"Ok, be careful now. Just careful. Don't push anymore, dear," Brandon said as he slowly put his two hands around the baby and began to ease it out, softly swinging it back and forth.
Pan was going to be sick.
"Brandon," Brunhilde managed to get out, as she tried to take in a breath. "Brandon, it hurts!"
Brandon knew it. Still, he could only offer grim words.
"Only death can pay for life. Sometimes pain can be a currency the Grim Reaper extracts instead," Brandon said as he kept on easing the baby out as gently as possible.
"And you're almost done, dear. You're almost...," Brandon froze.
There, right around the baby's neck, was the cord.
"Brandon? What's wrong, Brandon?" Brunhilde screamed through the pain! Taking in desperate gulps of breath.
Brandon cursed himself for freezing like that. The last thing Brunhilde needed was for him to freeze.
She should have been helped by someone who had assisted more than one birth.
Not Brandon.
The dragon had only been named as the godfather of all those children in the village because he had helped their mothers on different occasions.
The old midwife, who had done the deliveries, had been sick the last couple of days, and Brandon, for he had assisted her with the births more than once, had been chosen for this task.
"Brunhilde, have you knitted your baby's blanket yet?" Brandon asked as he soldiered on.
"My baby's blanket? Oh, I have an entire mountain of blankets. I couldn't go out the last month," Brunhilde said as she relaxed back in her pillow. Sure that Brandon wouldn't ask about something this mundane if the baby was in danger.
"Pan, please come over here," Brandon said.
The baby could use a quick heal, Brandon thought to himself.
Even if it was too late, Brandon had to try!
Pan was too scared to move, let alone talk.
Brandon looked at him, looked him straight in the blue eyes, and then winked.
"Come now! We must see if we can get a Pan instead of a Brandon," Brandon joked, for he knew that if he was short with Pan now the man was going to lock himself inside his shell and freeze.
And the baby...
"A Pan instead of a Brandon? No chance, Brandon!" Brunhilde protested.
Only to scream seconds later!
"Pan, please," Brandon was at his wit's end.
Oh, why did the only birth he assisted alone end up with the umbilical cord around the baby's neck?
He tried to think of a way to get the baby out of there without a quick heal. But knew that should he cut into Brunhilde, she might succumb to infection afterward.
"Yes, okay," Pan stood up on shaky legs as he tried to think about everything he could do to help.
He was a field healer, not a midwife.
He was way over his head!
What if the baby died? What if the mother died?
What if Brandon died?
"Don't think about things you can't control," Brandon said, trying to put Pan at ease. "Think only about that which you can control!"
Pan slapped himself on the cheek once, twice, earning a chuckle from Brunhilde.
As he went to the baby, he saw why Brandon was so panicked, but he bit his lower lip and didn't even let out a sound.
He knew what he had to do. Knew that if the quick heal wasn't applied at that moment to get rid of the cord, then the baby was surely going to die!
"Brandon, give me your ribbon," Pan said.
Brandon did not hesitate. He untied his braid, his curly brown hair pooling around him, as he handed the braid to Pan.
Pan took it and then tied the umbilical cord in two places.
"Now I need something sharp and clean. Something I can cut with!" Pan had only read one medical book on the subject, and that was a long time ago.
As the only healer in his village, the women had decided that he should deliver their children.
He had gone on the adventure long before they had the chance to get him to be a midwife but he still remembered what was in the book.
"Yes, of course," Brandon took out his dagger and then washed it as quickly as possible in a wash basin.
He put some mana over it, knowing that a dragon's mana was the best way to sterilize it.
"Here you go," Brandon handed the now sterilized dagger to Pan.
"What is happening? What is with the dagger? What is with my baby?! Ahh...!"
Pan, quick as lightning, cut the umbilical cord into two pieces, making sure that the ends were tied tight.
Then he looked at Brandon.
"Get the baby out now!" he yelled, his hands shaking.
Brandon began to do his little routine again, grateful that the baby was now almost out.
Only the legs remained.
"You did good," Brandon said, but there was one problem with it all: normally the cord would have been cut after the baby was out.
Brandon placed Pan's hand over Brunhilde's stomach.
"But now she needs a quick heal! Quickly!"
Pan took in a deep breath.
He didn't have the mana for a quick heal right now. He was still recovering from the slave rune!
The redhead took hold of Brandon's collar and crashed their lips together!
He did not register anything about the kiss. He could feel bony fingers hovering over Brunhilde and the baby!
He could not let it happen! He had to fight!
Pan took as much mana as he could from Brandon and then used his hand to pulsate the quick heal Brunhilde.
He could feel the potent mana overwhelmed him, as Brunhilde let out the scream and the baby was finally let loose out of her!
Pan looked down at his handiwork. He noticed that Brunhilde's skin was now a better color and that she looked so as if she were no longer in pain.
Pan hoped, to everything that was holy, that he had not overcharged her with the dragon's mana.
"Pan?" Brandon asked.
Nobody took someone's mana without permission.
And yet, Pan had done it. To save not only one life, but two!
Brandon's lips tugged up. The tension left him.
"Yes, Brandon?" Pan asked as he slowly used the remaining mana to get rid of the cord, swapping the baby and luxuriating in the cry it let out.
"I'll charge you for that mana, you know that, right?" Brandon winked at him.
The baby's cries were the sweetest music he had ever heard.
But his legs were jelly, and his stomach had an entire tribe of butterflies inside...
"Oh, I, well..."
Pan was going back to being a stuttering mess, the dragon noted.
He found that adorable.