This first of the two Beauty and the Beast themed stories and I hope you enjoy!
"I'm sorry, my queen, but I checked and the results came back negative"
The queen with golden hair and emerald eyes sighed in painful acceptance as she slowly got up from her chair and left her royal physician. She was given the same answer, the same as many other times, she had not conceived a child.
She soon reached her husband to tell him what the physician had told to her.
"It's alright Yoko." He gently embraced her trying to ease her sadness, "We'll just try again, I sure it will work next time!"
Though his words were kind, she pushed herself away from her king, "Only to repeat the same heartbreak again Yusho?" She voice trembling as she kept herself from crying. She soon turned her back to Yusho and walked towards the grand door, "I would like to be alone for a while..." she announced as she exited the castle and into the palace garden.
There the queen stewed in her sorrow near the rose bushes when a strange cloaked figure sauntered over her with a thorned basket in hand.
"What troubles you, my queen, still having problems with conceiving children?"
Yoko jumped slightly at the voice that interrupted her grief which turned into anger and turned to confront the emotional intruder, "I thought I said I wanted to be alon-!"
She stopped as she saw the figure's dark burgundy hair and brown cat-like eyes, "You... you're Aki, I heard rumors about you..." But before she could press more, the cloaked woman reached into her thorny basket pull out two onions, one red and the other white, and placed them into the queen's hands.
"Eat the red one for a child that is strong and courageous, eat the white one for a child that is witty and creative, but you must not eat both of them," Aki explained as she renewed hope into Yoko.
The queen looked down at the onions in her hands and back up to the woman, "Really? You are certain that eating one of these will give me a child!?" She excitedly asked.
Aki's eyes widened "Certain?" She inquired then her face shifted to a look of abject annoyance as her eyes narrowed, "You want certain, hire yourself a witch! I'm just your gardener!" Pulling out a pair of gardening shears from her basket. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to tend the roses." And stormed off leaving the queen alone with the two onions in hand.
Later that night in the royal bedchamber after she made love with her husband, Yoko stared at the two onions, pondering if what the gardener had said could be true.
"Well!" She flatly exclaimed she picked white onion, "At least I have a shack." Taking a bite of the onion, she found it to be absolutely delicious and readily devoured it.
Her stomach soon growled for more food, she glanced at the second onion and remembered Aki's advice on not eating both onions. She then shrugged flippantly "What the hell." She grabbed the red onion and began to eat it, "Not like I have anything to lose."
Few months after, Yoko begun realize that she was ill during the morning, her breasts had grown swollen and tender, and her monthly cycle had ceased and she hurried to the royal physician. To both her and he physician's surprised, the queen was indeed pregnant, and the news brought her to tears. Finally, after years of heartbreak, she and Yusho would become parents.
The kingdom rejoiced at the news of an heir to the throne being conceived, however, as the months passed by a few people saw something off about the queen. They notice that her stomach was much larger than a normal woman in her 8th month and some swore they saw the indentation of a tail or a wing against her skin. Even Yusho grew concerned when she started to wince in pain at their child's movement, but she dismissed the concerns, "It just means our baby is strong and healthy, I can survive them kicking me." She smiled as she lovingly caressed her stomach.
Then came the day that the queen would bring her child into the world with the royal midwife and royal advisor, Jean-Michel Roget assisting her. Yoko screamed out in pain, her face red and tear stained, as she tried to push her baby out her womb. It had been hours since she had started pushing and the movement had been terribly slow. She soon heard screams of terror from the midwife after felt her child finally exiting out of her, but decided to pay them no mind and focus delivering the rest of her child. With contraction after contraction, she felt her strength leaving her and decided to put all her energy into this one last push. This had proven to be successful as she felt her baby slip out her and cried its first breath, however she noticed Roget and the midwife staring at the infant in shock and terror.
Wanting to see her child, she weakly pushed herself up and her eyes widened as she witnesses what she had given birth to. It was long with a thin body that lacked back legs with scythe-shaped wrist blades on its arms and a tail lined with barbs. Its head had two sets of horns, a crest sticking out its skull, and a beak with a pair of wings on its back. It was covered with black scales with bright green lines running the body and glowing red eyes. She had given birth to a dragon.
With the shock and lack of strength, the queen fainted on to the pillow, leaving the dragon infant at the mercy of Roget and the midwife.
"Let's toss it out the window and we never speak of this!" Roget growled as he glared beastly thing as it wailed for its mother's comfort.
"But what about the queen?" The midwife gesturing to the unconscious mother.
"We'll just tell her that what she saw was a dream and that the child was stillborn." He formulated as he grabbed the dragon baby chucked it out the window, ignoring the yelp of a woman that the dragon landed on from down below.
When Yoko regained consciousness, she was told the false narrative spun by Roget of how the infant was stillborn and how the sight of the crying dragon was only an illusion. She then recalled the warning she was given, how she must not eat both onions, and began to believe that she had caused her child to be stillborn.
A funeral was held for the royal child, many grieving for the loss of an hire to the throne and the royal couple a loss of a child. Only Roget and the midwife knew the truth of what had happened and hope that it would remain a secret until the day they died.
Years passed by and Yoko still held on to her grief over the loss of the child who she never even got to hold in her arm. There was the image of the wailing infant dragon that still plagued her mind even though she remained herself it was just a dream.
"My queen?" Yoko slowly turned her head to see the royal gardener Aki giving her a comforting smile as she pulled something from her basket.
"I know this might not fill the hole in caused by your loss, but I made this in hope that it will give you some joy." She placed a wooden bowl with a cloth cover into Yoko's hands.
Recalling how Aki helped her conceive her first child, Yoko found new hope that she might have another chance at being a mother. She uncovered the bowl to find that was a salad with tomato, eggplant, red cabbage, and...
The queen raised her brow in confusion as she looked back up at the royal gardener, "Why are there bananas in here?" Pointing to the salad.
Aki also raised her eyebrows and confusingly asked in a slow manner, "Do you want me to take them out?"
Fearing that the salad would lose its magic, Yoko pulled the bowl closer to her and let out a sharp "Nope!" Causing the gardener to be even more weirded out by her employer's strange behavior.
"Well then, my queen, I best be getting home!" Aki proclaimed as she slowly backed away.
As soon as the Yoko thanked her and said her goodbyes, Aki rushed back to her home which was deep in the woods until she was near her cottage.
As she walked through the door, she could hear her child hurrying down the stairs to greet her. She opened her arms wide and allowed her son to jump into them. Her son, Zarc, the lost dragon prince who the queen mourned for.
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