Three Kings and a Queen

Chapter 11

"Amelia! Wake up already! It's probably around noon and we haven't made any progress!" The bushy-browed Emeraldean screeched when he realized that Amelia was still sleeping. Her and Ivan were the only two that hadn't woken up, and because none of them were brave enough to wake up the Amethysian Prince, they decided to wake up Amelia so she could do it.

Unfortunately, Arthur and everyone else's efforts had proved futile, and so Yao decided to try. "Amelia! You are going to be late for the Royal meeting! Honestly, you need to learn how to wake up at a proper time! A lady like you should be able to get dressed without having someone scream at them to start moving! Amelia! Are you listening to me! If you don't get up soon I'm going to-"

He was interrupted by Matthew who said calmly, "I've got this." He stood by Amelia, and then screamed, "Amelia! Help me!" The Sapphirean Princess shot up like a rocket, moving into a defensive position in front over brother with a wild look in her eyes.

"What? Who should I punch fir- Oh wait? It's you guys? What?" Amelia said as she looked around, eyes still scanning for any possible threats.

"We just wanted to wake you up Amelia, calm down." Mattie said soothingly as he went up next to her and patted her on the back. "Oh, and we need to wake Ivan."

Amelia sighed, rubbed her eyes and then walked over to the tall male's bed. Then, she let out an ear-splitting shriek that made everyone cringe and cover their ears. It also successfully woke Ivan up, although he looked ready to attack somebody. When he saw Amelia, he just sighed, flopped back down on to his bed, and grumbled.

"Oh no," Amelia said as she yanked the covers off him, "If I have to wake up, so do you. I'll give you three seconds before I pour water on your face." She threatened.

He muttered some insults towards her under his breath, but eventually he got out. Everyone else had managed to clean themselves up a bit, still in the same clothes but any injuries had been bandaged and hair brushed. Ivan looked over at Amelia and nearly choked on air. Her hand and her side had blood oozing out, her hair was a mess, and her neck had bruises that looked like someone had tried to strangle her. "Amelia, you might want to clean those." He said, gesturing at them.

The others realized what he was referring to and gasped. Amelia was caught up in a flurry of activity, she was brought to a chair and a bucket of water from the underground well was put next to her, as well as a lot of medical supplies. Maria and Madison were trying to get her to keep calm, as they knew she loathed anything to do with doctors and medicine. This was actually probably why Amelia hadn't mentioned her injuries sooner.

Arthur, who claimed to be a doctor of sorts commanded everyone to go to a different room. Everyone except Maria, Matthew, Madison, and Ivan left. No amount of persuasion could convince the two girls to leave their best friend's side, and no one dared to go near the two princes, both of whom looked ready to seriously injure anyone that came near them.

Arthur poured water onto Amelia's injured hand, and once the main layer of dirt was gone, he started to apply some salve. Amelia hissed, in obvious pain, but Arthur insisted this was the only way to clean it so she remained strong.  A loud crash came from the other room, with a yell that sounded a lot like Yao's. Ivan through open the door and stalked into the other room, his body language suggesting imminent death to anyone who spoke another word.

Amelia sent her friends into the other room, insisting she would be fine and someone needed to make sure Ivan didn't "accidentally" kill someone. Only Matthew and Arthur were left with Amelia, who was currently cringing as Arthur cut off parts of her nightgown to get to the cut on her side. Luckily Arthur was rather good with a knife, and so nothing... Inappropriate was revealed. Matthew utilized his powers of blending into the background and not letting anyone notice him, praying that Arthur would make a move so Amelia would fall in love.

The Emeraldean Prince gently cleaned and then bandaged her wound, murmuring reassurances as the princess winced and made little squeaking noises because of that gosh darned salve. Arthur was about to call everyone back into the room when he noticed the marks around her neck. Before he had only seen the blood, but this was just as serious. She had red and purple blotches in the shape of fingerprints along her neck.

"Amelia... How did this happen?" He asked, carefully brushing her hair back.

She laughed bitterly and whispered, "How do you think?" His mouth made a small "o" and he brought her into a hug, which she accepted. She clung to him as it he were the last thing on Earth, her sole provider of comfort. They stayed like this for awhile, her holding on desperately while he hung on gently. Soon though, realizing the others would want to know she was alright, they separated. Amelia whispered a small "thanks" at Arthur, who nodded and gave her a little smile, which she returned.

Amelia got an old-looking brown coat from her bag, which she had left lying near the bed she had slept on. She pulled it on and then, after taking a deep and slightly shaky breath, plastered a smile on her face and walked confidently into the other room and laughed loudly at his silly everyone was being about worrying about her. Most of them thought they had indeed been foolish, after all, Amelia was always happy.

But only one realized that Amelia was barely holding herself together, probably on the brink of sobbing, and yet keeping her emotions controlled for the sake of everyone else. Ivan knew very well what that fake smile looked like, because after all, he had worn it almost every day when ruling the Amethyst Kingdom.

AN:
Holy Guacamole guys!!! 400 reads! Thanks! Sorry I didn't update before, it's been a crazy week. Anyways, I'm gonna try to either write a double-length chapter on Sunday, or write one regular chapter on Saturday & Sunday. Happy Friday!!