hit the water table. From there he built a retaining wall. He started right at where the bridge would meet the river banks on either side.

  Once he finally had the retaining wall tall enough so that it was level with the ground around it Bjorn finished the bridge on both sides. He built it so that it had a slight arch to it, hopefully providing it with plenty of stability. He also built it so that it was around 7 feet wide so that they would be able to move anything across it. Eventually they wanted to build a wagon so they could cart more goods to and from town easier, but that was a project for later.

  The reason why he built the retaining walls two feet into the banks on either side was that Bjorn wanted to widen the river right by their house to hopefully slow down the rate at which the water flowed by their house. He also wanted to build channels into the retaining wall so they could irrigate their crops easier, but that was a project for later.

  They once again got their crops into the ground and got the gardens set back up. One thing that surprised Bjorn was the sky lily clipping that he managed to get. The plant had slowly grown roots last year. Not knowing what exactly to do with it they decided they should plant it. Over the winter the plant actually grew just fine and actually propagated a few offshoots to go with the main plant.

  Over the course of the spring the main bud of the sky lily grew and began to flower. That was when Bjorn expected it to uproot itself and fly off, but that wasn’t the case. The main plant stayed right where it was and just continued to grow larger and larger. It was the offshoots that took off exploring where it wanted to go. As soon as the offshoots started to flower they dug themselves out of the ground over the course of a few hours. It was odd watching the roots wriggle and free itself from the dirt surrounding it.

  After it finished digging itself free the plant would begin to hover. As it did so its roots began to curl around each other and formed a complex knot. After a few days the roots would take on a slight blue glow as the plant began to condense water out of the air to wet its roots. Once the blue glow appeared the plant would lazily fly off for them to never see the plant again. The entire process was both cool, and weird at the same time.

  They expanded the total area of farmable land this year by over double. Which took up even more of Bjorn’s time casting the light rain spell. All last year they tried to teach Meira that water spell, as well as Caiden. There were mixed results, Meira was starting to understand it but Caiden was a hopeless case. This spring however Meira finally had success and learned how to cast Light Rain. Each day the pair of them continued to cast light rain on the crops until their mana was depleted.

  Bjorn’s mana would be full enough that in the evening he could cast the simple rain twice more before he was completely depleted. Meira on the other hand had almost her full mana bar back by mid day. Throughout the day she would cast her new Create Soul Stone spell periodically, as she was working. She would stop and pick up a stone, cast her new spell, and then set it down as it transformed. It soon became common to just find soul stones laying around their farm, as Meira would often forget about the stones. Not that it bothered them, as Meira, Bjorn, Caiden, and Adriana were the only four who ever really spent time on the farm. And they figured that if Caiden and Adriana wanted the soul stones they could have them.

  The two neighbor kids continued to be a nuisance on their farm. Well Caiden was the nuisance, Adriana just continued to become more and more helpful on the farm. At first Adriana only ever hung around Meira. As time went on she started to spend more time around Bjorn as well. Her and Caiden became more and more of a permanent fixture on their farm.

  In the evenings when Bjorn would go for his runs, or work out, or whatever he fancied, Caiden would harass him to teach him how to fight. As every little boy dreamed about fighting and killing things. At first Bjorn was reluctant to teach him how to fight, he didn’t want to perpetuate the lifestyle he detested now.

  It was Miera who changed his mind on that topic. She pointed out how it could be important for Caiden to learn how to defend himself one day. Even though the skills that Bjorn would instill in him could be used to kill, it also was important to staying alive. As normal, Meira was the voice of reason to Bjorn’s impressive emotional reactions, she eventually convinced him to pass on what Alaric taught Bjorn all those years ago.

  So sometimes during the evenings he would begin training Caiden how to fight. The first thing that he taught Caiden was how to disarm an opponent who was coming at him with a weapon. Still sticking to the purely defensive combat style. They stayed on that subject for a long while, much to the boy’s annoyance. As Bjorn put it. “The most important skill you can learn for fighting is how to stay alive.” When Bjorn said that Caiden shut up and listened to Bjorn.

  Eventually Adriana began joining in on those lessons as well. Bjorn didn’t know for certain, but he was pretty sure that Meira played a big part in her joining. Unlike her brother she never once complained about what Bjorn was teaching her.

  She was more of a natural to what he was teaching that Caiden was. She was shorter and smaller than Caiden was, but she was more reserved and less headstrong. This led to her picking up what Bjorn was teaching her easier. Bjorn was a firm believer in hands-on learning. So he would teaching them one thing on how to disarm an opponent or disable them, then he would practice what he taught them slowly.

  In the beginning it was much like his time sparring with Alaric. They never landed a blow, and if they did it was because Bjorn let them. By the end of the spring that hadn’t changed. There were a number of reasons for that. The first one being the obvious one, he was bigger, stronger, and faster than they were.

  In the Eld people don’t begin gaining experience until they are considered Mature by the land. That normally was around 18 for humans and elves. They aged the same until that point and then Elves slowed way down with how much they aged. That was true for dwarves as well. Gnomes and sprites though, started gaining experience at 15. Goblins and their ilk were around 2 or 3 years old.

  All of this led to Bjorn's attributes being significantly higher than Caiden and Adriana's. So not only were their sparring sessions lopsided because Bjorn had considerably more fighting experience. They were lopsided because of his attributes being higher as well. Oftentimes while they sparred they would be 2 on 1. The two of them against Bjorn.

  When he didn't join them in their sparring he would watch as they wrestled and fought together to try and best each other. He would give them advice on what they did wrong and how to improve. They gained more out of those sparring matches when they competed against each other, then they would out of sparring Bjorn.

  This was because Bjorn held back and knew what he was doing. He had the advantage in every single way, he was an overwhelming force that they couldn't handle a little. When they sparred amongst each other it was more real. They each made their mistakes, and grew from it. Even though Caiden was younger than Adriana he was taller than her and stronger than her. She had speed and grace, while he had strength and size. Add in their sibling rivalry and their matches were surprisingly fun to watch.

  After Bjorn finished with the bridge he had two other projects he wanted to work on next. The first one was clearing out the stone of the cold cave and turning that into more of a long term storage. He checked several times in the previous summers to see if it continued to remain cold throughout the warm months. To his surprise even on the hottest of days it still remained almost the same temperature.

  He actually did a small test with the cave while he worked on finishing up the bridge. When they came back from Leefside with the objects in tow he took the Ice stone and placed it in the cave. Much like a refrigerator it didn't cool down right away. Instead he left it for a few days and when he came back to the cave a thin layer of frost had built up on everything inside the cave. The air temperature dropped from the 40ish degrees to well below freezing. After he removed the stone it took several weeks to return to the 40.

  Now all he had to do was work on widening the entrance as well as removing some stalactites and stalagmites to smooth out the cave itself. But currently they had little need for cold storage, so instead Bjorn worked on the other project.

  In the months that Bjorn spent working on brewing his potions he had managed to take over a few spaces in the house. He used the kitchen to cook down liquids, to brew potions, and to prepare herbs. All three of those processes weren't always the nicest smelling jobs. Every time he used the kitchen in his alchemy, Meira would complain. He also used the space that was meant for one of the spare rooms to grind herbs, prepare salves, and a hundred other small tasks. Which those didn't always smell the best either.

  So to no one's surprise the next project Bjorn began working on was his own dedicated alchemy lab. Not only so he could have his own place to work and brew, but so he didn't have to listen to Meira complain about him stinking up the house. And so he began work on the alchemy lab.

  The shape he ended up going with was the shape of a capital L. It's floor plan was wide on the longer side of the L. That was to be the main working area. All along the sides of the building he had plans to build shelves and drawers, to store all of the various tools that he would need to brew. In the center he had plans to build 3 separate stone tables that could be used for whatever he needed.

  In the area where the two different sides to the L met was where he planned on building an area that could be used to apply heat. Now that he was becoming more versed on construction he had a few ideas on how to make the heating area better than just an open campfire.

  And finally he planned on making the short side of the L where he would place and store all of the various alchemical components. He planned on making sure that the building would be very well ventilated for the most part. He planned on making the herb and component storage considerably less ventilated. He didn't have a plan on how he wanted to make that section considerably more airtight, but that was a problem for later.

  The final two things that were needed was first a location to build the lab, and second what he wanted to build it out of. Of which both answers were quite simple. As to the location he planned on building it on top of their cliff. The location made sense to him as it would be protected and easy to walk to. It would also give him easy access to any and all herbs that were in the process of drying in the house. There was just enough space on top of the hill where he could build the alchemy hut without crowding their home.

  With the location picked the next choice he had to make was what he wanted to build it out of. That choice wasn’t much of a choice in the long run. The only material they had on hand that would stand up to his alchemy was stone. Although rare, it was possible for his alchemy to do something he didn’t expect it to do. That ranged from acid splashes, all the way to mini explosions. Whatever the case, wooden walls would be worse for wear because of it.

  With every major decision taken care of Bjorn began working on building the alchemy hut. He first actually excavated the outline of the building as well. They were planning on burying the building at least 2 feet under ground as well. This was probably an unneeded precaution. The idea was that it would provide further stability to the building, and help lessen any damage from explosions.

  As they were working on the alchemy hut there was an expected surprise. One evening as Bjorn was being himself there was a low buzz that sounded through the air. Intrigued, he investigated and found a brand new bee swarm. When he found the swarm Bjorn got the idea to try and domesticate them. That evening he went home and had a conversation with Meira about building a bee box and frames. She very quickly got to work on that project.

  Two days later he went back to where he had found the swarm and found that it was already well on its way to building a hive. Taking some tricks that he learned from playing Minecraft, he built a fire underneath the hive. This served to make most of the bees leave the hive. Luckily for him the queen did not take off with the rest of the worker bees.

  He had prepared for this as well. He took one of their cups and deftly caught the queen inside the cup. He only got stung once, not by the queen. He took the queen not too far away from where he found the wild hive and he placed her inside the hive. As he walked the queen left behind a pheromone trail that the workers could easily follow. Bjorn went back and put out the fire.

  Over the course of the next few hours he paid attention to what the bees were doing and watched as the rest of the wild swarm slowly made its way over to the new bee box. Happy with the end results he left the hive to its own devices. He made his way back to the house where Meira was busy working on building a super for the bees to use. Bjorn told her how normally bees were kept on earth and she liked it. It was similar to how it was done on the Eld with just a few minor differences.

  Together they build 2 supers for the bees to store their honey in. They even built a mesh out of small scraps of wood. The mesh was large enough that the worker bees should be able to get through. At the same time it was small enough that the queen shouldn’t be able to get through.

  Back on earth that was common practice. In hives the only bee that lays eggs is the queen of the hive. This configuration Made it so that the only place for the queen to lay eggs was inside what was known as the brood box. It also had the added benefit of making it so the frames inside the supers would only be filled with honey. With everything set up he left the bees to do their work.

  It was at the turn of season the first few weeks of summer when Meira's leg finally regrew enough that she didn't need her false leg anymore. Instead she put her nub in her boot and strapped it back into place. This gave her better balance than she had on her prosthetic.

  The next month was when the time finally came and her leg was fully regrown. It happened in the middle of the day. Bjorn was busy cutting stone as he spent most of his days when he heard Meira give a whoop from up near the house. He looked up the hill to see what caused the commotion.

  What he saw was his wife doing a small jig of joy at the top of the hill. It wasn’t the smoothest or the most graceful jig he had ever seen, but it was filled with emotion. A smile was wide on her face as she waddled down the hill towards Bjorn, both boots off her feet. It was both humorous and terrifying watching Meira waddle down the hill. The cause for her waddle was obvious as her normally petite belly had fully swollen up extremely round with their child.

  Bjorn met her half way down the hill offering his hand to help her down. She just waved him off. “nuh uh. You aren't going to take this away from me.” she said with a beaming smile. “I haven't been able to walk in almost 2 years. You are not going to stop me from finally walking under my own powers.”

  She made her way down to the bottom of their hill and began skipping and jumping through the grass barefoot. “Watch out love.” Bjorn said. “I think there is a patch of thistle right over there. I don't want you to step on it by accident.”

  “I’m a free woman again!” Meira exclaimed, laughter in her voice. “You better watch out now that I'm no longer beholden to you. I might just go have a night out on the town. After all, Penter has been making none too subtle hints at what he wanted to do to my supple body.” Meira joked.

  The man whom she talked about was the village drunk. He talked a big game, but ultimately he was harmless. “Oh? You're giving Penter a thought are you? By all means if you think he is a better option I won't stop you.” teasing her right back.

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  “By the way he carries himself he has to have a large co- Ow ow ow!” Meira exclaimed, hopping backwards while trying to hold her new foot.

  Bjorn just shook his head. “I told you there was some thistle there. But no, you didn't want to listen to me.” She had unwittingly hopped to the center of the patch, not realizing that she had. Sighing Bjorn made his way into the patch and picked her up, carrying her to safe ground again. “Go on, finish what you were going to say. What was it about Penter having a large something.” Bjorn said as he carried her right over the thistle.

  “I was going to say he obviously had a large confidence complex.” Meira said, acutely aware of her precarious situation.

  “Uh huh.” Bjorn said in a tone that obviously indicated that he wasn't buying the change of topic. Regardless he carried her to safety and put her down.

  “I promise.” Her tone sounded sincere. “ Anyways we should dance tonight. You can show me more of that dance from your home. What do you call it? Country swing. I would love to do that again, it's been so long, I've been clumsy for too long. Can we please?” Her words came faster and faster as she spoke, her excitement obvious.

  “Of course love.” he said as he leaned down to kiss her. “We can dance whenever and for however long we want now. I will never take that away from you. That being said, do you want me to get you your boots and we can go for a walk?”

  She looked down at her foot where she stepped on the thistle skeptically. Then she cast weak slow heal on herself, and frowned. “I know that I didn't lose any health to that thistle, but I wish my magic could stop the stinging. That thistle isn't fun.”

  He gave her one more kiss. “You should have listened to me, but you were too busy thinking about a cocky guy.” Bjorn said winking as he turned away to go get her boots. Her protests faded in the distance as he walked up the stairs.

  For the next few months they began to add daily walks to their days. There were a few reasons why they did so. The first being that it would help Meira regain a sense of balance with her newly formed leg. She had lost some of that over the last 2 years having to hop around on a peg leg.

  The next reason was that it was good for her health and that of the baby. As she drew nearer and nearer to term she had gotten more and more of a sedentary lifestyle. She was by no means out of shape or weak, even though Bjorn doubted that it could happen with their magically enhanced attribute filled bodies. It was still good for her physical health and her mental health.

  The last reason and the real reason why they did so was because they wanted to. Those evening walks were something they loved to do. Walking side by side, holding hands, as they walked through the thousands of acres of their untamed land. All of the reasons why they walked were their pragmatic reasons for going on walks. But they didn't factor in the pragmatic reasons at all in their choices. They simply wanted to, so they did. Even if they felt guilt at times when they didn't get much work done because of it.

  Over the next two months they got a lot accomplished on the farm itself. They finished building a few fences surrounding their first few fields, finally doing a good job of keeping animals out of their fields. Up until they finished they would find deer, antelope, badgers, and other animals in their fields eating their crops. The losses weren't massive as the losses were offset by their bonuses that came from the light rain spell. This was going to be a good year for their crops.

  During that time Meira became less and less useful around the farm as her belly continued to grow. Not that they minded, she bore their child. On top of losing Meira’s productivity Bjorn’s productivity took a hit as well. This was due to him being a good husband and helping care for Meira during the pregnancy, helping with the chores she did around the house, and helping keep her comfortable.

  In spite of the loss in productivity they still got plenty of work done on the house itself. They finalized building the walls separating the 3 different rooms. In preparation of a child being around the house they worked on making the house a little more childproof. Currently there still wasn't any stairs leading down into the basement, it was just a 8 foot drop to the stone floor, this wasn't a problem for them as they were adults and were well aware of it. That would cause problems for a child.

  To rectify this problem instead of building stairs they built a guard rail around the entire opening. It was 4 feet high and surrounded the opening fully. Where they planned for the stairs to meet up with the main floor they built a gate, that way they still could access the basement just fine. They did the same with the stairs leading to the second story. It still remained unfurnished, but the sides of the stairs were still open to the rest of the room. The same type of guard rail was built onto the side of the stairs as well as another gate made into the bottom of the stairs.

  Bjorn also made a large amount of progress on the alchemy hut. He had built walls on the long side of the capital L shape, for the most part. The walls ran 8 and a half feet tall, all of the exact same fused stone. The walls were adorned with a total of 7 different windows. Where the two parts of the L met he had built a full stone wall with a single doorway there. For the time being he left the smaller section unfinished. That could be finished during the winter. For now though he focused on building the walls of the hut.

  As he finished the walls he started work on the ceiling. Over the course of the summer he had the clay kiln working making the clay roofing tiles. He knew that he would need them so he had made tons and stockpiled them in the basement for the time being, he didn't want to chance him accidently breaking them as he worked on the walls. Mistakes were rare by this point, but accidents still happened.

  He was putting the finishing touches on the section of roof he was working on when Meira came waddling into the alchemy hut. Her head hung low as she walked, as if she was afraid of something. She picked her head up and examined Bjorn’s handy work. “That looks good love.”

  Bjorn had his back turned away from Meira when she walked in so he didn’t see the hung head. “Thanks love, I think I’ll be able to finish the roof before winter hits and then I can do my alchemy out here, then you won’t have to smell my herbs.” He said that last part with a smile on his face.

  When Meira’s response wasn’t immediate he turned towards her, furrowing his brow. That was when he saw her hunched shoulders and apprehensive look on her face. “What’s wrong love?” He asked as he dropped down to the ground level.

  “We should sit down. There is something I want to tell you.”

  “Okay, do you want to go inside for this?” He asked. She nodded. So they made their way inside and over to the table and chairs that Meira made, each taking a seat on opposite sides of the table. “Alright, what’s wrong love?” As he asked his question his hand made its way across the table, palm faced upwards.

  Meira took a deep breath held it for a few seconds and let out her shaky breath. Her hand dropped down on the table landing in Bjorn’s hand. Her lower lip began to tremble. Bjorn’s hand squeezed hers reassuringly.

  With a sigh she spoke. “I am worried about delivery.” She said in a hurried way, as if she had to get it out before her courage failed her.

  “Okay? Why? What about the delivery makes you worried?”

  “It is because I am an elf and you are a human.” She said it so matter of factly he didn’t comprehend what she was saying.

  “Meira you have to remember, I am not from here. How is that a problem?”

  Meira sighed. “It’s because of your size. Well not you in particular, but humans in general. You see elves are smaller creatures all around. We tend to be on average shorter than humans, thinner than humans, and smaller in body proportions. This fact is true of our children as well.”

  Bjorn immediately connected the dots of what she was getting at. She was worried that their baby being a half-elf might be too large for her to birth. Significantly increasing the chances that something went wrong during birth killing one of both of them.

  “Your worried about there being complications during childbirth.”

  Meira nodded weakly. “It is common knowledge that half-elf children have an increased chance of killing either the infant or the mother, usually both. This fact is doubly true when the mother is the elf. I am worried that something will happen and I won't make it through this.”

  Bjorn got up from where he sat across from her and sat down next to her. He wrapped his arms around her. “Meira, so far I have lost everything in this world that matters to me. I will not lose you as well. I will do everything in my power to keep us both alive. I vowed it to you on our wedding day. We will get through this together.”

  “But what if somet-”

  “But what if everything goes fine and nothing goes wrong?” He leaned down kissing her, trying to take away the sting of him cutting her off mid sentence. “Love, we can talk about what if’s all day long. But they will just be that, what if’s. There is no way for us to know the future, we have to take it in stride the best we can. The best we can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

  Meira nodded, the tears that were in her eyes drying up slightly. “You promise that you will stay by my side throughout the entire process?”

  “I swear to you, I will never leave your side the entire time you are in labor. I will stay by your side, holding your hand and giving you everything that I possibly can.”

  “Thank you.” She said, a smile creeping onto her face. “Can you cuddle with me?”

  “Of course.” Nothing more got done that day, he and Meira lay in bed cuddling with each other enjoying their presence the rest of the day and well into the night.

  The next morning he got up as early as he could and made his way into Leefside. There he began searching for a midwife. He didn’t know if the Eld had midwives, but he figured that they probably did. The next question was if Leefside had one. Sure enough he managed to find a midwife. He sat down with her and had a conversation with her outlining their concerns. She promised that whenever Meira went into labor if someone came to get her, she would make her way to their farm post haste to assist in any way she could.

  Before he left her house she gave him a bundle of leaves that she wanted Meira to turn into a tea and drink every morning until she went into labor. When Bjorn inquired about it he found that the tea was a mix of red raspberry leaf, black cohosh, and ginger root.

  With everything set he made his way back to the farm, and set to preparing Meira the tea that he was instructed to v give her. He sweetened it with honey from their beehive and handed it over explaining what it was. Happily she drank the tea and went about her day.

  It was in the final month of summer when the time finally came. Bjorn was down chiseling stone when he heard Adriana’s voice call down to him. She and Meira were up at the house making a loaf of bread. “Bjorn, come quickly, Meira is going into labor.” Bjorn dropped all of his tools and sprinted up to the house. His enhanced agility and dexterity made him get up there at almost inhuman speeds.

  When he burst into the house he saw Meira standing next to the table legs wide in a half squatting position, liquid running down her legs. In a flash he was by her side providing support to her. He started helping her to their bed. As he did so he started asking questions. “How long ago did this start? Do you want to go to bed? How can I help?”

  As he rapid fired off questions Adriana was standing in the doorway watching the pair move. Bjorn looked at her. “What are you doing? Go find your brother, he is probably down by the river and send him to town to get the midwife. After you send him, come back here and be ready to help with whatever.”

  Although his tones weren't harsh, they had an air of command to them. It was the same tone he used in Blackrock Bay getting those trained soldiers to listen and follow Bjorns orders. It had the same effect on Adriana as it had then. In a moment she was gone, her boots sounding against the planks as she ran to find her brother.

  By the time the sound of her footsteps faded he had gotten Meira to their bed and situated. At first her face was full of worry, soon the worry was replaced by pain. Meira’s hand found its way over to Bjorn's and they latched hands. “Don't you leave me during this.” Meira said.

  “I won't, I promise.” Bjorn said. “Tell me, what do you feel? How can I help?”

  “It feels like a period cramp, only worse, and lasts longer.” She held her breath and scrunched up face holding it for several seconds before she relaxed again. “If you could do something about this pain that would be great.”

  Bjorn reached into his bag of holding that was attached to his hip and withdrew a vial. He wasn't sure what she would need so he prepared 9 different kinds of painkillers. 2 stamina potions, and lastly 3 of the strongest healing potions he had ever made. “on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad is your pain?”

  She scrunched up her face again and said through gritted teeth. “5, maybe 6.”

  Bjorn nodded and put the first vial back and withdrew a second vial. One of the most important lessons he ever got from Medera was how different painkillers could interact with each other. For example, the vial in his hand now would work well with a stronger painkiller that he had prepared, giving her incremental pain relief depending on what she needed. There was another one that he prepared that when mixed actually makes the patient drowsy, falling asleep.

  He handed over the vial which she drank. It only took a few moments before the potion took effect. The effect was immediate, the look of pain on her face lessened significantly and she relaxed just a bit. They sat there talking amongst themselves for a few minutes before Adriana made her way back inside and came barreling into the room. “Caiden is on his way to town right now. I told him to fetch the midwife and not to dally.”

  They thanked her and then the three of them set in to wait. It was around an hour into the ordeal when the sound of foot falls could be heard once again. Soon Caiden and the midwife camp bustling through the door. The siblings' dad, Aiden, hot on their heels.

  As soon as the midwife came through the door she set down the bundle she was carrying and began unwrapping it. She shot into the same type of questions that Bjorn had asked her. Meira answered her the same as she had Bjorn.

  The midwife just nodded along barely looking at Meira as she got ready. When she did look back at Meira she frowned when she saw her almost relaxed look. She turned that frown towards Bjorn where he sat. “You gave her something didn't you? What was it?”

  “Laudnam and gnarlroot.”

  The woman's look darkened. “You gave her laudanum? You fool, I need her lucid throughout this process. You have doomed both your wife and your baby.”

  Bjorn bit down his anger at her comment. “No, I have her Laudnam, it is a herb that helps dull pains, not Laudanum, an opioid. I am a professed alchemist, I think I know my craft and it would do you well to not question that. Now if you please, I believe you are here to help my wife deliver my baby, could you get back to that?”

  The midwife’s lips thinned but she turned back to Meira and started talking to her, walking her through what was going to happen. This continued for a long while. As Meira lay there the pain began to creep back onto her face. Bjorn wanted to give her something to help with the pain, but it was still too soon, he had to wait for at least another two hours before he could give her another dose of a stronger painkiller.

  He thought he was done butting heads with the midwife, he was wrong. When her dilations grew large enough Meira began to yell. Not really at the pain, but at the fact that her body was starting to change its own shape so that the child could get out of her. “You, you, and you out.” She gave the order to Aiden, Caiden, and Finally Bjorn.

  The other two obliged. Bjorn however did not. “No, I will not be leaving the side of my wife.” Bjorn said. As he did, Meira's hand clamped down on his hand in a vice-like grip.

  “This is no place for a man.” The midwife said stubbornly.

  The blatant sexism aside her comment made Bjorn angry. “I don’t give a flying fuck what you think. This is my wife, I am going to stay by her side. If anything happens I will give everything I can to keep both her and my child alive. You will not move me.” As he spoke he got to his feet and turned towards the woman, who was clearly displeased at Bjorn’s defiance.

  Just then Meira let out another scream and clamped down on Bjorn’s hand harder. In that moment he forgot all about the midwife and turned back to his wife. Her face was in anguish at this point. Bjorn briefly contemplated giving her her next dose now, but that would have been a mistake. Instead he stayed in place and held her hand.

  An hour later Bjorn finally decided it had been long enough to give her something to help with the pain. He pulled out the next dose of a stronger painkiller and poured the contents in Meira’s mouth. The midwife immediately began complaining and trying to argue with Bjorn about his use of a liquid she knew nothing about. He brushed her aside and had his attention on Meira.

  Several more grueling hours later Meira was finally at the point where she had to push. Her screams of pain as she did so man Bjorn’s heart skip a beat. He hated seeing her in pain like she was. He wished he could do more, but for now he was helpless. That was until she looked over at him and said two words. “Stamina potion.”

  Not hesitating he pulled a stamina potion from his bag and poured the liquid in Meira’s mouth. She swallowed before the midwife could object and returned to pushing. The magic from the stamina potion was doing wonders as her breathing came easier and the time between her pushes shortened.

  Finally their baby began to slowly make its way out of Meira. At first its head poked out, then the shoulders. When it got to the belly that was when it went wrong. There was a sickening tearing sound as blood began to quickly mix with the placenta that was leaking out of Meira. Blood was normal in childbirth, but this was a different animal entirely.

  The color began to rapidly drain from Meira’s face as her life force began to seep out of her body from the tear. In a panic Bjorn pulled out a healing potion and poured the liquid into her mouth, holding it closed until she swallowed weakly. The only saving grace was that their baby finally slid free of her.

  He watched as her health bar began to rise for a few seconds before it began to go down once again. Early on during this whole ordeal Meira and Bjorn formed a war party so that Bjorn could watch her vitals. He was glad that they did so. He watched as her health bar began to slowly decline. The healing from the health potion was not enough.

  When her health bar neared the midway point Bjorn searched within himself for a way to help. In the back of his mind he could feel Meira’s presence. Not knowing what it was he dove right towards that feeling. In that moment he could see a physical tether that connected him and Meira together. Not giving the tether the time of day he pulled on that connection. When he did he received a prompt.

  Your soul partner’s life is in danger, do you wish to give up 50% of your life as immediate healing? Yes/No?

  He barely even read what the prompt said before he mentally clicked ‘yes.” Just like that his health bar set itself to 50%. 82 points of health flowed out of him in just a moment and the vibrant vital energies flowed into Meira’s body, stitching her back together. At the exact same time Bjorn’s body grew weak and frail, his complexion turned into an ashen gray look. It looked as if he had aged 40 years in a second.

  The magic of their bond worked wonders as her complexion turned back to her normal color, and she looked to regain some of her strength. It was not enough. Blood continued to flow out of Meira and her complexion quickly changed back to how it was just a few seconds before.

  “No, no, no.” Bjorn said as he watched her life slipping away again. He didn’t want to pour another healing potion down Meira’s throat, but he sure could drink one. With his ability to transfer 50% of his health to Meira he would gladly drink as many as he could to transfer health to her. Popping the cork off the vial he drank it down. A warmth spread through his body starting with his stomach. He tried again.

  You have already given your soul partner 50% of your health. You must wait 9 hours, 59 minutes, and 47 seconds to use this power again.

  “No, no, no.” He continued to mutter under his breath as he watched Meira slipping away before his eyes. Distantly he registered that he heard a baby cry in the background. But he didn’t care, he was going to save Meira.

  Popping the cork on the 2nd health potion he poured its contents first in her mouth, and then on the wound. It was still bad, but nowhere near as gristly as it had been at first. They were almost through this ordeal.

  He sat there for long seconds as the pool of blood that was more blood than Meira’s body should hold grew under her, soaking their bed sheets. He held her hand as her health bar continued to drop. All he could do was watch in horror as her health bar neared the bottom.

  It finally stopped plummeting and stabilized around the 10% mark. Relief flooded Bjorn’s body. He hadn’t noticed but hot tears rolled down his cheeks. He sat there for a long minute, thankful that Meira would survive.

  “What do you want to name your son?” The midwife's voice cut through the silence.