Isolated house

The sun was almost at its peak in the first of Evening Star, year 1 of the Fourth Era of Cyrodiil. A brown haired imperial man, wearing a simple robe was pacing back and fort in a garden surrounded by a low stone wall. A young redguard was sitting on the wall near the entrance. Every now and then the imperial turned to look at the house.

"Will you just calm down, Sire?" the redguard asked, when the pacing man made a sharp turn near him. "It's going to be fine."

"Why is it taking so long?" the brown haired asked. "She went into labor almost seven hours ago. And don't call me that."

"Very well, Martin," the younger man said in order not to annoy his already agitated companion any further. "But according to sir Avita, seven hours is quite normal. And she knows what she's talking about. Yours is not the first child she has helped to the world. And Lady Crusader is young and strong. She'll be fine. They both will."

"I should at least be able to help her," Martin argued.

"With all due respect, you would just get in the way," the redguard pointed out, as he had done several times since he and sir Avita had arrived to the house about five hours earlier. "But you could do something else. Lets go fishing."

"Are you kidding me, Lathon?" Martin spat. "Fishing? Now?"

"Yes, now," the redguard said sternly. "I'll get the stuff."

"But..."

Lathon didn't stop to listen to Martin's arguments. He and the other Knights of the Nine knew their way around the house Martin shared with Elenezer, them all having visited the couple quite often after they had moved out from the Priory claiming that the place was too crowded and that they wanted some privacy. The knights had helped them to fix an old house located a shot distance to east of the Priory, which had long been unoccupied but by occasional bandits and marauders. The house had become warm, comfortable and cozy in record time, and those few times the bandits who had earlier visited the house showed up, they were quickly chased away - or killed if they had been foolish enough to challenge Martin and Elenezer's ownership.

And in a few months time it had become obvious what they had been doing with their new found privacy, as Elenezer's belly started to swell.

Soon Lathon had gathered all the things he and Martin needed for fishing, and despite the continued arguments from the once-priest, short-time-emperor, soon-to-be-father, the men headed to the small lake not too far north of the house.

Martin had a rotten luck with fishing, as he was not really concentrating on what he was doing, and on top of that he pricked himself to the finger with the hook quite a few times. After about four hours, when the sun had already started to decent to the west, Lathon finally decided that they could return to the house. His fishing luck had been only slightly better than his companion's, and there were three nice size fishes in his basket. As the men stepped into the kitchen, they found sir Avita by the stove, washing pots and pieces of cloth.

Martin froze and stared at the woman.

"Congratulations, my lord," the knight said. "You have a healthy daughter. They are sleeping now, but go on up to see them."

That second Martin dropped his fishing gear all over the floor and rushed up the stairs. As sir Avina continued cleaning and Lathon started to pick up the fallen fishing equipment, they heard Martin stomping through the upper floor passage.

When Martin reached the door of their bedroom, he forced himself to slow down. He pushed open the door carefully and peeked inside. Elenezer was laying in their bed a small bundle in her slack arms. She looked peaceful, but Martin could see her hair appeared to be messy and damp, and there was a light lingering smell of sweat and blood. He stopped next to the bed and looked down upon his baby girl and the woman he loved more than anything. The child had Elenezer's dark skin, but what little hair he could see, it appeared to be dark brown. The baby had buried half of her right fist to her mouth and the little lips were making sucking movements.

With one careful finger Martin caressed his daughter's cheek and he couldn't do anything but smile to this new-born life. Then he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to Elenezer's forehead.

"I'm not sleeping," she muttered but didn't open her eyes. "I heard you come in. You better go and clean up whatever it was that you smashed down there."

Martin couldn't hold back a chuckle.

"She is so beautiful," he whispered, caressing their daughter's cheek again. "And so are you."

"Yeah, right," Elenezer replied, her tone clearly disbelieving, finally opening her eyes and looking up at her husband. "I haven't even combed my hair."

Smiling Martin ran his fingers through Elenezer's white hair, which was indeed a sweaty tangle.

"I've seen it in a worse state, darling," he said, and his smile turned crooked. "There have been mornings when..."

"Martin!" Elenezer laughed as a blush rose to her cheeks. "Is this the time to..."

They both burst out laughing and the sound woke up the little baby that had so far been sleeping completely obvious to her parents' conversation. The baby's eyes were still hazy, but they were of same colour and shape as her mother's. And despite being woken up rather abruptly, she did not cry, simply pulled her fist out of her mouth and waved it at her father, who took it between his hands. It was so small, slender and warm, and he thanked the Nine Divines of that precious gift of life that was his daughter.