the_lioness | (no subject)

Occasionally, Alanna likes to be alone with her thoughts. Every morning and every night, she trains alone, whether or not training with someone else comes before or after. It gives her time to think, time to plan, and time to dream. Each repetitive movement calms and centers her, relieving the burning itch to get out and do something.

Not today.

As the morning mist curls across the grass, she settles herself on a boulder near the lake and the soft sound of gently lapping water. Resting her chin on one knee, she takes a deep breath, content in her solitude.

Except she's not alone. Not really. Not anymore.

How odd to think there is a life growing inside her, relying on her for everything. Shifting uncomfortably, Alanna looks at her stomach as if she's never really seen it before, already feeling slightly off-balance, less in tune with her own body. She's happy -- undeniably so. It's just strange.

Absently, she trails her fingers across the slight rounding and new softness of her belly. Hello.

The shock remains, although why either of them should be shocked when they spend their nights wrapped around each other, treating each kiss as if it's the first or last, is a mystery. Alanna smiles, touching the emerald necklace at her throat. There's no denying that the thrill of it had gone to their heads, but so many things frequently do. She wouldn't have it any other way.

Far above her head, a bird cries out, the sound haunting. Shivering, Alanna resumes staring at her stomach as if it and this vague displaced feeling belong to someone else. A few deep breaths and the nausea passes. If she's going to be honest, she will eventually have to admit that it's childbirth that worries her, not the physical changes soon to test her control over her own limbs. But that's for later. Right now, Alanna allows the self-pity, skipping a stone as she grumbles about how large she will become, and how men have it so easy.

Well. Perhaps not entirely easy, for all that they don't carry children themselves. She thinks of the worry in Adam's eyes, the anxious set of his shoulders, and smiles. There will no doubt be days when she longs to put his head through a wall rather than deal with his more protective moments, but she'll suffer such occurrences gladly for all the times he looks at her, happy, eyes shining with emotions he can't put into words.

Glancing down, Alanna realizes she has been rubbing her stomach for several minutes now, and it feels a little less strange, a little more real. Alongside and often overwhelming the concern that she will make a mess of everything lies love, recognition, and her own fierce surge of protectiveness. Maybe they are impulsive, and maybe they won't get everything exactly right, but they certainly plan to try.

Alanna snickers, thinking to herself that the combined determination of the Lioness and the Antichrist is surely a force to be reckoned with in any situation.

The wind blows warmer now as the sun climbs. Moving to the ground, Alanna leans back against the boulder and begins to speak.

"Little one, I think it's high time I introduced myself, seeing as how we are going to be sharing a body for the next seven months or so. My name is Alanna, and I'm your... mother."

She pauses, biting her lip as she gently pats her belly.

"I grew up at the foot of the Grimhold Mountains with my twin, Thom. You'll meet him soon enough, but don't be offended if he wrinkles his nose at you. He's prickly. We often got into trouble, Thom and I, but we each had things we loved..."

The time Alanna spends outside this morning might be measured in minutes or hours, but she takes no notice, the story of her life drifting away on the breeze as she talks until she goes hoarse. And then talks some more.