Mother Gothel
The queen was going to have a baby, and the whole kingdom celebrated. Everyone was dancing and laughing, reveling right outside the palace. I watched from an alcove in the wall, much preferring my hiding place to the throngs of people. Personally, if it were me, I don't think I could stand the noise, but I suppose the queen must not have minded. She never came out to join the celebrations though, which was unlike her as she usually always appeared and made friends with the townspeople. A few days into the celebrations, we learned why. The king came out and made an announcement to us, barely chocking back his tears.
"My friends, the queen is ill. The doctor has informed us that if a cure is not found within the day she will die and the unborn child will die too," the crowd gasped, horror etched into their faces as they began to murmur among themselves.
What should I do? The flower could likely save her, but in order to save her baby she would have to drink a potion with the flower. I tried the flower on a pregnant fox once that had been badly hurt, and although it healed the fox it couldn't heal the kits. Even if a potion were made out of the flower there is no guarantee it would save the child. Not to mention that once the flower was used, I would age. The flower had also healed some of my injuries, one of which should have been fatal. I wonder if the injury would come back, and if I would die this time like I should have the first time. But by giving the queen the flower, I had the chance to save at least her life and maybe the child's. Two lives for my one life seems like a pretty fair deal. It's not like anyone would miss me, I'm just as alone in this world as I was when my father isolated me. I wouldn't be surprised if no one even noticed if I died. And the queen had a lot of people depending on her. She had a husband that loved her, a whole kingdom full of people who admired her, and possibly a child. People would notice if she died. But was I selfless enough to do this; to sacrifice my life for another's? I stared down at my shaking hands, trembling with the weight of the decision that rested upon my shoulders. Then slowly, I stepped away from the alcove that had kept me hidden from view.
"Your majesty?" I spoke, my voice barley rasping out of my mouth. Only a few people around me heard me, but they started quieting the crowd and soon the rowdy square was silent. The eyes of everyone, including the king, were on me.
He responded softly, "speak," in a formal manner. It almost seemed harsh but what could I expect? He was still the king and to him I was nothing. Not yet, anyways. At least it wasn't a command on his part, though you could sense that he was used to giving them from the authority and finality in his voice.
"I think I can help the queen. If you are looking for a miracle, I can find one," once the words left my mouth I realized how stupid they sounded, but what could I do now? It was already done.
The king turned. I expected he was turning away from me, but it appeared he was talking to one of the guards that stood next to him, not that anyone would actually attack him. The guards were either for formality, tradition, or for support. Though in this case, it seems like I was going to get one sent after me as the guard quickly turned down the stairs and headed through the crowd, which parted easily for him, towards me. When he reached me, he took my hand, which I snatched back. If I was going to go, I wasn't going to go without a fight. I reached towards the knife I always kept tucked in the top of my boot. The guard gave me an exasperated expression and tried again. "Come," he commanded, before heading off through the crowd again. I stayed where I was until I could feel the hands of the villagers shoving me forward and the guard glanced back. "You did say you could help the queen," he reminded "or were you making that up?" Sighing, I followed the guard towards the palace.
I was brought to the bedside of the queen where the king and the doctor stared down at her with worried expressions. Actually, when I saw her, my expression probably mimicked theirs. Even though I didn't know this person and wasn't nearly as connected to her as the others, my heart ached for her. She looked absolutely horrible.
"Please…" the king stumbled, not knowing how to address me.
"Gothel," I quickly inputted, not willing to give him my first name. I never revealed it anymore, to anyone, even the king.
"Please Gothel," he stated again, "if you were true to your words and you know a way to save her, tell us," he practically begged me. It was a rather nice feeling to have the king dependent on his subjects, and if it weren't for the urgent condition of the queen I might have let him grovel a little bit more.
"I have no guarantees that this will work," I prefaced my explanation. I couldn't afford to get peoples hopes up and crush them, especially not someone as powerful as the king.
"It doesn't matter. We will try it," the king's voice was full of urgency. I briefly wondered if he really meant that they would try anything. In a different time this would have been really entertaining. It's a pity that I couldn't get my enjoyment from it now.
I told them about the flower and about it's powers. I told them my theory that she would have to drink a concoction made from the flower. I again emphasized the uncertainty behind this theory.
"And you know where this flower is? Can you bring it to us?"
"Yes, though it is a little bit far and the fastest way would be by boat."
"I will arrange it so you can leave immediately."
"You aren't coming?"
"I want to be here in case something happens," his expression grew even more somber, all of the hope melting off his face. "Do you want someone to come with you? Will you need help?"
I didn't want to tell him what I really thought; I would sound even stupider than I had in the square. Really, I just wanted someone else to get to see the flower before we killed it, in all of its glory in the clearing.
"Here, I'll have two of my guards go with you just in case you need help. Ok?"
"Sure."
"I will have your boat ready in fifteen minutes," I guess I was excused now. I turned and quietly left the room, trying not to cry with the thought that after all of these years I was losing my flower, my most treasured possession.
The boat sailed silently across the water and we landed shortly after leaving the dock. It wasn't the best landing, there wasn't really a good place to stop the boat, but the guards did their best to follow my pointing and get us as close as possible to where I said we had to go. Once they got the boat tied up I hopped out, refusing their offers to help me out. They followed suit and I started the trek through the woods. It was weird to know that others were invading my sanctuary and it was hard to forget they were there because their armor kept clanking. I realized that if I were to be in the queen's place I wouldn't be able to stand the sound of the armor either.
When we reached the flower they audible gasped, clearly not expecting the sight in front of them. "We found it!" one of them called. From the way he talked it was almost like he thought I was making the flower up, and never thought it existed, that finding it in the woods here was a miracle on it's own.
The guards carefully uprooted the flower because I couldn't bring myself to do it and carried it back to the boat. Neither of them put it down, carrying it all the way to the queen and trying to give me verbal instructions on how to work the boat. Sometimes they contradicted each other, and our return trip was much rougher than our trip to the flower.
When we finally reached the queen the flower was quickly brewed into a drink somewhat like tea, but one that glowed gold and probably tasted better than any tea ever would. The king carefully supported the queen as she drank it. Then she sighed, closed her eyes, and went to sleep. A little bit of color did return to her face though, the only indication that the flower might have worked. I relaxed a little, letting out a breath I didn't know I had been holding.
"Thank you!" the king cried, clearly believing already that everything was going to turn out fine. "How can we ever repay you?"
I was shocked. Was this man even stupider than I had been? Clearly my worrying was for nothing, as in comparison I seemed quite smart. A nagging side of my brain reminded me that I shouldn't judge him because he had just been through a very difficult and probably exhausting ordeal, but I ignored myself, that part of my brain had only ever gotten me into trouble. "Wait to see if it worked. Then we can talk," I replied and then promptly left.
Author's Note: I'm sorry I didn't post earlier. I learned, I'm not making promises on when I can get the next chapter up. It may be a while, but in a few weeks I hope to be able to post more often. I know this deviates from the plot of the movie a little bit, but it's necessary. I will rejoin the plot further in a chapter or two, though there is still the scene with the guards pulling up the flower. Stick with me and you will see how it fits together! And after the next few weeks are over I should be able to update more often, so please don't give up on me!
I would like to give a shout out to toystorylover for adding this story to their favorites list, and to IceQueenandFireQueen for following it. An extra big thanks goes to EvilQueensDaughterRapunzel and rish22 for both following and favoriting it! Also a huge thanks to IceQueenandFireQueen for providing all three of this story's reviews, you guys don't want to let her have all the fun do you? IceQueenandFireQueen - I promise that I will make my point soon, I just need to get another two or three chapters out of the way first! Sorry if it is too long of a wait, I really am trying here to get these up!