Split Blood: The Ancient Codex - Part One (Book #1 ) - COMPLETE

CHAPTER THREE - CONGRATUALTIONS IT'S a... (Part 3)

CHAPTER THREE – CONGRATUALTIONS IT’S a…

(Part 3)

Opening my eyes to the sunshine to see pearls of diamonds over the forest, I went to the window and inhaled deeply. The fresh air flowed through my body and soothed my stiff bones.

Looking down at my stomach, I was taken aback by what I saw. My baby had doubled in size overnight; I had gone from a small three-month bump to a large six-month pregnant stomach.

I gasped and realised that, although the baby had grown overnight, there was no pain. And even more disturbing still, there was no movement. ‘ROHAN!’ I cried as I shook him to wake him up.

He jumped to his feet and I sat on the bed. He regarded me as he would a stranger - which, I suppose, was fair enough, given I’d just woken him up with a good strong shake! ‘What happened?’ he asked as he looked at my expanded belly.

‘I don’t know. I just woke up and it was this size - the baby isn’t moving any more!’ I cried, waking Lily with the noise.

He touched my stomach and indeed he could feel no movement. ‘Don’t panic. Lily - go get some water from the stream and get Autumn!’ he yelled as she exited the room and flew to Autumn’s house, who very swiftly came flying into the room.

‘Here, drink this,’ she said as she gave me the water. I quickly gulped down the cool liquid as I prayed the baby was still alive.

We waited a few minutes. Nothing.

Although I never planned on becoming pregnant, and though the sheer pain had made me think twice about what could be growing inside of me, I realised I wanted this baby more than ever and I wanted to settle and raise a family with Rohan. ‘LOOK!’ Lily shouted from the door.

We all looked at the glowing bulge that was my stomach; beautiful pastel shades of mint green, pink and turquoise danced around my abdomen and I finally felt my baby moving again. ‘It - it’s beautiful,’ Autumn smiled as she came closer.

Proud of my bravery and relieved our baby was still alive, he sat next to me on the bed, cuddling and kissing my stomach. As everyone sighed with relief, Autumn and Lily began packing away our belongings.

‘OUCH!’ Rohan shrieked suddenly as he jumped back from my stomach. The movements were still peaceful and slow but on closer inspection, we started to see the cause of Rohan’s pain. ‘Can you see the hands?’ Rohan asked, pointing to the area.

I went to the window to use the natural light to see my baby’s limbs for the first time.

A hand, a foot, another hand, the other foot… another hand. ‘Three hands!’ I shrieked as the movements eased.

‘It’s okay - don’t worry about that,’ Rohan replied calmly as he tried not to think about the possibility of having mutant offspring.

I harked back to the fact that any mystical being with mixed blood as strong as our own would not be normal, but put it out of my mind in the hope that this one would be different.