(Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!)
Thump. Thump. Thump.
*Hallucination*
The air around Idunn grew foggy as a dream-like state once again overcame her
"Ad…..gar….?" Idunn groaned out, her pale eyelids closed in pain.
She opened them and looked into the air, seeing a misty hallucination of her late husband.
"Adgar….Take me…." She slowly lifted up her right hand toward him.
Adgar turned away from his wife, his white, fluffy angel wings wrapping around his levitating and transparent body.
"My love….it is not your time…..your time…..is with our girls. Your time, is your future. And I….I am merely just your past."
"ADGAR!" Idunn screamed, her brain suddenly switching back to reality.
*End of hallucination*
"Idy…Idy can you hear me?" Arianna whispered, the words barely leaving her lips.
A burning pain rose in Idunn's chest. She felt Arianna's soft hand against her face, and the other gently stroking her hair.
Shakily and slowly, Idunn's chest began to rise and fall.
"Stop!" Arianna yelled to Karl.
Idunn's body shook with the rough coughs that hacked her chest. Arianna gently turned her sister over to the side.
A small amount of blood trickled out of the side of Idunn's mouth, worrying her sister even more.
Arianna squeezed Idunn's hands tightly. Arianna lay her hands gently on Idunn's ribcage, feeling the reassuring movement of her lungs inflating and deflating with each breath.
Idunn breathed heavily, an audible wheeze accompanying each laboured breath. Arianna gently hooked the nasal oxygen back into Idunn's nostrils.
The shocked silence radiated around the surrounding crowd. Idunn groaned over and over in pain, her chest heaving against her sister's trembling fingers. Arianna wiped her sister's mouth and lifted her fingers, the horrifying red fluid dripping off her fingers. And no one in the crowd was even doing a thing.
Arianna's breath quickened in anger, her thin eyebrows lowering. Her heavy breath rapidly blew out of her nostrils.
Queens were supposed to be calm, composed and poised. They were supposed to be kind to all citizens, young and old, in even the most complicated of situations. But all of this went out the window now for Queen Arianna.
She turned to the people, her tender fists clenched against her pale fingers, her knuckles going white.
"WELL….WELL...DON'T JUST STAND THERE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO RESPECT US ROYALS, AND YET YOU'RE STANDING THERE LIKE TREES IN THE MIDDLE OF CORONA!"
The citizens stared back at the queen in shock, their jaws dropping to the floor. A baby stirred in her mother's arms and began to cry. An old lady fainted. They stood deathly still until a brave young man stepped forward.
"Your Majesty." He bowed, his knees trembling. "What can we do?"
Arianna swallowed, looking back and forth between the man and her sister.
Cass gently pulled the front of Idunn's dress open, and Karl lifted up a sheet from the boat on top of her chest to give Idunn some privacy. The normally thick and white bandage was stained bright red and fraying at the edges. Blood coated Cass's hand as she reached under the bandage and pulled out three blood-stained stitches.
"Oh, BIMBLEBERRIES!" Cass groaned out, balling her fists.
"Mmm….someone get me some bimberries…." Rapunzel said, the craving getting stronger.
Cass face-palmed, turning to her friend. "Hey, Raps, it'll be a look more helpful if we found a way to stich up those heavily bleeding stitches instead of eating fruits or yelling at random citizens."
"We're running out of time." Cass said. "I've asked one of the guards to fetch Harold and Violetta, but my main concern is how heavily she's bleeding. With her already laboured breathing, there's no telling what could happen. Those three stitches loose are dangerously close to her heart."
"Until we find replacement stitches, we need to keep her as calm as possible. A fast heart rate could only cause trouble for her unstable heart." Arianna added.
"F…f….fish." Idunn gasped out.
"Shh, my love. Don't speak. You'll be able to go fishing another time." Arianna replied, kissing her head.
"No….listen….fish.." Idunn pointed to her chest, then her stitches.
Karl reached into his pocket. "Fishing wires?" He asked, confused.
Idunn held up a thumb.
"Your Majesty, I understand that as replacement stitches, fishing wires could work, but unlike medical surgical stitches, they are not at all sterile. I mean, who know what's on mine. I've used them for everything….I mean fishing wise." Karl said awkwardly.
"Sterile…..Sterile….."Arianna muttered. "Would hot water work?"
"Yes! It would be perfect!" Karl replied. "But the dock water is too cold."
"That's no challenge for me, I've got tea." Arianna winked.
Cass looked completely bewildered. "I think you drink a little too much." Cass muttered as soon as the queen was out of earshot.
Arianna carefully poured the boiling water over the fishing wire from the teapot.
Arianna tried to hand the stitches back to Karl.
Karl shook his head. "It's too dangerous. You and Idunn share the same blood, because you're sisters. It's the safest way and the best way for your sister to avoid getting an infection."
Arianna's eyes widened. "Are you kidding me?! Do I look like a doctor to you?! You're the one that knows first aid! I read 'How to Be a Queen.' When I was young, not 'Basic First Aid!'"
"Mother, you're the only one you can. You need to do this for Aunt Idunn. You're her only hope." Rapunzel said.
Arianna looked towards her daughter.
"Look, Your Majesty, your sister is going to eventually bleed to death, or die from infection. You need to do it now." Cass said firmly.
Arianna kneeled down next to Idunn, beads of sweat running down her forehead. "I…..I can't do this alone, At least guide me."
Karl kneeled down on the other side of Idunn. "I'm going to need you to place your hand just underneath her left breast and thread it through the first hole there."
Idunn's face went bright red with embarassment.
Arianna's fingers shook, and her heart thudded against her chest as she followed his instructions. She threaded in the first, second and third stitch, as well as watching her sister's ribcage for any changes in her breathing.
"You….should…..be….a…surgeon…" Idunn said.
Arianna giggled. Then her face grew stern. "I better not ever have to do this again."
"Now just tie the two ends of the last stitch together." Karl said.
Arianna did so.
The relieving sound of a gurney filled Arianna's ears. She pulled Idunn closer to her chest.
She gently lifted her sister onto the white gurney. Idunn breathed a sigh of relief as Violetta pulled the oxygen mask onto her face.
Air. Sweet sweet air.
With Arianna's soft palm resting against hers and the gurney smoothly moving towards the castle, Idunn fell into a deep, deep, sleep.
Her eyelids slowly closed as she stared back at Arianna looking down at her. Arianna's comforting expression reassured her that everything was going to be okay.
(That's it for this chapter! Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated!)
