Aliel

Chapter 22

"Yes. Congratulations, Claresa. You are pregnant."

"I'm... what?" Renai let out an excited squeal, then came and crushed me in a tight hug.

"Oh, Claresa! I'm such an idiot not to have thought of it myself. Oh, it's wonderful, wonderful!" She let go of me, then her and Adeem started asking the doctor all sorts of questions.

But I stopped paying them any attention. I just sat there in my bed, dumbfounded. I knew that it was perfectly possible, but I just couldn't believe it. I was going to have a baby. I was going to have a baby! It was completely overwhelming.

I placed my hands over my stomach, wishing that I could see the tiny life that was growing inside of me. I wondered what it would look like. Would it have my eyes? My hair? My nose? I hoped that it didn't have my ears, I thought that pointed ears would be much better.

Then I thought about Lorien, and my heart constricted. He should be here, he should know that we were going to have a child. And I had no idea if he would ever know. He could have been killed in these past months, or at least injured. What if he never came back? What if what happened with me and my parents happened to my baby?

No! I promised myself that that wouldn't happen. Even if Lorien didn't come back, stars forbid, I would not reenact the past. I would make sure that I was always there. I would not abandon my child, like my mother had abandoned me. But I had to hold on to the hope that Lorien would come back.

I turned and opened the drawer to my nightstand, and brought out half of the silvery cloth that Chataya had tied around our wrists at the bonding. Lorien carried the other half, and as I held it tightly in my hands, I imagined that he could hear my thoughts.

I told him to be safe. To not do anything reckless. Because now he was a father, and he had to come back. Not just for me, but for our unborn child. I pleaded and pleaded for him to come home soon. Tears began to roll down my cheeks freely. Renai noticed, and came and gave me another, gentler hug, asking what was wrong.

"I wish Lorien was here," was all I could choke out, clinging to her and to my half of the bonding cloth. The doctor soon left, only giving instructions for me not to overexert myself, and telling Renai about some foods that I might be able to keep down.

For the next month they treated me as if I was glass, and I wasn't really sure if I enjoyed it or not. My emotions were all over the place. One moment I was humming happily, and the next I would dissolve into tears. But by the end of that month I was able to control myself more. It was also better because the morning sickness had stopped, which was an immense relief.

One morning I was cleaning upstairs when Renai called up to me, telling me to come down to the kitchen. I made it to the third step from the bottom before a figure darted around the corner and pinned me to the wall, then kissed me soundly.

I panicked at first, of course, but then I realized that the kissing was familiar. Then he broke away, smiling widely. It was Lorien! He'd come back! Relief flooded through me, and I smiled widely back at him. The green, gold-flecked eyes, the pointed ears, it was really him! But then I gaped at the one major difference from the last time I'd seen him.

"Your hair!" I exclaimed. His once beautiful, long, silvery hair had been shaved very close to his head, and was just now beginning to grow out again.

"Oh, that," he said, rubbing the stubble. He stepped down onto the bottom step, which made us exactly the same height. "Apparently healers can heal burns, but they can't regrow hair."

"Burns? Were you in a fire?" Worry coursed through me, and I wondered exactly what he been through these last three months.

"I'll tell you later." He paused. "Do you mind?"

"Mind what?" I didn't really need to know all the details right then, I was just glad he was finally back.

"My hair." I was confused.

"Why would I mind your hair?" It did look a bit strange, but that was only because I wasn't used to it yet. And besides, it would grow out eventually, right?

"Well, it's not exactly attractive." Was he... embarrassed?

"I thought that elves didn't care about physical appearances."

"They don't... but humans do." He looked at me worriedly, and I now understood. So that was it. He thought I wouldn't like him as much because he didn't have perfect elven hair. It endeared me even more to him, knowing that I wasn't the only one with insecurities. But I couldn't help making fun of him just a little.

"So you think I married you because of your hair?"

"No... at least, I hope not." He paused again. "So you really don't mind?"

"No, Lorien, I don't mind. It will grow back, anyway."

"Uh... it took over a hundred years for it to grow as long as it did."

"Well, I'll just have to learn to love it then, won't I?"

"So you do hate it."

"No!" I laughed loudly at him. And I thought that I was self-conscious about my looks. "I do not hate it. I'm just not used to it, that's all. I love you, and that's all that matters." I put my arms around his neck and kissed him, which was much easier because I was on the third step and he was on the bottom one. Then I remembered what I had been dying to tell him for weeks now. "Oh! I have something I need to tell you!"

To be continued...