The Hyperboreans (working title) chapter 7, 8, and epilogue

The second wind

In half an hour, another contraction made her womb murmur back to life. The assistants shook the midwife awake, who slapped her cheeks and got back up to work. Penelope called down the trapdoor for an update. She got a flurry of oaths and yells in response. “Still not ready!”

The midwife peeked inside Choine’s hole while she groaned. An assistant took her baby off her chest and set him aside.

“Midwife…what do you see? Without the wind machine…I’m not sure how much more I can do…”

“Well my lady, I know you’re probably very tired. But actually, I see plenty of reason to hope. The first of multiples is always hardest. But he dilates and stretches you enough for the others to come down more quickly. Think of it as paving the way. And what’s more…yes! I see a foot! Footling breach!” She clapped. “Marvelous!”

“What does that mean? Feet first?”

“That’s right! Normally we would want them all head down, but in this case, it’s a blessing from the gods! Don’t need that wind machine for this one…one of you, give me some twine!” The assistants obeyed, handing her a ball of string.

“What I’m going to do, my lady, is tie a length of string to your baby’s foot, hopefully both feet, and then we’ll pull him down for you just like we did the other one. But first I need those feet to come farther down. When you’re ready, I need you to give me another big push so I can reach them.”

“I understand…in a moment then…ok there it is–” She took a deep breath, and she felt herself able to breathe deeper; more room for her lungs with one baby out. She bore that pressure down yet again, and was encouraged to feel something inside sliding down fairly quickly.

“Just like that my lady, they’re coming down, keep going!”

However, as she strained, and strained again, she felt the progress quickly slow, and the tightness in her pelvis built until she could feel nothing move anymore.

“--nnGGUH!”

“Good, Choine, good! Now I can get at them! Reaching in now–”

Choine yelped as the midwife slid both arms inside her birth canal. A maneuver that she would normally not dream of in a normal birth, but this was not a normal birth nor normal woman. She got the loop of string around the baby’s feet, and pulled it tight. Now there were two cords running out of Choine’s bottom: one umbilical, one twine.

“Now we’ll see how well I tied my knot. We’ll get this one out of you in no time, my lady. Give me some strong efforts now, and you’ll see son #2!”

Choine was panting, flushed, but smiling at the thought. Courage returned and she put her trust in the gods and her midwife. She squeezed the handles though her palms were red and sore, and curled in over her belly as she heaved as hard as she could to try and get her baby past whatever obstacle was in its way. At the same time, the midwife pulled the string.

The pressure in Choine’s pelvis grew worse, like someone inside it was trying to force it apart. And there was. 

“--eeeEEYOW! OH! I feel my waist buckling! Oh gods! I think I’m about to break!”

“Grab your thighs and pull them back towards you! That will open it more. Yes, like that! Now give me another, PUSH!”

She cried out as she pulled her legs back and PUSHED. She screamed as her pelvis was forced apart, and as she felt the bones and cartilage shift inside her, it felt as if her hips were about to split in half…and then finally released as something gave and the rest of the baby passed through. The feet began to emerge.

That’s when Penelope the senior assistant noticed something unnerving out of the corner of her eye: the first baby was watching the birth of his brother. Head lifted, gazing, curiously, with bright green eyes, from the comfort of his basket. Newborns were not capable of that. But babies did show signs of curiosity and focus…when they were many months old. So it seemed that they did not stay in the womb so long just to grow big. They had used that time to develop.

The midwife used a small knife to carefully cut the string loose from the baby’s feet, then toweled them off so she could grab them.

“Have you got another in you? I bet you can push out the legs on this one if you try?”

“One more…HMMMMMMM–!”

The midwife gambled well. As she pulled and Choine pushed, the baby slowly slid out to the knees, then the waist. Its genitals popped loose from its mother’s folds as it emerged: another boy, as expected.

“Water…give me some water…” Choine croaked. She got it, gulping it down as best she could between breaths.

The midwife ordered an assistant to grab her around the waist to help her pull. Mercifully for Choine, two women putting their body weight into assisting with her efforts really helped: after 3 more pushes and pulls, the body was towed out to the armpits. And now, her vagina burned again as the widest part sat right behind her entrance.

“Ohhhh it’s getting bad again…it feels wider than before! Oof! Oof!”

“That’s the arms raised up alongside the head, my lady. I can bring those down–”

She wiggled a finger inside to hook above the baby’s shoulder, then tugged down until one arm was out. Then she did it for the other.

“Right, that feels a bit better doesn’t it? Just the head now. Last ones, and you’ve got another son! Feel like you’ve got it?”

“N-no…but I’ll do it…for another son…”

“That’s the way! You can do it my lady, we’re here for you! With us now: 1, 2, 3, focus, shove down, go!”

Almost there, Choine tiredly thought. There's so much…pressure! She recentered herself, and pushed deep and hard for…who knows what count it was? A second ring of fire blazed below as she felt the baby’s jaw pass through her vulva, and the a big head once again stretched her wide–

“--AIIIIII!”

“I know it burns, don’t stop my lady, one more!”

“AAAAAIIIIIIIIII–AAAAAAAAAAAH!”

With a firm tug and desperate push, the second baby’s face slid out into the light, and the head popped out. Now free, it flailed its arms and legs, choked out the fluid in its throat, and cried.

“And there we go, well done, my lady! Here’s your second son!”

With slightly less enthusiasm, and more tiredness, Choine happily took her another screeching giant infant on her chest.

Hylonome came back upstairs to welcome the second baby. She saw him settling down in Choine’s arms, and at the same time, the midwife was feeling around Choine’s belly, which was now much smaller and about 50 pounds lighter, but still huge.

“You got that one out fast, girl!” Hylonome remarked. “I think you’re getting good at this!”

“Hah…hah…thank you…but…I think I won’t be the same after this…”

“No one ever is, my lady,” replied the midwife, letting go of Choine’s belly. “The last one is head-down, face down. The ideal position. How is your machine coming?”

Hylonome shook her head. “Not to where I want it to be. We got one chamber back on its housing and we reassembled one. Hopefully it’ll be enough to help.”

“Hm. Good enough, I suppose. As always, the mother does the real work, we’re only here to help. This is the last one, and you can do it my lady, I know you can.”

Choine blearily turned her head to the midwife as her huge son suckled on her breast.

“Perhaps…if I had a night of sleep…or a week…”

The Third Hyperborean

In another half an hour, the contractions resumed once more. 

Downstairs, the Cretan machinist whistled loud. “Alright lads! Lunch break is over! You 6, get on your oars! You other 2, stand by!” Several of them grumbled as they did. They were olympians, for gods’ sake. They didn’t sign up for this.

And neither did Choine. Or some might say she did. She certainly could not have imagined an ordeal this intense, and this long. But weary as she was, sore as she was, she was still here, still alive, she had already delivered 2 giants, and had one more to go. Could she do it? It was possible. It was either yes, or die.

The machine hissed to life and the hose was inserted into Choine’s sorely tested vagina. The Sacred Mother, exhausted, adjusted herself in her chair. She had to at least get them all out safe. Whatever happened to her after, would happen. She was too tired to be afraid. She too, would be a machine. A machine that made and pushed out gods.

“--oooOOOOOH! HMMMMMMMMMM–”

She was weakened. She could not bear down as hard as she could before. But with the wind machine’s help, the monstrous head slowly came down. Push. After Push.

But while the baby moved slow, the machine broke fast. One of the refurbished chambers already broke apart, its fresh adhesives not set up to the task.

“5 CHAMBERS!”

“You’re doing it, my lady. Just think of nothing else. Nothing else but pushing down. All in your bottom. Take a breath with me: has the pressure built? Then again!...Hard!...Come on, now!”

Choine growled as she pushed and the midwife pulled. As she did, the suction cup came off. Choine couldn’t hold it long anymore, and gasped. The midwife put the cup back on, and commanded that she push again. Choine let out a low, tired grunt. And the suction cup came off again.

“4 CHAMBERS!”

The midwife quietly set the hose aside. Then ruthlessly ordered another push. Choine moaned. Then grunted. Then wailed. Then fell back in her chair, limp. A trickle of blood dripped from her vagina.

The midwife looked back at Hylonome, and sadly shook her head. 

Hylonome tried her best to keep it together, but her own tears began to flow from helplessness, frustration, anger. It can’t end like this. To have her machine fail now, to watch her friend slowly and painfully die, so close to the end. There had to be another way. There had to be!

She, too, turned and noticed the uncanny scene of two big babies watching their mother struggle. They did not seem concerned. Only curious. One of them was even sucking his thumb. You creepy bastards, Hylonome thought. You’re killing your mother, and you’re watching. Even got the disrespect to suck your thumb at a time like–

Athena, too, has darts to throw. The goddess of wisdom let one fly, and struck Hylonome between the eyes with a bolt of realization. She was such an idiot! A moron! How didn’t she think of it before? Sucking! You don’t need wind to suck. Any living thing with tits knows how to suck. How do they suck? A mouth they make smaller. A single chamber. Of course.

“Wait! I have an idea! Hold on, Choine, I’ll be right back!” She tore the nozzle off the hose and galloped down the ramp.

By now, there was a large crowd forming at the base of the temple. The people heard the cries of newborns, and had gathered in anticipation. They were blocking Hylonome’s way in.

“Move it! Clear out of the way!” Hylonome barked.

“Please miss,” a supplicant begged, “is the Sacred Mother alright?”

“She won’t be if you don’t fuckin’ move!” she snarled. She stamped her hooves and the people recoiled, and she ran past the temple caretakers who were holding the people back. She ran up the works, with the rowers puffing away and the Cretan and Corinthian working like mad to try and fix it as it broke.

“Stop what you’re doing and give me one of the working chambers! Off the machine, off the oar, quick!”

They were confused, but obeyed. Where the chamber was connected to the machine, she quickly affixed the nozzle and suction cup. To test, she pulled on the plunger. The suction cup tightened like a dream. Perfect!

She ran back up the ramp and displayed her invention proudly. “Check this out! It’s no wind machine, but it’s still a sucking machine! Compact, new and improved! Now let’s get in there! Help me guide it in!”

The midwife did, with some difficulty. The wooden box was a bit unwieldy, but when the suction cup hit the head inside, and Hylonome pulled the plunger, it held.

“Can you hear us, my lady? We’re going to help you with this new device. Get ready to push again when another pain comes.”

“Yeah, we’re both down here ready to tug! We’ve got this, all three of us, together!”

Choine only nodded weakly in response. After a few minutes, her shallow breathing got faster, and she grabbed the handles. She gave a low grunting groan:

“--hooooooooohhhhhhhhhh–”

As she tiredly bore down, Hylonome pulled the plunger and supported the blood-slick nozzle (to make sure that didn’t fall off too). The midwife pulled on the box. All together the women heaved. The head came down only a little.

“More! More, my lady! Don’t give up now, PUSH!”

“--HOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH–”

The head came down only a little.

“More!”

“Come on Choine, you can do it!” Hylonome grunted as she pulled.

“–HOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaahhh…” Choine sighed as she finished. The suction cup had not yet emerged.

The midwife stood up, her hands on her hips.

“Now Choine. That is not how you push. Your son is almost here and we’re doing the best we can, but we can’t do this without you. Relax your bottom, wait for the pressure to peak, take a deep breath, and focus that pressure down and out. You and your baby will die if you don’t give me your all, do you understand? No less than your best from now on!”

Hylonome thought that was very harsh, but whatever was necessary. She saw she was right. Deliver, or die.

Choine did not visibly react. Until after a minute or two she robotically grabbed her legs, as she had countless times before, and drew them back. Through a brain completely depleted by hormones and days of effort, she numbly remembered what the midwife said. Relax bottom. Take in your breath and hold it. Push with your bottom, not your face. Put your chin to your chest. Focus pressure down. Ignore pain. Think of nothing else. 

She raspily inhaled. Then she PUSHED. Belly flexed. Face dark. Toes curled. Nails sinking into her thigh skin and drawing blood. Her hips creaked as they parted to let the final baby down. Once more, she felt the baby shift and fill her whole birth canal. She did this all without a sound.

“Excellent Choine, that’s more like it! Another like that!”

Choine bent her head again and PUSHED. The suction cup peeked out of her vulva, and one more time, her perineum began to bulge out to a frightening degree. Her eyes were shut and her teeth were clenched, but she did not scream.

“One more time! And, HEAVE!”

Choine shook with silent, exhausted effort. Her folds parted to a slit. Then widened to a teardrop. Then an oval.

“--ah!” she finally let out a sound. The head went back in a bit.

“That’s it, by the gods! I see him! Rest now, then we’ll have it!”

Choine did. Her vagina burned, but she was past caring even for that. She felt herself going. She wanted so badly to let go. To go far away, where there would be no more pain. Then all her troubles would be over. No one has to give birth in Hades.

Oh how tired she was of summoning all her will, all her power, all her strength, over and over. Every time she thought she could do no more, she had to push herself still farther. Every time she thought she reached the end of her strength, she had to dig deeper and find more. Over and over. And over. And over. She had truly given everything. She had no more in her.

But then her babies would be alone. Never to see Boreas or feel his touch again. Never to see Hyperborea, the land of forever spring. To miss her children smiling, learning to walk, then play. Then become fine young men someday. And after that, even more.

She decided she could remember Boreas one more time. She could remember her children, those born and the one still inside, one more time. She could remember too, all the people who had been there to help her along, and were doing so now. She felt that familiar creeping tightness envelop her body, and a most overwhelming pressure build her bottom, which begged, just once more, to be squeezed out. That was her baby, wanting to come out and live. That was her body, giving her the power to do it.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. She could barely hear what the others were saying to her now. It did not matter. She knew what to do. With the force of a falling star…she HEAVED.

She felt blood vessels pop in her nose. Still, she HEAVED.

She felt sweat run in rivers from her drenched hair, down her spine, and off her bottom. Still, she HEAVED.

She felt her vagina burn as scorchingly as promethean fire. Still, she HEAVED.

She felt an incredible weight, like the rock of Sisyphus, move down and spread her vagina open. Wider…and wider…and wider…and still wider. No matter how impossibly huge it felt, still, she HEAVED.

At the peak of all human possibility, that weight dropped out and dangled from her like a side of beef on a hook. Still, she HEAVED.

As the final obstacles began to slip free, she let loose a long, croaking, roaring cry that echoed over the town and was never forgotten by anyone who heard it. It went on…and on…until at last, the final infant slipped out of her in a torrent of red fluid. There was so much it would have filled a bathtub. It fell in a waterfall down the temple trap door, terrifying all below. A scarlet flood.

Hylonome and the whole midwife team cheered. The midwife patted the back on the last giant triplet, and he too gargled and howled.

“My lady…you did it! Look! That’s all three sons! Praise the gods!”

“And praise science!” beamed Hylonome.

Choine did not move.

“My lady? Did you hear me?”

Hylonome’s face fell and her guts went cold. Oh no. “Choine?”

They went to her side. She was still.

“Choine? My lady? Are you there?”

As her baby cried and cried, she did not respond. Hylonome patted her cheek, and shook her shoulders.

“Come on, wake up, girl!” she said in a quaking voice. “You’re a momma now, you can’t go! Your kids need you! Wake up, please! Please!”

Choine did nothing. Then she groaned.

“...shut up. I’m resting.”

Hylonome groaned herself, with relief, exhaustion, and emotional whiplash. “You bitch! Don’t do that to me! I thought you were dead!”

“Watch your tongue, centaur! You’re talking to a mother of 3 gods!” The midwife’s tone was stern, but her smile was proud.

The crowd at the temple steps waited, quietly, with bated breath. They heard nothing for several minutes. Then the curtains on the temple roof parted, and three midwife’s assistants stood in a row. Each one lifted up a wriggling baby for all to see.

“Behold!” someone yelled, “the sons of Boreas! They are here!”

The crowd erupted in cheers. Many raised their hands in enraptured praise. Many in the crowd brought drums, flutes, cymbals, and struck up a cacophonous symphony of noise. People danced and shouted on the temple steps. They blew kisses up to the baby boys. The joy and excitement was impossible to contain. Their god had given them sons.

The assistants brought them back, soon after Choine delivered the placenta. It was also massive, but nothing compared to three demigod boys. There was scarcely room for all three of them on her chest, but gathered up tight together, they managed. The assistants looked on in awe.

“My lady?”, one of them asked timidly, “The people…they’re so happy down there. They are all celebrating the birth of your sons as if the gods came down to earth. How do you feel?”

Choine opened one eye a crack, and regarded the girls. “Why don’t one of you…call upon some other wind god…and find out for yourselves?”

A chorus of “no”s, “nope”s, “nuh uh”s, an “nooooo thank you”s erupted around the rooftop, and Hylonome hee hawed with laughter. Even Choine gave a very tired grin.

And then, a cold north wind blew in, strong and steady. It made the curtains flap, and the assistants shiver. Choine looked up. And understood.

“I think you should all go now. I believe my husband is here to come take us.”

“My lady, but…you need proper care!” protested the midwife. “You’re in no condition to travel–”

“Thank you, but I will be well taken care of where I’m going. You’ve done all you can.”

“But…no!” Hylonome said. “You’re leaving? Forever?”

“Forever? No, no, I’d never do that to you after all you did for me. My husband is a wind god, I can come and go whenever I want. I’ll come back to visit all the time. Especially when the wind gets cold. But right now, everyone needs to go. You’re not meant to look at him.”

A tear rolled down Hylonome’s cheek, and she bent down for a hug. Choine couldn’t hug back with her arms full of demigod children, but Hylonome felt her friend’s warm embrace all the same.

“OK then, Choine. You come back real soon, alright? That Boreas had better take good care of you. And you let him know how hard we worked to have those kids of his. He better be grateful!”

“You take care my friend. I promise you won’t wait long. And you’ll get your blessings for this, I’ll make sure of it. But please, get everyone off the roof. And see you soon.”

“OK…OK…” Hylonome wiped her eyes. “You heard her, clear out!”

Soon, after everyone had bowed on their way out, the rooftop was empty except for Choine and the cooing babies on her chest. She heard the celebrations down below, but only for a moment, before the wind howled harder, and harder, until the tarps and tapestries that made up the canopy were torn off the roof and flung out over the town.

Then, with the sky above her, Choine looked up, and saw him. 

Descending, on a great pair of black wings. His skin pale blue as an iceberg. His hair and beard, a magnificent mane of icicles. His muscles, covered by nothing. His eyes, shining like the sunlight off a snowy mountaintop. Choine’s mouth opened, her eyes went wide and ran with tears, and her heart raced, her body trembled, as she beheld, for the first time, a god in true form.

The god of the North Wind, Boreas, lightly touched down on the roof. And yet when his bare feet landed, the entire temple rumbled.

His eyes, shining without pupils, gazed upon the stricken Choine and her babies. Slowly, he stepped toward them. Where his feet fell, a patch of ice grew from the roof.

He stared down at them. And then, slowly as a glacier, his icy beard crackled, his mouth moving, sideways…into a smile. A voice vibrated the air, huge, frosty, yet somehow warm.

WELL DONE…DEAR ONE…

Epilogue

When the temple caretakers dared to go back to the roof, they saw that there was no one there. Only a set of huge, icy footprints remained. Curious, white flakes were drifting down from the sky through the cold air. The caretakers caught them on their fingers, and they melted into water. They had never seen them before.

Those footprints would never melt, even under the summer sun. From then on, that rooftop was forevermore, holy ground.

Hylonome and her cohorts took what they learned from their great challenge and spread their findings of advanced pneumatics throughout Greece. In time, air pumps and other contraptions powered by air sprung up all around the Aegean. The midwife, who also became famous for delivering the divine triplets, used a version of that suction device in all her difficult births. It became a popular tool among midwives and physicians, and many mothers and babies' lives were saved.

Boreas, as promised, took Choine and their children to his palace in the north. The sons of Boreas were raised in Hyperborea, the land of forever spring, and they grew to be the famed Three Priests of Apollo, each one 9-feet-tall, and had many adventures between the realms.

As for Choine…also as promised, Boreas made her immortal, and his wife. She was no longer Choine the temple maiden, nor Choine the Sacred Mother. She became Choine, the goddess of snow. The god of the north wind and his new goddess became inseparable forever. Where he flew around the world, she followed him close behind. Every winter when the wind blew cold, especially in Aeolia, the snow came with it and blanketed the land in white.

And so, for the rest of time, winter became more than cold, and hard, and wrathful. Winter, as well, became romantic and beautiful.

THE END