The Private Scrapbook

by Cadabra

Chapter 23: The Wrath of Poison Joke

Chapter 23: The Wrath of Poison Joke

Smithy and Lizza were resting as comfortably as pregnantly possible on a raft while Tiny, Amos, and Homer pulled them through Froggy Bottom Bog in the dead of night. Bladire and Charlie were scouting ahead of the rest of the escape party, making sure the way was safe for travel. Tess and Polly held torches for the group to see by, trying to keep the flames low to avoid being found. Old Pete held up the rear, listening for any signs of trouble.

The group was nearing the castle ruins of the royal sisters after several hours of trekking through the dangerous swamp, and they were eagerly looking forward to making camp for the remainder of the night. They were already starting to feel the effects of the poison joke and were ready to bathe in the cure.

The moon was already hanging low in the sky when the escape party arrived at the ruins. Knowing that the cure would only work if it was soaked in, the men rushed around trying to find something they could use as a bathtub while the women worked on getting a fire started to heat the water.

With the creek being too rabid for soaking and no other options in sight, Old Pete suggested digging a deep enough hole for them to put a tarp in. “The tarp we packed will hold the water in the hole,” he explained as he rubbed uncomfortably at his normally slim sides, which were beginning to swell up with what the poison joke thought to be his proper reaction. “It is not enough for all of us to bathe at once, so we will need to take our turns.”

The rest of the slaves, who were already seeing their signs of infection, quickly agreed to the idea. Amos, Homer, and Tiny grabbed stones and began to dig with Bladire while little Charlie dug with the only shovel that was packed. Old Pete grabbed the tarp and tried to figure out how big the hole needed to be and how they were going to hold it in place during the curative bath.

The dig itself was a challenge to all of the men involved due to the ailments brought on by the poison joke. Bladire was already feeling it effect his eyes, making it harder and harder for him to see. Tiny was beginning to shrink and was quickly taken off of the digging team for fear of him being hurt due to his size decreasing. Homer’s hooves were growing fat, making it harder for him to work. Amos and his son Charlie were the only ones capable to continue digging due to their ailments being tongue shrinking and unnaturally horrible body odor.

Old Pete was having problems of his own planning out the bath remedy with the women as his sides were swelling up like balloons. “I believe the tub is nearly done,” he said to old Tess, whose mane had become tangled with her tail. “Do we have all that we need to cure ourselves? I do not know how much longer I can tolerate this!”

Tess squealed as she fought with her hair. “We will have all that we need soon enough,” she replied as she tugged painfully on her tangles. “Polly will return soon with the jewel weed and honeysuckle we need to finish the remedy. I gathered as much aloe and milkweed as I could before my ailments grew worse, and goldenseal root and fiddlehead fern grow close to camp. Smithy and Lizza are busy building the fire now and have set the water upon it to boil. Soon we can mix everything with the baking soda and oatmeal we brought, and then we will have a fine cure.”

Emerging from the woods, Polly set her ingredients down near the fire and eyed the boiling water. “I do hope it is soon,” he said in a low, crackling tone. “I feel I will soon be unable to speak.”

Lizza giggled at the sound of Polly’s voice as she rested her hoof on her stomach. “At least you do not feel your insides bubbling like a great boiling water pot,” she teased. “It feels like my little bundle of misfortune wishes to jump out of me at any moment. Smithy, how do you fair with your child?”

Smithy turned slowly to her friend, her face as pale as a ghost. “Worse,” she breathed painfully. “Mine’s comin’ out now!”

Polly let out a deep gasp of fear at the site of the broken water. “It is too early!” she bellowed in her lowered voice. “We must get you washed first or you may lose your child! Is the bath ready yet?”

Old Pete turned his head slowly on his swollen neck to see the men still digging. “I will tell them to dig faster,” he answered, walking laboriously toward the work in progress.

Bladire began to panic once news spread of the urgency to dig. “By the stars!” he shouted as he ran blindly in the wrong direction to get to his lover. “Smithy! Where are you?!? I am coming for you!”

Charlie was able to catch up to Bladire after the blinded zebra tripped over a rock. “Follow me, Toby,” he said encouragingly. “It should be easy since you can follow your nose.”

Taking a whiff at the air, Bladire let out a disgusted gag at the unnatural stench that was Charlie’s affliction. While the plan was workable, it was certainly not pleasant.

As soon as he found where he was going, Bladire quickly went to Smithy's side. "What do we do?" he panicked, breathing faster than his lover in labor. "I did not plan for this! What will happen if we are caught?"

Smithy breathed a painful sigh. "Dunno," she replied, finding it hard to think of comforting words in her situation. "Guess we gotta do what comes natural 'til we can get ourselves outta here."

Bladire reached blindly for his lover’s cheek to brush away her tears, accidentally poking her in the eye. “Please, forgive me for the pain that you feel," he begged. “This is my fault. Why did I think to take you through poison joke?"

Smithy kissed her panicked love gently on the lips, doing her best to hush his concerns. "This ain't the time fer that," she said, groaning softly at the pains of labor cascading through her. “I need ya to be strong fer me, and fer the baby. I can't get through this by mahself."

Bladire hugged Smithy close, only to hear her squeal painfully at the sudden jerk of emotion. “You have my word," he promised, letting her slip out of his dwindling eyesight. “Tell me what you need and it shall be done."

Tess pushed between the two lovers to better inspect the pony in labor. “Toby, I will need for you to stand away," she instructed bluntly. “There will be time for you, but not now."

Bladire did as he was instructed, not wanting to cause further trouble. It was hard for him to want to do so since he could hear Smithy grunting in pain and have to sit there doing nothing about it. He blamed himself for all of this, promising himself that Smithy would no longer suffer because of his poor planning. When they were cured of their ailments, he swore to himself that they would be freed of their doubts, their pains, and their slave names.

Comments

[Lovinlife]

There isn't anything I can say to warrent my absence in doing anything with reviewing, and I'm sorry. I'm not trying very hard not to fall into the pit of proctrastination, but I'll try to change that for everyone who has asked me to write these reviews for them. Thank you for your patience so much. Onwards now to the review.

Things I Liked:
1. I liked how the labor seemed to some out of nowhere which birth tends to be in most cases (give or take). It made things seem more alarming when things happened and it became a real hamper on the groups plan.

Things I Didn't Like:
1. I wish you hadn't put a time skip between the last chapter and the escape, it sucked me out of what I was reading before it had even begun. I felt it really burdoned the emotion of the escape, expessially when you skipped the part of the group going though the poison joke, which made their infections seem kinda out of place. Time skips when done to just skip things when not properly planned could cause this to happen when important information is lost.

Comments:
1. With the side characters, if you want your reader to care about what's happening to them, and this is also true to main characters but you're doing okay with them, you have to show personality with them. I don't really know about these slaves, so I mostly don't care about their infections from the poisan joke.

ALL_IN_ALL:
This chapte felt like filler to me with all the events going nowhere when the cliffhanger ending came along. You could've gotten some character interaction to flesh some characters out to pull me in more to their cause. I do realise that this isn't that type of story, it's about Smithy, but she can't be the only one to hold everything up.

Score:
I'm giving this chapter a 5/10, it was average.