A new burden to bear

“...can you hear me? You have to wake up. Please.”

A small, wavering voice breaks through the silence of Lux’s slumber. At first, her mind is a blank as she slowly surfaces towards consciousness. She can feel that she’s lying on her back, on something like soft dirt – with a heavy weight on top of her. Her bones ache, and the memory of some bleak, shapeless nightmare hovers on the edge of recollection. She’d rather just lie here for a while longer…

“Lux, wake up. Luxie?” That voice. Minn’s voice. “Don’t be dead. Please don’t be…”

“M-Minn?” Lux opens her eyes, blearily. Faint, fearful memories of the maze begins to dimly filter back as she recognises the twisted brambles that twine overhead. “What…?”

Minn is standing on Lux’s shoulder, hugging as much of her head and neck as those tiny arms can reach. “It was only supposed to be a b-bit of fun.” Tears trickle down the sprite’s mournful face onto Lux’s cheek. “I never wanted you to be hurt…”

It takes great effort for Lux to crane her head up, still confused. “What’s happened to…” she begins, trailing off as she sees it – past the swollen mounds of her breasts, her own belly rising up in a taut dome, impossibly large. Ice creeps down her spine as the full reality of it takes hold, and unbearable memories come rushing back.

“Gods,” she whispers, “please – no – ”

“You do look…really sexy like this,” Minn mumbles, “but – it’s getting so big, I’m – I’m scared that – ”

Gingerly, Lux lifts a trembling hand to touch her hugely round belly. It feels hot to the touch, and the skin is shiny from being stretched so tight. Her head spins with fear and nausea. She can feel the weight of the offspring in her womb, pressing down on her, alive and alien.

“You need to get up, Lux.” Minn’s tiny hands tug at her fingers. “We have to find help b-before…”

Part of Lux just wants to keep lying here and wait for the end. But, finally, she finds the strength – if only because Minn’s insistent voice is making her headache worse. Slowly, groggily, she pulls her legs in and starts trying to get them underneath her.

It takes great effort to stand; her body feels so heavy, so wrong, like it’s not even her own. Minn holds her hand, wings buzzing rapidly in a futile but completely earnest effort to help lift her up. When she finally manages to get upright, she has to steady herself against the vine wall to get her breath back, heedless of the sharp thorns that she’s fortunate enough to avoid in this moment.

For a while, she just stares into the distance, half-certain that the monster that **** her will come oozing back through the walls at any moment. But there is no sign of it, no sound from the maze’s lightless depths. A small mercy – or a sign that it knows she’s already done for.

Minn flutters up, holding the fairy lance in both hands. “I f-found it for you…”

It takes a long moment before Lux reaches out to accept the weapon. “Thanks, Minn,” she says quietly. It does actually feel a little better to have it in hand, somehow, as if all were not entirely lost. Just, nearly all.

After a couple of tries, she manages to get herself stable on her feet. Minn bobs up and down in the air urgently before starting to fly ahead. Darkvision or no, Lux could not be more glad to have that little point of light in this terrible place.

“This way,” Minn says. “I can feel – we need to go this way.”

It’s not much to go on. But there’s ****. Unsteadily, still adapting to the gait **** on her by the unfamiliar weight in her belly, Lux follows Minn into the unknown once again.