The Sun and The Moon

Chapter One

          It was raining the night the girls were born. Thunder boomed angrily above and the rain fell as arrows to the ground below. Lightning flashed as the small boy snuck out of his bedroom and up the stairs to where his mother lay. It had been hours since she began laboring, and the midwives felt she was doing poorly. His father was downstairs, pacing his study nervously. It was up to young Percy to peek in on his mother to know she was all right and carry word to his father.

          His mother lay abed, her blonde hair plastered to her fore-head by sweat. Her great belly seemed loathe to part with the infant inside. Percy snuck past the midwives and hid himself with just enough space to see his mother's face. Sweat and tears mingled freely on her face and dripped down as she cried out with another birthing pain. Percy wished he could ease her pain. He had never heard his gentle mother so much as raise her voice before, so her screams were terrifying.

          The storm outside had not abated, but increased in its anger, the winds rattling the shutters so hard as to take them off their hinges. The midwives began muttering of bad omens as they instructed the lady to push out the infant. The boom of thunder coincided with the baby being pushed out at last. The midwife held the child covered in blood and announced it was a girl. she had turned to see to the cleaning of the new baby. The lightning flashed and Percy ran from his hiding spot, to catch what had been unseen. Yet another babe, this one not making the fuss of the first one. Carefully Percy handed the baby to one of the other midwives as the flocked around him. The midwives looked in wonder at the two babes born this night. They were so unalike in appearance. One with the light fuzz of hair that would be golden like their mother, and the other whose hair was as dark as the night. Had young Percy not been there, the poor babe would have fallen right unto the ground. The midwives praised the boy at the same time as scolding him for watching the woman's mysteries.

         Percy moved to his mother's side and held her hand as he told her of each of the babies eagerly. She smiled weakly and whispered to him the names of the girls before she succombed to the sleep draught the midwives had given her. He went to the window and opened the shutters, and only then he realized the horrible storm had stopped. He watched his mother as she slept, then he was hastily removed from the room so that the midwives could tend to his mother's wounds.

         Percy ran down the stairs and into his father's study. Bursting in the door, he wondered at the expression on his father's face until he realized he had blood on himself from catching the baby.

          "Father, They are born. I have sisters!" Percy exclaimed, his blue eyes sparkling with pride.

          "Sisters you say? What did your mother name them?" The Duke, took his seat and a great smile cossed his face as his son spoke of the babies.

          "The firt born one has mother's golden hair. Mother has named her Odessa. The second one, the one I saved, mother named Lyonesse. Theyare beautiful, father" Percy explained, as he sat his stool next to his father's chair.

          "Twins...I have twin daughters," the duke said, trying out the sound of fatherhood for the second time. "We will summon the priestesses of Syrise. Now, you clean up and go to bed young man. You have had a busy night." The duke said without any command in the tone.

         Percy had the servants fill his tub with warm water and he discarded his bloodied night dress. He bathed, then went to sleep thinking his sisters were like the Sun and the Moon.