Chapter 25 Staying Hidden Out In The Open

• She walked through the valley, and though they had covered many miles, they stopped long enough for her to care for the babies, who were about to be eighteen months old. She worked a few jobs while heading East, such as working in the mines and earning wages, but she also found places where she could mine for her own pockets. Elvinia placed her hand on her stomach, for already she was a little over six months pregnant, and time had passed before she finally found a place where they could settle down. Though it wasn't as far as she wanted them to go, it was far enough into the East. Once she had found the right place, she managed to buy a small homestead with a decent size long house. There she was able to start nesting as the boys began to settle in. She began making her clothes along with new clothes for her boys; Bjorn was always near to her. Though the twins had grown attached to Elvinia, she knew they still longed for their mother, Elsa. They might not remember everything about her, but she knew they recognized her voice and scent. She tried to give them the love that Elsa and Viggo couldn't provide. They accepted their situation and took her as their would-be-mother. Bjorn, at times, would look out the window as though he saw something she didn't, and she hoped in her mind that maybe it was Baldr keeping watch over them even if he couldn't be here in the flesh. By the thirty-sixth week, she could feel the pain more and more. It was nearly time for her to give birth to her baby. Though she did her best to take care of the three boys who were always into something or another as time pressed on, they seemed to understand that something was going on, and one night, when lightning struck through the skies, she had made her way into the bathroom where she settled inside the tub that was filled with water. She didn't want to make good for the boys, who were sound asleep, and she tried to keep silent. She began to push, feeling everything. Minutes passed, and hours until she could pull her baby girl out from the water and clear the baby girl's mouth, and then after working on her daughter, she finally heard the little girl's cry. Her eyes barely opened, but Elvinia held her baby girl against her chest, "Baldr, you are a father again; I know you are here in spirit."
• She looked again at her little girl whose eyes were like evergreen, "Kirsten, you have your daddy's eyes. Thank you, God." She held her baby girl against her chest as tears fell down her cheeks wishing that Baldr had been here to share this moment. She cried tears of joy that her baby girl was healthy and beautiful and tears of sadness because both her babies would grow up without their father. She would have to be both mother and father; when they should've had their father here to watch them grow up and play with them, and of course, teach them how a loving father should be around. "I promise your father's memories will live forever; know that he already knew you. You will always be his little girl." She kissed her daughter's forehead as her little girl began to nurse. Though Bjorn was a much bigger baby, Kirsten was tiny, but already Elvinia knew her daughter would make a huge impact." Once her daughter was done nursing and asleep, Elvinia had cleaned herself off and dressed in a warm shirt that had been Baldr. It was one of the few things she had of him. This way, she felt that he was close to her. She wrapped her daughter up after putting a cloth diaper on her baby girl, and they were both asleep.
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