Wolf Warrior (The Mórrigan's Wolf, Part 2) The Last Kingdom Fanfiction

38 - Winds of Change

"It's a girl!" Hild called as she began cleaning off the babe and checking her over.

Finan looked down at Faoladhean, and she could see tears shimmering in his eyes. "A daughter?" Finan asked, his voice soft and filled with awe. She could hear the emotion in the thickness of his voice.

Smiling tiredly, Faoladhean laughed softly. "I told ye," she teased him, then looked toward Hild and Cwenthryth. When she saw both of their faces drawn and serious, an immediate stab of fear ripped through her chest. She looked to Finan, her heart beginning to race and her eyes wide. "What is wrong? What is wrong with the bairn?"

A look of panic washed over his face as Finan stood suddenly and looked at the women whose heads were bowed over the new baby, speaking in hushed whispers. Hild's hands were busy stroking their child's chest and back. "Hild? What's wrong?"

The abbess flashed him a tense look, her hand still massaging at the child's tiny, still-purple chest, then she turned the babe over and thumped the heel of her palm between tiny purple shoulder blades. A moment passed in tense silence. Then another, while nothing changed; Finan and Faoladhean gripped one another's hands fiercely as they watched and waited, realizing that they had not heard their babe's first wail. Hild turned the baby over and continued to massage small circles on the tiny chest before turning her over and thumping soundly on her back a few more times.

It was after the second round of thumps to her back that a weak cry finally sounded from the tiny baby, and it strengthened with each breath she took, her body becoming more pink. Faoladhean began to sob in relief, not realizing that she had been holding her own breath, and Finan wrapped his arms around her where she sat on the edge of the bed.

"It's all right, mo ghrá, it's all right," he soothed with his lips against her hair, trying to calm his own anxiety as much as hers.

Cwenthryth, after hearing the baby cry, began fluffing and adjusting pillows on the bed, preparing them for mother and babe to rest together, and then helped Finan get Faoladhean settled more comfortably. Hild swaddled the squalling baby, then handed her to Faoladhean with a smile.

"She may well be as stubborn as her mother," Hild laughed softly as she placed the bundle in Faoladhean's arms.

"I have never been so stubborn as to noe breathe," Faoladhean quipped through her tears as she gazed down at the tiny babe in her arms. "She is smaller than Aodhán was." Her voice was hushed, almost awe-struck as she stroked a gentle finger over the baby's cheeks and nose, studying her soft pink face as she calmed from the frantic crying.

Lowering himself to sit beside them on the bed, Finan wrapped an arm around Faoladhean's shoulders and gazed down at the babe. "A daughter," he murmured as he reached out to touch the dark, fuzzy hair atop the babe's head. "She is perfect."

So enamored of the soft coos and facial expressions of their new child, Finan and Faoladhean hardly noticed Cwenthryth and Hild cleaning up and readying to leave. Hild looked at the two of them, their heads bowed together, murmuring softly to each other and lost in a haze of gentle, excited bliss, and she smiled. Quietly approaching the bed, Hild waited until Faoladhean looked up at her with a glowing smile.

"Would you like me to stop and tell Giric that you have finished laboring?"

Finan glanced up at Hild, then back at Faoaldhean, who looked at him. Hild sensed they had some silent conversation in the moment that passed as they gazed at each other with more love than Hild had ever witnessed. Finan smiled, then turned back to Hild.

"That would be wonderful, Hild." Finan gave her a grateful smile.

"I will also tell him to give the three of you some time before bringing Aodhán back, so you can try to rest a bit first."