#marcus blackbird

[esotheria-sims]

At first glance, nothing in the Blackbird household had changed. Marcus still cleaned the house. Gabriel still spent his days resting. Annika still ambled about, drifting between her bed and the backyard.

Everything seemed normal... until you noticed Annika’s too-rounded belly, or the gashes and bruises on Gabriel’s face.

It had been months since the dragon attack, but nothing was really resolved. Healers came and went, all offering the same, unhelpful advice: clean the wounds, manage the infection, rest. Nobody could tell them what came after. Dragon injuries were unpredictable, after all.

The house smelled permanently of herbs and ointments now, heavy enough to cling to the throat. Annika was supposed to rest, but she rarely did. She knew Marcus would flip his shit if he saw her with a sword, but fencing was the only thing that kept her from going insane.

She needed something to do with herself, otherwise she wasn’t sure what would be left of her.

[mikexx2]

And now, sure enough, it’s Lucio’s turn!

SO HANDSOME AND HAPPY!

Questionable attire, though.

[esotheria-sims]

The two large, scaly eggs Annika had brought from the forest hatched on a cold afternoon by the fireplace.

Two pale creatures sat amongst the broken shells, huge wings folded against their backs and long tails curled around their bodies. Silent, pearlescent, and unmoving, they looked more like statues than live dragons.

Annika was delighted; Marcus was fascinated and slightly alarmed. Together, they broached the news to Gabriel as gently as possible, with all the subtlety of kids asking to keep a stray puppy. Gabriel stared at them with his one good eye, then stared at the dragons. Then he reached for his grimoire.

A quick read of the 'Beasts' chapter provided some much-needed answers:

📖 "The Draco Major: A medium-sized dragon species native to the forests of Wyvern's Bay. Highly intelligent and trainable, Draco Majors have historically been kept as domestic animals by experienced handlers. Newly hatched dragonlings often remain motionless for several hours while acclimating to their surroundings."

So they were healthy. And trainable... whatever that meant.

[esotheria-sims]

Annika was huffing and wailing through the worst pain of her life. The men around her stumbled around in a panic, doing nothing that mattered. In one brief, horrible moment of clarity, she realised she was completely on her own.

Fifteen agonising minutes later, it was over. Annika stood there in a dazed haze, cradling the squirming little being that had somehow come out of her body. Her son.

Almost instinctively, she turned the baby toward Phillip. He began gushing, eyes fixed on the child’s bright red hair - similar to his own, but not quite. The eyes, though... they were neither Annika's nor Phillip's. Familiar in a way she couldn’t place at first. Until she did. Pale grey. Marcus-grey.

"Huh", she thought. Then she realised something else.

Annika: "Uh, what do we call him?"

Phillip: "How about Godric? After my grandsire."

Annika: "Uh-uh. Sure."

Godric. Fine by her.

She placed the baby into the basket in the corner, then collapsed onto her bed, relieved only that it was finally over.

[esotheria-sims]

In his perma-exhausted state, it was no wonder Marcus crashed into bed the moment it got dark. With both him and Gabriel asleep past sunset, Annika had most evenings to herself. Not that she could do much with this freedom.

She drifted through the house trying not to wake her family, eating when she remembered, and sometimes sitting and watching Gabriel’s chest rise and fall. Even after months, his mangled face still caught her off guard.

In the early hours of the morning, Annika allowed herself to cry. She felt so angry at herself, so stupid... and so helpless. One reckless decision had upended all of them. She felt like something in their lives had broken permanently, and it was all her fault.

[esotheria-sims]

Phillip also talked to Gabriel at length about his plans to marry Annika and move her into the castle. The date was not decided yet, but Gabriel could tell that Annika felt apprehensive of the idea. And if he were being honest with himself, he was right there with her.

Being her father, he was naturally not thrilled about the idea of his babygirl flying the nest. It felt as though only yesterday he cradled baby Annika in his arms... and yet here she was, cradling a baby of her own and making all these big, grown-up plans.

It all felt too fast. Some days, Gabriel just wished he could stop time altogether.

[esotheria-sims]

Annika did remember to take care of her child, as clumsily as could be expected from a teenage mother. She still hadn't fully gotten used to having an infant to care for, but she knew she couldn't dump it all on poor Marcus. He already had his hands full: tending to Gabriel's wounds was stress enough, even without an infant thrown into the mix.

She dreaded the changes that would come with her moving in with Phillip, but even she could admit that it was inevitable, considering their current living situation.

[esotheria-sims]

Phillip had taken to visiting more frequently after Marcus' rebuke, always making sure to bring food and supplies when he did. Annika was still giving him the cold shoulder, but it was getting harder to ignore how hard he was trying - for both her and the family she’d inadvertently dragged into this.

Phillip kept offering for her to move in with him. It would be easier for both her and the baby, he said. More comfortable, too. It sounded too good to be true, but she knew the offer was genuine. Still, she couldn't accept it.

She told herself it was because she couldn’t leave her father and brother behind. In truth, she was afraid. Of what, exactly? Leaving her old life behind? Losing the little freedom she had left? Being trapped in a castle and forced to become some stuffy noblewoman? Probably a mix of all of the above.

It all felt too fast, and too soon. She kept pretending like she had time to decide, but she truly didn't. She knew she couldn't avoid Phillip forever... couldn't avoid motherhood forever, for that matter. She told herself she'd cross that bridge when she got there.

Just as she thought it, her water broke.