Caleb had driven Lily back to her house after their date at his cabin. He had an old pickup truck that he parked on his land near the road behind some trees. He had made a path through the trees so he could walk to it easily. She loved how unique and well thought out his whole living space was.

She curled up in her own bed, full of good food, knowing she would see him again soon in the other world. So strange. It was two separate lives. They were so chaste in this world and so very not chaste in Alinora. But it seemed appropriate. It seemed right for them to somehow stay chaste now. Probably until after the baby was born, she realized.

But she loved going on dates with him. It’s not like they’d gotten to have that in Alinora.

The next two months passed quickly. She was happy and the time seemed to fly by. She met Caleb daily in the real world, at his house or hers, and met him every night in Alinora. They got to know each other better. By the third week of their Earth relationship, she’d started sleeping at his house every night. She took the bed and he slept on the couch in the living room. She just didn’t like leaving him at night.

It still amazed her how shy they were with each other in reality. Things in Alinora were just as heated and free as they ever were. In spite of her pregnancy.

She’d decided to have a home birth. Because she felt more comfortable being close to Alinora during birth. It might make it easier to meditate to get there during labor. She just felt safer knowing that. She still hadn’t decided which home she wanted to give birth at.

Caleb had become her birth partner instead of Sarah. Sarah had met him once briefly and couldn’t stop smirking knowingly. Lily had told her Caleb was the father and that they were dating “again”.

Lily just knew embarrassing exaggerations and rumors were being woven out of this. She and her mysterious mountain man. Of course the truth would blow all of those rumors out of the water, but she would never tell it.

She had been going to see a midwife weekly during the last month of her pregnancy. She’d shown the midwife both houses, and the midwife naturally preferred the one that was closer to modern civilization, Lily’s house. But at this point Lily was sure that would not be where she gave birth. She only went there to get her mail and wash clothes. Caleb had laundry machines on a small enclosed back porch, but she wanted to keep part of her life at her house. So she could pretend she hadn’t moved in with him yet.

It was funny how much she didn’t miss it, her “dream house”. So carefully designed by her, built by experts, and now sitting empty. But if she hadn’t built it, she would never have met Caleb. So ironic.

She loved the earthiness of his house. He used well water and rain water gathered in a tank. It was all so clever and eco-friendly.

One night, after a nice dinner and a nice chat, Lily kissed Caleb goodnight. She went to the bedroom, and he went to the couch. It was raining. Pounding down on the roof. It was soothing. She got comfortable under the quilt and drifted off to sleep.

She woke up in Caleb’s arms in Alinora. It was raining there too. They were snuggled on their couch.

“It rains here?” she asked him.

“Sometimes,” he said, looking out at it. He had his hand on her stomach, and the baby kicked it. He laughed. He rubbed her stomach. “I think you’re about ripe,” he said.

She smiled at him. She still wore long flowing gowns here, but they were somehow built for pregnancy now. Everything you need here, you have, she thought.

He started to undo the laces on her bodice. She kissed him. The rain pounded down on the roof and the ground outside. With the moonlight it made shadows on the walls and on them. She stood up and led him to the bedroom. She untied the rest of the bodice laces and climbed out of her dress. Caleb quickly undressed also. He sat on the bed. She climbed onto the bed after him.

Her stomach was round and quite large now. They had to be more creative to make love. He kissed her and ran his hands all over her body. Then rolled her on her side with her back to him. He made love to her from behind, his breath on her neck and her ears as he kissed them.

She could see the rain outside the window pouring onto the glass as she felt pleasure build up in her body, then finally grip her with ecstasy. She arched her back and felt her head settle onto his shoulder. She felt pleasure shudder through his body too as her own was still tingling through her. Just then another force gripped her body and she felt her uterine muscles clench. Painlessly, but forcefully. She was going into labor.

“Oh!” she yelled as another one hit her, “It’s happening.”

“Oh my God,” he said, and disappeared. She no longer felt his hands on her body. She didn’t want to wake up, but another contraction hit her. Still no pain, but the power of it was scaring her a little bit.

“Oh, I don’t want to wake up,” she said. She knew she couldn’t have the baby in Alinora. But ,oh, how she wished she could. Suddenly she felt hands on her body pulling her out of Alinora.

She woke up to Caleb sitting in the bed with her with his hands around her waist. “Wake up, Lily,” he was saying gently.

She yelled as another contraction hit her. She arched her back. They hurt a little more in reality. “They aren’t supposed to be so close together yet,” she said breathlessly. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know,” Caleb said, helping her sit up, “but we should get ready.”

He gently reached under her night shirt and started to remove her panties. She let him. It was funny how shy they were not right now. Birth had a way of doing that to people she guessed.

Another contraction hit her as she leaned forward, clutching the footboard of the bed with both hands. She yelled. Not so much at the pain as at the unexpectedness of it.

Caleb jumped up, “I’ll go get… water or towels… or whatever they get in the movies.”

Lily laughed as she kneeled on the bed. She gripped the footboard fiercely as another one hit her, but she didn’t make a sound this time. Fluid gushed out of her body then. Her water had broken.

“Oh, my God, this is happening so fast,” she said after the contraction. “I think it’s—” she had to stop for another contraction, “—Alinora,” she said. “The fruit or… the baby being conceived there. It must make it happen faster or easier or something. I don’t even remember the first part of labor.”

Caleb hadn’t left the room. He just stood looking at her, stunned at what was happening. They had no time to prepare at all.

“Maybe I had the first part of labor and it was painless, so I didn’t notice,” she said after another contraction.

He realized it was happening soon. He came over to the side of the bed and had her turn to face him. He put her hands on his shoulders as he sat on the bed in front of her. She was kneeling with her legs spread.

She felt another contraction and felt her body rock forward a little bit. She held steady. Her hands were tightly gripping his shoulders. She shut her eyes. Soon she felt another contraction go over her in a wave. The pain was bearable. She let herself sink into the rhythm of the contractions.

She felt another contraction and her eyes popped open. This one felt like something huge. She could feel the baby entering the birth canal. So this is what birth felt like, she thought. It was a little scary and uncontrollable.

She yelled with the next one and felt the baby’s head move lower. “Now,” she whispered to Caleb. Then the next contraction hit, with an urge to push, and she let it happen. She pushed once with gentle force and the baby slid right out of her and into Caleb’s hands.

“Oh, my God,” he said. “That was amazing.”

Lily laughed with tears running down her face. She stared down at the baby who was looking up at them alertly. Must be the otherworldly fruit that made the baby so alert so young.

“It’s a girl,” Caleb said happily.

“A girl,” Lily smiled.

Caleb lifted the baby up into Lily’s arms. Lily held the tiny girl in her arms, feeling the weight of her. Finally all of her dreams had substance.

“I know just what we’ll call her,” Lily said.

Caleb kissed her. Then he looked at the baby, and touched her little cheek.

“Alinora,” he said. “Welcome to the world.”