━━ ⦗the swan princess! ⦘
❝ you're beautiful!
thank you, but what else?
... what else is there? ... ❞
███████████ 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝
the courageous odette teaches the
once and future king a less...
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chapter twenty-four! 024. the wrath of a dead man
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THE WORST SOUND that night were the sounds of Ygraine Pendragon's screams. In the early morning of a summer day, barely before the sunrise could meet the dawn, the young Queen of Camelot had found herself in a sudden early labour. It was fast, and it was quick, and before she knew it, she was in extreme, horrific pain. The sound travelled down the window from the Queen's chambers down into the castle courtyard▬terrifying and startling to anyone who heard it. And there she lied, drenched and trembling▬barely able to think past the red she saw in her gaze to hear anyone's words▬in her bed. Flushed, crying and hysterical.
"Push, My Lady," she barely heard the maid tell her, desperate to get her to listen. "You must push, My Lady!"
"Where is he?" Ygraine was crying. She was scared▬she has never been more scared in her life. Her words were lost within her wails, her mind blurred from the pain. They told her to push, and to take breaths, and to keep going▬she must keep going. "Uther▬where▬where is the King? Where is his father?!"
"Ygraine," Gaius's voice was somewhere in the distance, all through he was right beside her. "My Lady, you must focus."
The Queen of Camelot slumped, breaking out into small sobs as she felt the dawn get no closer▬and nor this child in coming out of her. This child was supposed to be a miracle. He was supposed to be their special little boy▬the only heir to the kingdom of Camelot. Her little miracle, her baby boy, her precious son▬and yet she felt as if he was tearing her apart from within.
She continued to cry, ignoring their orders and pressure. She wanted to go to sleep▬she wanted this to stop. She wanted to give up. She shook her head▬again and again, falling back against her pillows. She pleaded for help▬she pleaded to the Lord to make all of this pain to stop. For this all to be over. "No," she whimpered. "No▬don't make me do it. Please, don't make me do it."
The Queen did not see the worried glance the physician sent those who accompanied him in the room, gently pressing a wet cloth against Ygraine's flushed forehead and cheeks. She did not know that not even birth was supposed to be this excruciating and troublesome. She did not know that the child had not turned properly▬she did not know that the early morning had turned into something deadly.
"You are almost there, My Lady," Gaius told her instead. "You can do this▬just keep going. You are almost there."
She didn't want to. She wanted to say no. To tell him no.
The Queen's labour went well close to the dawn▬the darkest hour was spent tiresome in trying to coax her to continue. Telling her that she was almost there▬she was almost done▬as they desperately waited for the King to return from patrol and tried to turn the child the right way each time she pushed, determined to save both of them.
