CHAPTER 25: TRAVAILS OF A PREGNANT WOMAN

Nyx spent the whole of the day putting her small cottage in order. She had to clean the fireplace, set the fire, clean the ceiling and of course, mind the kitchen.

She decided to take a break after working for so long.

"Working is now harder than before," she exhaled tiredly.

She had lived in the palace for about six months, all the work were done by the maids, she wasn’t even allowed to lift a finger.

She wiped her face, "Now, I have to go make dinner." She exhaled and stood up.

Her baby bump was developing quite fast.

She headed to the kitchen, to make herself something, but then she noticed the grapes were exhausted.

She bit her lips, it was already dark, ordinarily, she wasn’t supposed to go out and look for grapes, not in that condition but she was really desperate. She wanted to feed herself, her baby needed it.

She sighed, she took a basket, and wrapped a shawl around her, taking a deep breath, she walked out into that darkness.

The breeze blew gently, grazing her skin. She sighed and walked a little further. There was a blueberry bush nearby and since she couldn’t get grapes, she would use blueberries.

When she got there, she found out the blueberries had all been plucked out.

She creased her brows, "It is already exhausted here, but I am very sure it had blueberries this morning." She held her head.

"There is nothing else I can cook this night, I am all out of foodstuffs, the only thing I have is to make blueberry pie, since I ran out grapes."

She looked around, there was not another blueberry bush nearby.

"If I can not get blueberries, I will starve tonight," she gulped nervously. Her stomach growled.

She frowned, she held her baby bump, "What am I going to do?"

There was another option, going to the grapes bush, which was a long way off and not really good for her when it was dark, but she was desperate and hungry too.

She took a deep sigh, and decided to walk to the grapes bush, she walked slowly, there was no way she could increase her pace.

It was a moonless sky, but she could see where she was going, thanks to her super vision.

She had walked almost half of the distance when she felt so tired, she couldn’t walk further.

"All because of dinner," she sighed.

She saw a branch nearby and sat on it.

"I have to take dinner late today, again," she closed her eyes and heaved. She was already tired but she still hadn’t found her grapes.

She sat there for some minutes before finally standing up again. She mustered all of her strength and courage and walked deeper into the darkness.

In not time, she had reached the grapes bush, the green grapes sparkled in the darkness. She smiled, giving a sigh of relief.

"Finally," she exhaled.

She began to pick them.

"Dinner and breakfast tomorrow, this should be enough," she smiled satisfactorily.

She turned around to go back but something knocked her basket down, all her grapes rolled into the darkness.

She gasped, "My grapes."

She picked up her basket, groaning in frustration, "I just picked those."

She turned around to go get some more.

"All that is enough princess. You can not pick anymore."

She blinked, "What? Why? I really need those." She whined.

"You had already picked some, you can not pick anymore."

She was hurt, angry, confused and hungry. If she went back home, she would definitely stay hungry till the next morning, which she couldn’t stand.

She stood there, not knowing what to do.

"Please, just let me pick some more, if I do not pick them, I will not have dinner tonight, and I do not know if you can see me, but I am pregnant, I need to feed the both of us," she was close to tears.

There was silence for a while, "Very well then, but this is your last chance for tonight."

She wiped her eyes and walked to the bush to pick some more, she picked as much as she could. She appreciated the kind person who allowed her pick again and walked happily away.

"Thank goodness," she hurried home.

She laughed softly, and talked to herself happily, unbeknownst to her, her voice attracted some rogues lurking in the darkness.

"Goodness! Is that lady not holding grapes?" One of them said.

"I think so, I am very hungry, she should be kind enough to share," he grinned evily.

"Let us go," they both stood up and rushed to her.

They both jumped in front of her. She was startled and stopped.

"We know you have some grapes with you, give it to us," one of them ordered.

She clutched her basket tightly, "Please, I just picked these, I want use it to make dinner and breakfast tomorrow."

He rolled his eyes, "Does that matter? We are very hungry, give it to us."

"Kind sirs, I am pregnant, my baby and I needs these grapes."

The other one felt sorry for her, "Come on Lincoln, let us leave her alone, she is pregnant."

"I do not care, I am very hungry."

"She just said she is pregnant, she needs it to feed herself and the baby, are you this inconsiderate?"

Lincoln was annoyed, "How dare you Rufus? I am the master of us, you dare challenge me?"

Rufus also flared up, "Do not be such a pathetic fool, if she says she is pregnant, let her be." He said firmly.

He faced Nyx, "You can go."

Nyx was grateful and happily walked past them. This didn’t go well with Lincoln, he rushed to her and flung her basket from her, running to the opposite direction.

Nyx screamed. Rufus was appalled and followed him in hot pursuit.

Nyx was too weak to run after him and her baby bump was heavy too. She could only voice her sorrow.

Lincoln was faster than Rufus, so he outran Rufus, together they both ran into the woods.

Nyx sat on that ground, lamenting her misfortune, she was very hungry and couldn’t thimk of any other way to feed herself.

She was getting weaker by the minute.

"Dear moon goddess," she said weakly. She tried to get up but her legs failed her. She collapsed on the ground, she was completely weak.

She looked at the sky, her vision blurred with tears and she mumbled a prayer. Laying her head on the ground, she blacked out.