Old Ning's apartment is nothing but a ten feet by ten feet square of comfort that comes in height that's moderate enough to walk around without the need to bend.
In a corner of the house hosts a half-baked structure that seems to function as a bed and in another corner sits a pair of rough cooking materials and small bowls.
Several boxes that housed the Old Man's belongings sits at the third corner and the floor of the space has somehow been made smooth and blue and also without dirt.
Unlike the chaotic scene that the old man has expected to see when he sensed a broken lock, the only thing that has changed in his apartment is the presence of an uninvited newcomer; slumped weakly on the floor with her back resting against the wall and her feet wide apart.
Old Ning frowns as he looks as his highly unappreciated 'guest'. Although her wears are simple, you could easily tell that she was from the upper parts of the Outskirts because they aren't rags.
Her face is in a shade of pale with a weird blush on her right cheek though paying the blush a bit more attention, it looks more like a left-handed slap mark!.
'She's an elf.', The old man determines as he looks at her pointy ears, sharp jawline and seemingly immature features.
Her weak begging gaze directed at him looks even more pathetic considering her light green eyes. Her sight lingers on Old Ning's figure with a hazy and unfocused stare and her chest is heaving in such a way that suggested that she is having a good amount of difficulties with breathing.
Still in an alert position, the old man looks down to her bulging stomach that obviously carries another life as well as the wetness of the clothes and floor between her legs.
'She's in labour!.', the old man determines internally.
'She's in labour!..', The Old Man screams internally with full realization of the situation as he hurriedly turns back to lock the door.
"P-please help,.. help me.".
The pregnant woman's trembling voice reaches Old Ning's ears with her tone tickling a part of his conscience he had long buried.
He suddenly felt the desire to help someone without his own benefits coming first. Old Ning's mind spins in circles as he feels hesitant to stretch an helping hand even in this situation.
The pregnant elf seems to have somehow sensed Old Ning's hesitation to help even though all she could currently sees is a blur. She tries hard and manages to stretch her hand up to the direction of the old man but she soon fails as her hand drops.
A drop of tear slides down her left cheek as her eyelids began to flutter.
She is losing consciousness!.
Realising this, Old Ning's hesitation gets thrown out the window as he hurriedly walks to the fading woman's side before lightly slapping both her cheeks to keep her awake. He knows very well from experience that if the elf falls asleep at this moment then both her and the unborn baby were going to wakeup in the afterlife.
"Elf, keep your eyelids open no matter what. We are getting this baby out of you.", Old Ning says with his hands on both the labouring Elf's cheeks as he says these words with surprising determination. The pregnant elf nods quietly with her eyelids still in a flutter and the old man nods back.
Old Ning knows more than a thing or two about child birth as his mother was a midwife who helped countless slum-women with birth.
Although he've never done the process by himself before, he has the knowledge to perform the process and he has even assisted a lot of times in the distant past.
Being Completely honest, Old Ning has never performed the process by himself though..
'There's a first time for everything.', Old Ning whispers to himself.
Pulling a specific box towards himself, Old Ning takes out a small piece of smooth wood before placing it between the elf woman's teeth. He struggles but he somehow managed to carry and move the onto the makeshift bed at the corner before tying long pieces of slim clothes to each side of the top frames.
He puts the ends of this tied clothes in each of the woman's hands before tying her ankles in an Eagle spread position.
He hurriedly tears through enough of the woman's clothes off to give him visuals of the operation and then.. kepping up with his super pace, Old Ning moves to put a small quantity of neat water on his stove as well as brings out a piece of neat white napkin.
After doing all of this in less the two minutes, Old Ning moves over to the elf woman's side. He takes the smooth wood from between her teeth and then he gives her the last two things he could in order to increase the probability that the process doesn't end in a tragedy. Motivation and hope.
"From what I see, you have been in labour for quite a long time. Your child has been trying to see the world and his mother's face for quite the long time and with any further delay, he won't be able to."
"No,.. no.", The elf woman weakly protests at Old Ning's words with tears brewing and spilling from her reddened eyes. She pulled against her ropes in her hands with renewed energy as she looks at the old man pleadingly with heavy breaths.
"You don't want that then luckily for you,.. neither do I. So this is what we are going to do: You are going to fight against the pain, fight against the weakness and fight for both your life and your child's life!.
"When I tell you to, you are going to push like you have never done before. You are going to give your child life and then try to stay alive for whatever comes next. Is this understood?!.", Old Ning asks with wide eyes as he looks at Elf's face.
The elf nods twice with true determination on her pale face and the old man nods back before slipping the piece of wood back between her teeth as he goes into position for delivery.
"Push..", The man commands.
"Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhh!..
A muffled scream fills the room as the elf strains the ropes wildly while pushing till all the air in her lungs were depleted.
***A few hours later..
"Push..", Old Ning demands with his hands clasping onto the head of the baby between Elf's legs.
With a tired but desperate grunt while biting into the wood between her teeth, the elven woman drags the ropes in her hands as she give one final push that finally sends her baby out and into the new world.
The elf's head falls back in utter exhaustion as she lays completely limp. Her face is even paler that it was before and now it is messily decorated with sweat, tears and snot.
Her fingers were still weakly clasped against the ropes and her torn clothes stuck to her body because of the extreme sweat of the process. With her chest lightly rising and falling, the blonde elf's hair looked more of a mess than that of an abandoned birds nest.
About to let exhaustion and relief take her deep into sleep, the elf realises that..
*PURP.*, She lets her wooden gag fall weakly from her lips before speaking with her cracked voice in utter panic.
"I- I didn't hear the child cry.", The elf says with her muscles tensing as her already weak psyche seems to be tearing down at this brutal realisation.
Hearing her weak panicked voice, old man hurriedly runs to the side of the woman's face with the blood covered child in his arms.
"Relax dear, the child is fine.", Old Ning says as he showed the elf her baby who is the instincitively moving weakly in his arms.
The elf looks up at her one-foot long blood covered baby who limbs moved unconsciously as his weak eyelids seemed to protest against the unfamiliar light.
The child's mother looks at her child's tiny but active frame with her tension in her mind suddenly deflating. She lets go of the ropes in pure relieve and the Old man places the baby over her chest.
She could feel his small but powerful heartbeat against hers as a weak stupid smile filled with love crawls on her pale face.
"It's a boy and he is going to need his mother to survive.", The Old man says quietly as elf's eyelids flutters before closing hence sending her into deep sleep with a smile still resting on her face.