Chapter Five

It wasn't long, only another month, before we decided to get married. Cinder found a hill of purple flowers surrounded by lavender not too far from our home and that was where we decided to have the very private ceremony. Before it could begin, I had something important to tell him.

"Cinder, I'm pregnant!"

"Really? That's so great! I've always wanted children!"

Ah loving Cinder...I never know what to expect with him. But with the big news shared, we could get onto our very important ceremony.

"With this ring, I wed thee..."

I was so happy in that moment. I was now married to the man I had always hoped to be, I was expecting a child. How could my life get any better?

Our first kiss as husband and wife.

Not long after our wedding, we built a little nursery off our room - so the baby would always be close in the middle of the night. Purple of course. Cinder had a small problem with this - what if I had a son? He wanted to decorate the nursery in blue, just in case, but I talked him out of it. He still brought up the conversation from time to time of course, but it was easy enough to brush it off.

As I worked my way into the second month of my pregnancy, I was a little miffed. I couldn't work out, or so the doctor said. He said no pull ups - what if I fell? The baby could get hurt. I wanted to work out and sometimes I did, in front of the TV but the burn wasn't the same. So i ended up reading lots of books on pregnancy and birth. Some of it was scary stuff. I would for sure be going to the hospital.

Oh and Cinder is onto a new 'thing'. He's growing plants for his concoctions. I only let him get three planters at the moment, but he says he wants more. I can only shake my head at him at this point. He says its going to 'help' the tribe somehow. I can't imagine how. I didn't really ask though.

I was too busy being frustrated and angry. That was what this pregnancy seemed to do to me. I found myself screaming at the sky for no real reason more often than not.

Only to exhaust my anger and feel sad for some reason. I don't know, perhaps its a normal reaction to this whole situation I was in? Cinder tried to comfort me but when it didn't work, he usually hid away in his Alchemy lab. He said he was trying to research something to help me out but he wasn't having much luck at all.

So we took a walk to the Alchemy Shop not too far away from our home. Cinder looked at some books on the table, paging through them with hopes to find the thing he was looking for. He didn't seem to find it though, but I wouldn't know. I was otherwise occupied.

The rocking chair in front of the fire was lovely. I plopped myself in front of it and refused to get up and help him look around. I was about five months pregnant by now and my back ached something awful. Walking around and such just made it hurt more. Cinder didn't seem to mind.

Instead he walked up to the woman at the register  I was so happy the grumpy old Vampire was gone. Perhaps he had found a better job, where he could work alone. Perhaps he was a janitor in a basement?

Anyway I heard them talking. He inquired about something to help me out with my pregnancy but she didn't know anything that eased it. It seems she was single without children. She didn't need such a thing. Hmph. Well that ended our trip there and Cinder escorted me home.

Since it was too dark to do anything else, we decided to use our TV again and watch a action movie. It was quite romantic as well, as the woman who was stranded on the island fell in love with a native. It was quite beautiful. When it was over I took the moment to talk to Cinder.

"So are you still okay with becoming a father? I know because of the baby we didn't get a honeymoon but maybe after they're a bit older..."

"Lefia, I'm thrilled to be a father. The time is right. I've been told so. Our little one will figure out something very important. I'm going to be so proud of them"

I had no idea what he was talking about of course. I was a bit worried. What would our child figure out that was so important? Was it something to do with the curse? I was afraid to ask him and get an answer. I wanted to break this curse, but at the same time, I didn't want my child to suffer under my burden. I realized I was passing the torch if I didn't figure out what I had to do soon.

"Don't think too hard about it, Lefia" Cinder's voice recalled me from my thoughts. "If you do, you're gonna make yourself scared. Theres nothing to be scared of - except aliens. But I won't let them hurt you"

I couldn't say anything. I knew he was right (about the making myself scared thing - not sure about the aliens) so I took a deep breath. It wasn't long before we both retired to bed. At least I didn't have to think when I was dreaming.

Another few months went by. I felt like my stomach was going to burst. I admit to rubbing it alot, because it seemed to calm the baby within.

Of course, Cinder was all over my stomach. He was always putting his ear against it and 'listening' to the baby move. He swore he could hear it. I was a little jealous. I would have loved to hear the growing life within.

He also enjoyed touching my baby bump, feeling the little one kick. Sometimes he purposefully got them worked up so they would kick more. I always wanted to kick him myself when he did that but I held it in. He was just bonding with his child.

His favorite game was to make faces and speak to my tummy. I always felt the baby responding. I supposed the child liked the sound of their parents voices. I could hardly wait for them to be born so we would know if we had a boy or a girl.

"Oh stop making faces at my tummy!" I playfully pushed Cinder away with laugh.

"No way! That's my baby in there!" We were soon laughing like children but it felt good. We were so joyful, though we were still rather poor. With me being out of work and only Cinder working, doing who knows what, we didn't have much income. Adding the nursery on had taken up most of our limited funds. I wanted to decorate it more, but it just wasn't affordable right now. Money was a constant worry, but at least we had  our joyful moments.

Well we were doing one of our favorite things in the world - sleeping - when a sudden ringing had me up and out of the bed. I was afraid there was a fire so I hurried to the living room/kitchen and instead saw a burglar!

Though he was clearly going to get caught, he was quite gleeful about the prospect.

I, meanwhile, was very upset about the whole thing. He hadn't taken anything but just having him there enraged me.

He ran outside, as the cop was getting out of his car. I was stunned by this. How? Why? The cop didn't seem to care and instead walked into the house as the Robber sped away. What the?

He also walked right past me and into our bedroom where Cinder was...

Um....

I'm not sure what Cinder is doing. Becoming one with his inner bunny?

"Um...sorry sir...The robber got away. But hey at least he didn't get any of your stuff! Have a nice night!" Then the police man strolled back out to his car and sped off into the night. I was almost too mad to go to bed but Cinder guided me back to the bed and even tucked me in. Frustration clawed at me for a long time, it was a surprise I got any sleep that night.

I was still upset when I got up the next morning. I didn't bother to make the bed. What was the point? If anything had been stolen, there was no way we could have had the money to replace it.

We ate some leftover salad for breakfast. We really aren't picky about meals. Cinder seemed to know to keep silent about what happened last night. I was feeling pretty moody yet.

I went about washing our dishes while Cinder attended to his plants. It was peaceful and I started to feel a little better. I moved to walk over to Cinder and give him a hug but I felt a sharp pain in my stomach area. My hands dropped to my stomach.

"Lefia?" Cinder's voice was questioning.

"Cinder the baby is coming!" I yelled.

"The baby? Now? Can't you just wait?" He cried in alarm, jumping from foot to foot as if he were standing in hot lava.

I finally convinced him to hurry outside and call a taxi. He ran as fast he could to the edge of the street and began to frantically wave his arms to call a taxi in. We didn't have that much time though.

I waddled myself around the house, away from the street. The baby was coming now.

And soon I was holding my beautiful baby girl in my arms. I named her Crystal. She started to cry right away. Poor girl didn't calm down till we got inside. She didn't seem to like being outside. Oh well.

She smiled up at me as I tucked her away in her crib. I couldn't help but smile as well. My baby. My perfect little girl.

After I changed clothes, I sat on the couch and Cinder joined me. He put his arm around me and gave me a light kiss on the cheek. I wondered if he remembered what he said about our child discovering something important or not...I decided not to ask. Now was not the time for that.

I'm sure there would be another day I could ask him.