The wind whistled through the trees. Branches swayed, leaves were ripped from their homes. Only the trunks themselves remained whole in the chaos. Birds didn't sing, but screech and yell as their homes were blown to the ground.

She stood at the precipice. The whole of the world was beneath her. There was as much turmoil in the trees below as there was in those above, but from here she could not see. Strikingly calm it all seemed, compared to the tempest she stood in. There was a river beneath the cliff, wide, calm, and dark.

The bundle in her arms, wrapped tightly in blue cloth, cooed softly at her. Bright blue portals of love stared at her. Trusting. Content. The little girl was filled with milk, and though her mother could feel the sting of the wind, she was insulated against it.

Oh, how lovely she was! She remembered her joy when the physician first told that life had begun within her. She remembered watching as her belly grew more full everyday. The first movements of the tiny girl sent her wild with happiness. Tearful contentment as the midwife handed the mewling little thing to her.

Still the words of the priestess were unshakable. She came to her one day, when the child was but weeks into life. Those cold, gray eyes looked over them with judgement behind their white mask. "Hold your love for this child far, far away," She had said in her muffled, sharp voice. "This child isn't a gift to be cherished, but to be rejected as the sinful thing it is."

The child's father was a nobleman that had no intention of staying with her. He told her otherwise. He whispered love into her ear, and spent nights watching over her and the child until his eyes fell closed. She would not be fooled by him. He wanted to bring her away from the church that was her only family. Her trust in the goddess couldn't be shaken by a mere man.

She stepped closer to the edge. Where was he now? Did he fret over his missing daughter, and the woman he lusted after?

She took another step. Her feet were so close to the edge; another step would send her over. She reached her arms over until she could no longer see the child's face. There were no tears, for the goddess had given her peace in what she had to do. There was a thumping in her chest, one that was sure to scare every beast in the forest.

No more thinking. She released her daughter to her fate. She dared not watch her fall. For a time she could not count, her arms stayed as they were, still remembering the weight of the child she once loved.

Then, she fainted.