Tedros fell back from Lancelot's jab and accidentally tripped, before falling onto his back. He barely managed to suppress his gasp of pain as he fell back onto his barely stitched wounds.
He gingerly got up off of his back and could almost feel the blood starting to fall down his back out of the definitely re-opened stitches.
"Let's call it a day." Tedros said to Lancelot, wanting to escape to get a chance to look at the wounds.
"What, afraid to lose again?" Lancelot mockingly asked, daring him to go again.
"Very funny. I just think I've had enough." Tedros said through gritted teeth. Before swiftly turning back in the direction of the house.
"Ok. Fine. Let's go back." Lancelot said, slightly smirking, before walking back to the house with Tedros.
Tedros entered, eager to get upstairs to his room and look at his back, before suddenly being stopped by Guinevere, who was with everyone else.
"Oh good, you're here. I was just about to get you. The food's ready." Guinevere said, forcing Lancelot and Tedros to sit.
"You okay?" Agatha asked, noticing how stiffly Tedros was moving.
"Yeah I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes" Tedros said, starting to get exasperated, his back was really starting to ache and he was desperate to go upstairs and take care of it.
Neither Tedros or Agatha said anything for the rest of the meal.
As soon as Tedros finished his meal, he excused himself before promptly going upstairs to his room.
"Is he okay?" Guinevere asked.
"He's fine. Just got too hurt in training today. Couldn't take it." Lancelot said, clearly not really worried at all.
"I'm just going to quickly check on him" Guinevere said before leaving and going up the stairs.
A few minutes passed and they all heard the door open, followed by a surprised shout from Tedros and an upset exclaim from Guinevere before hearing the door shut again.
Both Agatha and Lancelot got up and ran upstairs. Guinevere was sitting down tears in her eyes.
"Oh my God!" Guinevere softly said.
"What is it? What did he do?" Lancelot impatiently asked.
"He did nothing, but oh... my... God.. His back... Agatha... did you know?" She managed to get out in between hyperventilating breathes.
"Know what?" Agatha asked, getting extremely worried.
"Just. Oh my God." Guinevere said before going into her room, Lancelot running after her, leaving Agatha alone in the hall.
Agatha gingerly walked into her and Tedros' room. He was sitting on the bed, motionless.
"Tedros. What's wrong?' Agatha gently began "She said that your back-
"There's nothing wrong with it" Tedro snapped quickly, cutting Agatha off.
Now she knew that there was definitely something wrong with his back that he wanted to hide.
"Tedros come on, you can show me."
"No. I can't"
Agatha quickly wrestled his arms up above his head and yanked is tunic up. She looked at his back and was left speechless.
His back was filled with deep, thick scars that looked sloppily stitched, as though Tedros had done it himself, but obviously couldn't reach all of the cuts. At least half of them were split open and bleeding, and a few of them looked infected.
Tedros sighed before saying "I accidentally fell onto my back and a few of them opened"
"I don't care about that. Where did you get them from?"
Tedros avoided her glance and stared at the ground before softly saying "Aric."
Agatha had been told by Sophie how she had been in a room with Tedros during her time in the boys castle and how Aric took Tedros away for punishment but she had no idea that it had been this brutal.
They were both silent for a minute, before Agatha asked, already dreading the answer "And who stitched them up?"
"I did"
Agatha sighed before softly saying "You know I'm going to have to do this again, right?"
Tedros said nothing but nodded.
"Just stay right here, I'll be back."
Agatha quickly hurried along the hall and knocked on Guinevere's door, waiting for a sound of approval before entering. Lancelot and Guinevere were sitting on the bed and looked up as Agatha walked in.
"I'm really sorry to bother you but I need to get some medical supplies for Tedros."
"Is he okay?"
"Well, I don't know, I mean it should heal, but it might scar."
"Did he tell you how he got it?"
At this Agatha looked slightly uncomfortable and didn't really say anything, shifting her eyes across the room.
"It was just something... something that... it doesn't matter. It won't happen again, I promise." Agatha darkly stated. "Now, medical supplies?" She asked again.
"Right.. yes, of course" Guinevere nervously replied, before producing a small basket filled with medical supplies. Agatha grabbed a needle, some thread, alcohol, some cloth and a basin.
She turned to leave and was about to open the door before Lancelot stopped her, having been informed of the situation he cautiously asked "Do you need any help?"
"I'm not sure, I'll see how it goes and if I need you I'll shout." Agatha said, before heading down the hallway and back into Tedors' room.
Tedros was still sitting on the bed an didn't look as if he'd moved at all. Agatha carefully sat down.
"You're going to have to remove your tunic so I can clean the wound."
Tedros slowly nodded and pulled the tunic over his head, wincing when it peeled off some of the dried blood.
"Lie down on your stomach."
Again, Tedros silently nodded, before manuevering onto his stomach.
Agatha prepared a mix of alcohol and water into the basin.
"I'm going to clean the wounds, some look infected so I'm going to leave them for now. But this is going to hurt"
Agatha dipped the cloth in water and started cleaning, dodging round any cuts that looked infected. Tedros whimpered and moaned, shifting slightly in discomfort.
"Shhh, I know it hurts just try not to move."
Tedros stopped shifting as much but instead whimpered louder.
"I'm going to stitch up the wounds as well."
Agatha began with the needle and thread, slowly stitching up the open wounds. Tedros whimpered even louder, and began to shift again. Agatha just whispered words of comfort to Tedros.
Now finished with that there were three cuts that looked especially deep, but they were also the ones that were infected. Thinking it would be better to have some reinforcement she decided that she would go get Lancelot to help.
"I'm just going to get Lancelot, is that okay"
Tedros just mumbled something in agreement.
Agatha went into the hall and almost ran into Lancelot, who was just coming out of his and Guinevere's room.
"I just got her to sleep." He whispered "She was so worried about Tedros, I assume that's what you need help for."
"Some of the wounds are infected and I'm worried that he might move too much."
"You want me to be there to help you with him?"
"Yeah."
He sighed before answering "OK"
They entered the room again. Tedros was still lying on his stomach, his head twisted away from the door, his back still exposing the many wounds.
"Tedros, some of your wounds are infected and I need to clean them out more thoroughly than the others and it's probably going to hurt more." Agatha said.
Tedros just nodded again.
Agatha prepared another one, this time with just alcohol and no water. As she was about to begin, Lancelot stood close to Tedros, ready to assist if needed. As soon as she began, Tedros cried out in pain and instantly tried to move up and away from the pain.
Lancelot quickly placed two hands on Tedros' shoulders and pushed him back down, holding him firmly in place as Agatha cleaned out the first cut. Dipping the cloth back into the alcohol she started on the second cut.
Tedros yelled in pain again and tried to move again, but couldn't due to Lancelot's strong, restraining hands on his shoulders, and although Tedros struggled against them, it was no use and he was held still.
Agatha finished with the second cut and dipped the cloth back into the alcohol again.
"This one is the deepest." She told him.
Understanding what she wanted him to do, Lancelot put extra pressure onto Tedros' shoulders and even put his knee across his hips, for extra precaution.
As soon as Agatha placed the cloth onto the third cut, which stretched from his left should down to his right ribcage Tedros shouted loudly, a shout filled with immense pain and emotion that Agatha almost cried listening to it.
Tedros doubled his attempts to move but still had no luck and he found that he was still held strongly in place.
Finally Agatha finished cleaning the wounds and now just had to stitch them up. Lancelot removed his knee, but still kept his hands in place on Tedros' shoulders.
Agatha began with the needle and thread and Tedros moaned loudly in pain, although to Agatha's relief he didn't shout again. He still attempted to shift around, however futile his struggles were.
Eventually Agatha finished and softly asked Lancelot if he could leave. Knowing that Agatha wanted to comfort Tedros in peace he left quietly.
As he left and made his way down to the kitchen he was met by the rest of the group, all of whom had worried faces.
"Is he okay?" Dot asked
"He's going to be fine"
"Are you sure? Because that sounded... painful to say the least." Gretel continued.
"Yeah, he just had a few wounds that hadn't been properly cleaned"
A lot of the group left, satisfied with the answer, not really wanting to find out more.
Except for Hester, Anadil and Dot.
"Listen, don't tell him we asked this, but is he actually Ok?" Hester gruffly spoke
"He's fine, I think."
"It was Aric, wasn't it?" Dot asked
"How did you know?"
"Sophie told us, we thought it he had gone easier than that, but from the sounds of that, he was brutal" Anadil said.
The three witches said nothing more and left.
Meanwhile, in Tedros' room Agatha watched Lancelot leave and instantly went to Tedros' side.
"He's gone" She quietly said
Tedros didn't say anything but was breathing oddly, like he was about to cry, but wasn't going to let himself.
Agatha ran a hand through his golden hair that was marred with sweat and told him "It's okay. Let it out."
Tedros needed no further prompting and began crying, long sobs that made Agatha hate Aric even more.
"Shhhh, shhhhh. It's okay" Agatha soothed, still stroking his hair.
This went on for a while, before Agatha noticed that Tedros was fighting to stay awake.
"Hey it's okay, you can sleep" Agatha softly said.
"Will you stay?" Tedros timidly asked, so soft Agatha barely heard.
"I'll stay with you" Agatha reassured.
"Promise?"
"I promise"
Agatha watched as Tedros closed his eyes and after a few moments she heard his breathing even out. She fetched a blanket and gently placed it on him, only going up to his hips, stopping it from touching the wounds.
She then went back to playing with his hair. She knew that some of those wounds would scar and that he would never forget whatever Aric had done to him. But she swore. She swore that as long as she had something to do with it, Aric would pay for what he had done.