First Breath

The heir to the Nubian throne raced through the sticky air into his house. He caught sight of one of the midwives somber faces and raced into his bedroom, the site of his wife giving birth. In the room, everything was still and the midwives stood awed at what they saw, which in the quiet room, was odd. He noticed why the stood as they did. The baby had a caul wrapped around his face so he began to call the heard nurse. "There's nothing we can do," she said. "It's just what happens when the baby comes out before it's due."

"What can we do to help the baby?" he asked.

The nurse had begun to sear some herbs. "The seer said to burn this sage until he gets here."

The man waited until a baler told him he could hear the healer coming. The bailer let him in, and he blew a horn and came in. The baby was turning blue at this point, and was grasping his last breath. The healer bore a hole into the caul and rubbed the fat of a boar around the whole skin. With two hands, he pulled the skin taut and began to slice the layer. As he cut, he taught them how to properly remove a caul from a baby. At last, the baby was free and gasping its first breaths. The baby's tongue rolled out of its mouth and was quickly slathered with the wax of a Tung tree. The baby whined, and his life clock began to wind. As the room around him whirled, he got his first taste of he real world.