Gyda Lionrock thinks her visit to Asclan Peak is for one reason and one reason alone-to procreate and finally welcome that child of her own. She could have never guessed she would also leave something behind inside the mountains, but it was her hear...
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The night sky was clear with not a single cloud, just the inky darkness enveloping everything. I was sitting in front of my window, staring out at the almost full moon; tonight, she was stunning, shining so brightly that her light was enough for me to make out the mountains in the distance. So, yes, she was beautiful tonight. But she also frightened me in a way because I knew that tomorrow night, she would be completely full.
It would be her twelfth full circle of the year.
And during that twelfth full moon, my mother would send me off to the same mountains I was looking at right now: Asclan Peaks. I was sure of it. This year would be different from all previous years. This year, she would send me there!
I'd never been there before, never even left my own town. But I knew about the place and it was surreal to think I'd be heading there soon. The mountains were orcs' territory, and it had been that way for many, many centuries.
Only once a year were humans willing to cross Asclan Peaks' borders. And only once a year were they welcomed.
And for sure, the twelfth moon was the cause of that.
The breeding moon.
This was when the fertile women—one from every family—would be sent out to walk the Trimar Pass, crossing borders to the mountain kingdom to meet and breed with Asclan Peaks' notorious inhabitants.
These annual gatherings between the two species weren't without good reason. Due to the severe lack of human males and the complete extinction of female orcs, there was no other choice but to crossbreed to produce offspring. It was not ideal, but things had evolved that way. The strange thing was that the babies born would be either orc sons or human daughters. Only very occasionally would a human son be born, and people considered this a wondrous miracle, a cause for tremendous celebration! The baby boy and his family would gain great fortune and lead a good life since everybody worshiped boys and having one in your family would be a ticket to the elite.
Why no orc daughters or mixed half-bloods were born, nobody knew. It just didn't happen.
So now, I was sure that it had come to my time to travel during the breeding moon, something that had been long coming since at twenty-six years of age, everyone considered me an old maid. Most women my age were mothers already.
I was not, but I was secretly yearning for it if I was honest. My mother knew this, yet she had never let me go to visit Asclan Peaks. She, as the head of our family, was the one to decide.
Sometimes, it felt as if I missed out on all the things that motherhood had to offer. I could see the unconditional love between my sisters and nieces, also longing to give such love to a child of my own. Of course, I loved all my nieces to death and had my hands full with them, being their favorite family member. But still... I wasn't their mother.
And in quiet, in secret, I believed I would be a good mother too, that I deserved a chance.
So, yes, a part of me was excited about tomorrow, but the other part of me was hellishly scared and intimidated. So afraid of what had to happen to conceive that child of my own...
