SWNOVELS Chapter Epilogue
One year later…
Ashlyn lay crying in a strange bed. The wizened old woman sat in a chair beside the bed, holding her hand. She wiped the sweat from Ashlyn’s brow and cooed comfortingly. “I want Will.” She cried when she could speak again.
“I know dear, I know.” The woman comforted.
She heard Athyn outside shouting. Then she heard the beating of huge leathery wings. She breathed a sigh of relief. Her husband had come to her. He ran into the room, still wrapping a robe around himself. Rushing to her side, he took her hand. The old woman stepped easily out of his way. “Ashlyn, are you okay?” He asked, desperate worry in his voice.
She smiled up at him, “I am, now that you’re here.” Then she gasped as another pain took her breath away.
The old woman crooned “Oh! It’s time, it’s time!” She pushed Ashlyn’s legs up and held them. “You should leave,” she chastised Will.
He looked stricken. Ashlyn clutched his hand desperately. “No! I want him to stay.”
The woman tisked, “Very well, but this is highly unorthodox, I have to tell you.”
Will held one hand and Alice held the other while the old woman coaxed Ashlyn to push. The pain was terrible. She had a moment to wish she was in modern times where she could at least have an epidural to ease the pain. She didn’t think of it as her own time any more. This was her time, pain killers or no. She didn’t want to be any other place or time.
The midwife crowed, “I can see the head! Give me just one more push dear!” Ashlyn dug down deep into the dregs of energy that she had remaining and pushed. She felt the sudden ease of pressure and relaxed. Wrapping the tiny infant up in a blanket the old woman prodded at the bundle. Ashlyn stared, a new terror filling her. Was it alright? Why wasn’t it crying? Alice stepped over to the woman to look down at the infant. Then the baby gasped in a lungful of air and let out a long wailing cry.
Ashlyn breathed a sigh of relief, “What is it?” Will had been watching the woman intently, tightly grasping Ashlyn’s hand. He turned to her, his eyes filled with joy. Then he looked up at her in surprise. She followed his gaze to her wrist. The dragon tattoo was fading quickly away.
The woman ignored her while she focused on tying off the umbilical cord.
Will answered for her, rubbing his thumb over her wrist where the tattoo had been, “It’s a boy.”
Ash nodded as the realization hit her. “The tattoo faded. This means…”
Will completed her trailing thought, “It means that you have given your dragon a son.”
Ashlyn brushed his cheek with a loving smile, “My dragon,” she agreed.
The woman came around the table. She handed the tiny infant to Ashlyn. “Yes, you have a healthy baby boy my dear. What are you going to name him?”
Ashlyn looked up at Will. As if they shared the same thought they both said at once, “Let’s call him Robin.” They smiled at each other and both stared in awe at the tiny child that encompassed the immense love they shared. Ashlyn stroked the baby’s light brown hair as he opened his large, chocolate brown eyes and looked up at her.
After a few moments, the woman shooed Will from the room. Alice helped her clean up the mess of the birthing. When everything was clean and the infant had had his first meal, the old woman let the men into the room. They all stared in awe at the sleeping baby. Athyn whispered promises to teach his nephew to shoot a bow and arrow as soon as he grew big enough. “You have to live up to that name of yours,” he said softly.
Robin seemed to be the most amazed by his namesake. Exchanging a glance with Marian who stood smiling in the doorway, he lifted the baby gently from Ashlyn’s arms. “It is amazing,” he whispered, “That so much love can fit into such a tiny package.”