Page 227 of The War God’s Favorite

“I will accompany you with my youngest daughter and my niece, Your Highness,” said the old woman. “I have been a midwife for forty years, I can help you give birth safely to the little Prince.”

“We will take good care of you,” promised one of the young women behind her.

“The young ones will just help us carry everything and go back to make sure no one follows us.”

“Where are we going?” asked Missandra.

“You’ll like it, young Lady,” said the old woman with a wink.

Missandra and Cassandra exchanged a look, but after that, there wasn’t much time left to wonder. In a few more minutes, the five women and the young twins were ready to leave. Cassandra realized how careful they were. First, in a short time span, there were no less than five young people, from children to teenagers, who came and went to the house to let them know how things were going, where the soldiers and the dragon were focused on.

Cassandra realized how close all of the inhabitants were to be working together like this. They were sending the young ones from one house to another to relay the information, making sure the information traveled through short distances to not catch someone’s attention. No soldier would care about young people running around in their own city. They were so busy interrogating the adults that they didn’t care for the kids rushing in and out.

Hence, they made sure the soldiers were really busy elsewhere and proceeded to move Cassandra and Missandra quickly from one house to another. The two sisters had changed clothes and left behind any piece of jewelry or piece of clothing they were wearing previously, to hide their smell. Even the Baby Dragon was carefully hidden in a basket, carried by one of the teenage boys as it would have been too heavy for the women. Cassandra, staying next to it, kept tucking the little blanket around it to keep it hidden. The Baby Dragon was very curious and kept trying to pop its head or tail out. Cassandra was most scared that it would make a sound or growl. She didn’t know how the red dragon’s hearing was, and even with the rain, everyone was very careful to move around silently until they reached another house.

However, the one Cassandra had found herself in was already very close to the border, and to her surprise, she found they were headed right back to the waterfall.

Their little group moved very carefully until they reached the house closest to the waterfall. Then, they left it and went next to the Diamond Palace’s wall. Though, instead of going for the entrance, they were headed in the completely opposite direction, towards the forest. They stayed almost against the wall, off-road, everyone checking the sky from time to time with the fear of spotting a dragon’s silhouette. Finally, the old woman suddenly turned right, and Missandra was shocked for a second, as it seemed she had disappeared between the rocks. However, it soon appeared that there was an entrance there, to a cave. Missandra was speechless. Only a local could indeed know about this little cave! The Diamond Palace was old, but so were its foundations. Everything had been built on large rocks, and with the waterfall and the river crossing the Diamond Palace, it appeared that some natural caves had appeared underneath.

Cassandra was astonished. This natural cathedral of stones was gorgeous. After walking for a while, the roof was getting higher and higher above them, and they almost couldn’t hear any more of the rain. Instead, Cassandra realized that they were walking around the actual waterfall. She would have never imagined there was a large cave hidden behind that waterfall! The floor was actually half little lakes, half rocks. It was rather flat, and completely safe for everyone to move around. Hence, when they reached a large area, the young women and teenagers immediately worked together to unpack everything.

“This is incredible,” whispered Cassandra, still in awe of this cavern.

“Isn’t it?” replied the Old Woman. “No soldier from the Capital would know of this place, we only show our young ones when they are old enough. It’s a secret of the Diamond People. In times of war, people would come and seek refuge here, many, many years ago, when the Dragon Empire didn’t yet own the land completely. Nowadays it’s just for young ones to bathe in the lakes, and lovers to hide.”

Cassandra was indeed amazed. With the waterfall a few meters away, it would definitely cover any sound better than the rain outside. It was noisy even from where she was.

In front of her, the Diamond People were carefully laying several blankets on the ground, boiling some water with what they had brought, and preparing everything for the birth of her son. Cassandra was overwhelmed with emotions. This was nothing like she could ever have imagined. In her imagination, she would have been in one of the Diamond Palace’s bedrooms, with her Prince holding her hand. Now, she was hiding several meters underneath, with complete strangers who were doing all they could to help her and her baby.

Another contraction came, and Cassandra had no choice but to lay down, helped by the young women present. Missandra immediately sat by her side, taking a deep breath.

“Everything will be fine,Hinue,” she whispered. “You and your baby will be blessed by the Water God, giving birth under a waterfall!”

Cassandra chuckled and nodded.

“You know, my baby was conceived during a snowstorm. And now he will be born under a waterfall. Isn’t it amazing?”

The baby dragon suddenly jumped out of the basket with a cute little squeak, catching everyone’s attention. It looked around, but its little paws were naturally taking it to Cassandra. It walked up to her and curled up by her side. Cassandra caressed the silver scales, taking a big breath.

“I’m so sorry their father can’t be here,” she whispered.

Missandra shook her head and grabbed Cassandra’s hand.

“Don’t worry. With this crazy family of yours, I bet your baby will be big enough to kick his own dad’s butt for missing this in no time!”

Cassandra laughed, but just as she did, another contraction came, and she grimaced instead. The teenagers soon left, as they had planned, and they were left with the old woman, her daughter, and her niece, all getting ready to help Cassandra give birth.

“I don’t... even know your names,” said Cassandra, a bit sorry for not asking earlier.

“This old woman is named Chantra, Your Highness. Those two young beauties are Elianne, my daughter, and Sunel, my niece. Now, let’s take deep breaths and focus on this baby. We have a little Prince to take care of.”

The cries of the newborn echoed inside the cave’s walls.

“The little Prince is born, Your Highness!”

Cassandra was exhausted. She had no idea how long it had been, or how exhausted she truly was, but the cries of the baby were all she needed to hear. It took a few more minutes for them to clean the newborn and Cassandra to catch her breath, but then she could finally relax, and that’s when she saw him.

The old lady put the baby in his mother’s arms. He was carefully wrapped in a blanket and had already stopped crying. Cassandra was amazed. Her son. Kairen’s newborn son.The baby she had carried for months, was finally in her arms. He was so small. Compared to his father, he was so tiny and fragile, just a defenseless newborn. His skin was still a bit pinkish, but she could tell he had gold-colored skin, a perfect mix between hers and the Dragon Empire’s tan. He already had a little bit of hair, a dark patch on his tiny head. She couldn’t tell his eye color yet. It seemed dark, but her baby was barely opening his eyes, just squirming a little in his blanket.

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