She felt every click of metal as it pierced her skin, like red hot burning iron, tearing it like paper

"A c-section"

There was rough shrill wailing that sounded like echoes going off cliffs, distant, loud and constant.

"Mother or child, my king?" The midwife rarely managed to convey between the wailings and blood pouring out.

"One safer" he spoke at once. He looked more like a skeletal told to balance on its toes. He grabbed his longsword. It worked like a cane now.

Sharp metal cuts rang clear and intense.

"Aaaahhh...." Screams filled the air. The air stood still. The owls stopped hooting. The leaves didn't rustle. The moon stopped shining. And the king's pride broke.

"My queen..." a man of pride he was, yet now he would gladly sit down and cradle his wife to ease her pain if he could, in front of the midwives.

"You chose true." The bloodied lady on the bed tried to smile. A withered flower was trying to bloom again.

She felt every click of metal as it pierced her skin, like red hot burning iron, tearing it like paper. Her eyes were bloodshot and no more tears remained to be shed.

Blood pumped out like a fountain. She felt it being lost forever making her lifeless. Blackness was catching her eyes. All her limbs and muscles went numb as if cut one by one just as her thread of life.

*snap, snap, cut *

The screams became bitter and louder at least as much as they could. Slowly, they withered too.

A baby cry sang inside the torment.

"My' lady, a son!"

She held the blanket of skin and bones for the first and surely the last time, before kissing him.

"I love you, my'lady and always will." The king held her hand, it felt like cold winter stick. Tears flooded his dull orbs as his rich linen robe was mudded in blood and tears in seconds.

"Tell Robin I loved him" a feeble voice spoke.

"Robin" the king wispered smiling faintly.

Her eyes twinkled with her son's ray of shine before they went silent as well just as the night had.

Please comment if you like the story! I would love to hear what you have to say! Share the story if it touched your heart.

What really inspired me was the fact that 1 out of every 3 women lost their life during childbirth in the middle ages... A Queen was not an exception heeding to the fact that there were no anaesthetics available...