17. Sam
17
SAM
I watched the battle from the shadows as the gods tried to subdue Medea. She was small and skinny, but she seemed to be more than a match for anything that they threw against her. I could feel Eros’s power from here. Every blast blew the grass for a mile in every direction, but still, she stayed on her feet.
It was Heka that seemed to rattle her. His magic and hers fought ferociously as their hands constantly contorted with spells that the other deflected. A blast landed too close to my Hermes in his cage. And I had to stop myself from running down there. That was a place where we humans could not survive.
Tryke was a bird shifter, and he took to the air, followed by Hy and Tim. I watched as they picked up large rocks in their claws and dropped them from the air. One actually hit her on the head and knocked her to her knees for a quick second. She sprung up and shot a beam into the air.
I hoped it hadn’t found its target.
I pulled the seeds from my hand and ripped the package. Where was Tim? I scanned the sky and saw him soaring towards me. Dusk had started, and soon the moon would break the horizon. We had to hurry.
It was time. The snow had melted around the fight with the heat of Apollo’s blasts just as we had hoped. I held the seeds up in the air, and Tim swooped down and took them within his talons. He soared high, and I waited. I reached out – further than I ever had before and tried to feel them.
I had to do this. The world depended upon me, and if I failed, everyone I knew would suffer or die. I couldn’t let that happen. I wanted Tim and Hy to watch their children grow. I wanted to know what it felt like to have a baby in my own belly. I rubbed it and felt a small ripple that tingled my hand. Magic… but not from outside – from within.
Was it true? Could I already be with child?
Hermes was a god, so hopefully, it wouldn’t burst out of my brain. Was I…
Pregnant. I could feel the life within me… Growth. Nurture. Feeding and slowly becoming more than it already was. Perfect. I knew it would be perfect, and I could feel the Earth inside me. A mix of god and elemental – part earth and part… whatever that was. Cosmos?
I had to stick my feet to the ground. I was pregnant with Hermes' child, and I was about to go into battle. I could lose everything if I… I could lose Hermes. I could lose my life, and that meant my child would never have a chance for their own. They would wither and die within me.
Death.
I had felt like death was the only gift I could give. But there was another side to that, wasn’t there? Life. I could also give life.
I crouched down and placed my hands on the Earth and watched as Hy soared over the magical structure and dropped the seeds from the sky. They tumbled, and as they touched the Earth, I whispered… “Grow.”
Nothing happened.
I was sure I… would fail. Look what happened? I was right. I couldn’t do this.
A blast sent Medea tumbling backward, and she rolled into the cage. Another blast threw the cage a few feet away. I couldn’t see Herme’s through the smoke of their battle. This was war, and in war, there are casualties. Even if we won, we might not all survive.
I watched for a second as rocks fell from the sky and the gods fought with everything they had. The Earth would burn if they kept this up. The heat from Apollo’s blasts were already burning my skin. The grass around the structure was weeping as it wilted, and…
I felt it.
A tingle in my belly.
I felt it.
“Grow,” I whispered.
I pushed the snow out of the way and dug my hands in the dirt and balled them up, and with a primal scream, I let loose with all that I had ever held back. All of the power of the green that I had thought lost rushed through me, and the ground shuddered. My heart raced, and my stomach clenched. I could hear my babies heart in my ears.
It rippled all the way down to the structure, and a small chasm began to open up. I could hear the cracking of the concrete that the metal set upon. “Grow,” I commanded and pressed my hands deeper into the ground. “GROW!”
Morning glories shot out of the ground, and the grass began to grow at an alarming rate all around me. The field erupted with green as it broke free of the snowfall that had covered the ground. Flowers erupted from the shoots of the wildflowers as they dotted the fields.
The Earth shuddered again.
My stomach burned, and I doubled over. “Grow!” I yelled as I pulled myself to my knees. My stomach was expanded and curved outward. The baby of a God… I couldn’t have it here. It was too fast! I wouldn’t to cuddle and cocoon myself with Hermes as we watched my stomach grow. But fate had other plans. This baby was coming, and it was coming soon.
The vines grew rapidly and covered the structure with their greenery. Blossoms bloomed on the vine and sheathed the metal as if it were something that had been created just to show their magnificence.
I fell over.
The ground vibrated, and the machine… the magical instrument of Medea’s creation whirred to life and glowed through the vinery that now covered it from sight.
Medea laughed.
“She’s awake!” I heard her scream.
“Sam!” Kitty grabbed me by the shoulder. “It’s the Earth itself. Medea needed you to waken Gaea, and she’s… She’s using her to power the spell. You have to…”
The Earth shuddered again, and I could hear her scream. The trees around the structure began to wither. The pine tree’s needles began to fall, and the grass that had just grown began to darken. She was pulling the energy to power her spell from the Earth. It would never be the same, and I had helped her do it. But how…
I felt the little one kick inside me, and I doubled over. “Stop… now. Sleep…”
“You’re…”
“Yeah…”
“What do we do. It’s too late.”
“No.” I knew as soon as the thought crossed my mind. “She has to go back to sleep,” I whispered. “Her magic can’t live while she’s awake. It’s… her. Her final gift.”
I reached down into the Earth and whispered, “Sleep.”
I watched as the trees darkened and burned from the fight down below. The gods were fighting with everything they had. I watched Horus fly through the air from a blast as he transformed into a bird and flew back into the fight.
I balled my fists once again and pressed them as deeply as I could. “Sleep. Sleep! SLEEEEEP!”
I screamed with everything I had and pushed with every ounce of power and strength that I could find. My baby rolled in my stomach. “Sleep!”
Sleep, I heard it in my head. In my heart and soul… The voice of my child was inside me, just as I could hear the plants.
That’s when it hit me.
It hadn’t been me.
None of this was totally me. I didn’t have this power; I wasn’t this strong, and no elemental was.
It was him.
I knew it as well as I knew that there was a boy inside me.
He was the one with this power.
“Help me, little one. The Earth, your great-grandmother, must go back to sleep. Help me.”
I felt him roll once again.
“SLEEP!”
The ground stopped shuddering, and the glow from the structure dimmed. All of my vines, my morning glories had withered and died as the life had been sucked out of them.
Medea screamed with rage. “No!”
Medea had to pay.
Eros pulled out his bow and shot an arrow. Its aim was true, and it buried itself in Medea’s arm. She was out of control, knowing that her plan had failed.
I reached out with my hand and knew what it was I wanted. I knew for the first time that I could do this. I had the power. The morning glories had seeds, and it was time to wake them up.
Vines shot from the ground and sped toward Medea as I had intended. They wrapped themselves around her and bound her arms against her body. Hopefully, that would stop her from being able to cast any more spells.
I ran down, and Kitty shifted back into her cat form and followed me down the snow-covered hill. Heka reached out and, with a spell, encased Medea in a glowing orb.
It looked like we had won.
The fight seemed to wilt from her, yet she still struggled.
Then I saw him. My love. Hermes walked towards her and drew back his arm. With a single punch she fell to the ground and didn’t move. “You’re knocked the fuck out!”
Heka released her from the spell, and they all stood there panting from the exertion of their fight. The birds shifted as their feet hit the ground, and the gods embraced their mates.
Hermes turned and looked at me. His jaw fell open as he saw me.
“You’re…”
“Apparently, we’re gonna be fathers.” I snickered as he took me in his arms. My belly, of course, did get in the way. I felt our child inside me as he tossed once again. “I think this is an accidental side effect of the magic.”
“Sooner the better.”
“I think sooner is now.” I collapsed into his arms.