The Sapphire Pendant

Sapphire Pendant

Soon, her pants were joined by another shrill scream of a baby.  I entered the room to find my mother clutching a red faced baby in her arm to her breast.  My mother’s face was sickly pale, one of her hands shakily clutching her pendant. 

I rushed over to my mother as she handed the crying child to the doctor.  A wet nurse quickly came taking the baby out of the room weaning the baby under her bodice.

Father was sitting next to Mother his brown eyes full of fear.  However, Mother’s blue eyes, identical to mine, were fixed on my face.  She extended her arms to me shakily.

I tentatively embraced her trying to be careful.  I knew Mother was dying, I overheard the doctor talking to the wet nurse that if Mother and Father had another child there was a good chance that the queen would die.

Mother looked at Father fingering her necklace scratching the scales on the dragon claw that held a sapphire jewel.

“Give her,” she said in a stuttering voice lifting the necklace from her sweaty neck unevenly.  My mother handed the necklace to my father her hand shaking violently.  He nodded unable to talk.  I widened my eyes.

My other sisters came into the room huddling around our mother.  She tried to smile for us but we knew, even Selena the youngest, knew what was about to happen.

Mother took a deep shuddering breath they stopped halfway.  Her eyes bulged slightly then she went limp.  The blue irises of her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell onto her pillow somewhat peacefully.  Her lips fluttered close before she grew still.

Father left the room shaking his head unable to shed any tears in front of his daughters.

My two eldest sisters, Estelle and Angelica began to sob into each other’s shoulders.  Penelope, who started crying when she walked into the room.  Selena who was seven was sobbing into Penny’s lap.  I stared at my mom waiting for her to spring back up and laugh her infectious laugh. 

When I realized that my mother wasn’t getting up, I started to cry.  One tear at a time dropping from my eye followed by another. 

I realized that I was holding my mother’s hand this entire time.  The fingers that were once clenched onto mine slackened slightly.

I released my hand quickly from her now cold one.  I cried harder maybe not as hard as Penelope but pretty hard.

My father came back into the room his eyes red and watery.  He walked over to me handing Mother’s necklace wordlessly.

“She wanted you to have it,” he said this like he never wanted to say her name again.

I fingered the necklace feeling the heat transfer from the necklace to my hands.  This was followed by a slight vibration.

I stared at it in wonder.  The large sapphire jewel that hung from the chain got marred slightly by my tears.

My mother wore this every day, if she wanted me to have it, I must have been very important to her.

I stared over at my mother’s lifeless, cold form.  It looked like she was sleeping and I watched her still waiting for her to get up.

My mother was never coming back.

 Joshua

                I thought I saw the princess look at me but I dashed behind a tree in a blink.

I ran back to base camp hidden in a cave deep in the depths of the Forest of Marr, behind a waterfall.  Sometimes we changed locations to the east side of the forest but usually there wasn’t much of a need for that.