Blood Vengeance part 1

Mother Rea padded quietly down the hall, tightly clutching a bundle of old cloths to her chest. No signs of comfort showed in the worn stone floor or the unadorned wood paneling the walls. Oil burning lamps set at intervals into the walls lit the way ahead. The wind howled restlessly outside, causing the rough-hewn timbers in the ceiling to creak and groan. Rea wondered at it for a moment, as it had been years since they had experienced a storm of this severity. The wind had started around lunchtime nearly a week before. It had turned bitterly cold outside quite suddenly, and before the evening meal of the day was over it was snowing heavily. Most storms would have blown themselves out by now. Rather than becoming weaker, this storm seemed to gain strength with each passing hour.
Rea pulled her shawl tighter across her shoulders to ward off a sudden chill. Her graying auburn hair was tightly pinned in a severe bun at the nape of her neck and only accentuated the worry lines creasing her timeworn face. Her muddy brown eyes surveyed the hallway before her as she strode towards her destination. Her entire life had been spent inside the four walls of the little convent in the mountains, but even so she could have found her destination had it been her first day. The screams coming from the infirmary echoed in nearly ever corner and even the most stalwart of the sisters had begun to wonder if a demon was about to be placed among them.
Rea stopped for a moment outside the plain wooden door and took a deep calming breath. She had seen childbirth many times before, why should this occasion bother her so. After calming her nerves enough to at least stop the shaking in her hands she turned the knob and swung the door open. The sight that beheld her eyes was the same as all the other births she has been midwife for in this very room. The minimal furnishings consisited of a small worktable, a chair, and a large straw bed. On the worktable lay a single lamp, an clay pitcher, and a similar clay basin filled with steaming hot water.
The woman lying on the bed looked up at Rea with pain-glazed eyes the color of the sky and moaned as another contraction ripped through her slight frame. Rea studied her for a moment and noticed at once that to call her a woman would be a stretch. She couldnt possibly be older than sixteen summers. Her once honey golden locks lay damp and tangled against her sweat soaked brow. The plain brown shift she wore stretched tight against her swollen abdomen and Rea was shocked to realize that the moisture saturating the gown was not just perspiration. Rea turned to the final occupant of the room and pierced her with an icy glare.
(to be continued)