- Roused

- Chapter 049

~ Unraveling

The mothers offer brandy to ease the pain but find another snake.


"Mama, I hurt so much. My feet are on fire, and all my joints feel like they going to burst. I miss my hair." Rapunzel says weakly as she lies limply in her bed next to Briar Rose, their mothers had woken them from their nightmares and were now calm again. The queens had called down for more food.

"I'm so sorry, dear." Queen Rebecca moves to the table and picks up a glass and a bottle. "Would you like some brandy? It would help with the pain."

"No!" cries Rapunzel, as she cringes weakly into herself. "That scares me!"

Queen Rebecca stops in her tracks and her great green eyes get huge, she looks down at the bottle and the glass in her hands, then quickly turns and places them back on the table and steps in front of them to hide them from view.

'Why are we stepping on so many snakes all of the sudden?' Rebecca thinks.

She sends a look of asking for help to Leah, who looks around and grabs a cloth napkin and throws it over the bottle to hide it out of sight.

"I'm so sorry. Why does it scare you, dear? Did we find another snake?" Rapunzel's mama asks gently, now moving forward to sit next to her stricken daughter.

Queen Rebecca was confused, her daughter had never talked about this before and had even tried some back in the palace, though trying to swallow it in one gulp, like Eugene did, was not the best way to try it. She just wanted to help her daughter and not leave her in such pain.

"Mama, I know you and papa and the others like it, but it scares me so much. When I tried it, it made me feel so strange, like the bindings on my mind were coming loose. It's so hard to hold myself together all the time and I am so scared that I'm going to fly apart and I won't be able to put myself back together again. I don't want my mind to unravel." Rapunzel starts to weep from fear. She weakly brings her hands up to her face and flops them over her eyes.

Aurora begins to looks frightened.

Rapunzel had seen what had happened to Briar Rose, and she had been so close to becoming like that herself. And she knew in her heart that there was no one in the world who could rescue her like she had Briar Rose.

She had a tree she would lean against in the palace garden and she would have died there, like Briar Rose almost did. And then there would have been no one to save Briar Rose, her new best friend, and she would have died leaning against a tree too.

Which would have been so sad.

Rapunzel's mama holds her close. "You are my sunshine. I'm so sorry; I just wanted to help you. No, no, it's okay. I'm here for you. You're going to be okay."

Rapunzel flops her weak arms around her mama, "You warm my soul." Using another of their alternatives to saying 'I love you.'

Briar Rose and Queen Leah are sitting together on the other side of the bed holding hands. Her hand clutches weakly at her mom. Her violet eyes filled with fear. "Mom, I'm scared of it too. I felt my mind unravel almost completely, and I felt Rapunzel braid it back together."

" . . I don't want to feel anything like that again, ever. I'd rather take this pain. Please, keep it away from us, please." Said Aurora, speaking between sobs of fear.

"Yes, of course, dear." After a quick hug, Queen Leah takes the towel-covered bottle down the stairs. Her violet eyes large and scared. She also warns the staff to never use alcohol in any of the dishes for the princesses.

She pauses at the bottom of the steps, a hand on the solid, dependable granite wall.

Tears leak down her face, how terrifying it must feel, to have your mind unravel. Is there any part of their daughters that has not been wounded?

Leah the mother looks up. She wipes her tears and settles her dress and climbs the stairs to the healing chamber, she must be strong for her injured daughter.


- End of Chapter 049

Author's Note: There are not many options for pain relief; alcohol is an obvious choice, but there are side effects, side effects for them that would be terrifying to them. They already know pain more intimately then most. They can handle this. It won't be fun.