Where's the baby? I reiterate again.

How are you giving birth?

Ignoring the creaking noises of the vines tightening around her body which draws her slightly deeper into the dirt, I cock my head. The clay was already beginning to dry under the open sunlight, making my neck feel a bit tight as the dried bits shrunk.

A faint smile forms on her now wrinkle-free lips. Her eyes crinkled at my question, dancing with mirth at my misunderstanding.

Honorable One, we do not procreate as the humans do.

Welp, looks like even if I did know how to deliver a baby, none of that information would have been useful here. Ouch. I wince as I stop myself from shrugging. No, I wouldn't admit how relieved I was I didn't have to play midwife here.

Then where is the child going to come out of??

From the womb, as all births do. Out of my belly.

Her light green eyes glance towards the soft curvature of her rounded stomach that I'd bared for her. Following her gaze, I look towards her- bellybutton?

She had a small belly button, but the skin around it was rippling. So softly that I wouldn't have even noticed it. But I noticed it now. The ripples moved out in circles from her belly button, like drops of water falling in a still pond.

Strange, but it was a relief I wouldn't have to try and deliver a messy, bloodstained baby bursting out of her vagina.

May I?

She nods, dropping her head back down and staring up at the blue sky.

Ermmmm... ERmmmmm...

The math wasn't adding up right in my head. Surely a baby was too big to come out of a belly button.

Master! Greenie bring water!

Grass rustles as Greenie trots back up to me, with a rolled-up leaf serving as a cup containing water that sloshes with his wide strides. His enthusiasm whenever I asked him to do something reminded me of- of-

I got it!

A golden retriever! If he'd had a set of ears and a tail, it would have been perfect. I could imagine his tail wagging hard right now as I sent him my thanks.

Thank you, Greenie!

Carefully we pour some of the lake water into the woman's mouth, bit by bit. Her lashes were thicker now too, while the hair surrounding her head continued to coil around and dig deeper into the soil.

The sight of one thick four fingered hand reaching out to wipe the drops of water that had fallen on her cheeks make me pause. Compared to the other goblins I'd seen, Greenie truly was a strange one, with his bouts of caring. His kindness wasn't only aimed towards me, his master, but to all who needed it.

Even the former-hag blinks in surprise, giving a small smile towards Greenie.

I thank you, goblin.

Greenie turns an even darker shade of green, the color reaching his muscled chest.

My face relaxes a bit at the sight. Awwww was Greenie shy?

"Ki..."

Grunting, he turns his face away from the two of us, picking at a new cut on his arm.

"ARGHHHHHHHEIIK!!"

I wasn't surprised every time she suddenly cried out like this anymore. But the slight sense of loss coming through the connection between me and the woman was messing with me.

The woman lets out another long, weeping call of pain, her body jerking like a tense bow.

Now! She cries out.

That was when I officially started to freak out. My one good wing flaps in my panic. There were no painkillers here, no doctors, no hospital. And when I checked her temperature, I could feel her heat even through my feathers.

What did Mom do when I was sick? When I had a fever she would make me sleep, and- and.

She'd put a cold compress on my forehead! I could do that!

Seeing the rolled up lead cup in Greenie's hand makes things easy enough.

Greenie! Help me cool her forehead!!

But we had no towel to wet, not even an absorbent leaf I could place on her forehead. And it was impossible for me to reach her face when the hair surrounding it thrashed about wildly, growing at a frightening speed and with new vines that branched out from the dark green strands.

But I did have a wing..Though it wasn't very absorbent, it would have to do. Plunging my undamaged wing in the leaf cup Greenie's rolled up, I get it sufficiently wet, and then place my wing on her forehead.

What else can I do?

Sccchk.

Her body sinks further into the grass and dirt, the soil covering her ears and limbs. The vines and leaves that seem to be growing out of her body don't bother me though. They actively avoid the area above her head where I was while we continued our mind-conversation.

I....will enter sleep soon.

My brow furrows in concentration.

Is there any way I can help with your pain?

Harsh breaths whistle out between the woman's clenched teeth.

A song.

A song?

Her response throws me off guard. I was thinking she would ask for more water, or a belly rub, but a song?

Shaking my head in behement refusal, I punctuate my response with a short "Krwa!"

I was a terrible singer! Horrendous! Even my own mother had warned me to avoid events that involved karaoke...

My sisters sang to me, long ago for comfort...

A tear drips out of the corner of her eye, tracing a line down her dirtied cheek and disappearing amongst the flowing strands of green that framed her face.

A song might help take her mind off the pain…

Fine.

If the pregnant lady wanted a song, a song she would get!

Besides, with my new mimicry skill, in theory, I could sing any song I wanted now. Any song I wanted! The sheer availability of the songs available to me makes my head spin.

Hmmmm...

"GRNGHHHHHhhhhhh!!!"

She lets out another unladylike grunt, the sound of her teeth grinding together making me hurry. What song did one even sing for someone giving birth. It couldn't be too celebratory, when I knew she was dying even as she fought to give life to the child growing within her.

One song pops up in my brain. I wasn't sure if it was the right one, but I start singing anyways to try and get the woman's mind off the pain.

"A-hem!"

With a very human-like cough, I begin to sing.

"Somewhere, over the rainbow.."

Her pained screams lessen as she closes her eyes tightly, focused on my voice. And what a voice it was.

I had a soft, rounded beautiful! voice, singing a melody that had gotten me through many a rough day.

"...way up high..."

I'd listened to this song, biting my lip to keep it from quivering as I stared out the train window on my way home. The raindrops hitting the dark train window had made my crying face disappear behind a blurry reflection then, the dullness in my heart sitting heavy and clogging.

"......There's a land I heard of, once, in a lullaby.."

A soft sigh escapes the woman's lips as my song continues.
The ripples on her stomach grow bigger, making her stomach wave like the waters heralding a tsunami.

"Someday I'll wish upon a star....wake up where the clouds are far beyond me.."
I can feel the thick finger stroking the feathers atop my skull. Greenie nods as he listens to me sing, with the strangest expression on his face....

Creaaak...

"Keeeeik!!"
Greenie lets out a surprised exclamation when a sprout grows straight out of her belly button.

But I continue to sing, after a slight pause. My singing looked like it really was helping with the pain. Even the vines inch closer to me as I sing, pulsing in time with the soft cadence of the song. Which I desperately ignored, inching as far away from them as I could without removing my wet wing.

Slowly as the ripples continue, it grows. Soft leaves come together to form a tall sprout that points towards the sky. The pale bud unfurls, bit by bit, as I sing.

"Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly"

My voice gets a little choked as I sing this part. How I'd wished to fly away from it all back then.

"....birds fly over the rainbow, oh why, oh why can't I?"

The sprout from her belly forms into a lush single flower, with white, thick petals that shimmer in the sunlight.

The lady reaches out, with shaking fingers that easily break free from the soil, to caress each white petal.

And she smiles again, her head tilted in my direction as I continue to sing.

:...I see skies of blue, clouds of white..."

...But then a petal falls.

"..the brightness of day, the dark, say goodnight.."

Another petal drops. And another.

Till the bud is bare again, and the sprout supporting it browns, dying. Something round in the center of the flower descends as the sprout supporting its weight dies, dropping the thing atop her bared belly.

There was a long silence after I finished singing the song.

Until the woman speaks in her melodious tone of voice in that strange language, the same time as she transmits it to my mind.

A wonderful world..how I wish it were so.

Though they-

She glances out towards the lake where the blind dwarf gives a start-resumes begrudgingly slapping clay on the Minotaur.

like the others, act as if the old ways are long forgotten, I believe there is still hope yet.

She looks back towards me.

More so with you, Honorable one.

I shrug, wetting my wing in Greenie's cup to cool it and placing it on her forehead once more. I was only a raven. Why did she have so much faith in me?

Creaking, vines follow her movement as she raises her palm to cover my wing. And her evergreen eyes, thickly rimmed with green lashes, blazed into mine. Tendrils of soft vines crawl up her cheek in a caress, tickling the corners of her mouth.

Why me?

You are Raven. Yet you are not. You are of the old ways. Yet your methods are strange and new.

The more I see you, the more I see Her.

Who was this person she kept talking about? Maybe this Her was the person that brought me here!!

Who are you talking about?!

She doesn't seem to hear me anymore, her eyes closing. More tears spring forth out behind closed lids.

My name.....was.....Caïssa.....

Soft lips curve as if in remembrance.

Remember...the soil....determines...the sprout..

her thought-speak was full of peace and happiness, and- relief?

...Thank you…

She gives me a bright-eyed teary smile, her face creasing like an innocent young child full of happiness and wonder.

And then she disappears, her body collapsing into a puff of leaves and dirt.

Only a few shining crystals and a brown seed remained, where she'd once been.

[Dryad Caïssa has granted you the Tears of the Dryad]