Chapter Two

"Sofia? Where are you? Sofia!" Amber called out in the horse stable.

She heard a sob from the near end of the stable where Sofia laid on the ground, covered in her own blood.

Amber walked over to Sofia's side and grabbed her hand.

"That's it Amber! Protect your sister. Dare to risk it all!" A female voice cheered as a young woman of eighteen appeared at Amber's left side.

"Don't you dare princess! Leave your pathetic sister alone to die in her own blood!" Felix yelled who appeared at Amber's right side.

The little blonde princess looked around. She wanted to protect her sister but wanted to leave. However, if she left, she would be granting Felix's wish and Sofia would die.

"I can't choose!" Amber screamed as Felix laughed.

"You're pathetic!" He spat as he left Amber at Sofia's side.

"Good choice Amber!" The young woman of eighteen cheered, giving the little blonde princess a wink before disappearing.

"Sofia? I'm here. It's okay!" Amber looked at Sofia who laid still in her own blood.

She pushed Sofia's bangs out of her face and patted her forehead.

"Amber? Do you see what I see?" Sofia asked weakly as she took a labored breath.

"What do you see, Sofia?"

"A light. It's sparkling like the star on our Wassailia tree."

"Stay away from the light, Sofia. You have to stay here," Amber begged but it was too late as Sofia took her final breath, dying in Amber's arms.

Amber screamed.

...

Amber breathed heavily as tears were flowing down her cheeks.

"Sofia!" She yelled as the door to her room burst open while the king and queen walked to her bedside.

"Amber, is everything alright?" Miranda asked gently, sensing that her stepdaughter needed comfort more than anything.

"Sofia! I have to see her! I have to make sure she's okay!" Amber shouted, nearly running out of the room as her father gently grabbed her arm.

"Hold on Amber! It's early in the morning. Sofia needs rest and so do you." Roland patted his daughter's hair, putting an arm around her waist as Miranda looked at him.

She knew he was stressed but the dark bags under his eyes concluded that he was emotionally stressed. She could see it in his eyes that her husband was angry for what happened to Sofia and how none of them couldn't prevented it from happening.

"Rollie, you look like you need some rest," Miranda began, taking a breath as she looked at her stepdaughter who tried to break free from her father's grasp. "I'll stay here with Amber."

"Miranda, she's my daughter. I have to be there for her!" Roland protested, holding on to Amber's waist.

"Not when you're stressed Roland!"

Snapping at her husband while in front of the children wasn't something she had planned when Miranda had gotten married to Roland but with her daughter severely beaten and her eyes red from sobbing privately in the early evening hours had proven to the queen of Enchancia that she, like her husband, was stressed except it was a different kind of stress.

She was motherly stressed as any mother would be when their child's life was at stake.

Roland blinked, taking his wife's rather unusual response as he grasped his arm away from Amber's waist, leaving stepmother and stepdaughter alone in the dark.

Amber looked up at Miranda as tears filled her eyes. "Mother, why are some children cruel?"

Miranda hugged Amber close to her, stroking her hair. "Well, Amber, some are jealous of other children for their talents or they want the best of everything or all they want is a friend but are too scared, forcing them to be cruel."

"I'm sometimes jealous of Sofia, but I would never do anything to hurt-" Amber stopped speaking as she sobbed, her stepmother's words being all too real for her to shake off as a couple of words being told to her.

She was jealous of her stepsister at times but never had the heart to hurt Sofia. Sofia was the joy that brought life to her heart, having Amber be more considerate for others and the people around her.

"Amber, I know you're worried about Sofia but she's going to be fine and she's going fight this. No matter what stands in her way," Miranda muttered gently to her stepdaughter, trying her best to fix Amber's emotional state.

Seeing her quiet and still after minutes of sobbing left Miranda to sigh in peace. Still, she stay with Amber for the rest of the night just in case her stepdaughter's emotions were running high again.

...

Doctors were the only people Amber saw coming in and out of Sofia's room during the morning hours after breakfast.

She noticed that a lot of them carried bandages while some carried paper, a tin of ink, and a writing pen.

She took a small peek at Sofia's room (since the door was carelessly left open by a doctor that was new) and saw doctors surround her stepsister like a pack of wolves.

"Poor child," Amber heard one say about Sofia with a bit of sympathy.

"We know, Lydia, we know. We all feel horrible for the youngest princess of Enchancia, but we can't show our emotions while in front of her," Amber heard a male doctor say to Lydia, his voice soft and smooth, almost like butter or a fluffy pillow.

"Princess Amber! You know better than to seek peeks at people's work. I expected this from your brother but from you is quite shocking," Amber heard Baileywick say, having the little blonde princess turn away from Sofia's bedroom in order face him.

"Baileywick! You don't-" Amber began to protest, only to see the castle steward wave a gentle finger at her.

"I understand that you're concerned over your stepsister's well-being, Princess Amber as I am myself for Princess Sofia's health. However, children, whether they're a royal or a noble, mustn't interfere with the work of adults because they can distract them from attaining the issue at hand. Do you understand?"

Amber nodded as she looked at the steward's eyes. She noticed that they were tired like her care maid's eyes were when she was woken up earlier in the day so she could get ready and eat breakfast.

It appeared to the her that even the castle staff were stressing themselves out over what had happened to Sofia to the point where they got a few hours or very little sleep.

Amber curtsied to Baileywick as a farewell before taking a walk outside to the castle gardens.

The castle gardens often helped her in times of stress as the smell of the flowers helped her relax and breathe.

Unfortunately, some of the flowers reminded Amber of Sofia who loved bright ones and roses and if things couldn't any get worse for her, James was in the garden as well, picking the flowers that Sofia loved off their stems and putting them in a basket.

Amber would've yelled at her brother or screamed at the top of her lungs for his action but decided against it, knowing that flowers could heal and regrow. She also knew that James felt guilty as during the evening in the garden after her outburst, he repeated for what she thought was seven hundred or more times that he thought it was his fault for Sofia's pain because he didn't stay with the little brunette princess when she tried to make amends with the boys who could've beaten her to death had Amber not been there to rescue her.

The little blonde princess knew that it wasn't James' fault or their parents or even Sofia's. She knew that it was the fault of Felix and his gang as her lessons at Royal Prep had taught her to always be kind to others and show to respect each other, not gang up on one person just because their kindness is not interesting to you.

That made Amber angry as she thought of how Felix and his gang didn't have the slight respect for anyone when it came to proper etiquette or manners.

In fact, if they somehow came to the castle, everything on being proper would escape from Amber, allowing her to show them how protective she could be by smacking them on the ground.

Of course, she would imagine it as she knew that they would only come to the castle to mock Sofia's pain which she never deserved to have in the first place.

"Amber? You okay? You keep staring at the flowers as if you were the ruler of them all!" James asked with a laugh, noticing his sister's still movement.

Amber turned around and faced her brother, giving him an unexpected hug. For the first time since the flying derby race from the day before, she heard him laugh and joke around which would normally annoy her to no end but it was what she needed to get away from the depression and anger she felt whenever Sofia came to her mind.

"Thank you James for caring about Sofia and me," Amber muttered as the prince of Enchancia gave her a small glance.

"You're welcome, Amber. You two are my sisters and as a future ruler unless I step down or something else happens, I have to care about everyone."

"James, do you think Sofia's going to be okay once she heals?"

Amber didn't get an answer from her brother as he stared at the ground, telling her that if Sofia healed, it wouldn't be good.

The little blonde princess sighed as her turn to see Sofia in the evening, when her father and stepmother allowed it, was going to be more difficult than what she thought it was going to be.

...

Amber, dressed in her nightgown, went inside Sofia's room where she heard her moan in frustration.

"Sofia's in too much pain to speak," Roland had told her and James when he and Miranda had gathered the blonde twins for a family meeting after another silent dinner. "You can still speak to her but you will only hear her moan and nothing else unless she starts crying."

The twins had nodded as Amber went first, mainly because James was terrified of upsetting Sofia.

"Hi Sofia!" She greeted warmly, sitting beside her stepsister's bed as Sofia moaned happily.

Sofia, to Amber, looked horrible. Her body was wrapped in many bandages while her one arm was in a sling, her auburn curls were all over the place, and her face was red.

Is it hot in here? Amber thought, feeling heat on her skin before looking at Sofia again. Poor Sofia. How can she stand it in here?

Sofia moaned twice, signaling Amber that she was scared.

"Why are you scared, Sofia?" Amber asked, watching her stepsister use her unbandaged hand to wave in the air before being on the ground and turn into a fist.

The little blonde princess then realized that Sofia was scared to be in the Flying Derby again once she healed because she didn't want to get hurt again, especially by a team she would race against.

"You won't get hurt again. I-I p-promise." Amber felt her voice break as Sofia gave her a low moan. "Y-You can't be sorry. It wasn't your fault, Sofia. It wasn't your fault."

Sofia moaned once more before tears began to fall from her eyes and on to her face as she felt Amber grab her hand.

"Sofia, listen to me. What happened after the race wasn't your fault or mine or even James'. When you heal, race. Race like you never had before!" Amber encouraged as Sofia looked at her wide eyed, causing the oldest princess to sigh in despair.

She tried not to pressure Sofia anymore about racing or Flying Derby, instead the two sisters (rather Amber) talked about what went on in the castle with Sofia moaning happily.

"Amber, Dad wanted me to tell you that your time is up," James greeted when he walked into the room an hour later as he looked at Sofia. "How is she?"

"Happy mostly," Amber whispered in her brother's ear. "Just don't talk to her about racing or Flying Derby, it's scaring her to death."

James nodded. "Got it." He frowned as he looked at Sofia who moaned happily. "If only our sister wasn't in pain, she could talk to us about what happened after the race."

"I understand, James,"

Amber couldn't cry in front of Sofia. It felt wrong to do so when the little brunette princess was hurting and couldn't do anything to stop it.

She excused herself out of Sofia's room and walked to her room, her eyes filling with more tears at each step.

In her room, the little blonde princess collapsed in her bed and grabbed a pillow, hugging it tightly before putting it towards her face.

"I promise to protect you, Sofia. No matter what. I don't want you to hurt anymore because it's hurting me!" Amber sobbed in the pillow, thinking of the event that took place between her and Sofia before falling asleep hurt and upset.