"Yes, Love indeed is light from Heaven; A spark of that immortal fire with angels shared, by Allah given, To lift from earth our low desire." - Lord Byron

"Gaia!"

I heard the quiet, desperate cry and knew immediately what was happening. I looked to my left and a short distance away spotted Atsheena, kneeling on the ground, curled around the globe of her belly. In the midst of all that had been happening, no one had noticed her pain as she struggled through the early phases of labor. Now, as she approached the moment of birth her form seemed to shimmer in and out of focus.

"She can't hold on to her human shape. We need to get her away from the others," Freyja said as she ran to help the other woman. Gaia reached down with powerful arms and helped her to her feet. The two goddesses led the shape shifter away to a place where she could give birth without becoming a danger to anyone else.

No one seemed to have any desire to do anything but be near their loved ones and marvel at all they had seen. Voices were hushed as each attempted to express the awe and wonder they'd experienced. I sat with Michael and Donovan under a sprawling oak tree outside the house where Atsheena had been taken. I wished I could be by my friend's side, telling her that everything was going to be OK but I honestly didn't know that. Anything could happen. If we'd learned anything in the past months, it was that. And, now that I was "just a mortal human" once more, it wasn't safe for me to be in the room with her. I'd been told that her kind tend to give themselves over to their animal natures during such events and, like any powerful animal in pain, she would be dangerous and unpredictable. Freyja and Gaia were strong and wise. I would have to leave this moment to their capable hands.

For an hour or so we didn't hear a thing. Then came a steady stream of low snarling, punctuated by an occasional crash of glass or something harder against the wall as though the room was being violently ransacked. Of course, by now everyone in the village knew what was going on and several folks were hovering nearby.

Another hour passed and things got very quiet again. We all gave up any pretense and began to ask one another, "Do you think she's OK? What do you think the child will be like?"

Finally, there was the eerie, fierce, piercing cry of a wolf and, a moment later, the wails of a baby. I jumped up and started to take a step toward the door but Michael reached out a hand to stop me. "You don't know yet what this baby is like. Give them time." He was right, of course, but I was impatient.

It seemed an eternity (though it was probably only twenty minutes or so) before Gaia stuck her head out and said, "Simone, can you come in?"

I rushed over to the house and went straight into the bedroom to find it destroyed. Claw marks covered the walls. The dresser had been ripped to kindling. In the midst of the chaos was Atsheena lay on the bed looking exhausted, her hair damp with sweat, the blood vessels in her eyes broken. She was covered to the waist with a clean white sheet, with her tiny suckling infant at her breast. I moved to her side and sat gently on the edge of the bed. She looked up at me and smiled a tiny, exhausted smile. "He's really beautiful," she said.

I looked down at the baby at her breast. A mop of blue-black hair covered his head and his red lips moved rhythmically as he greedily took his fill of milk. He was improbably tiny, especially considering how big her belly had been. Both of my boys had weighed in at over nine pounds. There was no way this little one was more than five, but he was perfectly formed in every way. He opened his eyes and looked at me and I gasped. Emerald green eyes shone with inner light. He was as stunning as any of the angels. As I looked at him, a love as powerful as that which I'd felt at the gates of Heaven filled my heart and I marveled. The combination of human and other that existed within this child had resulted in an ability to broadcast true love into the hearts of those around him.

He sucked for a moment longer and then, in the way of infants, his eyes grew sleepy and slow and he fell away from her breast. He smacked his lips a few times and settled in to a sound sleep. Atsheena wiped the single falling drop of milk from the corner of his mouth.

"He's perfect," I told her, my own eyes full of happy tears.

"His name is Hala," she said. "An unexpected gift."

I kissed his head. "Welcome, Hala," I whispered. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I have a feeling that you're going to find this new world you're in very much to your liking."

I could not know what tomorrow would bring but I knew that this day was a gift beyond measure and my heart sang praise.