Isletunna welcomes you...

I dont know where this story came from, a piece of impromptu flash fiction, maybe there is more. What do you think?

The baby opened his mouth and gave an almighty wail. He had only just entered the world and could hardly know what future he would have but he cried out as if he did. His lungs drew in great gulps of the toxic gas that filled the planets atmosphere and in less than a few seconds a mask was placed over the newborn infants small mouth and nose and the anxious parents looked on in hope that no damage had been done. It had been ruled upon for many years that all children of Isletunna were to be born on the surface and only the survivors of the blackness would be allowed to enter their haven.

The parents had born other babies that had not survived their first few breaths and they had watched as within a minute or two, the small delicate children had begun to cough and splutter as a black sludge would dribble from their mouths, their eyes would roll back in their heads and turn a burnt red, the veins in their bodies would become turgid as the blackness began to clog them creating a map on their bodies like the back of a leaf. Soon the sludge would burst the veins and emanate through every pore, spread over the child and smother it in a hard unrelenting casing. The casing and the child inside would be left on the planets surface and the parents would have to leave back to the underworld that they lived in.

The parents of this child were not alone in their grief, every family had experienced this at some time, none had lost as many, and this was the 13^th child they had. None of their other children had survived and they held more hope for this child as it was the last viable egg they had. The mother held onto her husbands hands, her knuckles white with fear, her legs still shaking and tired from the birth, and her face stricken with tears and dirt. The father stood tall and proud and would show no fear, he would not let it penetrate his armour, even if his heart was crumbling into a million pieces. They looked at each other exchanging glances that spoke a thousand words.

As they waited for time to tick by they looked at their 13^th child, not wanting to hope, not wanting to love this child, but they couldn’t fight it, it had been instant. After 5 minutes the child hadn’t presented with any of the symptoms of the disease and after 10 minutes they allowed hope to creep in, after 30 minutes the doctor took their newborn infant to be marked with the Seal of Isletunna. If he survived this ritual then they would be able to take him home. This baby would be the new leader of their land when the time came, and no sooner had it been announced that he had beaten the blackness than the people of Isletunna rejoiced.