OctoPrep 2025

Background story.

Assignment #25

"Oct. 25 - "CONTEST ROUND: Plot Background Story:"

"Plot: CONTEST ROUND: Plot Background Story"

Write a story that sets up your plot. EXAMPLE: The Lord of the Rings story revolves around the One Ring, its significance, and how it's destroyed. But how did Frodo get the One Ring in the first place? We learn that in The Hobbit. You obviously can't write a full-scale novel in 15 minutes, but you could write the scene where Bilbo encounters Gollum and stumbles across the ring. That would be a background story that sets up the plot in Lord of the Rings.


Lady Althena heard the front door open, she looked at the clock. Thirty after seven. She walked out of the kitchen towards the front door. As the midwife of Shimmerwood, her home had regular hours, but as babies never had regular hours, sometimes deliveries would come afterward. It had been a slow day, but wondered if the night would be a little more interesting.

As she turned the corner, "Can I help y—"

"Lady Althena!" The woman, who seemed to be all belly, reached out for her. "My water broke!"

"Oh Miss Mariam, please this way." She led her into the room she devoted to her work. A large bed was on the right, the head of it pressed against the middle of the left wall. An exam table was pressed against the right wall. Lady Althena led her to the bed, pulling the blankets all the way off the end of the bed. She grabbed some thick towels, set some aside and took the others to the bed and laid them beneath Mariam's bottom.

"Oh, it hurts." Mariam moaned, her hands on her large belly. She was expecting twins, girls.

"Would you like any medication?" She asked as she went over to the messaging system on the wall and sent off a message to her assistant, Nila.

"Yes. Oh yes please." It was Mariam's first pregnancy. She was young and she had been in love. According to Mariam through her appointments over the last months, she thought he was the one for her. It was why she'd given herself to him. It wasn't to be the case though as the relationship completely fell apart when she informed him of the pregnancy. She was scared at the normal first mom things, but also scared at being a twin mom on her first time around. Already had names picked out for the girls. Rowan Parisa and Adelaide Deilea. Beautiful names, Lady Althena had thought.

Lady Althena had removed her robe and put her long and curly dark brown hair back into a low ponytail. She wished she'd had time to let her son know what was happening, but for such a young boy, he was incredibly intuitive and understanding. He knew what she did for a living and understood the sounds labor made. So she didn't worry as she grabbed an injection needle and filled it with what many expectant mothers called simply, the Soothing Serum.

It didn't take long to take effect. Mariam relaxed as Lady Althena rested a hand upon her belly. Even though she could see the belly contract, she liked to feel them too. They were about five minutes apart. Moving quickly. "Looks like you aren't going to have to wait long at all, Mariam!" How she felt for the women who had long and arduous labors. It was a joy when a woman could have a relatively quick labor.

"Oh, I can't wait to see them! Adelaide will be first. Adelaide Deilea. Deilea was my mother's name, you know? I was very close with her."

"What a beautiful way to honor your mother." Lady Althena got some ice in a glass and some extra pillows.

"Parisa was my sister, my older sister. She died when I was little. Some type of infection that spread quickly and thoroughly. I've since lost my mother a few years ago. It's a way to honor them and keep a piece of them alive. As they grow older, I can share more pieces with them."

She sat down in the stuffed chair next to the bed and took Mariam's hand. "That is wonderful, Mariam. I did something similar with my son. I had an older brother, Vihaan. An old family name that goes far back in the Albifort family. He passed after falling out of an old tree in the backyard. Same old tree many Albifort children climbed and played on for centuries. Vihaan just fell and landed wrong. My father cut down that old tree, then burnt it, then salted it. When I had my son, it came naturally to me, Dane Vihann Ravizac."

Mariam smiled softly. "Family is what makes us, huh Lady Althena?"

"Indeed Mariam. Indeed." She stood and put her hand on her belly. Mariam was wearing a nightgown, the bottom hem discolored. Reminded her that she'd need to pull one from the closet, that she kept for instances like this. "Oh, looks like she's almost ready. I'm going to help push your legs up, okay? Going to get you into position! My assistant should be here soon to help."

Instead, things seemed to progress much faster than Lady Althena projected. "Push Mariam, push! Baby number 1 is coming!"

Soon the baby's head crowned. "Push now, Mariam! Baby #1 is almost out! I see the head!"

Out came the baby, all fists and screams. "Oh Mariam! She's got a good set of lungs on her!" She looked at the clock on the wall. "Three after eight."

"Oh Adelaide Deilea." Her voice was whispy and tired, but happy.

Lady Althena grabbed one of the towels and began to wipe the baby's face, checking her mouth for any debris. She laid her on one of the medical baby beds that had been pushed by the wall then hurried back over to the bed.

Within a few minutes, Mariam began pushing again. "Alright Mariam, let's push for the last time okay?"

Finally, the second baby crowned. "Okay Mariam sweetie, final push, give me everything you have!"

Out came the second girl, Rowan Parisa. She gave a good cry, but seemed to settle down and looked right up at Lady Althena. She looked up, noted the time, "Eight after eight."

Then as she reached for the second towel, she noticed the sky, which caused her to stop dead in her tracks. "Oh. Oh."

The Prophecy flooded her mind immediately. The sky was a deep red.

"...Mariam are you seeing this?" She carried Rowan with her to the front door and looked up at the sky. It was the deepest, royal of reds that she had ever seen.

She hurried back into the room. "Mariam?"

It was then she noticed that Mariam had been silent. Eerily so.