Author's Note: The Knights of Darion belong to Ubisoft and Blue Byte. Sophie belongs to herself, thank you very much. Thanks to ParchmentRose and Rockerduck for ideas, and to the former for beta-reading.
That boy was always late. What if he never showed up? thought Charles, standing in the middle of the bustling Vestholm market place.
He looked around him. It was hard to see with so many people rushing around; but since he was quite a tall man he could see the sign to the apothecary and a blacksmith, but not much more.
He looked down at the young girl clinging to him so they would not be separated. Young Sophie had insisted that she come with him. His son Marcus was supposed to be babysitting her but he was late. Very, very late.
He looked up as something caught his eye. A flash of red and white came out of the apothecary. Across the market place he could see that the woman was wearing armor. He could tell she was of some significance and definitely from the castle. She turned so her back was to him, and he could see the emblem on her cape. He knew she looked familiar. Before he knew what he was doing he found himself fighting through the crowd to get to the woman, Sophie close behind.
"My lady," Charles gasped out as he broke though the last bit of crowd. She swung around. "My lady, my name is Charles and this is my daughter Sophie. I have a very important meeting and my son Lord Marcus is supposed to be babysitting her but he is very late and I have to get her to him somehow so do you know Lord Marcus?" Charles stopped for her response, panting.
"Yes, I know Lord Marcus," the lady said slowly.
"Great, do you think you could take Sophie up to the castle?"
"Certainly." Alandra smiled at Sophie, who was hiding behind her father's leg.
"Perfect! Thank you so much. I'll pick her up at six," Charles said, detaching Sophie's hand from his and disappearing into the crowd with a call of goodbye to Sophie.
Alandra looked down at the little girl who was now clinging on to her leg.
"Come on, Sophie. Let's go up to the castle and see your big brother," Alandra said, looking into Sophie's big blue eyes.
…
"Who's he and what's he for?" Sophie was pointing at one of the bowmen on the battlements.
"I don't know his name, but he is on watch to make sure that no bad people come up to the castle."
Alandra and Sophie walked though the gate and into the main courtyard. They walked up the stairs and into the chart room.
Crimson Sabatt and Kestral were at the table near the fire. Sabatt was delicately eating an cookie and reading a book, while Kestral was attempting to do the latter. There was a plate with one cookie on it. They looked up.
"Since when have you had a daughter?" Kestral looked very surprised to see the little girl holding Alandra as if she was going to lose her.
"Kestral, Crimson Sabatt, this is Sophie, Marcus' little sister."
Sabatt rolled her eyes and went back to her book. Kestral started laughing.
"Ha, I can tell. She has his eyes. And hair."
"Where is Marcus?"Alandra looked around the room, then down the corridor.
"Lord Marcus just flew though here on his way to pick up his little sister at the market place." Kestral was still laughing.
"Read," Sabatt said from behind her book. Alandra went to go find something for Sophie to do until Marcus came back.
Sophie sneaked up to the table and peered over the top. There was one perfectly brown chocolate chip cookie sitting on the plate. She reached up and snatched the cookie from the plate, then ran across the room back to Alandra, who had found her a pencil and paper to draw on.
Crimson Sabatt reached down to take the last cookie, but it was not on the plate where she had left it.
"I'm sure that there was a cookie there before."
"Oh, you're just trying to cover that you ate the last cookie." Kestral glanced at the plate.
"No, no, I'm sure there was a cookie there and I didn't eat it."
"Right, sure, whatever you say."
…
Marcus had been standing next to the bakery waiting for his dad for over twenty minutes when he decided to go back to the castle. He was beginning to freak out. He was maybe a little bit late it wasn't much and what did his dad do with Sophie? Where was Sophie?
…
Sophie was watching Alandra stamp the tax records when the door opened and Marcus walked in mumbling something about just a little bit late. There was a screech, a blur, and Sophie was holding onto Marcus' leg.
"Marcus!"
"Sophie? How did you get here?" Marcus' face was like a fruit cake.
"I was at the apothecary when your father came up to me and asked me to take Sophie to the castle," explained Alandra.
"Thanks, Alandra," Marcus said gratefully, smiling at her.
A page came in. "Lady Alandra, you are wanted at the stables." Alandra nodded and left the room.
"She's nice, are you luuuurve with her?" Sophie asked innocently.
Marcus blushed bright red. Kestral cracked up laughing. Sabatt smirked.
"Well, I –" Marcus began, but was interrupted as another page came in.
"Lord Marcus, Lady Alandra requests back up in the stables." The page left in a hurry.
"What? Why?" Marcus looked down at his little sister. "I need someone to take care of Sophie."
"I'll do it." Kestral seemed happy to do it, but Marcus thought it more likely that she just wanted an excuse to put the book down.
"Sabatt, watch Sophie." Marcus looked Sophie in the eye. "Do what Lady Sabatt tells you to do, okay?"
Marcus fled the room before Sabatt could object.
"Will you tell me a story?" Sophie had her cutesy face on and no one said no to the cutesy face.
"No." Sabatt didn't look up.
She said no to the cutesy face.
She said no to the cutesy face.
"But Marcus said –" Sophie didn't even get to finish the sentence.
"Fine. I don't tell good stories but I know someone who does."
…
"You want me to what?" Thordal whispered so that Sophie didn't hear him.
"I just want you to look after Sophie for a few minutes while Marcus is busy," Sabatt said.
"Maria," The Viking whined.
"Don't make me beg."
"Fine," Thordal mumbled. "Hi, kid."
"You're really tall." Sophie looked up at the Viking. "Can you tell me a story?"
"Sure, come with me."
…
Kestral had just finished sawing though one of the back legs of Marcus' chair when the door opened. She jumped behind the desk, hoping it was Marcus and he would sit down.
"I liked that story," Sophie said as she and Thordal walked in. He sat down in the big armchair and Sophie jumped on his knee.
"Cute," Kestral said in a sickly sweet voice.
Thordal jumped out of his skin, then glared at her. "Not funny, Kestie. I need to go pick up my lyre. Can you watch Sophie?" Thordal stood and moved to the door, not even waiting for Kestral's answer.
"Hey, would you like to go to the stables and meet my horse?" Kestral asked.
Sophie's face lit up. "What's her name?"
"Dutch."
They headed outside.
"Can I pick some grass for Dutch?" Sophie beamed at Kestral.
"Sure, there's some grass over there." Kestral pointed at a small patch by the gate.
"KESTRAL!" Marcus yelled from the stable.
Moments later, Dutch and a couple of other horses ran from the the barn. Kestral quickly ran to go help with the panicky horses.
Sophie heard her name and looked up. Kestral was pointing to a man walking along the back of the courtyard who apparently hadn't noticed all the horses running in every direction. Sophie ran over to him.
"Can you save me?" Sophie asked the man, stretching her arm out for him to pick her up. He picked her up and left the courtyard.
They turned the corner and almost ran into Sabatt, who started laughing so hard Sophie thought she would burst.
"Southerner?"
"I fail to see the humor in the situation. Now, if you'll excuse me, we are on our way to the chart room."
…
Finally Alandra, Marcus, Kestral and many stable-hands had got all the horses back to their stalls. The knights made they way to the chart room with a drink in mind. They met Sabatt, who had mostly gotten control of herself.
"Where's Sophie?" Marcus demanded
"Thordal was taking care of her, but then somehow the Janubian got her."
"Wise Boy? I've got to see this," Kestral said, opening the door to the chart room in which they all saw something they never thought would see. Hakim was sitting on the floor explaining a map of Janub to Sophie.
"Why?" Sophie asked.
"Because the air is extremely dry, so no heat is retained after the sun goes down," Hakim explained.
"Okay," Sophie said as if she knew exactly what he was talking about.
They looked up. Marcus, Alandra, Kestral and Sabatt were peering at them from behind the door. Hakim stood up really fast.
"Um." The group outside started to snigger.
"Marcus, you're back!" cried Sophie joyfully.
"Yup." Marcus walked over to his chair. "There was a mouse in Daira's stall and she had smashed the door and then Athos smashed his door and then all the other horses got out." Marcus sat. There was a crack and SMASH and thenthere was Marcus lying flat on his back.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Kestral smiled at Marcus on the floor.
"I'm so going to kill you." Marcus jumped to his feet and chased Kestral out of the chart room. The other knights watched them run up the stairs.
"Tea?" asked Sabatt.
Alandra shrugged. "Sounds good."