The Bride of Boreas (Pixiv Fanbox)

A merciful breeze

Many ages ago, in the rocky foothills of ancient Aeolia, where on the plains below the titans fought the gods for dominion of the universe, a flat-roofed temple sat perched on top of a cliff. The air was hot and still, and as Chione the temple maiden climbed the ladder to the roof, her peplos dress clung to her body with sweat.

It was ironic that the day at the temple should be so stifling, as it was dedicated to Boreas, the winter god of the cold north wind. But he was also a god of horses, so even in this weather, horsemen, caretakers, and cavaliers were taking in their mares to be blessed during their mating season. Boreas must have been pleased with them (and the tales said that he was known to sire many himself), because Aeolia was renowned for having the finest horses and cavalry in the Aegean.

But Chione had enough of the rites and heat and stink of horse-apples, and needed some air, so she excused herself to take care of the gardens and horse statue on the roof. But even there, the heat was miserable. And so was Chione.

It was not just the weather. And it wasn’t that she didn’t like to serve Boreas at the temple, far from it. She loved what she did. The trouble was, she didn’t love it in the same way as the priest and the other caretakers. They were pious as they ought to be, honoring and serving their god the best they could. So was Chione. But the others only worshiped Boreas. Chione, as she raised her hands and sang before the statue of Boreas, a winged man with icicles in his hair…LOVED Boreas.

That striking, wrathful look in his eye! His striding, powerful figure! The glorious eagle’s wings, which carried him across the clouds like Zeus himself! Even those stories about him and the horses, with him descending on herds of mares as a heavenly stallion, and seeding in them legendary steeds fit for kings and heroes, filled her own belly with a fluttering feeling and made the space between her legs warm with wanting. She could tell no one about this, and no man could ever compete with her god, and these things made her awfully lonely.

Men certainly tried, however; Chione was known as one of the most beautiful girls in the region. Her hair was dark, wavy, and lustrous as the night sea. Her eyes were green as the fields. Her skin was a soft and golden bronze. Many men desired her and tried to court her, to tempt her away from her temple; aristocrats with their wealth, warriors with their strength, stable-hands with their plain vulgar lust. None were good enough. None could compare to her Boreas.

She sweltered on that roof, watering the flowers and burying the longing in work. Anything was better than staying down there with those leering peasants eyeing her up and down, while the glorious face of Boreas reminded her of what she could never have.

Finally, she felt a slight breeze. She stood up from her watering, and when she checked to see if no one was looking, she turned to the north, undid the pins at both her shoulders, and let the top of her peplos drop down to her belt. She outstretched her arms and let the pitiful wind try to wick the sweat off her topless body. Beads of it dripped down her breasts, her arms, her shoulders, her back, her stomach. It was not enough. Her heart burned with frustration. Was nothing to satisfy her? Oh, to be cursed to be born mortal, on this pale and wretched earth, away from her beloved! Please, she thought, at least let me get a proper gust. Please...let HIM perhaps, see me, from the heavens. Let him take this heat and this pain away!

“Oh Lord Boreas,” she said to herself softly, “behold me, your faithful servant. See me, from the heavens, and be pleased. Come to me, and cool my body with your wind. Send your power, O Boreas, and wash over me in a mighty gale! Come to me! I long for you Boreas, lord of the north wind! Be near me, O Boreas! Come to me!”

A moment passed. And then, as if in answer to her prayer, Chione felt the breeze shift and blow southward. It was a strong one. Goosebumps tingled their way across her body, and she sighed with satisfaction. Finally, a cool wind!

Then the wind picked up further. And then further. Her dress began to flap behind her in the wind, and the flowers rustled in their beds. The wind blew harder and harder. Chione’s hair flew wildly in the wind, and the water jar tipped over and spilled all over the roof. She felt some surprise, but also excitement. Her lord sent her a breeze this strong on her account? What could this mean?

Down below in the temple, the mares that were lined up before the statue began to stamp and snort. Some even reared up and whinnied, alarming everyone inside. Their handlers struggled to keep them under control. What had come over them?

A mighty gust sent Chione stumbling, shielding her eyes, and falling against the guard wall. Amidst the howling gale that threatened to blow her right off the roof, she thought she heard the beating of a great pair of wings.

As suddenly as it came, the wind died down. Chione lowered her arms and looked around. She saw no great bird or harpy. But she did see a man sitting on the edge of the roof wall, who was definitely not there before.

His beard and hair were black as night, and his eyes steady and gray as flint. He wore a huge fur cloak over his broad shoulders. He stared intently at Chione, who covered her breasts with her arm. For a moment, both were silent.

Chione broke the silence: “Who...who are you? How did you get up here?”

The man stood. He was tall, powerfully built, and moved with perfect poise. Not a bead of sweat ran down his brow, for all his wintry garb. In a voice as deep and cool as a glacier, he replied:

“I, girl? I am the wind that you seek.”

Chione fell on her face and groveled in awe and terror. She trembled on the ground, not daring to raise her eyes. She could not behold a god and live!

The stranger’s big voice continued:

“I have seen you, Chione, and have heard your prayers. Many feel my wind, and beg my mercy for when winter comes. Others feel my wind, and beg my blessing for their horses. But few, so very few, ask of my wind for themselves.”

Chione felt a strong but gentle hand on her arm. “Rise, faithful one, and be not afraid. Behold me, as I have beheld you.”

Chione carefully raised her head, and saw him. He was so…strong. And beautiful. His features were chiseled perfection, sharp and without blemish. She could see his great muscles straining against his winter clothes. Her heart began to beat faster, and a curious feeling began to run through her belly.

His cold eyes softened as he gazed down at her. “I...too, have sought the warmth of another. As you have sought my cold. I have chosen you, Chione. If you will have me.”

Chione stood slowly, with the help of his mighty hand, looking up into those longing gray eyes. She put a trembling hand on his chest.

“My...my lord…”

The stranger put his hand on her bare back and let a small smile crack his features.

“To you, dear one, I am simply Boreas.”

His hand slid slowly up her waist, and Chione felt an indescribable electric chill run through his fingertips onto her skin. Her breath hitched, goosebumps flared up all over her body, and her nipples stood on end, hard as glass. That same hand slid up to her breast. He cupped it for a moment, seeming to appreciate its fullness, softness, and warmth. His thumb played gently over her hard nipple back and forth as Chione sighed, feeling his rock-hard tricep.

Boreas pulled her in close, her naked belly touching his tunic. Chione wrapped her arms around his middle and got up on her tiptoes. Their faces hovered close for a moment, a pair of half-lidded eyes meeting. Then their lips locked in a kiss. Another gust of wind blew over them as they embraced, with Chione’s body sheltered in Boreas’ billowing cloak. His hands ran all up and down her body, and her leg rose up alongside his. His touch brought her body to life, his cool and refreshing hands clashing with her raging hot insides. Likewise, as her breasts pressed up against him and she ran her tongue inside his mouth, she felt a bulge rising up under his tunic near her groin. His hand grabbed one of her bottom cheeks and pulled her lower half against his. The bulge pressed between her legs, the erection growing harder, her pussy growing hot and tingling. Chione’s mind was beginning to go blank with sensation, kissing him wildly, savoring every bit of him and wanting more, more! She did not even notice that they were levitating 4 feet off the roof, buffeted by tearing winds.

She felt him undo the belt around her waist, and the rest of her dress fell away. She felt herself being laid gently down on her lord’s fur cloak. So soft, she fuzzily thought. She opened her eyes and saw Boreas, kneeling over her, naked, muscular, and glorious. A brief thought murmured through her head: how had he undressed so fast? It was a thought so insignificant it quickly fizzled, and she looked down, and saw that his penis was like a stallion’s.

She had never seen one before, except from the tiny ones on statues. So much bigger than she imagined! She reached down and felt it, hot and firm. It swelled up under her touch, and she began to stroke it. His hand went down between her legs, and also felt something hot and firm. It was tiny, but every bit as excited. Chione keened as his hot and cold hand ran over the folds over her clitoris, up and down, round and round. Waves of wonderful feeling washed through her lower body, her heart pounded, her head filled with music and exploding stars, as the sensations built, and built, and BUILT, UNTIL--

Boreas stopped. Chione stopped too, bewildered, her hand full of a penis as hard and hot as bronze.

“Why...why did you stop…?”

“You must know before we go on, Chione,” his own breath a bit ragged, “it is no small thing for a god to love a mortal.”

“It’s fine, my lord!” Chione gasped. “Go on, please go on!”

“Do you desire me, dear one?”

“Yes! Oh, yes!”

“Do you accept a god’s love, and all that it may bring?”

“Yes, my love! I accept it! Please, don’t leave me like this! Give it all to me! Come on!”

She reached down and spread her pussy folds open. Her hole was red, hot, and dripping with wetness.

Boreas took hold of her knees, and gently spread her legs apart. Chione grasped the fur on the rug tightly in anticipation, breathing heavily. She felt the warm fleshy head of his penis brush her folds, then snake through them to the entrance of her womb. She felt two godly hands grasp her around the waist...then felt the hot, huge, hard, divine member…push...all...the way...in.

Chione’s mouth went agape, eyes wide, and she shuddered. Her god, her love, he was inside her! All the way to the hilt! Its heat and hardness went far up into her belly. Its fit was perfect.

He began to slide it in and out, back and forth, like a battering ram on a city wall. Chione rhythmically gasped and moaned, one hand running through her lustrous hair, the other squeezing her own breast in time to the beat. She clamped her hot tunnel down on his thrusting spear, wanting to feel every inch of him. Faster and faster, harder and harder, the wind began to blow in another gale. Their breaths rose together, and their hair blew wildly around them. Boreas hoisted her hips up in the air, his mouth open and his face turning to heaven. Chione’s breasts shook, her mouth drooled, her toes curled, and once again, it felt like her whole body was about to sneeze.

“Boreas...I’m feeling something...ah...ah...AH...AH--!”

Her legs shot straight out, her body convulsed, and she cried out in ecstasy. Her insides slammed down on the divine manhood of Boreas, and he exploded inside her with a long groan. A final gust of wind knocked the horse statue on its side with a CLANG.

The wind finally died down as Boreas withdrew himself and gently laid her down on the furs. She lay there stunned, breasts rising and falling hard with her breath, eyes seeing nothing, full of a warm glowing feeling head to toe. His heavenly seed dripped out of her.

Suddenly, a shout from below. “Chione! Are you still up there, girl? What happened up there?”

Chione jolted back to life in a panic. She looked around. The man was gone. She was alone on the temple roof. Had it been a dream? She tried to gather her thoughts back together.

“It’s uh, fine Antigonos! The wind blew the statue over, I’ll put it back right now!”

“One of you go up and help her!” he shouted to someone.

“NO! It’s alright, I can get it myself, don’t come up!”

She saw her peplos was mercifully blown against the inside of the roof wall. She even found her belt and shoulder pins. She quickly got dressed again, looking around, confused. What happened here? HAD she drifted off and dreamt it all? No...the big fur cloak was still there, on the ground. She picked it up and hugged it close, full of wonder and apprehension. It was true;.she had felt the love of a god. Her god. Her Boreas.

She stashed the cloak behind some clay flower pots, and with a grunt, pushed the bronze horse statue back up into place. She looked up into its eyes, which, as the horse was one of his forms, were too were the eyes of her god. She wondered what to do. Who could she tell about this? No one, obviously. Would he ever see him again? Who knows? He is the blowing winter wind, after all. The thought galled her. To finally know perfection, just as she wanted, and then never again? To be abandoned so soon by her love, with only an old bear pelt as a parting gift? Her eyes began to burn with tears.

“Chione!”

She wiped her eyes, then went back down the ladder.

A balding grey-haired man in a robe glared up at her as she descended.

“About time! What were you doing up there so long? It was crazy down here, we could have used you!”

“Sorry, Antigonos.”

“The horses going mad, the wind blowing everything over, and as all that was happening, the statue mechanism breaks down! Hylonome!” he shouted towards the statue. “How’s it coming?”

Chione could see what looked like a black horse kneeling on its front legs behind the statue, its head hidden from view. But she’d know that equine body anywhere. A voice behind the statue called back, “That should do it!”. The horse got up on its front hoofs and stepped out, revealing it was not a horse at all: the upper half of a dark-skinned and muscular woman extended where its head would have been. Hylonome, the centaurine, wiped her brow with her arm. “Try it now.”

Antigonos shuffled over to the side of the statue, and stepped on a secret tile that depressed into the floor. Something under the floor clicked into place, and from the statue's mouth a gust of wind blew out. Hylonome put her hands on her hips (or where her hips would have been), satisfied.

“See! It was the bellows seal, for sure. I added a bit of pitch to the wax mix to see if that holds a little longer. I’ve got to look into a more heat-resistant sealant while we’re in this ungodly heat!”

“Yes yes, you’ve done well for now. Give her the usual, Phoebe,” he waved to another maiden. She went to the pile of offerings in the corner and brought Hylonome a jug of farmer’s wine.

“Ah, that’s the stuff! To Boreas!” She raised the jug to the statue, then took a deep quaff straight from it. “Ahhhhh...” She looked down at Chione. “Chione! Didn’t see you there. How have you been? You look a bit flushed there, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thank you Hylonome, it was just...very hot up there.”

“Oh, I bet! Hope ol’ Boreas sends some cooler winds our way soon. Is that lyre-playing guy still bothering you?”

“No Hylonome, not since you kicked him down that hill.”

“Ha! Girl, I feel SO good about that, that guy was such a creep! Good! One of these days I know you’ll meet a man that isn’t just, completely disgusting, am I right? Hey, if you got time, want to commiserate with this jug here? I wouldn’t share it with anybody else!”

“Do you mind, Hylonome?” Antigonos cut in. “Chione is still on duty here! We still have to tally the offerings, apportion them, sweep the floors, we still have a lot to do! She has no time for your carousing!”

“Hey! Is she your slave or what? I don’t think she is! Chione is free to speak for yourself, aren’t you, Chione?”

Chione hesitated for a second. Should she tell her? No, not yet.

“No no, it’s fine. I do have some things to finish up here. I can talk with you later?”

“Tch. Alright girl, but not too long, alright? Remember what I said about visiting me up in the hills sometime!” She clip-clopped around to go. “Sheesh, whatever the perks are about keeping up a place like this, I’ll never know!”

Antigone glowered after her as she trotted out the doors. “Uncouth savage…” he grumbled.

Chione, knowing full well what the perks were, quietly swept the floors and daydreamed about sensations both hot and cold, and high winds, and a tight embrace. When she took her share of the offerings when the day was done, she snuck a fur cloak out with them. That night, she wrapped herself in it, hugged it tightly to her bare body, inhaled the scent of it deeply, and dreamed of the touch of a god.

The divine consort

The next day Chione climbed up to the roof once more, bared her sweat-dripping breasts to the north, and begged her love to return. If it was not beyond hope for a tryst with a wind god to repeat itself, that her beloved might come back for more.

And oh! The wild joy she felt when the wind again blew boldly south across her body, and Boreas’ intense gaze fell upon her once more.

“Boreas...I feared you would not come back.”

“Do you think me like Zeus, who ravishes and abandons mortals as he pleases? No, dear one. As the winter wind comes and goes each year, I too may depart, but always I return. Come. I have missed your touch.”

Chione hugged him close. “And I yours, my love.” They kissed, and the rest of their clothes fell off them. The winds blew hard and the temple moaned with it. Before long, so did Chione. And then they howled.

Day after day, she went up to the roof and prayed for her divine paramour to descend, and every day he did, and every day they made passionate love up there on the roof. One time, she sat on the roof wall, legs spread wide, as he plunged his godly cock into her again and again. Another time, she bent over it, and felt his cool electric hands on her buttocks as he plowed his way between them, and her nails scraped the plaster off the wall. A week later, she dared to bid her god lie down, and standing over him, slowly squatted down over his midsection. She put his hands on his bulging chest, playfully rubbing her labia and clitoris up and down the length of his manhood, until it was hard and hot to her liking. The bronze now prepared for the forge, she boldly grasped it, raised herself up, kissed it with her lower lips, and eeeeaaaasssseeeddd herself down. She sat proudly on top of her god, his penis throbbing deep within her, and she felt great love and great power.

The other temple caretakers noticed a change in Chione. Where before she came dutifully yet somberly, she now came in cheerily, with excitement, and with a quiet yet profound confidence that was not there before. She practically glowed.

After many weeks of this, Chione too began to notice some changes. It seemed to her that her body odor was different. Certain smells that did not bother her before, she began to find revolting, even nauseating. Her sandals, which had fit her fine for years, needed loosening. She felt more bloated than usual, and as she ran her hands down her torso one day, reaching the space below her belly button, she felt a small, firm, apple-sized object inside her.

A flood of feelings rushed through her then, of hope, of love, of terror! Could it be? Oh Gods!

Over the weeks, the apple grew to the size of a gourd, then a loaf of bread, and Chione’s middle began to thicken. Her dress managed to hide it, and Boreas, who continued to shower his love on her, did not appear to notice or care. But Chione noticed. The shape in her belly grew bigger and bigger, crowding her guts out of its way and expanding her belly into a bump. Still able to be hidden, but it was growing quickly. How much longer could she keep this a secret? Soon, she knew, she would have to tell someone.

As summer ended and the land entered mid-autumn, Chione tightened her belt around her bulging middle as much as she dared, and returned to her duties as usual. But as she attempted to take her leave to go up to the roof, Antigonos held up a hand.

“I’m closing the roof for the fall and winter, Chione. Now the flowers are out of season, there’s no need to water them. Besides,” he eyed her suspiciously, “you take too much time up there. The other maidens are working hard down here, and where are you all the time? I want to keep a closer eye on you from now on, make sure you’re not shirking.”

Her face flushed dark with sudden anger. This was unlike her. Another change.

“Shirking!? How dare you! You don’t know how hard I have worked to please Boreas, in everything I do! I love him as much as you! Probably more!”

Antigonos was unmoved by her outburst. Nor did he notice that the wind began to blow hard outside. That happened all the time now.

“Touched a nerve, it seems!” replied the priest. “Your tantrum shows me you have something to hide about your duties. I have no doubt you have worked to please Boreas. You may please him better by sweeping the temple steps spotless.” He held out a broom.

Chione had an overwhelming urge to claw that smug old face to ribbons, or cram that broom somewhere it could sweep no more! The wind howled, and from above everyone heard the horse statue once again fall with a CLANG. Antigonos looked up in annoyance.

“That statue again. I’ll have to get it weighted. Someone needs to go up there after all. But not you! You’re going to do your duty down here where I can see you! Well?”

Outside, the wind howled, and a stall crashed over on its side. Its tarp tore off its poles, flying down the street. Baskets, bread, fruits, even people rolled down the street under the force of the gale. A few pedestrians, struggling to walk against the blowing onslaught, managed to make it up the temple steps.

“Antigonos!” one of them cried, “Boreas is angry today! Why does he punish us with this wind?”

“I don’t know, my friend. Maybe he requires an offering. Or maybe…” he turned to Chione, “this maiden has been displeasing him!”

“What!?” Chione gasped.

“Yes! I see it now. The wind is always blowing hard when you waste time on the roof, and now look! Your disobedience calls it forth again, worse than ever!”

He turned to the people. “This woman has dishonored the gods with laziness, dishonesty, and defiance of one’s duties! Her impiety has called down their wrath! Take her! Throw her out!”

Before she could get away, the angry townspeople charged forward and grabbed her by the arms. She kicked and screamed as they dragged her to the temple doors. Outside the winds had strengthened to hurricane force. An entire stall turned end over end down the street, smashing itself to splinters. Two more followed after it. Clappers were torn off their windows and pinged down the walls.

Chione was thrown roughly towards the stairs, and fortunately she kept her footing. She raised her arms, expecting to be carried off by the wind or flung off the cliff to her doom...but felt nothing.

The people, the maidens, and Antigonos looked at her in amazement. In the midst of the tempest, which blew whole rooftops away, she stood unmoved. Her dress did not rustle. Not even a hair blew out of place. It was as if the wind refused to touch her.

Chione shook off her amazement, and saw an opportunity to turn the tables. “You chose wrong, priest!” she screamed over the wind. “Look! I am favored by the god! Let me up to the roof, so that I might calm him!”

“You f-flatter yourself! What can you do to calm mighty Boreas!?”

But this was lame, and everyone knew it. As quickly as the townspeople turned on her, they nervously stepped aside to let her pass.

She opened the trap door to the roof, and saw him in his divine wrath: Boreas. Levitating 10 feet up, untouched by the wind. Hand outstretched over the town. Lips pursed as if blowing. Eyes full of freezing fury.

“Boreas! My love!”

His hand lowered, and the wind slackened, but not by much. He descended to the roof. His eyes would not look at her.

“I saw it all. By my master Aeolus. I saw it all.”

He did not raise his voice, but Chione had no trouble hearing him over the gale. He finally turned to her, eyes piercing and sharp as an icicle.

“By your word, dear one, I will blow this place and all that lives in it off the face of the earth. My breath will leave no stone on top of another. Whatever remains, I will freeze so coldly that it will never be thawed. Say the word, dear one, and I will smite this place with all my power.”

Chione took the wrathful gaze of a god untrembling, and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“No, Boreas. I bid you, spare them your anger. They have seen their error, and will honor you now as never before.”

“I care nothing for the worship of those who laid hands on my beloved. They should all perish for what they have done.”

“I forgive them, my love. Or at least, I do not want them to die. I will make fearful servants of them. I shall make them honor me as they honor you. And we will be together for as much as we desire.”

“How will you do that?”

“With this!” She undid her shoulder pins, and let the top of her dress drop. This time, she put her hands on her bulging belly as well.

“It is yours, my love. My child and yours. I carry the child of a god. And they shall fear me for it!”

All the iciness left Boreas’ eyes, and they widened. In an instant, all the wind stopped. A moment of pure quiet. Then he spoke:

“So. It has happened. Children of my own. To be sprung from the loins of a woman mortal. Of course.”

“Children?”

Boreas, god of winter and the north wind, melted before her. He embraced her fiercely.

“Oh, dearest Chione! Do not mistake my apprehension for sorrow! I overflow with joy! It is only the dangers I see, for you, a mortal mother, that give me pause!”

“What dangers? You hold me too tight!” Chione wheezed.

Boreas released her and looked at her with an expression unplaceable.

“I have no powers of foresight. But the winds give me forebodings of things that may come to pass. You may gain power, and this also may bring you trouble. The jealousy of mortals. The eyes of other gods. Finally, that which grows within you may also imperil you. Indeed, as I warned you, it is no small thing for a god to love a mortal. But hear me now, the words of Boreas: I give you, Chione, my divine promise; that I will never leave you, nor forsake you, and my love for you will never end.”

They hugged each other, deep in thought, and fear, and love, for a long time. Then they parted.

Chione descended down the temple ladder, and she had not bothered to pin her dress back up. The townspeople stared at her with shock, and anticipation. When she reached the bottom, she threw out her arms and displayed herself to them, breasts, belly, and all.

“Behold! I am with child! The child of Boreas! He is my lover, and the father of my child. That is why I am favored! Do you understand? You tried to cast the mother of his child to her death! What do you have to say for yourselves?”

The people recoiled in horror, then prostrated themselves all at once.

“Forgive us lady! We did not know! The priest misled us, and turned us against you!”

Antigonos went white with fear, and stepped back from her. Oh, how nice it was for Chione to see that! She was tempted, sorely tempted, to turn the crowd on him like wild dogs. But--

“I forgive you. All of you. And Boreas forgives you too. I have turned his wrath away. He has only this to say to you: to remember the power of the north wind, and its mercy. Honor him, and those he loves. And for me…” she put her hands on her belly, “...to raise his child well with your help, and let it be a blessing to you also. So speaks Boreas!”

“So speaks Boreas!” cried the townspeople.

“S-so speaks Boreas!” stammered Antigonos, bowing deeply.

Chione smiled, in a way that she hoped looked beatific. Yes. Things would be much different from now on.

The winds of destiny

That morning, Chione was a lowly temple maiden. That night, she was the new head of the Temple of Boreas.

Within days, the offerings poured in the temple like never before, and Chione got the best of everything. Figs, olives, lamb, grapes!The finest clothes! Rugs, pottery, jewelry! Word spread quickly about the Sacred Mother, and many supplicants came to bring her their respects personally.

The temple made for a small, yet extravagant palace, as Chione moved in and set up her own chambers. She had attendants for everything. No more sweeping. No more scolding from Antigonos. And of course, no more interruptions from her time on the roof. Now, to her delight, she and Boreas could make godly love up there multiple times in a row!

Well, one interruption. As Chione’s belly grew rounder, she knew she had to get answers for her pregnancy. And if Boreas could not tell her, she would have to go see the Oracle of Dodona. It was a long trip clear across Greece, 2 weeks at least, plus preparations. She had to make the journey while she could.

Fortunately money was no longer an object, and a caravan with armed escort, fit for a queen, was assembled. She took some retainers with her, and Antigonos for good measure.

It was indeed a hard journey there, though plains, forests, and mountains. They had some near misses with bandits, lions, and even a flock of harpies. They are stories in their own right, but for now, we skip to the journey’s end where they finally arrive at the place of the Oracle. A temple cave, ancient beyond reckoning even to them, from a time where the Mother Goddess still reigned. Chione sent Antigonos in to request an audience. Of course, they were expected.

Chione and her entourage were seated on cushions on the floor of the cave, walls lit with braziers and air thick with incense. In the middle of the floor was a hole with a ladder leading down. Two figures in robes and masks guarded it. From down below, they could hear something, a woman perhaps, shrieking, chanting, mumbling, crying out deliriously. They waited patiently, but unsettled. After a long time the noise died down, and another robed and masked figure climbed up the ladder out of the hole.

This figure faced Chione and her company, raised both hands, and intoned:

“The Oracle has spoken. Hear now the words of Zeus and the Mother Goddess, beloved of Gaia. I, the mouth of the Oracle, will relate them: From the womb of snow, 3 tall sons will appear. Begotten by ice, but beloved by the sun. On their coming, a flash of bronze, a thundering of hooves, a scarlet flood. The wind will reverse its course. They will fly over the mountains, and men will not know them.”

A pause. “These are the words of Zeus and the Mother Goddess. Heed them, and go with the gods.”

That night, Chione, Antigonos, and company pondered and argued over what the prophecy meant. The first part was clear enough: the womb of snow was obviously Chione. But was she having two more children after this one, or three all at once? Her belly was getting bigger pretty quickly, triplets might explain that. That would remain to be seen. Begotten by ice proved without a doubt that Boreas was the father, but what did “beloved by the sun” mean? If ice a metaphor for a god, could they mean a sun god? Helios? Apollo? One of their relatives? Sounded like a good sign. But the rest sounded dreadful. Many in the party said it was an obvious sign of battle and bloodshed. Others said that it could be more metaphorical than that, war could be too obvious an explanation. The wind reversing its course, a literal reversing of the wind as a sign of divine providence? Or could they be talking about Boreas again, that he might change his mind, or act in way unlike him? And how could 3 sons of a god, “beloved by the sun” whatever that meant, go unknown to anyone? Would they leave them immediately, or many years from now?

No prophecy by oracle was ever meant to be easy. They were always a puzzle. Antigonos and the other temple retainers swapped theories back and forth all the way back home. Chione, in her heart, was most troubled by the “wind reversing course”. Boreas could never betray her, could he? He promised.

But as she returned to the comfort of her home temple, her worries dimmed. Her child/children would not arrive for a while yet. In the meantime, there was work to do.

Her daily routine went something like this: every morning when she awoke, her retainers would rub her rounding body down with perfumed olive oil. As they scraped her, washed her, and dressed her in fine attire, they would summarize what offerings or notable donations were counted last night, and what appointments she had that morning. The clothes were chosen to accentuate her pregnant belly as much as possible, so when she presented herself to the morning worshipers, they would know without a doubt who was talking: the Sacred Mother, and don’t you forget it! She even conducted her own rituals. Then, she would go out on any visits or errands she desired, sometimes on foot, sometimes by palanquin. Then, when the morning was done, she would dutifully scale the ladder to the roof, bare her growing breasts and belly to the north, and call her beloved down to her. They were not to be interrupted, on pain of death. When evening came, she smugly climbed back down, and saw to any more private meetings: disputes to settle, problems with temple staff, that sort of thing. And then to bed, in a fine boudoir of curtains, cushions, and silks.

The one problem in this high-class life, was that as Chione’s belly expanded farther and farther, she was finding it increasingly hard to climb that ladder. As the weeks passed and her middle swelled out, it was in danger of bumping into the rungs as she climbed. Her balance was beginning to be thrown off, and her body began to feel heavy. Her servants would not dream of telling her not to go up to the roof, but they did beg her to be careful as she grunted her way up. Oh well, thought Chione. It was bound to happen sooner or later. So one day, after mounting the ladder and turning her burgeoning belly out to the side, she went up the ladder one last time. Then she ordered her room to be moved up to the roof.

There, her body gave her no more trouble, as she felt the first flutterings of movement inside her and her belly began to swell out to a spherical shape. In fact it was even better: when she needed to make an appearance, she threw apart the curtains installed on the roof and displayed her body down to an enraptured audience below. Everything she wanted was sent up in a basket by a pulley. Now, when someone wanted an audience, they had to climb a ladder to meet her in her rooftop domain.

Well, almost everyone. One day, from below, Chione heard a loud “HEY! You up there, with the immortal boyfriend! Got something for you!” It was Hylonome the centaurine, smiling and sending up a basket. “Got you those wild boar sticks you wanted! How are you feeling, girl?”

Smirking, Chione put her hands on her back and stood up straight, hauling up her big belly for Hylonome to see. It was now about the size of a full term normal pregnancy.

“Damn! And you’ve got three in there?”

“Yes! A city midwife came and confirmed it! Triplets, like the prophecy said!”

“’Like the prophecy said’, listen to this one go on! Speaking of which, ol’ Boreas, he’s, uh, not put off by any of this?”

“On the contrary!” Chione replied, shaking her hips. “Things are better than ever up here, if you know what I mean!”

“Sounds nice! Me, I don’t think I could be cooped up there like that! I need my space!” She coughed. “Shame you can’t come down, I’m losing my voice already talking to you like this! This is just how we’re going to have to talk for a while, huh?”

Chione, who had not felt sorry for anything in months, felt a pang of guilt. It felt so gratifying to make people come up to her to pay respects, but in doing so, she left a friend behind. It’s not as if a centaur can make it up a ladder, and that basket pulley would never be strong enough. Shame there was no other way up...wait, what was she thinking? She could make whatever way up she wanted!

“No! Unacceptable!” she cried. “Phoebe! Send word to our carpenters. Let there be a ramp built up to this rooftop, wide and strong enough to hold a horse and rider. Go on, let them start at once!” The maid bowed, then departed swiftly down the ladder.

“Aw, Chione! You don’t have to do that, just for little ol’ me!”

“No! I’m doing it, and I’ll hear no more about it. I’ve missed you! I never got to meet up with you like I should have, I’ve been just terrible! And maybe I do want to get off this rooftop somehow, while I can still move!”

They both laughed at that, and departed. Chione ravenously snacked on those wild boar sticks, while she waited for Boreas to come down and pleasure her. She wasn’t lying: sex with Boreas was still the highlight of her day, and her appetite was only increasing with her pregnancy.

The carpenters worked day and night, but still, it was not easy to get a ramp that size around a cliffside temple. It took weeks, and with those weeks Chione grew still bigger and rounder. Her belly button popped, and she was having trouble keeping her legs together when she sat down. The attendants took extra care with the olive oil regimen on her rounded belly to make sure she remained unblemished. Whether it was due to their efforts, or divine favor, her steadily expanding middle bore no mark or stripe.

Finally, Hylonome came clip clopping up the finished ramp and saw Chione sitting there on a soft stool, belly swelling triumphantly. She was months away from her expected time, but she was already growing large indeed with her divine offspring.

“Whoa! Look at you, sitting pretty! Come here girl, it’s so good to see yooouuuu!” Chione got up with a hand from Hylonome, who bent down and hugged her.

“Is the ramp working fine? Do I have to have anyone flogged?”

“No way, works great. I will say though! That drop over on the cliff facing side of the temple? A bit scary if you don’t like heights! But I figure you got no problems with those. Anyway! Enough about that, now that I have a close look at you, I’ve got to know what it’s like to be you right now, you’re looking biiiiig!”

They lounged and chatted for a while, Hylonome lying her big horsey body on some cushions, Chione snacking on more boar sticks. Chione had much less to report than other women might at her stage: she never felt morning sickness, never got acid reflux. She did feel very full all the time, yet very hungry, and she got tired more easily. Her sons were beginning to get more active, but not enough to be very bothersome. She did have to pee quite often, and getting up and moving around was getting more cumbersome every day. But compared to normal women, this pregnancy had been, on the whole, divine. She talked also about Boreas, about his coolness, his quiet intensity, and his red hot love.

The talk moved to Hylonome and what she was up to. She continued working on various contraptions whenever she had time, and her attention had returned to the mechanism she built below the statue. Yes, it could make a puff of air, but anyone could do that. She wanted to do more. Chione’s eyes began to glaze over as she talked about air currents, differential air pressures, diaphragms, pump systems…

“...like I don’t know how in hades I’m going to do it yet, but getting a system in place that could produce a continuous stream of air, water, what have you, or even doing the reverse, sucking it all back up again, it’s got a ton of different applications—”

Chione suddenly snapped awake. “Wait, hold on, hold on! What was that about the reverse?”

“Oh yeah! I imagine it’d be just reversing the workings of the mechanism, diaphragm, whatever, and you can make the air go back to where it came from! You can do all kinds of things with that, capture a bunch of smoke or bad air and send it somewhere else—”

“Brilliant! That would be wonderful for the temple! Would you get started immediately?”

“Immediately? Uh, got to be honest with you Chione, this is all still theoretical, it would take me ages to get you something working—”

“You won’t do it alone. I’ll get the finest minds available to assist you. Phoebe!”, she barked, clapping twice. The maid came to attention.

“Send word out by bird and horseback to all centers of knowledge! Athens, Samos, Crete! A call to all inventors to come to Aeolia—no, a challenge! Make a device that can make the wind reverse its course!” Phoebe left. “And you Hylonome; you will lead the project.”

Hylonome gawped. “Chione, but...why? This is mighty sudden! Why do you want such a thing so bad?”

Should she tell her? Chione thought. She felt the demigods inside her kick. Why not? She is the Sacred Mother, a walking miracle. Who cares if anyone thought she was mad?

“The prophecy of the oracle spoke of this. That when my sons come, the wind will reverse course. This device may be what she meant! I want you to build it! I want you to prove it can be done! Let’s bring about our destiny with our own hands!”

“...look Chione. I can’t talk about prophecies and destiny and all that. But if I’m hearing you right and you want this thing finished by the time your kids arrive...it’s going to take days, if not weeks, for those letters to get sent out. Then they got to find the people they’re supposed to. Then they all have to pack up, and ride or sail all the way here, and that’s going to take weeks more. Then we have to actually brainstorm, test materials, make prototypes, test those prototypes, Chione...sister…” she looked forlornly down at her friend’s swollen belly, “there’s no time.”

“I have months left. You can get started while we wait for the others to arrive. I only wanted to get those other wise ones to help, you are the real genius behind this! With your amazing mechanical brain, I bet you can get something built before they even get here! You already have the device in the temple floor, start with that!”

Hylonome had a face that wanted to argue, and Chione had a face that didn’t want to hear it. Chione’s face won, and the centaurine sighed and stood up hugely on all 4 hooves.

“Fine, I’ll try it. But I’m going to need some supplies and a place to work.”

Chione took a big metal ring off her finger and handed it to Hylonome. “This is my seal. Show it to any supplier or craftsman in town and you will have whatever you want. Use my old chambers in the temple for your workshop. Get to it, I’m counting on you!”

Later that day, Boreas and Chione lay steaming on cushions, panting, his hand on her sizable belly. Their heartbeats slowed, and Boreas spooned her close from behind. Chione did not react.

“What is the matter dear one? You seem distant today.”

“It’s not you. I’m just worried about...what the oracle said. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I feel...frightened.”

He nodded solemnly. “So it is, with fate. But do not fear. I am with you, as always.”

“Boreas? Can you...is it possible to change it? Or make it come about the way you want it to?”

Boreas sat up. “I do not know. But I do not think it wise to try. Many tales are told of gods and mortals who were punished for trying to circumvent their destiny. To try and thwart fate...may end up ensuring it comes to pass. What about the oracle’s words troubles you?”

Tears began to flow down Chione’s cheeks, and she sniffled. “Oh my love! It all troubles me! The red, the bronze, the terrible hoofbeats! That my baby boys might leave and never return! But let all that come to pass! The battle, the promise of death, if that is all, I could bear it! But the ‘wind reversing course’! Oh, those words above all else, how they’ve tortured me!”

She heaved her big belly over as she turned to look at her love. “I commissioned an invention! One that reverses the wind! In hopes that somehow, the prophecy may be fulfilled with that machine. In hopes that...the wind that reverses course...may not be you!”

She had never seen him stunned before. But Boreas, god of the north wind, was indeed stunned. Before long however, cold anger set in his eyes.

“That is what you think of me? I come to you every day without fail. When you were assaulted by these worms in human shape, I came to your aid. I gave you my divine promise of faithfulness, a thing that cannot be broken for all eternity, I bring you blessings without end, and after all of this, you distrust me?”

“Boreas...no! I do trust you! I did not mean—”

He stood up. “I must go now. I will be with you always, as promised. But I will not appear to you for a time. Goodbye.”

He blew away with the wind, like dust. Chione howled and sobbed, wretchedly, alone.

The race to reverse the wind

As Hylonome predicted, everything took too long. The engineering challenges were great, and she had so little to work with. How would she do it? To use a bellows design was good for short bursts of air, but it was always limited by the size. To have it run even a minute, she would need a squeezebox the size of a building! And even then you would have to stop and blow it out again, or let the air out of a hole, and that breaks the suction cycle and defeats the whole purpose! And then those damn sealants kept melting or cracking, which would make it useless anyway! What to do!? She swore blasphemously in the temple workshop night after night, tools flying.

Meanwhile on the roof, Chione half heartedly spread her legs for the midwife, who was not some village auntie but a literate physician in her own right, and was told that all was well. Chione barely cared. She felt huge and overfull, her belly now swelling out twin-sized.

It had been several weeks since Boreas came. Chione was inconsolable, and ceased to bother showing herself to the public. Antigonos tried to tell her, it was midwinter now, perhaps Boreas was simply busy doing his duty as the winter wind god? Chione tried to believe that. She tried to remember his promise, that he was just up there, watching, invisible, and hadn’t abandoned her. But nothing she tried could help her feel less lonely, less ugly, less helpless. She feared in her heart that Boreas was right: by trying to change that part of her fate, she made it come true.

At last some good news! An aqueduct engineer from Athens arrived. He introduced valves to the project: things which could let water in but not out. But doing it with air was a whole other challenge. The type of valve the Athenian was used to would have to be completely re-engineered…

Chione’s belly was growing faster now, both forward and out, bigger and bigger...

A mechanist from Crete arrived next. He proposed that a double bellows system might be the answer, to keep a consistent stream of air. But that added a lot of complexity, the valves still didn’t work right, and the best suction they could get was weak and sputtering…

The belly was expanding towards her knees when she sat down, her sons crowded tightly, kicking strongly, and she had no one to comfort her…

A materials specialist, a woman from Corinth, gave a fascinating story. Years ago she had been to Egypt, where she heard of a wondrous material you could get from the sap of certain trees in Africa, called rubber. She even got to touch it once. It was elastic, yet stable and could fit together tightly. Sadly there were no such trees in the Aegean, but if you rendered down dandelions in the right way, you could get a material just like it. But you had to get a lot of them, and it was winter, so they were hard to come by this far north. Might we just settle for pitch, or resin, the Athenian asked? No, she replied, she couldn’t imagine you could make valves out of that…

Chione’s belly button now poked out just at her knees. Her massive middle swayed back and forth as she waddled, and she felt as big and full and tight as a ship’s sail…

The project was hitting dead end after dead end. Maybe the bellows design is too primitive, and a new approach is needed, the Athenian said. No, said the Cretan, the mechanics are just put together wrong, the moving parts are just too un-synchronized to get consistent results. Useless, said the Corinthian, all of it useless, until we get working valves and seals.

“Your dandelion material is too experimental and too costly,” retorted the Athenian. “It is distracting us from finding materials that are proven to work.”

“We have been working on your valves for months and you haven’t found anything that works yet. We need something new, instead of trying the same things like madmen!” insisted the Corinthian.

“That is just what I have been saying! But you have no right to speak to me that way,” harrumphed the Athenian, “I have helped design some of the greatest water systems in the world, and what have you done all your life but grind flowers together?”

Hylonome moved to break it up, and the Athenian turned on her too. Why was she in charge? What contributions had she made? None of the others in that room were qualified to run this project, least of all Hylonome. What had she done, he proclaimed, but give them one set of bellows and be friends with the temple brood sow upstairs?

The centaurine called him an ignorant, arrogant blowhard. The Athenian called her a drunken beast of the field. Fists flew. Hylonome won. The Athenian tumbled down the temple steps. He swore to get the law involved, and stormed off into the night. The project was one mind down, and the machine remained unfinished.

Upstairs, the midwife stepped out of the great shadow of Chione’s belly. “Won’t be long now I’m sure, my lady. You’ve almost made it to 10 months. You never see that with multiples. They are definitely a strong and healthy lot, as you can feel I’m sure. Now that we’re getting close, it’s time to come up with a birth plan. Where would you like to deliver?”

“...up here, I suppose.”

“Never done a birthing on a roof before, but you do seem to have plenty of room, it’s well-furnished; yes, I can work with that. With your permission, I will have my assistants bring the specialized furniture and tools and leave them up for when the time comes. May I?”

“Yes, whatever you need.”

“Very good. I will check in with your ladyship weekly, and your staff will know how to reach me.” The midwife gave Chione a well-practiced grandmotherly smile. “Don’t worry, my lady. It’s a nervous time, I know, but you will be in the best of hands.”

As Chione watched her go, she seethed with bitterness and black despair. No, you old goat, she thought, I am not in the best of hands. The best of hands left me, some bloated pregnant whore, here on this rooftop long ago. I am alone, with these brats who are in a constant wrestling match on top of my bladder, and they are my only company. I hate them, I hate this roof, and I hate the whole world. Most of all I hate myself. Where is he? WHERE IS HE?

She stood up with a groan, and waddled heavily to the curtains facing north. She threw them open, and rested her huge, heavy belly on the wall. The moon was bright tonight, and she could see the plains, with their fields of brown dead grass, far below. The mountains loomed large and black, and towering above them all, far away, was Mt. Olympus.

He wasn’t even on Olympus, she groused inside. He was not an Olympian, one of the twelve. He wasn’t even a major god. He was one of four minor wind gods, the Anemoi, and they were subject to Aeolus, the Keeper of Winds (whom this land was named after) and even he! He was a human, companion of Odysseus when he came back from Troy, and he ascended to godhood on the merit of a magic bag that could hold the winds, and he wasn’t an Olympian either! A minor wind god, subject to a slightly less minor wind god! Who lived in Thracia somewhere! Who only came down here to fuck her for fun and leave!

She tore off the top half of her dress in a fury. Her massive belly and breasts wobbled with the violent movement, lit up by the moon as if by a beam, and she bared it all to the north.

“Look at me, Boreas!” she shouted to the sky. “Look at what you have done! Your children are coming soon, and I am alone! Where is your promise? Where are you, when I need you? Show yourself! Tell me why you left me! Tell me why you betrayed me!”

“I am here, dear one.”

She whirled around, or rather, swung around. There he was. Standing there as if he never left.

“You!”

“Yes, Chione. It is I. I was angered, and hid myself from you. Now it has passed. I have forgiven you.”

Chione stood there, aghast. “Forgiven me? For what? Do you know what you have done to me? You forgive me, for loving you with all my heart, and then a moment of fear?”

“Shall you forgive me, for loving you with all my heart, and then a moment of anger?”

“No! That is not the same! You are a god, and a man! I am a woman, and a mortal, and about to have your children! I needed you! For the slightest doubt, you left me here for weeks, to do this all myself!”

“I never left you. I have watched over you the whole time, hidden from your sight. But I was always with you. That was my promise.”

“Of course you were! That’s what all the gods do! They sit up there and watch! What good is that to me? You were different to me, Boreas! You were a god I could touch, and hold, and love! You filled all my days with joy! How could you stand apart from me, and watch me suffer?”

“...I am...used to watching mortals suffer. It is a thing all gods must contend with. Even those they love. And I do love you, Chione. I too have suffered, without your touch.”

“Do you know what I’ve had to contend with?” She grabbed her huge belly with both hands. “This! Our suffering has not been the same, has not been remotely equal! Who carries this burden? Not you! You gave it to me! And left me! When I burned for you, when I needed your hands on me, your comfort…” The tears ran down her cheeks, and glistened in the moonlight. “...you broke my heart.”

Boreas was silent for a moment, as Chione wept. And then:

“Chione...how to explain...Chione, to be a god, is to restrain oneself, always. Either to hold our power back, or to harden one’s heart against suffering, so one does not interfere too greatly in the world of men. Each one of us plays our part to keep the universe in order. That is our fate, our duty, for all time.”

“But you...dear Chione...at the sight of you, I lost control. I made myself flesh and came to you when you called, for I had to have you. I lost control again when they kept you from me, when they cast you out of the temple doors. And yet again, when you seemed to doubt me, to show ingratitude for what I had done for you, I lost control. I thought, in that moment, that you owed me for my works. I forgot, for a moment, that my responsibility is far greater.”

“...I wish we gods were perfect, Chione. Then the world would be perfect, and you need never know sorrow, nor a broken heart. But alas, I have chosen to love a mortal, and I have brought you sorrow and heartbreak in great measure. There is no one that can be blamed for that but I.”

Chione put both hands on her belly, and regarded him. That was...almost good enough. But not quite.

“That was a godly apology. But...can you apologize like a man, my love?”

At first, he did not move. Then, slowly, he sank to one knee, and bowed his head.

“I am...so sorry, dear one. I love you, and cannot stand to be apart any longer. Can you forgive me?”

She waddled to where he knelt. She wished she still had her old body for this moment. But this would also do. Stopped with her belly close to his head.

“Put your ear to me, and listen.”

He raised his head. He put his hands on her great big middle and put his ear to it. He listened for a moment, then cracked a rare, glowing smile.

“My sons...I hear their heartbeats. Oh my sons…”

He looked up at her lover’s face. “How could I have expected any more from you? How could you give me an offering greater than this? Truly, my shame is greater than ever. I say again, can you forgive me?”

“Yes. I love you and I forgive you. Now do not forget, and be with me.”

They embraced. And then they kissed. And then they soared up into the sky together. Chione felt her weight no more, and she felt her god’s touch more viscerally and joyfully than ever before. They tumbled together through the air, and made love in all kinds of impossible midair angles, humongous belly and all. And Again. And again. And again. Until the moon set and the sun began to brighten the hills.

They finally settled back to earth, finished and happy. Reconciliation, after a long starvation, made it more wonderful than ever.

“Oof,” said Chione, feeling all her weight again at once. “I do not entirely forgive you for this. I’m glad to know it will be over soon.”

But she was wrong.

Another week passed, and the midwifery team brought a birthing chair and some supplies to Chione’s roof. They were poised to react the moment it was time. But labor did not come.

Nor did it come the next week. Or the week after that. Her belly kept growing even larger. Her babies’ home now swelled out past her knees. The midwife kept checking her each week, though she stopped saying that all was well. Yet another week passed, a whole month overdue. What was going on?

Hylonome did not pause to wonder what miracle gave her more time. She had to get her team back together and break through this gridlock with one less member. She got a working modified bellows working with one of the Athenian’s valves at its blowing end, and one in the side of the bag. It was wonderful, she got the air to come in one end, and not out the same way! But frustratingly, the metal on metal valve was simply not tight enough to stop air from leaking, and resins and tars only made them stick shut. She ordered the Corinthian to keep working on getting that dandelion rubber, fast...

Boreas had no explanation why the babies had not come yet. But true to his word as a god, he took care of her. His assurances and acts of love kept her going. And did they ever make love. Another 2 weeks, and no babies. Only a middle that kept increasing in size...

Finally, the Corinthian managed to extract enough dandelion sap and render it into a rubbery substance. She fashioned a pair of rings, and fit them together for the team to demonstrate. They made a tight seal when pressed together, yet separated easily. The rings were applied to a valve, and...by the gods, a perfect seal. No air leakage whatsoever. Eureka! Now the next hurtle: how to get it to run continuously…

The 12 month mark came and went. Chione’s belly, when she sat down and straightened her legs, was about quarter of the way down her shins. It was summer again, just as it was on that fateful day when she first bared her breasts to the north, and she was still vastly, increasingly pregnant. Pregnant for a whole year. Unheard of. What was taking so long? The midwife was showing some definite concern, and began to give Chione poultices, powders, medicines to help promote labor. They tasted terrible, and did not work. The days and weeks kept passing, and the bride of Boreas kept growing, bigger and bigger…

The two-bellows system was taking shape, but was not getting them the results they wanted. No matter the configuration, pulling a bellows open instead of pushing on it was hard, the suction, while improving, was still weak no matter how synchronized they tried to operate it. Besides, it tired out the user very quickly.

A breakthrough came when a surprising contributor came to the temple project: a gardener. He had invented a water sprayer, using a wooden box, a plunger, and a nozzle. He had heard of their mission to make the wind reverse course, and he showed them how, when he pulled the plunger back, water or air could be sucked back into it. Hylonome was stunned. How obvious! How efficient! It wouldn’t work at that size of course, and she was a bit sad to give up on the bellows design but...this new device could be the key. She ordered the machining of two just like it, but 3 times its size, and fitted with valves. The Cretan and Corinthian protested such a sharp turn in the design at this stage, but Hylonome was insistent. Chione, she said, seemed to be giving them plenty more blessed time…

13 months. The Sacred Mother could now barely stand up or walk on her own. She no longer bothered to try wearing anything above her belt, with her breasts and belly so vastly swollen that they defeated any tailor’s attempt to cover them. She still had her morning olive oil bath, and those breasts and belly alone took a whole bottle.

Her belly grew larger every day, and along with it, her fear. But she could not show it to anyone: she still had a temple to run, after all. She still made morning appearances, which drew huge crowds of devotees who gaped at the size of her. She still accepted audiences, some that traveled many miles just to see her. They bowed before her, who sat gigantically round and regal on a pile of cushions, wearing nothing above the belt except gold jewelry. They praised her, called her pregnancy a true blessing and miracle. But to Chione it felt like neither. She commanded Antigonos to make sacrifices to Artemis, to Hera, to any goddesses of childbirth, read the smoke and the entrails for signs, to bid them to relieve her body of these ponderous sons. She got no answers, and no relief. The birthing chair on her roof sat empty, the birthing ropes that rung from the crossbeams blew unused in the wind. They mocked her.

Had she done this to herself as well? In tying her fate, her childbirth, to that cursed machine downstairs, had she doomed herself to remain pregnant until it was complete? Oh, what a cruel twist of fate! What a sick punishment! She remembered Boreas’ words, about how other gods may have their eye on her, and it seemed to her that someone up there was laughing.

Only Boreas could give her any comfort. His touch on her belly quieted the mighty thrashings of the big babes inside. The gentle massaging of her breasts, his breath and kisses on her neck, soothed her tired and tested body. He made her float, relieved her of the crushing weight of her womb. With that belly, they could even try new positions: it was so huge that he could hug it to his middle like a bale of hay, and thrust, thrust, thrust, thrust until her face and loins were hot like the sun, her swollen breasts flopping like overfull wine sacks, her breath rising higher and higher, her mind blank yet full of stars, and for a while, she forgot about her troubles and knew only love. Most importantly, he told her that despite the strangeness of weeks and months, that he loved her, he would let nothing happen to her, and she would be alright.

But the release would never last long, and her god’s love did not make her babies come any sooner.

At the turn of the 14th month, at last, Hylonome summoned Chione down to see the finished prototype. And Chione did come. At the sight of her, Hylonome dropped her tools.

The Sacred Mother came majestically through the temple doors, supported by four attendants. Two held her under the arms. The other two, using a sheet, stood on either side of her belly and held it up in a sling. It was enormous. Shining. Spotless. Heavy with life and power. They carried it with the reverence of an idol, befitting the divinity within. A pair of maidens cast flower petals before them as they entered. Another fetched a pair of stools, and placed them one in front of the other. Chione’s procession positioned her above the stools. Then slowly, carefully, lowered Chione down on one stool, and her belly down on the other. Both of them creaked.

Chione gazed at the frozen Hylonome, and her equally gobsmacked collaborators. Her hands rested on her gigantic middle.

“Well?” Chione spoke. “Have you finally built it? You have had...unexpectedly ample time. I grow...quite weary of waiting.”

“uhhhh Right!” yelped the centaurine, “Of course! We have it right here! Behold, my lady! The machine that reverses the wind!”

She trotted aside, and revealed a sprawling contraption of pipes, wood, valves, nozzles, and for some reason...oars. There were 8 large, long wooden box-like chambers, each one with an oar extending out from the plunger at the end, and seated at the end of each oar was a well-muscled man. They also looked on in amazement at their tremendously gravid patron.

“You wouldn’t believe all the stuff we had to figure out, I don’t even know where to start...but the oars and pistons, that really did it! My Cretan colleague here came up with that one, he saw the pumping action we had to do to the piston chambers, what did he think of, out of the blue? His sailing days, yanking oars! Having a whole lot of them at once, depressed asynchronously at the right frequency by a bunch of Olympic rowers like we got here, ensures that we have a strong and uninterrupted flow of reverse air pressure!”

Chione cocked her head to the side, blank faced. Someone made a small, awkward cough.

“A, uh, practical demonstration then! Rowers! Take your oars! Ready...ROW!”

8 men began to pull their oars, which pulled the plungers out of their chambers, which sucked air in. Pushing them back blew the air out the side. The room was filled with the sound of creaking wood, and the hiss and sigh of air being sucked in and blown out through valves. Faster and faster, hiss, sigh, hiss, sigh, and underneath the growing cacophony of mechanical noise, a steady windy sound came from a nozzle at the end of the machine.

“That’s it, we have suction! Antigonos, the brazier please!”

Old Antigonos, holding a small bowl of fire with gloved hands, brought it over to the nozzle. The Corinthian came and poured a bit of water on the fire, making it hiss and steam. As it rose, the steam was sucked right into the nozzle.

“Aha! See? That’s the wind reversing course if I ever saw it! And we can keep it up for ages, those guys over there, amazing athletes! And look at this! I even came up with an attachment!”

Hylonome went to a table and got a long length of leather hose, sealed with pitch. She locked one end on the nozzle, and brought the other end to the petals on the floor. This end too had a bronze nozzle. They began to be sucked into it.

“Pick up the pace on the rowing boys, more power!”

The rowers grunted and obeyed, and the petals flew in faster!

“Eh? Isn’t that something? Of course the way we have it set up now we’d need filters to use it like this more often, we’re going to have to go in there and—”

SNAP! One of the plunger shafts broke, and a rower fell backward off his stool. The Cretan barked for them to stop, and the machine went silent.

“Eesh. Looks like we might have to look into metal components for version 2…” muttered Hylonome. “But...ANYWAY!” she announced, trying to look Chione in the eye and not her belly. “I don’t know why you wanted it...I don’t know what purpose this thing is supposed to serve, I mean, you could probably clean up a lot easier with like, a broom...but we did it! We made something nobody’s made before! What do you think? Is this what you wanted?”

Chione smiled a wan smile. “Yes. I am most pleased. I will see that all of you are rewarded, and that your names are remembered for this achievement. But for now...I must return to my chambers. I am very tired.” Her attendants moved to help her up.

“Do you...need a hand getting back up there?” asked Hylonome?

“We will see to the Mother ourselves!” hissed a maiden.

“Peace!” shouted Chione, and all backed away and bowed. She looked up at Hylonome, her strong equine form. She let her mask slip for a moment, and raised a mischievous eyebrow.

“You may...if you are able.”

“I may be a tinkerer, my lady, but my back is strong. Let me give you a ride.” Her horse’s legs knelt under her, and her humanoid arms crossed, and she smirked at the challenge.

Chione’s attendants supported her belly, and helped her up onto Hylonome’s back. The centaurine already regretted her decision. Gods, she was heavy! But I can’t wimp out now, she thought. She rose to her hoofs, shaking a little, feeling the strain on her spine.

What a sight! Mighty Hylonome, arms thick and hearty, skin, hair, and horse’s coat shining black and beautiful, and on her back, the Sacred Mother, wearing nothing but a loincloth and her jewelry, her hair dark and lustrous as the sea, her eyes green as the fields, her skin a soft and golden bronze, and her belly, huge, holy, and terrible as the rising sun.

All temple caretakers raised their hands in awe, and chanted, “Praise be to Chione, Sacred Mother, wife of Boreas, most blessed of all women! From her mouth pours wisdom! From her heart, pours strength! From her loins, she shall bring forth gods!”

They reached Chione’s chambers, and Hylonome, when she was sure no one was looking, bent down as much as she could, legs shaking.

“OK, can you please get off now, you gotta get off, get off—”

Chione and her humongous belly slid off, staggered to the cushion pile, and landed on it with a POOM. She sighed, then smirked at Hylonome, who was straightening up and glaring.

“I’m glad you thought that was funny! You about broke my back!”

“How do you think my back feels?”

“Sheesh,” breathed Hylonome, looking at her old friend. She didn’t think it was possible for a belly to get that big. She looked like she ate a whole human whole. Like if Chione, as she knew her over a year ago, curled up into a ball, she could fit inside her own belly. “I can’t even imagine. Are you sure you aren’t part goddess yourself? I mean, you can’t be normal. I don’t think a regular human woman could hold in kids this long!”

“I was a foundling, so I don’t know. But trust me, I’m not “holding them in”. You would not believe how much I want these babies out of me.”

“Well...hopefully it ain’t long. Sorry to say so, but you look like you’re about to explode, girl! How big do you think they are?”

“I’d rather not think about that. I pray that I’ll live to tell you!”

“Oh, don’t talk like that! You’ve got a god on your side, you’re strong as a cyclops, and you got all the best mortal help you can get.” She looked around the rooftop abode, and all the old midwifery equipment strewn around. “It looks like you’re all set up here, so whenever those kids are ready, you’ll—”

She stopped and looked at the birthing chair. It was pretty standard, 4 legs, armrests with handles attached for grasping, a back rest, and U-shaped hole cut in the bottom. She looked at it, looked back at Chione, looked back at the chair. She looked back at Chione again, incredulously.

“This thing? This is what they expect you to have your babies on?”

“That’s one of the tools from what I understand, yes.”

“This rickety old thing? Can it even hold you? I don’t trust it.”

“You think it will break?”

“Try it! Let’s test it now. It’d be bad news if it breaks on you on the day!”

“I don’t want to get up again…”

“Come on, you pulled a mean trick on me today, and now I’m going to get mine back. I’ll help you up, come on.”

She dragged over the chair, and blew the dust off it. It had been there for months, after all. With both women grunting with effort, they heaved Chione up onto it. For a brief moment, as she settled into the chair, a strange and frightening feeling of reality seeped into her heart. She held the handles in her hands, and imagined squeezing them as hard as she could. She felt the breeze on her bottom through the hole in the chair, and imagined a great big baby sliding through it. She was going to have to give birth. She was going to have to push out a god’s children, 3 of them, and they were bound to be huge. In this very chair--

These thoughts dissipated in an instant when the chair groaned, a leg snapped, and it pitched her whole round body back onto the cushions. The tension broke with the chair, and both ladies laughed and laughed.

“Yeah!” Hylonome wheezed, “That’s about what I thought! I can totally make a better one than that, you want me to?”

“Sure!” Chione chortled, “why not? The wind machine looks good enough, and I guess you have all the time in the world. Maybe these babes will never come out!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a lot of spare parts from the project, and compared to a wind machine, a chair will be a cinch! Let’s pretend I got a real tight deadline, because,” eyeing Chione’s mid-shin-length midsection, “damn.”

“Here’s hoping that with this part of the prophecy ready, things are all set to come about. But I’ve been wrong before.” She slid her hands down her belly, deep in thought. “In any case, please get started right away.”

And she did. Another pitiless week and a half passed, along with a few more inches of pitiless growth, but true to her word, Hylonome came up with a splendidly complex birthing chair. It had levers and cogwheels all over it, which let it be tilted forward and back, moved up and down, and had adjustable arm rests with handles, and even leg rests. It even came with a small crane arm with a sling, to help support the giant belly if needed. It was, of course, well reinforced.

One night, halfway through the 14th month, while Chione withstood the monstrous kicking and wriggling of her overgrown sons, the attendant Phoebe came up with a lantern.

“Hylonome is here, and asks that she come up to do some adjustments to your chair, my lady. Said that it had to be done right away.”

At this hour? She tried her best to compose herself. “Send her up.”

Hylonome trotted up with a box of tools, and looked around furtively.

“What’s the matter?” asked Chione. “I’ve never seen you drop by so late before.”

“Can we talk alone?”

Chione nodded at Phoebe, who bowed and departed. Hylonome went to the curtains to peek through them, then checked the old trap door. Chione was unnerved. She had never seen her friend act this way before.

“Hylonome, what is going on? Why the secrecy?”

The centaurine dragged the new chair over to where Chione, took a saw, and began to saw away at the chair’s bottom, loudly. She spoke as she did so, and Chione struggled to hear her:

“I think Antigonos might be up to something. I heard him arguing with the midwife. She wanted to see you, and he told her no. When’s the last time you saw her?”

Chione thought. “It has been a while. She stopped coming to do weekly checkups...at least a few months ago? I didn’t think there was any point, so I didn’t call her.”

“That’s not what Antigonos said. I didn’t make it all out, but I think he told her it was your orders to stay away until the day. He talked about making sure the “divine sons” came out healthy. Not another peep about you. I don’t like it...something tells me, he doesn’t expect you to live.”

“...well...he’s wrong! The prophecy said I’ll have three beloved sons, and that can’t happen if I die! Boreas promised me I would be alright too!”

“Do you trust Boreas on that? Is he telling the truth?”

“...yes. Yes, I believe it. I told myself that I would not doubt him again. I have faith that the prophecy and his word will see me through. That’s all I can do right now.”

Hylonome put the saw down, and started sanding just as loudly. “Well I’d have no faith in Antigonos if I were you. I don’t know if what he’s up to will beat all you got on your side, just...watch out for yourself.”

When she finished she packed up her tools and barked out, “Well, that ought to do it! Glad I could get that straightened out. Be well, my lady!” Her hooves drummed back down the ramp.

Chione looked at the chair, and saw that Hylonome had made the opening in the bottom quite a bit bigger.

Finally. Right at the 15th month. Half again as long as an ordinary pregnancy. Chione sitting there on carpet, meditating, eyes closed, legs wrapped around her unbelievably vast belly, whose button, jutting like a figurehead, nearly reached her ankles. The days duties done, the sun setting, a gentle autumn breeze blowing through the curtains. Relaxed after vigorous sexual session with her god. All was at ease. At that moment, Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, at last, chose to throw her first dart. Chione’s womb contracted. Her eyes shot open.

“Boreas! My love! It’s time!”

The marathon

Boreas stayed by Chione’s side as she labored through the night. The early contractions were easy, easy enough to talk.

“Ah! At last, Boreas. They are coming. I’m afraid but...my desire to have them out of me outweighs my fear. It’s been...so long.”

Boreas rubbed her vast belly with his cool hands. “Indeed. I am so proud of you, dear one. This has been a labor worthy of Herakles. And you have borne it, with grace and courage, with many trials. Only one trial now remains.”

“...the greatest yet…” Another pain seized her. They were still far apart, but getting stronger. She closed her eyes and breathed through it, as Boreas held her hand.

“You will conquer this as well, dear one. Your journey has not gone unnoticed by the gods, and they will be watching. And I will always be near.” He looked away in sadness. “Though...I am no midwife. The mortals will learn of your birth pangs, and attend to you. And when they come...I must hide myself.”

Chione’s face fell. Months ago, she would have broken down on hearing that. But now, she nodded. “I know. You can’t reveal yourself. But...will you be with me all the same?”

“Have no doubt of it, Chione. Though I will be invisible to you, I will help and defend you all I am able.”

“Good. I think I will need it.”

A pause from Boreas. “I have...pondered the words of the prophecy. It’s ending line: that my sons will fly over the mountains, and be unknown to men. I know not if that means that they shall fly themselves, or be taken. And if taken, by me, or another who will steal them away? This is still a puzzlement to me. All I can tell you is what I desire: that when this is over, I shall take you all with me to my domain, in Thrace. It is beyond the mountains, far to the north. There I will make you my wife, and an immortal. I need never leave your side nor hide from you then. We can fly whenever we wish to Hyperborea, the land of forever spring, where even my touch brings neither frost nor cold. A place of perfection, where our sons can be raised in peace, and we can be happy for all time.”

Chione put a loving hand on his cheek. “May fate grant us such an ending, my love.”

She kissed him. And then did more than kiss. In between contractions, Boreas comforted her with sex. His great penis could no longer go in as far as it did: her womb was descending, her canal shortening, her cervix softening and thinning. Hours of this: pain, then pleasure, then pain. Each time, the interval got shorter, and the contractions got stronger and more painful. Boreas conjured chunks of ice in his hand, and she sucked on them as the pangs squeezed her tighter and tighter.

Dawn came, and Chione was struggling not to cry out. If she did, people would hear, and Boreas would have to go. She wanted to keep him by her side as long as possible. She squinched her eyes shut, sucked on her ice, sweated, and seethed. The times between contractions were getting too short for sex, and she knew that soon even that comfort would soon be gone. When her belly relaxed again, as she lay on her side, she raised up a leg and invited her god in one more time. She implored him to make it a good one. He obliged her, taking hold of that leg and sliding his godly cock home between her folds. He pistoned her, blew on her gently with a cool breath, enough to give her goosebumps and cause her dark nipples to stand on end. With his free hand, he played with her chin, her breast, her belly, her clitoris. Chione moaned, tried to savor it, knowing it might be the last before hours of torture. It was the first time she wanted love making to be over quickly, before another birth pang gripped her in a vice.

But no. As the hormones, waves of pleasure, and her god’s manhood surged through her, another contraction began. Her moans took on another quality. What was this? Her pain and her pleasure built up together, in a way that was both horrible and incredible.

“Ohhhhhh, Boreas! It’s so ah, ah, AIEE—”

Both her contraction and her orgasm peaked at once, in an explosion of sensation too intense for reason, and she could hold in a cry no longer.

“—EEEEYYYAAAAAAAAAH!”

Footsteps tramped quickly up the ramp. “My lady! What’s wrong? Is it time?”

Chione opened her eyes. Boreas had disappeared. All she saw was Phoebe, who beheld her lady laying on her side, naked and leaking from her vagina. Her waters had broken. Tears burned in Chione’s eyes, from the pain and from knowing that she was on her own now.

“...yes Phoebe. It is time. Get the midwife.”

Her rooftop home got hot and crowded, as the midwife and a flock of assistants filled the space. They fed her potions, powders, extracts they said would help relieve the pain and speed up labor. They made appeals to Hera, to Artemis, to bless the birth and give strength to the mother. None of those appeals mattered to Chione: as the contractions gripped her over and over, she grit her teeth and tried to remember that her Boreas was near and to not be afraid.

The sun rose. And then it set again. Chione and the midwifery team sweat together. They paced with her, helped her go to the toilet, mopped her brow, told her that she was doing great, and supported her as she moaned long and loud as the contractions gripped her.

They checked inside between her legs at sunset. And in the evening. And at midnight. Every time, the midwife shook her head and let Chione labor. Assistants came and went, to eat and get a few hours of rest. But there was no rest for Chione. Over and over, her enormous womb seized up, her body broke out in a sweat, tears formed in her eyes, and she moaned.

Dawn broke again the following day, and Chione’s moans turned into screams. Her belly, it felt like it was being stabbed. Her lower back, it felt like it was being crushed. Her cervix, it felt like it was being stung by jellyfish. When these new contractions passed, she sobbed.

“Please...oh gods, no more...where are you, Boreas? Why have you forsaken me?”

“Be calm, my lady,” said the midwife. “This is the transition to the next stage. It will pass quickly.”

“Quickly” turned out to be all morning. Screaming, sobbing. She cried out more than once for death to take her. But Hades was not so merciful. On and on, Chione screamed.

And then as the sun reached its peak, the pain died down. Chione wept for joy. These contractions were like bellyaches compared to the last ones! When these ones came, she still moaned...and then she grunted.

“Do you feel pressure, my lady?” asked the midwife.

“Yes...oh yes. So much pressure, deep down inside…”

“Resist it the best you can. You are not yet ready. Blow instead, like this—”

Chione blew like the bellows, as she fought the urge to bear down. The midwife kept telling her to resist. She grew enraged at the midwife as the waves of unbearable pressure kept coming, and she continuously told her, not yet, not yet, not yet!

Come on, you goat, she raged inside. My babies want to come out! I have been carrying these children for 15 months, I have been 5 months overdue, and laboring for nearly 2 days! Let me bear them out, and be done!

As the sun started to come down again, at last: “You are dilated.”

Chione’s heart leapt with joy, then sank with apprehension. It was finally time. Time to get in the fateful chair.

It took all the assistants to lift her and her giant belly into the chair. They set the back so it was upright. They set her legs in the rests, in a normal sitting position. They adjusted the arms so that her own arms rested on them comfortably. She grabbed the handles. She felt the breeze pass over her genitals through the opening in the bottom. She remembered that Boreas was near, and her sons needed her. She took a deep breath in...and let it out. She was ready.

“Very good my lady,” smiled the midwife. She turned to her assistants. “Stay focused now girls! This is a day you should always remember. You are about to watch gods be born!”

She turned back to Chione. “Alright, I see a contraction coming my lady, do you feel the pressure?”

“Yes I do.”

“Then take a deep breath in with me now...hold it...feel that pressure build...and PUSH! Push down, my lady!”

Chione squeezed the handles tight, and pushed. She bore down with the enormous pressure, and it was oh, so satisfying! To push that pressure away felt intense, exciting! Her magnificent belly flexed, and became solid and erect. A monument of straining muscle.

“That’s it, hold it! Keep going!”

She kept pushing. Her face went dark, and her teeth bared. She felt both great pain, and great power.

“Harder, harder now!”

She let out her breath, her chest rose and fell with exertion.

“Can you do another? Give me another if you can.”

She took a breath and strained again, a quick shove, before the contraction broke and her belly sank back down.

“Good effort, my lady! But you’re pushing a little too much with your face. Relax your bottom and thighs, focus your power down, and let your baby come.”

“I...understand.”

“Rest now, until the next contraction comes.”

She did, her heart was happy. And when the next one came, she took another breath and pushed again. She focused the power in her belly down, and felt the enormous mass in her pelvis shift.

The chair was a marvel. It let her shift positions at will. She brought up her legs in a squat, and vigorously pushed down many times that way. She tried raising and lowering the handles, to get the best leverage: she pushed high; she pushed medium; she pushed low. They leaned her back slightly and gave her the rope: she seized it, her feet came back, and she pulled on it with a yell of effort. Again and again.

The sun set again, the moon rose, and while Chione was bearing down heroically, it was clear that something was wrong. The baby was not coming down. They tried all kinds of positions, and angles. They laid her on her back and made her put her chin to her chest. They got her out of the chair, and made her squat down. They laid her on her side and lifted a leg. They had her pull on a rope while standing. Then while squatting. Then they got her back in the chair. As hours passed, the midwife’s encouragement began to be less gentle.

“Come on, Chione! These pushes are not getting us anywhere, you need to give it all you have, or we’ll be here all night! You’ve got to push harder!”

“I’m...trying…!”

“Trying won’t do! On this next one, I want you to give me a proper push! Breathe in! 3-2-1-PUSH!...Harder!...Harder I said!”

The moon began to set again. Over and over, she did what she was told and bore down as hard as she could. Chione grunted, moaned, groaned, and her massive belly rose and fell like the tide. As she pushed. And pushed. And pushed.

“Come on, Chione!” the midwife barked, as Chione’s teeth clenched and her whole body shook with the strain. “Is this the best you can do? You’re pushing out a god! Act like it! All you got! Down! Down! Harder!”

The birds began to chirp at the coming of the dawn. When Chione panted between contractions, she had trouble staying awake. How long has she been doing this? She couldn’t remember. It seemed to have no end. Her bottom felt so full of something, and she just couldn’t get it out no matter how hard she tried. She had to recover her strength...after a quick nap...

“Stay with me! We can’t have your babies for you! You’ve got to work! Find the power! Push again! Come on, again! PUSH!”

She curled up, wearily, desperately. “—nnnnnnnnnAAAAAAAAAHHH--”

As the sun rose on the third day, Antigonos came up the ramp to see what was taking so long. He saw a rooftop full of assistants, lying exhausted where they could. The midwife sat on a stool with her head in her hands. And Chione, still vast and pregnant as a whale, lay lax, semi-conscious, and hyperventilating in the chair. A pool of blood was growing under her.

Antigonos cleared his throat, and the midwife stirred awake. She looked up at him and shook her head in resignation.

“She isn’t doing well. Each child is over twice the size of an ordinary baby. And I think this first one is facing up. If she’s part divine perhaps we can keep at it, but…”

Antigonos nodded. Then went to Chione’s side. She turned wearily to look at him.

“Antigonos...it’s taking...longer than I thought…”

“I know, Chione,” he soothed. “It’s alright. You have done your part, and then some.”

He put her hand on her belly, huge and drenched in sweat, and patted it appreciatively.

“You have grown them big and strong. They will be mighty gods indeed. You have done well.”

Chione’s eyes widened, and her blood ran cold.

“I’m not done yet! I’m giving birth to them, right now! Why are you even up here? You’re not supposed to be here!”

“Someone must make sure that the prophecy comes to pass, and the divine children arrive as foretold. I am sorry, but it seems the task is too much for you. I must make sure that the sons of Boreas are saved.”

“No! Don’t touch me! I can do it! I swear!”

Antigonos gave that same smug expression that Chione always hated when he was still his boss.

“Then I would like to see it. I never seen a birth before, and certainly not one of a trio of gods. Go on then, bring them forth. I will watch.”

Chione’s insides recoiled as he sat down and gazed at her privates. Her face burned with outrage.

“How dare you! I am still the consort of Boreas! The head of this temple! You dare threaten me! I—OOOHH--”

“Hush, Chione, it seems another birth pain has taken hold of you. Use it, if you can, and show me what you can do. I will wait.”

Her anger gave her a burst of strength. She would show him...She seized the handles on her chair fiercely. She panted until the contraction peaked in strength. She took a deep breath...and HEAVED.

“mmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Chione fell back, breathing hard. The midwife raised a finger timidly. “You’re letting your breath out, my lady.”

“SHUT UP!” Another deep inhalation, and another HEAVE.

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRHHHHH! HA, HA! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGUUUUH!”

She felt she had enough contraction for one more push, and prepared to make it count. She drew up her legs, put her chin to her breasts, squeezed the handles tight, focused on her lower belly...and HEAVED!

“hmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—”

Not far from the temple, Hylonome was leaning against a wall, grimacing as she heard the grunting screams of Chione from the temple roof. The entire town could hear them, and had been hearing them for days. Everyone knew it was the Sacred Mother finally giving birth to her giant godly children, and that she was struggling mightily to do it. Few could work while her cries echoed over the town. The people prayed, and made sacrifices to the goddesses so that the 3 sons might be successfully delivered, and all would be well.

Hylonome did not pray much. She only held vigil, about as long as she could stand it. She kept leaving and coming back, and her friend still kept screaming up there. Poor, poor woman! She must be really having a hard time getting those kids out. Hylonome knew they must have gotten pretty big. Was she going to die? If prophecies and the love of gods was worth a damn, she was supposed to be alright. But...she didn’t know. And there was nothing she could do about it.

A blast of cold wind hit her out of nowhere, and she shivered. It was sudden, and somehow...ominous. It gave her a bad feeling. A wind that gave forebodings.

She turned to the temple. The noise had stopped. Something was wrong.

On the roof, Chione and her belly sagged in the chair after a round of furious pushing, gasping, spent. Another trickle of blood dripped from her bottom. Antigonos yawned.

“Well, that was very loud, and dramatic. But I don’t see any babies. Did she make progress? Check her, please.”

The midwife peered into Chione’s vagina. “Some. But not much.”

Antigonos stood, satisfied. “It seems that you are an unworthy vessel. We can wait no longer.”

He leaned in close to Chione and whispered: “I too, have been waiting a long time for this. Because of you, I lost my reputation. My station. My calling. Your ungrateful, whoring ways have taken it all away from me. But now, I will fulfill the prophecy. I will please Boreas by saving his children. And I will please myself, for finally getting rid of you.”

He produced a knife, and raised it in the air. Its edge caught the morning sun. A flash of bronze!

But then, a sound. A scuffle, and exchange of oaths from somewhere down below. And then the sound of thundering hoofbeats trammeling up the ramp. On the upper landing, Hylonome skidded to a stop, a shortbow drawn and aimed right at Antigonos’ face.

“I knew it!” snarled the centaurine.

“Wait!--”

She did not wait. She loosed her arrow, and it went THUNK right into the traitor’s nostril. He dropped his knife, and fell dead in a heap. Hylonome tossed down her bow, and with a grunt, lifted the old man’s corpse over her head, With a savage yell, threw it over the railing and off the edge of the cliff.

Breathing heavily, she turned her attention to Chione. “Are you alright? Did he do anything?”

“No...but…he wanted to kill me and take my babies…”

“He won’t be doing that anymore.” She looked Chione’s bloated body up and down, and whistled. “Damn! These kids have not been making it easy for you, huh?”

Chione chuckled weakly. “No...no they have not.”

“Doctor, how’s she doing?”

The whole midwifery team was now wide awake and petrified after seeing a man try to murder his own high priestess with a knife, then get murdered himself and thrown off the roof. But the midwife, the coolest of the bunch, recovered first.

“I’m uh, not a doctor. But the babies are very large and progress is slow. Her ladyship is very resilient, but I fear that at this rate, she or her children, or both, are in danger.”

“Hylonome…” called Chione. She reached her hand out to Hylonome, and she took it. “If...things go badly...and fate is not kind to me after all...I ask you to do what Antigonos tried to do by force...please...save my sons…”

Hylonome squeezed that hand and gave her friend a hopeful smile.

“Don’t you talk that way. It’s not so bad as all that. I mean I know it’s easy for me to say but...I think I got this useless reverse wind machine downstairs that might not be so useless after all. You rest up now, and I’ll be right back.”

The machine that fulfills destiny

Downstairs, Hylonome burst through the temple doors. “Call everyone back! The project team, the rowers, everybody! We need this machine up and running, and we need it now!”

A lone acolyte got up and rubbed his eyes. “Why”?

“Why?” She cantered right up to him and grabbed him by the front of his robes.

“Ah! What I say, what I say?”

“You said something real dumb, that’s what! You ask me why, I tell you why! Because Chione’s dying up there! Because we need the machine to save her! Because I motherfuckin’ said so! Now go!”

It took about half an hour to send runners to the inns and dwellings of everyone involved. Meanwhile, up on the roof, Chione asked the midwife team to move her back to the cushions where she could rest on her side. She resisted the urge to push, giving little grunts just to relieve the pressure. She decided to save the energy she had left, so see what Hylonome had in mind. She rested, grunted, strained, and rested again.

When all were together in the workshop and Hylonome told them what she had in mind, the Cretan machinist protested. “We haven’t replaced the plungers yet! We’re still working with wood! If you run the machine at stress levels, they could break again!”

“We got no time to upgrade!” Hylonome shot back. “Our patron needs our help now! If all goes well, we’ll only need it to run for a little while!”

“It wouldn’t even run for 5 minutes without breaking!”

“That was only one chamber! We have 8! We got to make it work somehow, and if something breaks, we figure something out on the fly!”

“Madness...we’re going to run this heap into the ground.” grumbled the Cretan.

“I’ve had 5 children back home,” the Corinthian woman said suddenly. “I buried 3 of them before they were 5 years old. One of them nearly killed me as I gave birth to him. I hear the Mother cry out above us, and I hear myself. If this machine can help a woman with her labors, I want it to.”

That put a swift and sobering stop to any further argument. The rowers took their positions. Hylonome thanked the stars that none of them decided to take the first boat out of there after the demonstration, then attached the hose to the suction nozzle. She ordered a maiden to take the hose and run it up the ladder, while she galloped up the ramp outside.

Hylonome thanked the stars again that she was generous when making the hose length. It made it all the way up the ladder through the trap door, where Chione was eyeing it while breathing heavily. Though pushing was tiring, not pushing was also tiring.

“If…I understand you right…” she breathed, “you want to try and suck my babies out of me?”

“Exactly! With the power of suction! Hate to make you move, but I think getting back in the chair might be easiest to make it work.”

“...fine. Get me back in that cursed chair.”

“Hey! I made that for you! Sheesh! Some people don’t know how to be thankful…just kidding, just kidding!” she said in response to her glare.

They heaved Chione back in the chair, and used the sling to hoist her giant belly up and out of the way. They leaned her back, so her bottom was bared to all.

“Can we get this up in there?” Hynolome, holding the hose nozzle, asked the midwife.

“Yes. Bring it here.” She took it, and stuck it inside Chione, who yelped.

“AAII! Cold! Cold!”

“It will warm up in a moment I’m sure. Yes, it will reach the head.”

“Ooh—” said Chione, “I feel another one coming—”

“ROWERS!” Hylonome yelled down. “START!”

8 men began to pull their oars down below, and faint hissing sound came through the hose.

“Is it sticking?” asked Hylonome the midwife.

“I think so.”

“Can I push now?” Chione panted.

“Yes, go my lady, push!”

Her face flushed and her belly flexed, bearing down for what felt like the thousandth time.

“Now give it a pull!” ordered Hylonome.

The midwife gave a light tug on the hose as Chione pushed. It stayed on for a moment, then popped right off the head. “Bother!” the midwife groused, as she tried to affix the nozzle again. She did, and gave a more steady, gentle pull.

Chione go of the push, panted, and strained again hard. She thought...she felt the mass in her waist move!

“Keep that pressure down, my lady...bother again!” she exclaimed as the hose came off again. Chione shook and strained for a moment longer, then fell back in the chair.

“I...felt it come down a bit!” Chione gasped.

“STOP!” Hylonome called down.

“It keeps coming off,” grumbled the midwife. “It won’t stick properly. Maybe your rowers need to make more wind.”

“I don’t think it’s that,” frowned Hylonome. “It’s just the hose nozzle wasn’t meant to stick to something like that. We need something on the end that would grab on better…”

The Corinthian called up from below. “How did it go?”

“Won’t stick!” replied the centaurine, “Needs something on the end!”

The materials specialist thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers.

“I think I have it! I have some dandelion rubber left, give me just a moment!”

As they waited, the midwife applied some olive oil to Chione’s vagina, inside and out. It would help it stay supple when the baby begins to crown. The midwife had abandoned hope of that many hours ago, and now a spark of it had been restored.

A maiden passed up a small curved disk, whittled out of dandelion rubber, with a bit of adhesive on the convex side and grease on the concave side.

“The Corinthian philosopher said to affix the rounded side to the end of the hose, and perhaps it will make a seal when the machine runs again.”

“Brilliant! I bet that’ll do the trick!”

Hylonome stuck the disk on the hose, and Chione began to breathe heavily again, and grip the handles.

“OK, ram it home and stick it on!” barked Hylonome.

“Don’t be so vulgar!” griped the midwife, but she did as she was told.

“START!” Hylonome called down again.

“Whenever you’re ready, my lady.”

Chione took another deep breath, and pushed the pressure down yet again. And as she did so the midwife pulled the hose. Gently at first. Then harder.

“Now it’s staying on!” grunted the midwife.

For the first time since last sunset, pushing felt amazing. It still hurt, and it was still incredibly intense, but finally she felt the humongous hard weight inside her slide down, little by little. Progress gave her courage, and she forced the contents of her belly down with fervor. Outside, the team could see the hose slooooowly come out. And then Chione let go, and it went back in.

“You’re doing it, sister!” encouraged Hylonome. “Keep doing it! Push again!”

Chione panted, then curled in her arms and legs around her great belly and strained again. The midwife strained with her, beginning to put her body weight into it. Chione felt in her birth canal waves of numbness, tingling, burning as her giant child came down...down...down…

Down below, a plunger snapped, dumping a rower down on the floor.

“1 CHAMBER DOWN!” the Cretan bellowed up.

“WE STILL HAVE SUCTION!” Hylonome yelled back.

With the huge baby sinking down into her lower birth canal, the heaviness and fullness in Chione’s bottom felt even more gargantuan, and the urge to push it down felt more overwhelming than ever. The pressure was so incredible…! Chione gasped in a breath of air, bared her teeth, and heaved down against it as hard as she could.

“mmmmmNNNNNNGGGGGGGRRRRRRRR—”

As the midwife pulled hard as well, and as the nozzle came out farther and farther, the area around Chione’s vagina began to bulge out hugely. Everyone could see the shape of the head under her skin. Its diameter was tremendous. Hylonome let out a gasp. By the stars, she thought, it really is big!

Another plunger snapped, and the chamber came loose from its housing.

“2 CHAMBERS DOWN, 6 LEFT!”

Chione’s eyes were shut, her teeth clenched, her head craned backward to the sky as the suction cup on the hose began to peak out between her folds--

“—GAAAAAH!” Her belly sagged, and she relaxed, gasping once more in the chair. The suction cup went back in. When the machine came to a rest again, it popped off and the midwife withdrew the hose.

“Your machine is really working!” admitted the midwife. “But it seems to be breaking down rather quickly. Will it last?”

“It’s called ‘redundancy’, ma’am,” replied Hylonome, “and it works. We knew that 8 chambers was probably overkill, but we needed to make it impressive for the demonstration. If we lose chambers, we just need those boys downstairs to row faster to compensate. As long as we still have suction, it’ll work.”

The midwife nodded, but she looked a bit uncertain.

Hylonome turned to Chione, still catching her breath in the chair. “I’ll bet you’re, uh, feeling that one, huh? How do you feel? What’s it like?”

“How,” gasped Chione, “do you think I’m feeling? It’s like...like forcing an amphora full of rocks...out between your legs...that has been dipped in grease...and is freshly hot out of the kiln! Is it coming out already?”

“Yes my lady!” piped up the midwife. “The head is right behind the outer folds. If you let me, you can feel it with your hand.”

Chione let the midwife guide her hand down to her privates. Her fingers brushed the folds of her labia aside...and she felt a hairy, slimy wall of flesh that wasn’t there before.

“There! That’s your son!”

“That’s my son…!” Chione found a wet lock of hair, and twirled it around her finger. Tears formed in her eyes. “That’s my son!”

“That’s right, my lady. You’ll see him very soon. Courage, now.”

The rest of the midwife team, and Hylonome, looked on. It would have been a touching moment...if the bulge between her legs wasn’t so terrifyingly huge. After a few moments savoring the feel of her son’s hair, she felt her womb cramp and the pressure build yet again. Hearing her breath quicken, the team sprang into action, reinserting the hose, starting up the machine again, and waiting for Chione’s next move.

Chione summoned her will once again. For Boreas, for her children. She felt an enormous building pressure in her bottom that could not go unanswered. She took in yet another breath...waited for the pressure to peak...then PUSHED. Her belly flexed, toes curled, teeth ground, eyes shut, handles on the chair creaked under her grip, as the suction cup, then the top of the head, began to peak out of her bottom. Tears and sweat ran down her face as her vagina opened into slit, and widened into a teardrop. Then an oval--

“—AAIIII! Oh, it’s burning! Oh gods!” The head slid back in.

“Push through it! The harder you push, the faster it ends! Another! PUSH!”

And she did, in silent, quivering agony. A slit...a teardrop...an oval...out to a circle...then a bigger circle...then an even bigger circle…

Hylonome was awestruck and revolted at how wide Chione was spreading. This settled it in her mind: this woman could not be entirely human. No one normal could push out something this big, even with mechanical help. If that vagina belonged to a normal girl, it would have been tearing to shreds by now. But Chione kept pushing, and every moment it looked like it might be fully crowning, she just stretched wider...and wider...until--

“—AAAIIIIII!” she shrieked again. The head sank back in a bit, but Hylonome saw, Chione was right: it looked like the bottom of an amphora, dipped in grease, and covered in blood and hair. And not one of those table-sized ones either. Like one of those prized palace amphorae half the height of a man, that needed two people to carry it.

“You have time for another! One more, again!”

“—nnnnnnnGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEE--!”

Downstairs the rowers were pulling like mad to make up for the lost chambers, and in doing so, were wearing it out faster. More things began to splinter and break.

“3 CHAMBERS DOWN! 5 LEFT—oh balls, MAKE THAT 4 LEFT!”

To Hylonome’s dismay, the suction began to fail. The suction cup popped off, dumping the poor midwife on her behind.

“—EEEEEEUUUGH!” scream-grunted Chione. “OW...oh OW! Is it out yet?”

Hylonome looked anxiously at the midwife, who, surprisingly, seemed to show no despair.

“Only a few small pushes and the head will be out, my lady. This part we will need to slow down for anyway, so Hylonome, tell your helpers to start fixing that machine. Chione and I will do the rest, won’t we, my lady?”

“Slow down!? I need him out! It burns!” The head was bulging hugely out of her like the bottom of a cooking pot, her skin stretched around it a shiny and smoldering red. It was at a circumference that Hylonome did not care to measure.

“Slow your breathing, match it to mine now…”

Poor Chione spent a few very uncomfortable minutes panting and moaning as the giant head sat there, her whole bottom full to bursting and burning, her pelvis aching, her legs numb, her head hurting from the strain. At the midwife’s suggestion, they tilted the chair into a fully upright position, for gravity to do its work. The midwife put her hands under her.

“Alright, my lady, for this next part I ask that you restrain yourself a bit. Light pushes, just to get the head past its widest part.”

“I’ll...do my best...ha, ha, ha, ha—nnnnnnnnnnnn...GUH!”

“Yes more, like that, it’s coming!”

“nnnnnnnnn...GUH! NnnnnnnnnnNNNNNNN…GUH!” The midwife supported the huge head with both hands, and as she predicted, the forehead began to show face up.

“nnnnnnnnn...GAHH! NNNNNN...GAHHH! NNNNNNNNNNN...GAAHH!” More forehead was pushed out, and as the eyebrows began to emerge--

“NNNNGAH! HA! HA! HA! nnnnNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--!”

With a piercing scream, the rest of the big, blubbery face gushed out of her. It was greyish purple, covered in blood and slime, and squished up into a fat scowl.

“You did it, my lady! Head’s out! Take a rest, and feel it if you want!”

Chione, gasping, reached a trembling hand down to her crotch, and touched the wet, slippery ball dangling between her legs. She ran her hand around the tremendous globe of her baby’s head and was amazed, and quite a bit unsettled. She did that? She pushed this huge shape out of herself? By Boreas!

Before long, the midwife put her hands under Chione again. “Just the shoulders now, my lady. You can go back to big pushes now, just a few and you’ll have your son!”

Chione nodded breathlessly, and prepared for another go of it.

“Ready? I’ll help draw him out. Deep breath in, focus down, everything you have, PUSH!”

And, knowing that the end was near, Chione summoned her will, and did. She bore down with all her power, all her body, all her soul. And nothing seemed to happen.

“Again!”

Another breath, another humongous push. The great face of the baby slowly turned 90 degrees left. Chione’s vagina burned again, yet she held that push with tears in her eyes. A shoulder began to peak out.

“One more and we have him, my lady! Bear down deeply, now!”

Her face craned back to the sky as she strained her vast belly with all her might, and as both the baby’s shoulders began to stretch their way out of her, the midwife grabbed both of them and pulled. They stuck for a moment.

“Hard. Hard!” the midwife grunted.

“--eeeEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH–!”

Then, at last, 20 pounds of 5-month-overdue infant surged out of Chione’s bottom with a splash. A wave of euphoric release overwhelmed her, and her scream ended in a loud moan. The midwife caught the infant and staggered under its size and weight, almost dropping him to the ground. The baby coughed, then lustily howled.

“Look at that! It’s a boy alright! Here he is!” She raised him up for Chione to see. Chione saw the thrashing slimy giant in the midwife’s arms, and broke down sobbing.

“My baby! My baby boy! Hello, my love!” she cried out in tears. She reached out for him, and she received the loud, slimy child in her arms. She hugged him close as an assistant wiped the blood and vernix off of him. “Hello…hello…” she crooned to him over and over. She kissed his head, and felt his heartbeat on her skin. At noon on the third day of labor, after pushing her guts out all night and half a day, her first son was born.

The midwife rinsed off her hands in a basin, then promptly fell into the pile of cushions, exhausted.

Meanwhile, Hylonome had gone downstairs to assess the damage to the machine. One chamber broke entirely out of its housing. One with the plunger plate splintered into pieces. 2 with the shafts broken. Most of them would have to be entirely dismantled and rebuilt. She cursed herself for dragging her hooves on going ahead with stability improvements. She didn’t see any point in hurrying at the time. Then she heard the cry of a newborn, and she trotted back upstairs to see.

What she saw was an uncanny yet precious scene of Chione holding an oversized baby to her chest and beaming.

“I did it, Hylonome…this is my son. Say hello.” She took one of her fingers, which was being held by her baby, and shook it, making his arm wave. Hylonome bent down to look at him, amazed.

“By the stars…this boy was inside you a minute ago. Didn’t I tell you you must be part goddess? Girl, you are the strongest woman in the world!”

“I don’t think I could have gotten him out without you. Your machine saved us. Thank you. Thank you so much…”

“Aw, come on Chione, if you were any less a woman that hunk of junk down there wouldn’t have done you any good. You were amazing. Let me just talk to the midwife real quick, OK?”

The midwife was facedown in the cushions and snoring. Hylonome moved to wake her but the assistants stopped her.

“Please, let her rest.” one of them said. “She hasn’t slept in about 2 days.”

“Well I had some important questions. Are any of you experienced? Which one of you is most senior?”

“I am,” said the one who spoke up.

“What’s your name?”

“Penelope.”

“Nice to meet you Penelope, can you and I head downstairs for a minute? If Chione doesn’t need you right this instant, that is?”

“Sure, I’ll do my best.”

Hylonome pulled her aside, and her tone turned serious.

“Has anyone had the heart to tell her that she has two more babies to deliver just like that one, and we have no working wind machine to help?”

Penelope thought for a moment. “The labor has paused. It happens sometimes when delivering twins, I hear. The midwife told us that when that happens, we usually give them medicine to try to restart it. Maybe we shouldn’t this time, to give us more time? But that’s for the midwife to decide.”

“How long until it restarts on its own?”

“Could be minutes. Could be hours. Gods know.”

“Let’s hope it’s hours. We need hours at least to get everything back to full power. Damn it! It probably half killed her to have one with the machine, how is she supposed to have 2 more without it?”

“...with normal twins, the second baby tends to come out more easily than the first, the midwife told me once. I don’t know if it will work that way with big triplets, but maybe it will. Maybe we won’t need the machine for the next 2. But I don’t know. When the midwife wakes up, we’ll see if she can come up with something.”

“Well I’ll get cracking on the machine anyway. I’ll get as much done as I can, as fast as I can, and I hope it’ll be good for something. Thanks for everything so far, Penelope, you people are champions. Let me know if you need me up there.”

Upstairs, a period of merciful tranquility. The assistants washed the baby god and wrapped him in blankets. No one seemed in a hurry to speed things up again. Everyone, especially Chione and the midwife, rested while they could. Something in the back of Chione’s mind told her she should be worried about what happens next. But that mind was so fried with hormones that for the moment, she did not care. She had a son. He was beautiful. If only she knew that it was him in her belly all this time. How could she ever have thought that she hated him? And there were more of them inside? She prayed with all her heart that she would have the strength to see all three of her beautiful boys, if it was the last thing she did.

The second wind

In half an hour, another contraction made her womb murmur back to life. The assistants shook the midwife awake, who slapped her cheeks and got back up to work. Penelope called down the trapdoor for an update. She got a flurry of oaths and yells in response. “Still not ready!”

The midwife peeked inside Chione’s hole while she groaned. An assistant took her baby off her chest and set him aside.

“Midwife…what do you see?” moaned Chione. “Without the wind machine…I’m not sure how much more I can do…”

“Well my lady, I know you’re probably very tired. But actually, I see plenty of reason to hope. The first of multiples is always hardest. But he dilates and stretches you enough for the others to come down more quickly. Think of it as paving the way. And what’s more…yes! I see a foot! Footling breach!” She clapped. “Marvelous!”

“What does that mean? Feet first?”

“That’s right! Normally we would want them all head down, but in this case, it’s a blessing from the gods! Don’t need that wind machine for this one…one of you, give me some twine!” The assistants obeyed, handing her a ball of string.

“What I’m going to do, my lady, is tie a length of string to your baby’s foot, hopefully both feet, and then we’ll pull him down for you just like we did the other one. But first I need those feet to come farther down. When you’re ready, I need you to give me another big push so I can reach them.”

“I understand…in a moment then…ok there it is–” She took a deep breath, and she felt herself able to breathe deeper; more room for her lungs with one baby out. She bore that pressure down yet again, and was encouraged to feel something inside sliding down fairly quickly.

“Just like that my lady, they’re coming down, keep going!”

However, as she strained, and strained again, she felt the progress quickly slow, and the tightness in her pelvis built until she could feel nothing move anymore.

“--nnGGUH!”

“Good, Chione, good! Now I can get at them! Reaching in now–”

Chione yelped as the midwife slid both arms inside her birth canal. A maneuver that she would normally not dream of in a normal birth, but this was not a normal birth nor normal woman. She got the loop of string around the baby’s feet, and pulled it tight. Now there were two cords running out of Chione’s bottom: one umbilical, one twine.

“Now we’ll see how well I tied my knot. We’ll get this one out of you in no time, my lady. Give me some strong efforts now, and you’ll see son #2!”

Chione was panting, flushed, but smiling at the thought. Courage returned and she put her trust in the gods and her midwife. She squeezed the handles though her palms were red and sore, and curled in over her belly. She pushed down as hard as she could to try and get her baby past whatever obstacle was in its way. At the same time, the midwife pulled the string.

The pressure in Chione’s pelvis grew worse, like someone inside it was trying to force it apart. And there was.

“--eeeEEYOW! OH! I feel my waist buckling! Oh gods! I think I’m about to break!”

“Grab your thighs and pull them back towards you! That will open it more. Yes, like that! Now give me another, PUSH!”

She cried out as she pulled her legs back and PUSHED. She screamed as her pelvis was forced apart, and as she felt the bones and cartilage shift inside her, it felt as if her hips were about to split in half…and then finally released as something gave and the rest of the baby passed through. The feet began to emerge.

That’s when Penelope the senior assistant noticed something unnerving out of the corner of her eye: the first baby was watching the birth of his brother. Head lifted, gazing, curiously, with bright green eyes, from the comfort of his basket. Newborns were not capable of that. But babies did show signs of curiosity and focus…when they were many months old. So it seemed that they did not stay in the womb so long just to grow big…

The midwife used a small knife to carefully cut the string loose from the baby’s feet, then toweled them off so she could grab them.

“Have you got another in you? I bet you can push out the legs on this one if you try?”

“--HMMMMMMM–!”

The midwife gambled well. As she pulled and Chione pushed, the baby slowly slid out to the knees, then the waist. Its genitals popped loose from its mother’s folds as it emerged: another boy, as expected.

“Water…give me some water…” Chione croaked. She got it, gulping it down as best she could between breaths.

The midwife ordered an assistant to grab her around the waist to help her pull. Mercifully for Chione, two women putting their body weight into assisting with her efforts really helped: after 3 more pushes and pulls, the body was towed out to the armpits. And now, her vagina burned again as the widest part sat right behind her entrance.

“Ohhhh it’s getting bad again…it feels wider than before! Oof! OOF!”

“That’s the arms raised up alongside the head, my lady. I can bring those down–”

She wiggled a finger inside to hook above the baby’s shoulder, then tugged down until one arm was out. Then she did it for the other.

“Right, that feels a bit better doesn’t it? Just the head now. Last ones, and you’ve got another son! Feel like you’ve got it?”

“N-no…but I’ll do it…for another son…”

“That’s the way! You can do it my lady, we’re here for you! With us now: 1, 2, 3, focus, shove down, go!”

Almost there, Chione tiredly thought. There's so much…pressure! She recentered herself, and pushed deep and hard for…who knows what count it was? A second ring of fire blazed below as she felt the baby’s jaw pass through her vulva, and the a big head once again stretched her wide–

“--AIIIIII!”

“I know it burns, don’t stop my lady, one more!”

“AAAAAIIIIIIIIII–AAAAAAAAAAAH!”

With a firm tug and desperate push, the second baby’s face slid out into the light, and the head popped out. Now free, it flailed its arms and legs, choked out the fluid in its throat, and cried.

“And there we go, well done, my lady! Here’s your second son!”

With slightly less enthusiasm, and much more tiredness, Chione happily took her another screeching giant infant on her chest.

Hylonome came back upstairs to welcome the second baby. She saw him settling down in Chione’s arms, and at the same time, the midwife was feeling around Chione’s belly, which was now much smaller and about 50 pounds lighter, but still huge.

“You got that one out fast, girl!” Hylonome remarked. “I think you’re getting good at this!”

“Hah…hah…thank you…but…I think I won’t be the same after this…”

“No one ever is, my lady,” replied the midwife, letting go of Chione’s belly. “The last one is head-down, face down. The ideal position. How is your machine coming?”

Hylonome shook her head. “Not to where I want it to be. We got one chamber back on its housing and we reassembled one. Hopefully it’ll be enough to help.”

“Hm. Good enough, I suppose. As always, the mother does the real work, we’re only here to help. This is the last one, and you can do it my lady, I know you can.”

Chione blearily turned her head to the midwife as her huge son suckled on her breast.

“Perhaps…if I had a night of sleep…or a week…”

The third Hyperborean

In another half an hour, the contractions resumed once more.

Downstairs, the Cretan machinist whistled loud. “Alright lads! Lunch break is over! You 6, get on your oars! You other 2, stand by!” Several of them grumbled as they did. They were olympians, for gods’ sake. They didn’t sign up for this.

And neither did Chione. Or some might say she did. She certainly could not have imagined an ordeal this intense, and this long. But weary as she was, sore as she was, she was still here, still alive, she had already delivered 2 giants, and had one more to go. Could she do it? It was possible. It was either yes, or die.

The machine hissed to life and the hose was inserted into Chione’s sorely tested vagina. The Sacred Mother, exhausted, adjusted herself in her chair. She had to at least get them all out safe. Whatever happened to her after, would happen. She was too tired to be afraid. She too, would be a machine. A machine that made and pushed out gods.

“--oooOOOOOH! HMMMMMMMMMM–”

She was weakened. She could not bear down as hard as she could before. But with the wind machine’s help, the monstrous head slowly came down. Push. After Push.

But while the baby moved slow, the machine broke fast. One of the refurbished chambers already broke apart, its fresh adhesives not set up to the task.

“5 CHAMBERS!”

“You’re doing it, my lady. Just think of nothing else. Nothing else but pushing down. All in your bottom. Take a breath with me: has the pressure built? Then again!...Hard!...Come on, now!”

Chione growled as she pushed and the midwife pulled. As she did, the suction cup came off. Chione couldn’t hold it long anymore, and gasped. The midwife put the cup back on, and commanded that she push again. Chione let out a low, tired grunt. And the suction cup came off again.

“4 CHAMBERS!”

The midwife quietly set the hose aside. Then ordered another push. Chione moaned. Then grunted. Then fell back in her chair, limp. A trickle of blood dripped from her vagina.

To the midwife, Chione seemed to be losing her senses. Maybe she could get her to push without noticing the machine was down. It was not as if she had a choice.

“You have another contraction, my lady. Don’t let it pass you by! Gather your strength now, and have at it! Bear down!”

Chione gasped and moaned pitifully. She weakly strained at the giant child inside her, now unassisted. She gasped, then bore down desperately. She grunted and groaned for a short while, then let out a wail and fell back in her chair again, tears in her eyes. More blood.

The midwife looked back at Hylonome, and sadly shook her head.

Hylonome tried her best to keep it together, but her own tears began to flow from helplessness, frustration, anger. It can’t end like this. To have her machine fail now, to watch her friend slowly and painfully die, so close to the end. There had to be another way. There had to be!

She, too, turned and noticed the uncanny scene of two big babies watching their mother struggle. They did not seem concerned. Only curious. One of them was even sucking his thumb. You creepy bastards, Hylonome thought. You’re killing your mother, and you’re watching. Even got the disrespect to suck your thumb at a time like–

Athena, too, has darts to throw. The goddess of wisdom let one fly, and struck Hylonome between the eyes with a bolt of realization. She was such an idiot! A moron! How didn’t she think of it before? Sucking! You don’t need wind to suck. Any living thing with tits knows how to suck. How do they suck? A mouth they make smaller. A single chamber. Of course.

“Wait! I have an idea! Hold on, Chione, I’ll be right back!” She tore the nozzle off the hose and galloped down the ramp.

By now, there was a large crowd forming at the base of the temple. The people heard the cries of newborns, and had gathered in anticipation. They were blocking Hylonome’s way in.

“Move it! Clear out of the way!” Hylonome barked.

“Please miss,” a supplicant begged, “is the Sacred Mother alright?”

“She won’t be if you don’t fuckin’ move!” she snarled. She stamped her hooves and the people recoiled, and she ran past the temple caretakers who were holding the people back. She ran up the works, with the rowers puffing away and the Cretan and Corinthian working like mad to try and fix it as it broke.

“Stop what you’re doing and give me one of the working chambers! Off the machine, off the oar, quick!”

They were confused, but obeyed. Where the chamber was connected to the machine, she quickly affixed the nozzle and suction cup. To test, she pulled on the plunger. The suction cup tightened like a dream. Perfect!

She ran back up the ramp and displayed her invention proudly. “Check this out! It’s no wind machine, but it’s still a sucking machine! Compact, new and improved! Now let’s get in there! Help me guide it in!”

The midwife did, with some difficulty. The wooden box was a bit unwieldy, but when the suction cup hit the head inside, and Hylonome pulled the plunger, it held.

“Can you hear us, my lady? We’re going to help you with this new device. Get ready to push again when another pain comes.”

“Yeah, we’re both down here ready to tug! We’ve got this, all three of us, together!”

Chione only nodded weakly in response. After a few minutes, her shallow breathing got faster, and she grabbed the handles. She gave a low grunting groan:

“--hooooooooohhhhhhhhhh–”

As she tiredly bore down, Hylonome pulled the plunger and supported the blood-slick nozzle (to make sure that didn’t fall off too). The midwife pulled on the box. All together the women heaved. The head came down only a little.

“More! More, my lady! Don’t give up now, PUSH!”

“--HOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH–”

The head came down only a little.

“More!”

“Come on Chione, you can do it!” Hylonome grunted as she pulled.

“–HOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaahhh…” Chione sighed as she finished. The suction cup had not yet emerged.

The midwife stood up, her hands on her hips.

“Now Chione. That is not how you push. Your son is almost here and we’re doing the best we can, but we can’t do this without you. Relax your bottom, wait for the pressure to peak, take a deep breath, and focus that pressure down and out. You and your baby will die if you don’t give me your all, do you understand? No less than your best from now on!”

Hylonome thought that was very harsh, but whatever was necessary. She saw she was right. Deliver, or die.

Chione did not visibly react. Until after a minute or two she robotically grabbed her legs, as she had countless times before, and drew them back. Through a brain completely depleted by hormones and days of effort, she numbly remembered what the midwife said. Relax bottom. Take in your breath and hold it. Push with your bottom, not your face. Put your chin to your chest. Focus pressure down. Ignore pain. Think of nothing else.

She raspily inhaled. Then she PUSHED. Belly flexed. Face dark. Toes curled. Nails sinking into her thigh skin and drawing blood. Her hips creaked as they parted to let the final baby down. Once more, she felt the baby shift and fill her whole birth canal. She did this all without a sound.

“Excellent Chione, that’s more like it! Another like that!”

Chione bent her head again and PUSHED. The suction cup peeked out of her vulva, and one more time, her perineum began to bulge out to a frightening degree. Her eyes were shut and her teeth were clenched, but she did not scream.

“One more time! And, PUSH!”

Chione shook with silent, exhausted effort. Her folds parted to a slit. Then widened to a teardrop. Then an oval.

“--ah!” she finally let out a sound. The head went back in a bit.

“That’s it, by the gods! I see him! Rest now, then we’ll have it!”

Chione did. Her vagina burned, but she was past caring even for that. She felt herself going. She wanted so badly to let go. To go far away, where there would be no more pain. Then all her troubles would be over. No one has to give birth in Hades.

Oh how tired she was of summoning all her will, all her power, all her strength, over and over. Every time she thought she could do no more, she had to push herself still farther. Every time she thought she reached the end of her strength, she had to dig deeper and find more. Over and over. And over. And over. She had truly given everything. She had no more in her.

But then her babies would be alone. Never to see Boreas or feel his touch again. Never to see Hyperborea, the land of forever spring. To miss her children smiling, learning to walk, then play. Then become fine young men someday. And after that, even more.

She decided she could remember Boreas one more time. She could remember her children, those born and the one still inside, one more time. She could remember too, all the people who had been there to help her along, and were doing so now. She felt that familiar creeping tightness envelop her body, and a most overwhelming pressure build her bottom, which begged, just once more, to be squeezed out. That was her baby, wanting to come out and live. That was her body, giving her the power to do it.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. She could barely hear what the others were saying to her now. It did not matter. She knew what to do. With the force of a falling star…she HEAVED.

She felt blood vessels pop in her nose. Still, she HEAVED.

She felt sweat run in rivers from her drenched hair, down her spine, and off her bottom. Still, she HEAVED.

She felt her vagina burn as scorchingly as promethean fire. Still, she HEAVED.

She felt an incredible weight, like the rock of Sisyphus, move down and spread her vagina open. Wider…and wider…and wider…and still wider. No matter how impossibly huge it felt, still, she HEAVED.

At the peak of all human possibility, that weight dropped out and dangled from her like a side of beef on a hook. Still, she HEAVED.

As the final obstacles began to slip free, she let loose a long, croaking, roaring cry that echoed over the town and was never forgotten by anyone who heard it. It went on…and on…until at last, the final giant infant was shoved out of her. A torrent of red fluid came out with it. There was so much it would have filled a bathtub. It fell in a waterfall down the temple trap door, terrifying all below. A scarlet flood.

Hylonome and the whole midwife team cheered. The midwife patted the back on the last giant triplet, and he too gargled and howled.

“My lady…you did it! Look! That’s all three sons! Praise the gods!”

“And praise science!” beamed Hylonome.

Chione did not move.

“My lady? Did you hear me?”

Hylonome’s face fell and her guts went cold. Oh no. “Chione?”

They went to her side. She was still.

“Chione? My lady? Are you there?”

As her baby cried and cried, she did not respond. Hylonome patted her cheek, and shook her shoulders.

“Come on, wake up, girl!” she said in a quaking voice. “You’re a momma now, you can’t go! Your kids need you! Wake up, please! Please!”

Chione did nothing. Then she groaned.

“...shut up. I’m resting.”

Hylonome groaned herself, with relief, exhaustion, and emotional whiplash. “You bitch! Don’t do that to me! I thought you were dead!”

“Watch your tongue, centaur! You’re talking to a mother of 3 gods!” The midwife’s tone was stern, but her smile was proud.

The crowd at the temple steps waited, quietly, with bated breath. They heard nothing for several minutes. Then the curtains on the temple roof parted, and three midwife’s assistants stood in a row. Each one lifted up a wriggling baby for all to see.

“Behold!” someone yelled, “the sons of Boreas! They are here!”

The crowd erupted in cheers. Many raised their hands in enraptured praise. Many in the crowd brought drums, flutes, cymbals, and struck up a cacophonous symphony of noise. People danced and shouted on the temple steps. They blew kisses up to the baby boys. The joy and excitement was impossible to contain. Their god had given them sons.

The assistants brought them back, soon after Chione delivered the placenta. It was also massive, but nothing compared to three demigod boys. There was scarcely room for all three of them on her chest, but gathered up tight together, they managed. The assistants looked on in awe.

“My lady?”, one of them asked timidly, “The people…they’re so happy down there. They are all celebrating the birth of your sons as if the gods came down to earth. How do you feel?”

Chione opened one eye a crack, and regarded the girls. “Why don’t one of you…call upon some other wind god…and find out for yourselves?”

A chorus of “no”s, “nope”s, “nuh uh”s, an “nooooo thank you”s erupted around the rooftop, and Hylonome hee hawed with laughter. Even Chione gave a very tired grin.

And then, a cold north wind blew in, strong and steady. It made the curtains flap, and the assistants shiver. Chione looked up. And understood.

“I think you should all go now. I believe my husband is here to come take us.”

“My lady, but…you need proper care!” protested the midwife. “You’re in no condition to travel–”

“Thank you, but I will be well taken care of where I’m going. You’ve done all you can.”

“But…no!” Hylonome said. “You’re leaving? Forever?”

“Forever? No, no, I’d never do that to you after all you did for me. My husband is a wind god, I can come and go whenever I want. I’ll come back to visit all the time. Especially when the wind gets cold. But right now, everyone needs to go. You’re not meant to look at him.”

A tear rolled down Hylonome’s cheek, and she bent down for a hug. Chione couldn’t hug back with her arms full of demigod children, but Hylonome felt her friend’s warm embrace all the same.

“OK then, Chione. You come back real soon, alright? That Boreas had better take good care of you. And you let him know how hard we worked to have those kids of his. He better be grateful!”

“You take care my friend. I promise you won’t wait long. And you’ll get your blessings for this, I’ll make sure of it. But please, get everyone off the roof. See you soon.”

“OK…OK…” Hylonome wiped her eyes. “You heard her, clear out!”

Soon, after everyone had bowed on their way out, the rooftop was empty except for Chione and the cooing babies on her chest. She heard the celebrations down below, but only for a moment, before the wind howled harder, and harder, until the tarps and tapestries that made up the canopy were torn off the roof and flung out over the town.

Then, with the sky above her, Chione looked up, and saw him.

Descending, on a great pair of black wings. His skin pale blue as an iceberg. His hair and beard, a magnificent mane of icicles. His muscles, covered by nothing. His eyes, shining like the sunlight off a snowy mountaintop. Chione’s mouth opened, her eyes went wide and ran with tears, and her heart raced, her body trembled, as she beheld, for the first time, a god in true form.

The god of the North Wind, Boreas, lightly touched down on the roof. And yet, when his bare feet landed, the entire temple rumbled.

His eyes, shining without pupils, gazed upon the stricken Chione and her babies. Slowly, he stepped toward them. Where his feet fell, a patch of ice grew from the roof.

He stared down at them. And then, slowly as a glacier, his icy beard crackled, his mouth moving, sideways…into a smile. A voice vibrated the air, huge, frosty, yet somehow warm.

WELL DONE…DEAR ONE…

Epilogue

When the temple caretakers dared to go back to the roof, they saw that there was no one there. Only a set of huge, icy footprints remained. Strange white flakes were drifting down from the sky through the cold air. The caretakers caught them on their fingers, and they melted into water. They had never seen them before.

Those icy footprints would never melt, even under the summer sun. From then on that rooftop was, forevermore, holy ground.

Hylonome and her cohorts took what they learned from their great challenge and spread their findings of advanced pneumatics throughout Greece. In time, air pumps and other contraptions powered by air sprung up all around the Aegean. The midwife, who also became famous for delivering the divine triplets, used a version of that suction device in all her difficult births. It became a popular tool among midwives and physicians, and many mothers and babies' lives were saved.

Boreas, as promised, took Chione and their children to his palace in the north. The sons of Boreas were raised in Hyperborea, the land of forever spring, and they grew to be the famed Three Priests of Apollo, each one a giant 9-feet-tall, and had many epic adventures between the realms.

As for Chione…also as promised, Boreas made her immortal, and his wife. She was no longer Chione the temple maiden, nor Chione the Sacred Mother. She became Chione, the goddess of snow. The god of the north wind and his new wife became inseparable forever. Where he flew around the world, she followed him close behind. Every winter when the wind blew cold, especially in Aeolia, the snow came with it and blanketed the land in white.

And so, for the rest of time, winter became more than cold, and hard, and wrathful. Winter, as well, became romantic and beautiful.

THE END