Mondsee is resting inside a hidden clearing in Henry's Forest after she and her Breakvan Orchidea had made a multiple mile mad dash away from the factory where Duncan worked before he went to the Skarloey Railway.
The duo may have reached a relaxing place on Sodor, but Mondsee's still on edge because of all the horrible things she'd experienced at the factory until now, and goes into full-time panic mode whenever another engine's driving nearby.
An engine with a violet coat of paint with the plaque reading "Sally" read at both sides of her boiler was casually puffing along the forest until she sees the said duo on the sideline. She decided to greet them, and slowly puffed towards them.
"Hello!" she said to them. "Are you two new around here?"
It was a neon colored one with a logo of two laughing balloons (one was white and had its eyes open, the other one was golden and had its eyes closed) and the title 'Easy-peasy and Fun Party Recipes for you and your Friends' written in glittery silver on its front cover. Sally, being curious, opened the book and began to look through it.
It contained a LOT of different cooking- and baking recipes for every possible celebration of the year (birthdays, anniversaries, BBQs, Halloween, New Years, Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, etc.) which made it very hard for her to choose one since all of the recipe looked good.
"Wow," Sally said. "All of these look so good, I can't decide which one to choose..."
Percy looked into the book in curiosity, then it turns into awe at the pages.
He then turned to page 39 and found what he thought was the perfect recipe: Butter Chicken.
"Hey guys, how about this one?" asked Percy while he showed the recipe he found to everyone.
Everyone looked at the page for a brief second. They all nodded in agreement.
"Alright, Butter Chicken it is," Sally declared.
Mondsee then noticed a slightly smaller text written underneath the recipe name.
"Och, sae it's Butter Chicken with sweet potato fries and garlic naan. Sounds guid tae me, I've never had sweet potato fries before." said Mondsee. "Hey Moonie, what's naan?" asked Percy. "Naan is Indian Flatbread." replied Mondsee.
"So, shall we head to the kitchen to make this meal?" Sally asked.
"Sure, let's take the book with us and go... Woah!" exclaimed Mondsee in surprise when her legs began to feel weird. Toad catched her just in time. "Thank you for catching me, Uncle Toad." said Mondsee while breathing a sigh of relief. "No problem Moonie. What happened?" asked Toad worriedly. "I dinnae know, but I think my legs must've fallen asleep." replied Mondsee.
"Try stomping your feet on the ground," Thomas suggested. "I heard it's the best way to wake your legs up."
Mondsee was very unsure if Thomas's idea would work, but tried it anyway. The minute her right foot hit the floor, her leg gave out and she fell, but Toad catched her again. It didn't stop Mondsee from crying in pain. Orchidea inspected her friend's leg, careful not to roughly touch her, and found the cause real quick.
"Miss Mondsee, your right leg is completely swollen. It's most definitely a late side effect of the stuff that your old crew injected into you on your former railway." said Orchidea. Duck took a look at his Niece's foot, and flinched. The swelling on her leg looked very nasty indeed.
"Don't worry though, it's not life-threatening and there's some cures for this. We need to cool it and smear some calendula ointment and Aloe Vera on it every few hours, then your leg should be back to normal by late evening of the next 3 days." added Orchidea.
The sight of Mondsee's swollen legs made her worry, and sick a the same time.
"Where can we find the calendula ointment and Aloe Vera?" she asked Orchidea.
"Miss Mondsee keeps the calendula ointment in the third middle compartment of her bathroom cabinet, Miss Sally." replied Orchidea. "Ye mean the one four compartments away from the bathroom window?" asked Donald.
"Yes, that exact one, Mr. Donald. The compartment is labeled 'house pharmaceuticals + heal ointments'. As for the Aloe Vera itself, there is a lot of it standing on the living room window frames. Just pluck a mid-sized leaf fully out from one of the Aloe Vera plants, because that's all of the Aloe Vera that we need." replied Orchidea.
"Okay," Sally nodded. She quickly went over to the cabinet to find the calendula ointment. Then she went to the kitchen to pluck a mid-size Aloe Vera leaf, and returned to Mondsee's room.
"Here you go, Moonie," Sally offered the ingredients to her daughter.
"Thank ye, Mama." replied Mondsee while she accepted the ingredients. She first squeezed the slimy juice from the Aloe Vera leaf onto her swollen leg, then smeared it all over her leg, then did the same thing with a small blobs of the calendula ointment, all the while flinching in pain. Sally had also picked herself a small leaf of Aloe Vera because she was curious about how it tasted since it was a healing plant.
Her daughter noticed that and freaked out. "Mama, don't eat it, because it doesn't taste guid-" started Mondsee, but it was too late. Before she was able to finish what she wanted to say, her mom ate the small leaf, and immediately regretted it because it tasted like burning slime.
Sally spitted out the aloe gel, ran to the bathroom and rinsed her mouth to get the aloe contents out of her mouth.
Thomas tries to hold back his laughter.
"I TRIED TAE WARN YE NAE THE EAT THE DAMN LEAF, BECAUSE IT TASTES AWFUL, MAMA!" yelled Mondsee towards the bathroom.
"Geez, sorry!" Sally retaliated.
"How did you know that the Aloe Vera leaf tasted awful, Moonie?" asked Oliver curiously. "It's because of two certain someones having done that exact same mistake yesterday, and they had tae put up with the nasty aftertaste for 5 and a half hours." replied Mondsee while she shortly looked over to Melchior and Balthasar.
Mel and Balthasar felt embarrassed as they remember that very moment. Sally came back into Mondsee's room, looking a bit traumatized from what she had done to herself.
"Are ye feeling okay, Mama? Ye're quite pale." asked Mondsee worriedly.
Sally shook her head back to reality.
"I'll be fine, sweetie, don't worry," she replied.
"If ye say sae. But if ye experience any side effects from it, like a sore throat or stomach pain for example, let me know right away, okay? I've got strong pain killers and other stuff that will help ye, inside my bathroom cabinet as weell." replied Mondsee.
"Thanks for letting me know," Sally replied with a smile.
"Ney problem Mama." replied Mondsee. Sally and the others headed down to kitchen to prepare dinner and wait for Gordon, Henry and Toby to arrive, while Toad stayed upstairs with his niece to keep an eye on her and her Newborns.
As Sally dried her hands after washing them, she heard he knock at the door.
She went to answer it. It was Gordon, Henry, and Toby.
"Oh, hi!" Sally greeted with a smile.
"Good evening, everyone! How are you all?" asked Gordon while Sally let him, Henry, Toby, Henrietta, Boco and James (the two latter having arrived three minutes after Toby and Henrietta) inside.
"Doing okay," Sally replied. She didn't have the heart to tell them she suffered from eating a Aloe Vera leaf yet.
However, Rio decided to spill the beans about his grandma's little mishap anyway. "Yup, we're okay great-uncle Gordon. Well, except that mommy tried to warn grandma to not eat the Aloe Vera leaf because it tastes nasty, but grandma ignored her and ate the leaf anyway - and regretted it a few seconds after eating it." said Rio with a smirk.
Sally stared in disbelief as Thomas laughed his ass off.
"It's okay Little Sally, we all learn things the hard way sooner or later." replied Gordon, understanding. Mondsee, who had fully recovered now and had come downstairs with her Newborns, couldn't hide a chuckle. "Pffff, whots yer deal with calling Mama and almost everyone of my aunts and uncles 'Little', Uncle Gordon? Dae ye see them as yer babies or something?" asked Mondsee cheekily.
"I don't mind," Sally shrugged. Then she turned towards the others. "So, shall we start cooking?" she asked eagerly.
"Yes!" replied the others eagerly. "What cooking recipe is it gonna be this time?" asked Boco curiously.
"We're making Butter Chicken with sweet potato fries and garlic naan," Sally replied. "It caught my attention when I read it from an interesting cookbook."
"Sounds like a good idea." replied Boco. "And Mondsee, I know you just gave birth last night and might not completely feel too good at the moment, so take it easy, okay? I'm not saying that to be mean, I'm just genuinely worried about you." "No worries Uncle Boco, I get it. I planned to take it easy for the next 3 days anyway." replied Mondsee with a soft smile.
Sally smiled. "Alright," she began. "Shall we get started?"
The others, except for Mondsee, who had sat down on the living room sofa with her Newborns because she was feeling sick again. James noticed his Niece's pale and sick looking face first, and reacted quickly. 12 minutes later, he brought her a cup of peppermint tea. "Thanks Uncle James." said Mondsee tiredly. "No biggie. Are you okay?" asked James.
"Nae at the moment, but I'll be okay again soon. These darn random pains from the after effects of giving birth are seriously getting on me last nerves." replied Mondsee. "How bad is it right now? Do I need to take you to the hospital for a Check-up?" asked James worriedly while sitting carefully down next to her.
"It's nae as bad for a needed hospital visit, but I have tae admit that I'm tired and very lightheaded." replied Mondsee.
"Then get some rest," James replied. "You deserved it."
"Thanks. Ye wanna join?" asked Mondsee curiously. "Eh, why not." replied James as he pulled his niece and the newborns closer until they could lean on him, and all of of them, including himself, fell asleep fast.
Sally looked back at what's going on in the living room, and smiled. She then turned her attention towards cooking the dish with the others.
A while later, the food was ready and just needed a little bit of time to cool down. James and the newborns woke up to the smell, but Mondsee didn't, which confused him big time. He quietly and carefully stood up, then quietly joined the others in the kitchen. "Uh Sally, don't get me wrong, but is it normal for Mondsee not to wake up when the food is ready?" asked James curiously.
"Wait, what?" Sally said as he immediately went up to Mondsee and gently nudged her on the shoulder, hoping her daughter would wake up to that.
However, it didn't work this time because her daughter was completely asleep, so Sally got worried and asked James to call Victor. "Hello Victor, here's James. Sorry to bother you, but there seems to be something wrong with my niece, Mondsee." said James.
"Mondsee? What's going on with the little amiga?" asked Victor concerned. James then explained the whole situation to Victor over the phone and asked if he could come over to check on her, just to be sure that she's not suffering from something serious. Meanwhile, Sally noticed that Mondsee's barely breathing, which made her worry even more.
"Please hurry, Victor," Sally said, on the verge of tears. "I don't want to lose her again...!"
Victor said that he and Kevin are on their way, then hung up. "Granma? Is Mommy gonna join the afterlife?" asked Melchior worriedly. He and all of his siblings are also on the verge of tears and worried about losing their mom.
Sally was shocked to hear such words come out of their mouths like that, and is in more tears.
"Oh, of course not!" Sally reassured to her grandkids, but is secretly in a panic state. "Mommy's just sick again, that's all!"
Her grandkids knew that she's hiding something, but decided not to say anything so that Sally wouldn't panic any further. Around 8 minutes later, Victor and Kevin finally arrived, and immediately grew worried when they saw Mondsee's bad condition. "How long has she been like this?" asked Kevin worriedly.
"About..." Sally looked at her watch. "...Thirty minutes, perhaps...?"
Then, Toad remembered something that his niece mentioned a few hours earlier.
"Erm, guys, didn't Moonie, while she was still awake, say that she had something similar like this happen to her earlier this morning?" asked Duck. "Now that you mention it Mr. Duck, she did indeed say that." replied Toad. "Yes, and she also told me that 'these random pains from the after effects of giving birth are getting on her last nerves'. I also noticed that she was extremely pale and looked sick when I was talking to her earlier. She sounded very tired, too." added James.
"Hmm, I'll have a look at that," Victor said as he examines Mondsee's temperature.
Just then, the newborn Sixtuplets started to cry loudly because they wanted their mom.
Sally noticed this, and carefully picked the sextuplets up and placed them near Mondsee's side of her bed.
The newborns, along with their older brother Balthasar, immediately cuddled their mom and cried because they were scared of losing her.
"Mommy, I dinnae know if ye can hear me, but I'm extremely sorry for having caused ye sae much trouble. Please, wake up soon, granma's aboot tae have a mental breakdown because we all miss ye a lot, and me and my siblings cannae live withoot ye either." said Balthasar while he sobbed into Mondsee's chest.
Sally watched the whole thing, sad tears welling up in her eyes.
"How does she look, Victor?" she asked hopefully.
"She's got nothing broken, thankfully, but she has a 49°C fever, which is very dangerous, but survivable, and strong back pain. There's also a chance that the fever might drastically decrease her hunger and make her throw up every few hours." replied Victor. Mondsee meanwhile was reaching with a badly shaking left hand out to Donald. He could see the fear on his Niece's face, and that she's silently crying.
Donald noticed this and quickly went to sit next to her, stroking Mondsee's hair to calm her down.
"It'll be okay, lass," he quietly soothed to her. "You'll be okay."
"Is there a remedy for Mondsee for this?" Sally asked Victor.