The Princess and the Maze: Revelations
AN: I am done, my Gladers! Four years behind a desk and tests paid off! Now I can spend the rest of my time I have until July to try and ship out some long-promised stories. (July stars my internship, my last hard battle before graduating.) From July to September then, I can already forewarn you that I will probably not have much time to post since I'll be focusing like hell on that.
As for why this chapter is so much later than I wanted, it's because it wasn't going anywhere, wasn't hitting the points in my summary. So I rewrote the thing and here we are now, it was worth it. And between researching a lot for my internship, just as my writer juices were flowing, Lord Ra took my grandfather to sail on his eternal sun barge and I had to emotionally take care of my family.
Trigger warning in this chapter for mentions of wounds and 'altered anatomical parts'!
We remember: Stephanie has gotten through the trials of working under each Keeper and she ended up being a sister to Jeff and Clint as a new Medjack.
Characters except Stephanie belong to James Dashner! Steph is MY precious!
Now enjoy this chapter.
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After receiving a feast to celebrate becoming a full-fledged Glader, Stephanie dived headfirst into her new work. She woke up with the first rays of sunshine, grabbed herself tea from Frypan and scribbled in her notebook until Jeff and Clint were up, then they went to have breakfast together. Afterwards, they got to work. They mostly had to treat Slicers and Builders for cuts, bruises or twisted limbs. Usually, there was friendly chatter with their patients, safe for one instance where Newt had complained about a pain in his ankle. As she had gently felt the slightly uneven spot where she clearly recognized a bone had broken once, Stephanie had curiously asked him how he had gotten his limp.
The boy, usually so kind and quiet in nature, had changed his demeanour in seconds. He had scrambled away from her, his body tense yet shaking with anger and stress, his soft gaze now steely with a strange fear, and had almost yelled at her: "Don't ask me ever again or I'll feed you to the Grievers myself, you hear me?!" Before the genuinely surprised girl could even take a breath, Jeff, who had been working in the back, had put an appeasing hand on his back and muttering an apology, ordered her to take his place. Later, Clint had come to her and told her wistfully: "He had a bad accident in the past and asking that question still traumatizes him. It's okay, you had no way of knowing, but please don't mention his limp anymore."
Following that, Newt didn't meet her eye for a few days, avoided her. But after feeling ashamed for a bit, Stephanie kept her mind busy not just by improving her medical skills. She also found that she started to remember things… When Jeff pulled through a successful operation on a boy, she instinctively had said that Apollo had blessed them. The others had just stared at her clueless, but deep inside her, she had known it was one of the patron gods of healers. Following that incident, Steph's mind was flooded with memories of ancient ruins, a melodious language and people that looked very similar to her. After talking to Alec, a boy who was a Trackhoe and a bookworm, he told her that the girl was very likely to be part Greek and noticing that she and Newt had the same accent, she discovered that she was part British as well.
Over time, Stephanie got fully accustomed to being a Glader. She spoke their slang more fluently every day, enjoyed discovering every corner of the Glade and the relationships each of her inhabitants had. Alby and Newt were incredibly close to each other, which made sense given that they arrived at the Glade at almost the same time. Newt was usually friendly with everyone, but as she and Chuck had found out one night, he was especially close with the Runner Minho. Gally seemed to get along well with the Baggers, all of them having more muscles than brain, and Winston who in turn appeared to have an eye on Jeff. Frypan and Zart got along splendidly due to being the main food providers of the Glade. All in all, the girl could read practically everyone after a while, but she had no idea what made her so special.
Until one day… Stephanie was helping Frypan and another cook, Malcolm, to pick apples from the orchard for a pie. They had offered her a ladder but she had climbed the tree as nimbly as a squirrel and was now playing around in the foliage, throwing down the fruit to the boys. She was securely hanging in the branches, reaching for a particularly shiny apple when suddenly a sharp silver glint blinded her and her grasp loosened. The teen gasped and desperately tried to steady herself, but it was too late. She slipped forward and fell. Stephanie couldn't even let out a scream before forcefully slamming into a lower branch. As she started to slide down that branch as well, a sudden searing pain from her stomach sent her to the border of unconsciousness before a falling apple connected with her head and gave her the rest. The last thing she saw before her world turned black was a metallic silver beetle blinking at her.
It was an hour later when Stephanie woke up in a room in the Homestead. Jeff, Clint, Newt, Frypan and Chuck were surrounding her. Jeff looked pale under his dark skin, Clint and Newt had an expression of shock and at the same time understanding on their faces while both Fry and Chuck had tears running down their cheeks, Chuck looking green. "Welcome back with the living, you shank!", Newt greeted her, his relief evident. "Don't you ever do this to us again, you hear me?", the cook hissed, his voice trembling. "What happened to me? I only remember slipping…", the girl tried to ask, but a dull headache shut her up.
*** Trigger paragraphs! *** Jeff signalled the others to leave the room before turning to her and explaining gravely: "You fell from a great height with your stomach right onto a branch, Steph. When you slipped down to the ground… a part of that branch ripped your underbelly clean open. Gave old Fry half a heart attack when he caught you, he thought you were dead. It wasn't as bad as we thought though, you didn't lose too much blood before we could stitch you up. Apart from the stitches, your chest is also bruised and you have a mild concussion. Other than that you're mostly fine… You'll feel the pains though after the sedative wears off." Stephanie gave a small smile, which quickly faded once she listened more closely. "Thank you so much for taking care of me, Jeff. You're the best… Wait, what do you mean by mostly?!", she urged him to answer.
The Medjack gulped and, gently taking her hand in his, admitted: "Since the tear was on your underbelly, we didn't have to worry about your stomach being injured but… we have figured out why we don't need to worry about your, um, monthly supplies." Stephanie felt herself starting to shake. "Wh- what do you mean, Jeff?", she whispered. Then her eyes slowly widened as the realization hit her. "Whoever sent us here has ensured none of us can try anything with you. They did surgery on your ovaries, that was clear as day…", the boy confirmed what she already suspected, "You're infertile." *** Trigger paragraphs over! ***
END CHAPTER 5
EN: I'm so glad I have finally finished this chapter. Sorry that it's a little short, but the next one will hopefully be longer again and much more action-packed. That's where the real adventure begins…
Thanks for being so patient with me! Take good care of yourselves and don't act like Spiderman when climbing trees, ok?
Until then kisses and cake,
Yuna McHill