Snow

ONE

"That's it your majesty, push, push." The head midwife encouraged the Queen in the early hours of the morn, the moon only just holding onto its claim of the sky, a once pitch black slowly being pulled through into purple, stars littering the sky forming endless patterns on which to gaze.

"I can see the babe's head, keep pushing!" The midwife placed her hands carefully under the head of the new royalty, prepared to bring it into the world. The other two midwives in the room rushed frantically to wipe the sweat from her majesty's forehead, using fresh water from a carved wooden bowl and a rag to soothe the heat that was ravaging its way through the Queen's body, forcing her to stay awake and push this child out of her.

"Ma'am something doesn't seem right-"

"Hush woman! The babe is here!" The youngest midwife's concerns were brushed to the side as the head midwife held up the crying child, still attached to its mother. "It's a girl, your majesty." The second midwife cut the cord as the head midwife wrapped the princess into a fine silk cloth, placing her delicately into her mothers arms.

The young Queen smiled lovingly at her daughter, the heat slowly fading from her body. "She's beautiful..." The Queen trailed off, staring into warm brown eyes that matched her own.

"Ma'am please, her majesty she's... she's too weak." The young midwife begged her superior as she examined the Queen. Her temperature was too low, her heartbeat slowing by the second and her breathing becoming ragged. The head midwife turned with an angry scowl etched across her wrinkled face, ready to express her feelings towards her apprentice when she too, noticed the Queen's condition growing worse.

"Get the King, now!" She rushed out with a raised voice, stern yet nothing too loud for the new Princess. "Your majesty you need to concentrate on breathing, deep breath in," she demonstrated the action to the Queen, who meekly attempted to mimic hers "deep breath out." She showed the Queen again, yet her majesty struggled greatly.

The King burst through the door and rushed to his wife's side, "Isabella please, please don't go." He begged his wife, nearly crushing her hand in his large ones. The Queen turned her head slowly to her husband while the midwives rushed around her, mixing herbs and various resources into medicines in an attempt to save her.

Isabella moved her mouth into a caring smile, a knowing smile. "Harold, look at her," she paused to cough and a midwife came and forced her to drink something out of a wooden carved bowl. The Queen drank it and then looked at her daughter, sleeping soundly throughout the chaos around her. She looked back to her husband, "please Harold... take care of her." She whispered as a tear trickled down her porcelain cheek.

"No, no... you will be here to care for her too, I promise my love." Harold choked out, still squeezing her hand tightly, scared to let go.

The Queen shook her head ever so softly and cracked a smile. "It's my time Harold, and that's okay," more tears streamed down both their cheeks now, "make sure she is kind, and make sure she is loved. Look after our Snow White..." Isabella left the ghost of a kiss on her husbands lips, then bent down to kiss Snow's forehead. As she removed her lips, she exhaled her last breath, looking peaceful, blissful...

The King cried out in agony as the midwives around him sobbed, holding onto one another. Harold was in shock, until he heard a cry. He looked up and his attention finally turned to his newborn baby girl. He picked her up in his arms and cradled her close to himself, with the greatest care as if she would break like glass if he so much as breathed too heavy on her tiny frame. "I promise to love and protect you, I will honour your mother's memory by doing right by you, my dearest Snow White." He whispered to the babe then walked out of the room, intending to keep this promise until the day he died.