Dusk

The rain is always present in the august evening in Earkit, but this evening was worse than normal. Most days the clouds roll in soon after noon to block the warm autumn sun. Today the gentle grey cloud were replaced with ones that were pitch black.

Soon there was a light rain. After that came the howling winds and the downpour.

Anyone who didn't want to be soaked took shelter for the evening. These storms usually wouldn't stop until the middle of the night so there was no point in waiting around.

In this storm one figure was barley visible on the muddy road. The heavy rain was making the hoofs of the horse sink deep. The wind and the rain made it hard to see the dirt road was nothing but mud and made them fight to keep going.

They pushed their horse hard. They tried to keep their eyes open for the road signs. It was just so damn hard to see in this rain.

They were tired. They had been traveling for who knows how long. They would trade their tired horse and a few coins for a fresh one in every town.

This saved time on letting the horse rest, but left little time for them to rest either. They couldn't stop now though, they were so close.

At least the heavy storm had a silver lining of washing away all of their tracks.

They pulled their cloak tighter, kept their eye on the road, and spurred their horse on once again.

After fighting exhaustion and the storm for what felt like hours, but could have been minutes, they saw the sign.

Tulip

That was all the sign read. But that one word and the rough point cut into the left side of the board filled them with fire like no other. The end is in sight.

People are capable of many amazing things when the need arises. People can ignore pain, gain supernatural strength, or even go days without sleep if the drive is great enough.

People don't chose these things though. They do them because they have to. If they don't then then the consequences are unbearable. There is no maybe, only must.

With a tug of the reigns the horse turned to the left down a smaller side road that wound through the trees and hills. Sometimes the road went up a hill and other times it went down.

Often at the bottom there was a small river from the runoff washing out the road that was closer to a dirt path. On these occasions they would have to get off the horse in the dark pouring rain and walk the horse through it.

If they rode the horse over the fast moving waters they would probably fall. This had happened to them before. A few times they lost track of the road and had to find their way back, but they knew they couldn't be far away now.

After fighting for so long they saw a light. It was only a flicker in the distance, but they saw it. Focusing on that firelight flickering in the window the drove their horse on.

Getting closer they could tell it was a small house. Simple. Probably built by one of the farmers in tulip. He might be here, but the chance were low. They would probably know where he was though. That would have to do.

Arriving at the house they hopped off the horse and trudged their way to the door.

BANG!...BANG!...BANG!

"What the hell? Who in their right mind would be out in this mess?"

"Dear! Language!"

Taml admonished her husband. There were kids sleeping in the other room after all. She was trying to stop them from picking up their fathers foul mouth, but she reckoned she would never win that battle.

BANG!....BANG!....Bang!

"Well? go see who it is."

Ron grumbled as he went to the door. His wife was always nagging at him, and now that he was stuck inside due to the rain it had only gotten worse the last few weeks.

Ron used his frustration with his wife to open the door with a sharp tug.

"What in the hell do-Oof!"

"Ron? Who is it?"

Ron was still trying to catch his breath. When he opened the door so quickly the person on the other side was swinging for the door again. With their target gone they fell forward and hit Ron in the chest and fell on him.

"Pleas.....ell me...here...oth.....ives."

Ron could barley hear them with the storm and his wife raging in the background making all that noise.

Ron shushed his wife and leaned in closer to the stranger. Because they were now leaning on them he could feel them shivering. Their hand were as cold as ice and shaking like a leaf.

As they looked up he could see the deathly pale face of a woman looking up at him.

"What was that you asked now lass?"

she wasn't very loud but he could hear her better now.

"Please tell me where Roth lives."

"Roth? The old healer? He lives down the road and to the left at the next split. Why?"

Ron didn't get an answer in return, instead he got a small coin pouch. With that the mysterious lady shakily made her way to the door.

"Wait! You can't go out there! You can barley walk! You could fall off you horse and even die out there! It's not safe!"

The female stranger ignored Ron and hoped on her horse, or at least she tried to. Right when she pushed herself up she got light headed and lost her grip.

"No! I'm so close!"

Since was yelling at her to not go he was right behind her to catch her. That's when Ron learned another new fact about this Strange woman. She was pregnant.

"Taml! Get out here and help me!"

"What, but its pouring out there!"

"God dammit woman! This woman is pregnant and sick we need to get her out of the rain!"

This got Taml's attention. Earlier the stranger was leaned forward and wearing a cloak. So with the dark she couldn't tell she was pregnant let alone a woman.

She rushed outside to help get the stranger inside as quickly as possible. Once they got her inside they immediately started removing her soaking clothes and wrapping her in dry blankets by the fire.

"please....I need to see Roth...."

"You aren't going anywhere. If you go out there in that chill any longer you might just kill yourself and your baby.

"Ron. Her water just broke."

"....Fuck"

Ron could tell she was in no shape to deliver a baby. She was weak, sickly pale, and barely concious. The only hope that he could see for her or the child to survive childbirth was Roth. He knew Roth would bitch up a storm worse than the one outside, but once he found out there was a kid involved he would come.

"Mommy. What's going on?"

From the side room a young boy and his baby sister came out.

Ron gabbed his coat and made for the door while Taml went to tell the kids to go back to sleep.

"Taml do what you can, I'm going to go get Roth. He's the only one that can give her and the kid a chance."

Roth still had the pouch from earlier. He opened it up hoping it would be enough to cover Roth's fees. They just didn't have the money.

When he opened the pouch he froze at the sight of the silver coins. Ron could only make a little over two silvers a year on the farm. This pouch held a handful of silver coins. What would probably take him a decade to earn.

For a moment greed griped at him, but the he looked over at the sick woman. Then to his wife and kids. Ron may have a foul mouth, but he was an honest man. He would get Roth, then when the lady recovered he would talk to her about how bad of an idea it was to hand random strangers your life savings.

With that he was off. It would take to long to get there on foot, so he used the horse the woman came in on.

It was exhausted, but it got him there faster than if he was on foot. Soon he traveled down the road, took the left and rode some more. When he got to the small cabin he beat on the door.

BANG!-BANG!-BANG!

"Open up you old coot!"

BANG!-BANG!-BANG!

"Get your old dusty ass out here!"

Soon enough Ron was graciously greeted by Roth.

"What the fuck do you want!? And who are you calling a dusty coot!?"

"You, that's who! Just now some random pregnant lady that can barley walk just beat down my door asking for you! And to top it off her water just broke! If you don't help then she and the kid will die in my living room! She has the money to pay you so don't even ask."

Roth was shocked by this. He often healed smaller wounds and helped deliver kids, but as far as he knew no one in Tulip was due for at least another two months.

Roth didn't have a good comeback so he just grumbled as he turned inside. He threw on some warm clothes and tossed some medicines that he might need in his bag and left with Ron.

They both rode the horse back. When they got back Ron saw his son helping Taml. His one year old daughter was sleeping in the corner.

"Taml what can you tell me?"

After seeing the woman on the floor Roth knew this wasn't going to be good.

"All I can tell you is that her breath is weak. Oh, and she mentioned something about a teacup. Probably doesn't help though."

"Teacup?"

As Roth started to do a quick check of her body for any wounds or sickness that could make all of this worse the woman stirred and open her eyes.

"Ah...you must be Roth.."

"Yes. And who might you be?"

Roth didn't stop looking her over while he talked.

"..Alena...."

That name tickled his memories but he couldn't place it. He pushed it off for now he had more important things to focus on for now.

"..Gron told me to tell you that you're even for the teacup now..."

Those words shook Roth to the bone. As he snapped his head to look at Alena he understood. Her face is much paler and taught with malnourishment, but he could see her face now.

She had a warm happy smile on her face, but Roth's heart was anything but warm. His head was a swarm of emotions. Sadness. Anger. Doubt. Remorse. Rage.

Then nothing.

Roth closed his eyes and took a deep breath. None of those emotions would help her. He needed to focus.

Roth focused his mana on his hands and placed his left on her sternum and the right on her belly. With this spell he would be able to take an in depth look at both Alena and her baby's condition.

What it told him was bad. Very bad. Alena was very sick. It was nasty. She could only use a quarter of her lungs. That wasn't all though. This infection had spread from her lungs to her stomach, upper intestines, liver, and heart.

He knew this sickness.

"Ron, Taml, Take the kids to the other room and stay there with them. She is very sick and if you aren't carful it could spread to you too."

Taml looked at Roth in horror.

"We've been with her the whole time! Are we going to be ok?!"

"It is easily treatable in the early stages, but impossible in the late. I will check you after I help her. I don't have the time right now."

With those words Taml calmed down and grabbed her kids and went to the next room. Ron followed after, but gave one last look at Roth. Roth had a different look to him now.

Previously Roth always cracked horrible jokes or said inappropriate things all the time. Even when he helped deliver his kids he had the gall to suggest his daughter wasn't his because she had blue eyes like her mother instead of his brown.

Now though, there was no jokes. His voice left no room for debate. He was decisive. He was serious. And if Ron was reading him right, burning with fury. There was a fire in his eyes that scared Ron.

He must have stared to long because Roth snapped him a glare that scared the shit out of him. Ron quickly closed the door behind him.

Roth looked back at Alena. The white plague. He knew this one well. There are few left alive that know it more. That's why he knew he couldn't save her. It had spread to far.

There was good news though. The baby was safe. Alena had focused her mana in protecting the baby. That was part of the reason it had spread so far. Instead of using here mana to fight a losing battle to the White plague she focused it on protecting her unborn child. It hadn't spread to the fetus yet.

Roth Reinforced her dwindling mana with his to keep the child safe.

"...his name is Glim..."

Alena smiled as she looked at Roth. He could tell she knew how this was going to end and didn't regret a thing.

"...please watch over him. All we wanted was for him to live a simple happy life...."

Roth used his left hand to gently grab hers.

"I swear on my mana that I will do my best to give him a happy life. But first I need your help to bring him into this world though."

Roth didn't have a high mastery of light magic, so he could only heal so much. In tulip all he need to heal was the occasional cut from an accident with an ax or helping to deliver babies. His limited mastery was good usually enough. He used herbs and potions to help sometimes, they can only do so much though.

Roth took his left hand and dug through his bag until he found the right bottle. His right hand never left her stomach, sending a constant slow stream of mana to defend the child.

"Here drink this. It will give you some strength."

He helped her drink the potion and then the work begun.

There were screams. There was blood. And their were tears.

In the end there was a small baby boy wrapped up in a blanket in his tired mothers arms. There was a light yellow hue of light mana around the boy to protect him from the White Plague.

"Well aren't you the cutest boy....I wish Gron could have met you Glim, but you are still his kid. Grow big and strong and have a good life. This is yours now."

Alena took off her leaf charm necklace and held it out. Roth used some of his remaining mana to make sure the necklace was free from the White plague then nodded to Alena.

She gently put it in the blanket the held Glim. With that she leaned back staring at glim with such a beautiful smile on her face. Then her eyes slowly fell shut. Her breathing slowed until there was no more.

The previously quiet glim started crying.

Roth gently lifted from his mothers arms and held him close. He had an oath to keep.