Meteli was never a joy to travel to for Miracle. Their political landscape was always a mess every few years and the layout of the village was a nightmare during the hell that was their elections when lordship got complicated. Unfortunately, she was required to make the trek when she was younger to ensure that their loyalty to Carsistle remained in tact, especially during political hell. Luckily, she wasn't in town for political matters, but instead for a little delivery of a lost kitten she found.

She was positive Urla would love to have another edition to her growing island of meowing fur babies. She's not one to just turn away a stray, even if the stray was randomly found in the forest on a cliff on the outskirts of Meteli...
Okay, so maybe the kitten was found along the way to Meteli, but she needed an excuse beyond visiting for what she was actually looking for. If that meant going to the Crazy Cat Lady's island, then so be it.

What she really wanted to go to Meteli for was to search for a book in the village's library. Something on childbirth and Shadow Knights and having a strange attraction to relics that belong to divine warriors while pregnant. Y'know, the basics.

Deep down, Miracle had an idea why Soteria's relic felt warmer than it usually had before, but she was kind of hoping that maybe it wasn't because she's a Shadow Knight. Hell, she didn't even intend to get this far into the process of transitioning, but The Shadow Lord was a very determined bastard and sped the process along a lot faster than she had intended.

She knew she could always go to Hyria about it, ask her all of her burning questions about how this would effect her and the baby currently developing inside of her, but Hyria wasn't exactly fond of Miracle's plan to get more information on the Divine Warriors through The Shadow Lord. Of course, she knew it was probable she may have to eventually cave and receive Hyria's advice, but she could push it off for as long as she feels necessary.

The soft mews of the small creature strapped to her side were both endearing and slowly inching towards a tad bit annoying. She was glad that she was along the outskirts of town, Meteli's sign within close view.

Seriously, why is their welcome sign so disgustingly basic? Miracle could only roll her eyes as she got closer, tying her horse up once she got to the outskirts of town. Her choice was to either board her makeshift boat in her inventory and make the quick trip to Cat Island or take a very noisy kitten into Meteli's library. Cat pee or be ostracized for destroying the library's peace and quiet?

She groans, setting her makeshift boat onto the water and hopping inside of it. The quicker she makes it to that insane lady's island, the quicker she can drop the cute, loud kitten off and be on her way. Or, she would if her boat didn't decide to disintegrate upon sailing off.

"Greaaaaat. I'm soaked," She mumbles to herself as she gets back on land, taking a glance at her temporary companion to see that it also was drenched. And angry.

She takes a very long and very deep inhale through her nose.

"Let's go dry off, yeah?"

"Mew!"

"Yeahhh"
~~~~~

Miracle's lucky that Joh believes in ghosts or things would be a little harder to explain.

"You go missing and then appear out of nowhere with a kitten and eyes redder than crimson? I wouldn't be too fond of going back home either," Okay, maybe Joh was just too good at reading people, "Next you're going to tell me you're pregnant? Oh my Irene, that'd be a bit much for a rebellious phase"

"Hahaha don't say that or you'll jinx me," Miracle plays off, pulling the towel away from the now very spoofy kitten. The kitten paws at the now very drenched towel in Miracle's tanned fingers, rolling on its back in an attempt to reach. Miracle pulls it away to set in a hamper, "I do appreciate you helping me out, though. I do need to get to Urla's island to drop this lil babey off and then scour your village's library"

"How about I take the little gremlin off your hands? I'll see Urla or Dr. Doctor sometime soon and it's the least I could do with Carsistle sending us their extra supplies," Joh offers, taking the small kitten into his hands and softly petting the top of its head. A soft rumble sounds at the attention, pressing its head further into Joh's touch.

"That's probably for the best..." The purring only makes Miracle a little jealous, but she can't fault the little thing. She'd hold a small grudge too if someone dropped her into the ocean, "Thanks, Joh. I'll be sure to come say hi next time I happen to be in the area"

She heads out in a hurry, uncaring that her hair is more puffed up than usual.

Miracle is soon to regret her hurry almost immediately after she leaves Joh's, her foot tripping over a crack in the road. She attempts to try to catch her footing before she can fall, arms flailing out in an attempt to stir her back upwards. Her body whips back and forth, some people stopping to observe the struggle, until she manages to catch herself with a deep breathe of relief. She takes a moment to steady her breathing, calming after a bit and only moving once she feels realigned enough.

Unfortunately, she wasn't realigned enough. Down she goes as her boot catches on to a relatively big rock, quickly maneuvering her body to fall with her back facing the ground-

"Oof!"

-And into a barrel of hay in the center of a chicken coop. Miracle lays there a moment, practically horrified that she fell into a chicken coop in the middle of town in broad daylight.
Then she remembers that this is only a slight inconvenience when she's literally a pregnant Shadow Knight with no idea on what she's doing and literally homeless. Still, she stays there to ask herself how she got here: Laying in a chicken coop as a pregnant Shadow Knight.

Yeah, maybe she hasn't been making a lot of good decisions lately. Maybe he had a point.

"We shouldn't be here like this," It's a teasing warning, made apparently by the grin on his lips as he holds Miracle's chin between his fingers, "You're really making some bad decisions, y'know?"

Yeah, she's making some really bad decisions lately.

A small kid covered in feathers stands over Miracle's figure, a stick with a stuffed chicken in his hands pointing down at her in an almost accusatory way, "You almost crushed Timberly, Spoofy Spoof Woman!"

"Timberly?" She asks, very confused as to why this child covered in feathers was standing over her with a weird chicken staff thing. She's quick to stand to her feet, jumping in surprise as a few aggressive clucks make their way to her ears. She can only assume that's Timberly.

"You're disturbing my chickens! Leave the coop immediately!" She's unable to get too good of a look at the kid as she's shoo-ed away, but she's pretty sure she saw a beard on him. Irene, kids are aging super fast nowadays.

She does as he asks though, mostly because he's poking her with that stick and it is very uncomfortable, and leaves the chicken coop as fast as she can move her legs. There's also a few stray chicken feathers in her hair.

The sooner she can leave Meteli, the better...
~~~~~~

Eventually, Miracle gets to the library and their library has literally nothing that she's looking for. Sure, there were pregnancy books, but none that mentioned anything about Shadow Knights having babies or relic attraction or literally anything remotely useful to her. Just thinking about it causes her agony, leading to her giving a deep sigh each time.

She's a little aggressive as she hops onto her horse and rides away from Meteli, finding herself even more annoyed with the village. Yeah, Meteli is definitely way lower on her village ranking, no matter how kind Joh is, "Sweet Soteria, fuck Meteli!"

Now she was forced to visit Hyria for answers, because any other village would be a little more than distraught at the sight of Carsistle's missing heir. Hell, she even tried Phoenix Drop when their library is so disgustingly put together. Seriously, have they never heard of Enki's literary system?

She gently tugs and leads her horse towards Hyria's forest, slightly defeated.
~~~~~~

Miracle stares down at the bundle of joy wrapped in her hold, her widened, crimson eyes staring down at the baby in concern. She bites her lip, her free hand widening it's empty palms before closing it to ensure that it was actually empty.

Yep, yep, that's definitely an empty hand. What the fuck-

"HYRIA, (Y/N) ABSORBED THE RELIC!!!" Miracle cries out, setting the baby down gently. She steps back, scared and concerned as she stares down at the newborn, "Y-You... You absorbed Soteria's relic..."

She tightly grips her (h/c) locks as she falls to her knees, realization dawning on her as everything comes together. Why The Shadow Lord wanted the baby so badly, why she was so attracted to the relic, why she had nightmares about Irene...

Tears fall from her eyes as she stares to the ground, her fingers releasing her hair and now bracing themselves against the ground. Baby cries are nothing but a distant sound as Miracle forcibly faces the situation her child has been placed in.

Hyria's met with a sight, a baby hysterically crying while it's mother suffers the consequences of her bad decisions, "Miracle...?"

"Is Irene coming back...?"