So I got you interested after the first chapter! Great!

Sofia the first is not my property but I do have this story in my head and want to write it down.

I do hope that you have in mind that the show is in another language here at home and that if I make some error with one of the names it's because that they have received other ones here. But I do try to remember to change them into the English ones. And for you that's wondering I live in Sweden so we see the show in Swedish
(and that makes English in my case my second language.)

But please, read and enjoy! (Sorry, no lemons just yet. But they will come!)

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"Mr. Ceedric! Mr. Ceedric!" Cedric woke up all startled. He looked around in the room and soon saw a set of panicked set of azure blue eyes. He yelped and managed to draw back from the imposing eyes. "What…?"

After stealing a breath he realized that it was Sofia standing next to his bed only in her nightgown looking not like her usual self. This look made him feel awful. Why it should he didn't know. But he didn't want her to look that devastated.

"What's wrong princess? Has something happened to your mother?" it couldn't be anything else than her mother that made her look that way he decided.

"You have to help! He's shaking and makes horrible sounds when he tries to speak. And he is losing big tuffs of hair…" Sofia looked like she wanted to cry.

"Huh? Has something happened to your brother prince James?" Cedric felt alarmed. What had that brat done now?

He hurriedly pulled out from the bed on the other side from Sofia. He needed some distance from her to be able to think.

"No. it's not James." She said looking devastated. "He's here."

"What?" Cedric felt really confused. It was only the two of them in his room. And that was not a good thing. Well, it was since no-one should know that Sofia had entered a man's bedroom in the middle of the night. Especially not wearing a night gown! Even young kids should know better than that.

"Where?" he asked.

"Here" She said and finally he saw that she held something in her arms. She put it down on his bed and he finally saw what it was.

"Oh please Ceedric! Please save Clover! I can't live without him!" her eyes turned all watery.

"Since when did I become the royal veterinary? I'm the royal sorcerer!" he said feeling a bit insulted.

"Please Mr. Ceedric. No one else can help med but you." She said and Ceedric felt a bit proud that he was the one she went to when needing help. He looked at her once more.

"Let me see what I could do." He sighed and looked down at the furball lying on his bed. He would have to make the chambermaids change his bedding. He would not go to sleep knowing there would be a lot of rabbit's fur in his bed. Not even the fur of Sofia's furball.

He examined the grey bunny and sighed. After a while he turned towards Sofia and hated what he would make the hope in her eyes disappear.

"I'm sorry princess. There's nothing I can do."

He saw the tears in her eyes. One of them pooling over and slowly go down her cheek.

"But you are a sorcerer... There should be something you could do…" she whispered and it hurt his heart. He did not want to be the one to hurt the only friend he had.

"I'm sorry princess. But that rabbit is a very old rabbit. Even a sorcerer like myself can't cheat death."

He quickly took the few steps to her side when he heard her soft sobbing.

"I'm sorry princess. But it's only a rabbit. I'm positive that your father has the money to give you a new rabbit if you would want one. And shouldn't you have grown out of pets by now. You are after all 13 years old now…" Cedric felt horrible but he tried to persuade her to not be so sad.
Maybe she wouldn't feel as sad if she was even angrier at him right now. It would be worth it even if it would mean that the friendship would end…

"But I do not want anybody else! He's my friend! Just like you are too! And how would you like it if Wormwood where to be switched just like that…" she said but gasped directly. That was not a nice thing to say! She thought. She looked around the room but the crow where probably out hunting.

"But that's not the same thing princess. Wormwood is special." He sighed.

"How?! Clover is very special to me too!" another tear fell on her cheek.

"Because Wormwood is not a regular bird. He's my familiaris…" Cedric paused for a second when he finally saw a solution to the problem. He smiled and hit one hand in the other.

"I got it! There's one way to save the little furballs life!" he said. He saw the hope in her eyes come back and it made her look alive again. He would stop at nothing to make sure that it didn't go away again!
Luckily he weren't a veterinary that would have to depend on just regular medicine, but a clever sorcerer that could use magic!

"It is not a common way and it's seldom used as means to save animals so that's why I didn't think of it before. But if you make him your familiaris then he will have a long lifespan. As long as your own will be."

""What is a fam- famlars…?" she asked, not believing her luck.

"A familiaris. You have probably heard that a lot of sorcerers have an animal companion that's always there. Just like my Wormwood here." Cedric pointed towards the peg that Wormwood usually sat at. "Well. A familiaris has a bond with its owner that makes its own lifespan grow a lot longer. As long as the sorcerer life is not ended so will not the familiaris either. The sorcerer can strengthen his or hers own magical abilities by the link to the familiaris. The only backlash is that you will have to learn how to ignore some urges that can come from the animal... bu-"

"Then help me make Clover my familiaris! Please Mr. Ceedric!" she pleaded and put her hands on top of his begging him.

He blushed by the familiarity she showed but nodded and went to his shelves looking for the right ingredients to make the binding spell. He worked briskly. A bit of grinded black rose roots, three drops of mermaids tears, three strands of Sofia's hair (he had pulled them directly out of her scalp and she didn't even flinch, feeling tempted to save one for himself… but didn't.). He continued quickly and soon he had the spell ready.

He told Sofia that she needed to get at least a few drops into the bunny's mouth and make him swallow it. Then she had to do the incantation correctly and then drink the rest of it herself. He made her try out the words a couple of times before he felt that she had them correctly. This spell could be dangerous if used incorrectly for the both of them and he didn't want that to happen.

She bowed over his bed and tried to persuade her rabbit to drink. A couple of drops drizzled down on his bedding and she started crying more in earnest.

"Please Clover. Drink just a little. Do it for our sake. Please Clover…"

Finally they saw that Clover managed to swallow a dew drops and he started to shiver. Sofia looked alarmed.

"Now hurry Sofia! Finnish the spell or else it will be too late!" Cedric urged her on.

She nodded and said the words and put the flask to her mouth drinking the potion. He knew it tasted vile but that the taste would go away in a few seconds.

She looked at him and waited for something to happen. She looked at Clover and gasped.

"Look Ceedric!" she said and they both looked at the bunny that had started glowing. They both saw how the fur got thicker and started to get the healthy shine back. The body starting to fill out in the right places. He was starting to look like a healthy bunny again.

After a while the glow faded out and the process seemed to have ended.

"Ouch!" Sofia said and put her hand to the back of her head near her neck. She saw how a strand of her hair turned white when she held it forward. This was it: the sign that she had gone through the bond with a familiaris.

"You got lucky. That won't be showing that much and can be decorative when being put up…"

"So that's why you have white in your hair… but why do you have two strands of white Mr. Ceedric?" she asked curiously.

Cedric turned a bit glum and she regretted asking. Apparently it was a sad memory for him.

"It's Cedric. But never mind. You will probably never get it right anyways… No. To answer your question: It's not always a success having to bond to a familiaris. The first time didn't go so well…" His voice faded out and it became quiet in his room.

A snoring suddenly sounded in the tower room and the both of them chuckled. Clover seemed to be just fine and fast asleep. He looked just like he had done when Sofia first met her furry friend.

Sofia didn't know what to say or do. When the panic had subsided she had started to feel the fatigue. It was in the middle of the night after all. She yawned but tried to hide it behind her hand. Cedric saw it and yawned too.

"We've done everything here that we could do. Now the both of you have to sleep. I need my sleep to be able to do all the work that your father wants me to do tomorrow."

"Good night then Mr. Ceedric." Sofia went closer to Cedric and gave him a kiss on his cheek before he had the time to react. He was chocked. That was the first time he got a kiss like that. He saw Sofia lean in over the bed and carefully took the sleeping bunny into her arms and gave it a soft hug. She turned around and gave the sorcerer a big smile.

"Thank you once again for helping Clover and for being my best friend." She said and went out from his room.

The door closed behind him and he sat down on his bed looking a bit dazed. After a while he lied down on the bed on top of the duvet forgetting that he wanted to get rid of the fur first.

Mixed emotions ran through him. He was thrilled that the young girl had given him a 'thank you' kiss and that she still wanted to be his friend. But at the same time he felt really silly that he wanted to switch places with the bunny…

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Sofia went down the winding stairs and back to her own room in the palace. She was feeling happy that she wouldn't lose her best friend. She had felt awful earlier when her other tiny friends had died of old age.
Ceedric was really special! She felt happy that she had his friendship and that she knew she could trust him. He was really her best and special friend.

Just as she was about to open the door to her rooms she stopped and thought: If Ceedric wasn't white haired because of age; then how old was he really?

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And that is an interesting question. How old is he really? ;-)

This chapter made me happy. It was fun to write and I do hope that you did to.
Please write and tell me!

I can't wait until I have the possibility to start writing the next chapter.

Until next time!

Aasa