Disclaimer: I do not own these characters ect.
If you want chapter two to be up faster, review! Enjoy.
The story is set about a year, or a bit more, after the ending of the Thief Lord.
Prosper was awoken on the morning of his fourteenth birthday by his small brother, Bo, landing smack in the middle of his stomach.
"Happy Birthday, Prop!! Are you awake?" Prosper groaned and rolled over. "No."
"Yes, you are!" Bo announced. "Or you wouldn't have said 'No'"
"Bo!!" Hornet appeared in the doorway. "Don't-! Oh. Too late!" she grinned at Prospers sleepy face.
"Happy Birthday anyway, Prop."
"Thanks, Hornet." Prosper rolled over, depositing Bo on the floor, and rubbed his eyes.
"Prosper! Do you want my present now?" Bo was extremely excited. Birthdays were very special, and Prospers even more so. Besides, he had something particularly exciting to do today.
"No, Bo, they come after breakfast, remember? And speaking of breakfast, Ida told me, that if you were awake, she's making pancakes!" Hornet said.
"Yum. And yes, I am now awake. Please tell her I'll be down very soon." Hornet smiled and departed. Bo ran after her.
Prosper lay back down on the bed, then sat up. Ida's pancakes were not to be missed.
When they were all finishing there fourth, (in Prospers case, fifth) pancake, Bo's patience gave out. He ran from the room and appeared with a roughly rapped small package held together with a large quantity of sellotape.
"Open it, Prop!" He cried.
"Ok, Bo lets clear the table first!" Ida said, getting up and collecting the plates. "Hornet, would you go and get the others?"
"Ok." Hornet turned and walked out of the room.
When they had finally finished the clearing up, Bo thrust his present into Prospers lap. Prosper struggled with the sellotape in vain until Hornet fetched him a pair of scissors.
"Thanks, Hornet." He said as managed to cut open the present. It was a small gold-coloured gondola, of the sort that is for sale in all of Venice's tourist shops.
"Wow, thanks Bo!" said Prosper, giving his brother a quick hug. "I'll put it by my bed."
Ida's present was a book on Venetian history, which Prosper received gratefully. Most boys would be rather unimpressed with such a present, but Prosper was very interested in everything about Venice, and even if he had found it dull, he would not have shown it.
Hornet handed over her present with a slightly embarrassed smile. "I didn't know what to get you." She said. It was some nice chocolate, and a book, the next of a series that he was reading. "Do you like them?" Hornet asked.
"Thanks, Hornet, they're great." Hornet smiled.
After breakfast, Prosper was hastily pushed out of the house (with strict instructions not to be back for at least half an hour) on the pretext of going to buy crisps and lemonade. He had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but he didn't want to spoil Bo's fun.
"Ida! Ida! When are we going to make the cake?" Bo yelled running to the living room.
"Oh now Bo, if you want."
She followed him in to the kitchen. Bo had got all of the ingredients out on the table and was busy checking the recipe.
He looked at her anxiously. "Do we have any flour, Ida?"
She laughed. "Yes of course we do, but Bo, what do we do first, before cooking?"
"Err…"
"We wash our hands Bo! Especially if you have been eating pancakes with your hands and you are very sticky!"
"Ok." Said Bo reluctantly, and ran over to the sink. Grown-ups could be such a bore sometimes.
He ran back to the table. "What first?"
"First we measure out the margarine and sugar. Here, you take the sugar. I'll tell you when to stop. Not now… Stop!" Bo pulled up a little too late, and Ida had to spoon some sugar back into the bag. Nothing else happened until there was a minor catastrophe when the bag of flour Bo was pouring into the scales ran out!
"Oh, no! Will Hornet have to go and get some more? There won't be enough time!" said Bo. He was very worried.
"No, calm down. I have some more in here, I think." Ida said, rummaging in the cupboard. There was. Bo was relived.
After everything had been measured out, Bo was given the wooden spoon, and began to stir with great energy.
"Be careful, Bo!" Ida cried. "You don't want it to go all over the kitchen!"
Just then, the door bell rang. Ida turned from the cupboard. "Bother! Don't do anything till I get back, Ok, Bo?"
"Yeah, ok Ida" Bo wasn't really listening. Ida wiped her floury hands and walked out of the room to answer the door. Bo stirred for a while, but soon became bored. What was next on the list? He leaned close to read. Vanilla Essence -- 1 tsp. What did tsp mean? Oh, yes he remembered, it meant one tablespoon. One tablespoon of that little bottle that Ida kept in the side cupboard. Of course, she'd told him not to do anything until she got back. But Prosper might get back at any minuet! And Ida might be a long time! Bo decided.
He dragged his chair over to the side cupboard and opened it. He began to rummage in it. He hadn't realised there was so much here! Finally he saw at the back a little black bottle that looked exactly like the vanilla essence. He scrambled down of the chair and ran back to the table. Very carefully he spooned it out on to the spoon and pored it in. He was just getting down from putting it back in the cupboard, when Ida came back in.
"Sorry Bo, right what's next?" She glanced at Bo's face and groaned. "OK, what have you put in it?"
"Oh, just the vanilla essence!" Bo said quickly.
Ida groaned again. "Bo! I told you not to do any thing! But it's…" Her voice trailed off as she saw the tablespoon lying on the table. "You used that?"
"Yes. Is anything wrong? Tsp means tablespoon, doesn't it?" Bo was getting confused.
"No! Tsp means teaspoon!" Ida sighed and shook her head. "You did use vanilla essence I suppose?"
"Of course! I mean I used the little bottle you always use. The one in the cupboard."
"Show me." Sighed Ida.
Bo ran over to the cupboard and pointed to the bottle he had used. Ida picked it up.
"Oh Bo!" She said helplessly. "This is peppermint essence!"
"Oh" said Bo. "Will it matter?"
"I don't know! I've never put it in a cake before!"
"Oh" Said Bo. He seemed to be saying that a lot.
"Well it's too late to change anything now. We'll just have to put it in and hope for the best." Ida scooped up the mixture and put it into the round pans, and then into the oven. She sat down and began to laugh. "Oh, Bo. What am I going to do with you?"
"I don't know." Bo replied. But then his face brightened. "Can I lick the spoon?"
Please review! I will have chapter two up as soon as I can.