In hindsight, having the Feelings Forum when she was on the razor’s edge of laying might not have been the best of ideas. Free was already trying to hide the signs then, and the small bits of love throughout nearly made her groan through the sheer effort of delaying it. She really started feeling the regret when the last ling left, nearly collapsing as she got up, her body not having any more of stalling things. Slowly she trudged through the evening hive, most of the changelings already retreated to their adobes, with her own quite a distance away.

Midway through the journey, she felt the mother of all contractions prime itself to rock her banded belly. Digging her hooves into the ground she frantically looked around for anyone to help, the sheer force of the contraction not enabling her to make anything more than some panicked gasps. Already she could feel the thin membrane of the egg sac starting to break, a few drops of sticky, syrupy egg fluid dripping. A mere fraction of the sheer flood that was about to gush out from her. Turning a hallway into a nursery wasn’t on her agenda today, but she would have to make due.

Art from Patch.