Birth

Entry #3

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{Day: Unknown + 3}

{Time: Night. The sky is pitch black today, with no stars in sight.}

The food here is bad.

I've been a slave before, but the food here is downright revolting.

At least they're giving us something to eat.

My arms are so tired. They make us row all day, twenty hours straight. The overseer whips us if we stop rowing for a moment.

We barely get four hours for rest, but even exhaustion can't make me sleep.

The voices don't let me rest.

Our memories are my only respite in the face of despair.

I hope you are safe, even if I know you are not.

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The day had finally come. Mrs.Byers had come from the nearby town of Basil to oversee the delivery.

Lying on the bed in one of the unused rooms we had remodeled as an infirmary, tears were flowing freely from Farya's face as the operation went underway. 

Holding my wife's hand, I myself was crying profusely at her predicament.

Dubious thoughts regarding my Fari's safety kept creeping in my mind, raising my anxiety to a point where I almost thought I might have had a heart attack.

"It hurts, Ryne", she moaned helplessly.

Feeling my heart crack at that statement, I assured her "It's going to be okay dear, I'm here aren't I?", trying to keep my voice from breaking.

I wiped the tears from her face as I placed an arm beneath her hand, bringing my face closer to hers as the nurse told her to push.

"Once this is all over, we'll go visit the elf village, we'll go meet your dad, yeah?" 

Surprisingly, Fari managed a weak smile at this, "Yeah, th-that would be-Aaahh", she suddenly shrieked, her face contorted from pain.

Feeling my chest clench, I just squeezed her hand harder and pushed it to my forehead, unable to control my blubbering.

A high pitched cry resounded in the air as Cynthia Byers announced "Congratulations, its a boy".

Loosening my grip from my wife's hand, I looked up to see her beaming at me, amidst dried up tears and swollen, red eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, good work", I said, patting her expectant head.

Peeling my eyes(and hands) off her, I held out my arms in front of the nurse, motioning her to hand me the baby. 

Holding him in my hands, I felt that I was the most gifted man in the world. A symmetrical nose like his mother, and my small lips, he was an angel I had made with the one I loved most in the world.

As if sensing my gaze, he began wailing uncontrollably, offended by my touch.

Farya cracked out a soft laugh at this, struggling to sit up. 

"Honestly, you should just rest at a time like this", the elderly nurse said, all the while helping my spouse up. 

"He wants his mommy obviously", Farya interjected, rolling her eyes sarcastically while holding out her arms.

"Yeah, yeah, you can have him. Next time, I'll have a baby girl all to myself."

"Ne-next time,? I don't wanna go through this again", cried out Fari, eliciting a laugh from everyone present.

"Aww, he's so cute, completely unlike his father",  my wife nudged her nose in our baby's face.

Feigning a hurt expression, I muttered "Cruel, heartless woman". 

Smiling at this, she raised her head upto face me. The baby immediately clung to her breast in response.

"Oh!, I see he's just as naughty and clingy as his father" she sighed, giving me a playful wink. 

Seeing my wife play with our baby stirred up in me an intense wave of bliss. "I could sit here gazing at them for the rest of my life", I mused.

Slowly, my thoughts began drifting to the months building up to this moment of happiness.

After the defeat of the Goblin King Sneed, I had officially become a member of Dawn's crest, and had regularly gone out on quests with them.

We'd taken on several escort missions, cleared many dungeons and had made quite a name for ourselves.

Sasha had reached Tier 2 as a steel adventurer, while Hestia and Jacob had reached Tier 3 Steel.

Lana and I were at the very start of the silver rank whereas Duncan was at Silver Tier 2, the highest of us all.

Fair to say, we were kind of famous as the underdogs of Basil. 

Since the sudden disappearance of the renowned adventurer 'Viola' some nine months ago, the guild had begun finding difficulty in tackling high ranking missions.

As a result, adventurers were allowed to take missions one rank higher than their own For example, A bronze rank adventurer would be allowed to go on a 'D' rank mission instead of the standard 'E' rank.

Come to think of it, my first quest as a bronze adventurer was a D ranker.

Anyways, as a result of taking these high ranking missions, I had amassed a small fortune myself, using which I had built a small training area in our front yard, along with a specific section designated for archery. 

Another event worthy of note was that I had finally visited Olivia these past few months.

She had beat her fists relentlessly on my shoulder while blubbering aloud. "They said you were dead, you dolt!" she sniffled. 

Apparently, that son of a $!#% Willis had spread the news that I had died to the Lybeasts. 

Hearing my side of the story, she just smiled proudly and told me to bring my wife next time. In return, I promised her to come once my child was born.

"Miss Farya, you should rest now. You can play all you want with your baby later. He's not going anywhere", the nurse scolded my wife, rousing me from my reverie.

Handing me my infant son, she ushered me out of the room. Just as I was about to leave, Farya called out "Ryne?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for staying by my side", she gave a soft smile.

"I'll always be with you, till death do us part", I replied, smiling warmly to myself as I walked out the door.