I know I've been absent a while! I'm so sorry, but to make up for it, here is the longest chapter yet at 7000 words with authors notes (6, 561, not including authors notes).
IMPORTANT NOTE: I am going to be rewriting this story. I will leave this version on here until the rewrite is ready to post, and even then, I might leave this on here and label it A Knight With A Baby: Old Version and the new one will be A Knight With A Baby: Rewritten Version, so pay attention to the authors notes because they will tell you when the rewrite is posted. Therefore, any mistakes in this story will be fixed in the rewrite (I know a lot of you mentioned my misspelling of Ryker and Seagate. This was posted before Knight Squad had a Wikepedia page, so I had no idea how to spell those words when i posted it. I thought Arc's town was named Seejay until Knight Squad finally got a Wikepedia page).
Guest: you mentioned the fact that I've made Ryker out to be a bad guy when he's not a horrible villain in the TV show. I see your point and I might even agree with you, but when I started this story, it was before Ryker made a physical appearance and the way everyone talked about him, he sounded like a really bad guy, so that's how I wrote him, and at this point, I'm just going to stick with it.
Harmony735: yes, they did tell Prudy and Warwick their secrets. I forgot about that in chapter 7, so it will be fixed in the rewritten version.
Fanfiction nut: OOC means Out Of Character. Also, thank you for the construction criticism. The rewrite will have many more details and better spelling.
I know there were more reviews, but these were the only ones that had questions or something I felt I had to explain. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and I am so glad all of you are enjoying the story. When I posted this story, I never thought it would be popular. I wasn't sure if it would even have 300 views and now, it has, not only over 7, 000 views, but also 35 reviews. I can't thank you guys enough, and I am so sorry for the long wait.
Disclaimer: I do not own Knight Squad or anything that you recognize. I only own my OCs.
The harsh clash and chatters of swords and javelins banging against each other scratched against the ears of the Knight School students as each pair battled one another while Sir Gareth used his one good eye to watch their performance and monitor their progress.
"Looking good, students," he shouted over the loud sounds as the training students slowly came to a stop during their combat to listen to their teachers. "Ciara, let's see if you can perform a double arrow shot," he addressed the brown haired warrior.
"She double can!" Prudy cheered as she handed Ciara her bow and arrow. Prudy knit her eyebrows as she mentally repeated that sentence back to herself. "I don't know if that makes sense, but I'm rooting for you."
"Okay," Ciara replied, and she appeared as though she hadn't heard her best friend's words of encouragement as an expression of anxiety and nervousness crossed her face.
Ciara took a deep breath before pulling her bow string back, her finds gently holding the two arrows in place before releasing, her eyes on a balloon attached to a post that had a target painted on it. The arrows flew in two different directions. One of them snapped into four pieces as it hit the wall of the weapons shed, falling to the ground with small thwacks and thumps. The other rushed through the air, missing the balloon by two feet and puncturing the cloth of the poor training dummy, the arrow stuck in the cloth mere inches from Sir Gareth's one good eye.
Sir Gareth yanked the arrow free of the cloth it was stuck to and pointed it at Ciara, raising his eyebrows.
"I can't afford to lose any more eyes," he told her as he went to throw the arrow away.
"That's awesome… if you're trying to get worse," Sage mocked, one hand on her hip and a javelin held loosely in the other.
"Congratulations on your decline!" Buttercup exclaimed, cheerfully, not catching Sage's sarcasm.
"Students, put your weapons away. You can mock Ciara on your own time," Sir Gareth ordered as he began picking up stray weapons and storing them in the weapons shed.
Ciara stood off to the side of the courtyard, her bow held limply in her hands as she stared at the ground in dejection and embarrassment, shuffling her feet as she avoided the gazes of her classmates.
As the other students began picking up their weapons and putting them away, Arc ran over to his best friend, sheathing his sword as he came to a stop beside her.
"Hey, are you okay? Archery is usually your thing. Kind of like being horrible at feeding Emmeline is my thing. Seriously, she can spit string peas up to ten feet away," Arc added.
Emmeline was just over four months old and was sitting up on her own and had just started eating solid foods; Arc had only fed Emmeline solid foot twice and both times, he needed two showers afterward. His baby sister was currently being baby sat by Warwick's aunt inside of the castle, and Arc had roughly twenty minutes before he had to pick her up.
Ciara sighed. "I haven't had time to practice because of all of my princess duties," Ciara confessed with another sigh that truly voiced her exasperation and stress over her double life as Princess Catherine Isabella Addison Rosalinda Adamson (I made up a princess name for her… get it? The first letter of each word put together spells Ciara) and Ciara Madeline Kingston.
"But hey, you still get daily foot rubs, free pie, and people that clean your room for you. Get out of my dreams, lady," Arc joked.
Ciara managed the tiniest smile before it dropped as she voiced one of her greatest fears.
"If this keeps up, I'll never be good enough to become a knight. I'm not even good enough to battle an army of balloons," Ciara muttered in exasperation, scuffing her toes against the smooth stones that make up the ground of the Knight School courtyard.
Arc sighed, trying to find a way to comfort his friend.
"Look," the taller teenager finally said. "Your life may be complicated, but you always find the answer. Usually with my help after some shenanigans," Arc laughed as he made another attempt to cheer her up, and Ciara gave a small laugh in return because she knew that was all too true. She'd gotten into more troublesome situations since she'd met Arc than she had in her entire life.
"Students! Since you have all been working so hard, I am taking you on a quest to find treasure at the treasure cove caverns, " Sir Gareth announced with a broad smile.
The students murmured in excitement at the quest, and Sage pumped her fist, raising her fist to eye level and jerking it down towards her stomach in happiness.
"Yes!" she muttered.
Ciara sighed, her smile disappearing as disappointment and even more exasperation set in.
"I can't go. I have princess stuff," she explained to Arc in a quiet tone in order to not be overheard. "My life would be so much easier if my dad would just let me go to Knight School."
"Yeah, and my life would be so much easier if I didn't have to keep making up excuses for you. Like this one," Arc said, raising his hand. "Sir Gareth, Ciara just got stung by a red nosed scorpion!"
Arc quickly pinched Ciara, and Ciara yelped, holding her arm.
"Ow," she repeated in a less surprised tone. "Stupid red nosed scorpion!"
"Ugh, they make your butt swell up to the size of a beach ball," Sage added, using her hands to model the size of a beach ball to create some imagery for her words. "It's like my second favorite animal!"
"Her first is a baby otter, but she doesn't like people to know that!" Buttercup informed everyone, obliviously, and Sage winced as she held a hand to her forehead, her expression one of embarrassment as Buttercup unknowingly poked a hole in her mean, bad girl persona.
"I'm sorry, Ciara, but you will need to sit out the quest and get to the nurse's shack," Sir Gareth told her.
Arc leaned close to Ciara and whispered, "Can you watch Emmeline or get someone else to watch her until I get back?"
Ciara nodded. "Of course."
"Run!" Sir Gareth ordered.
Ciara obeyed as she started to race towards the steps that lead out of the courtyard.
"Don't literally run," Sir Gareth corrected himself. "The scorpion venom will move faster through your body."
With a frown of bewilderment, Ciara slowed her run to a slow walk, unsure of how quickly she should move (she hadn't even been stung by a scorpion, but she had to make everyone think she feared the venom accelerating its speed of spreading through her body).
"Well, move faster than that. You just got stung by a scorpion!" Sir Gareth shouted as Ciara's walk became a jog, and she disappeared up the steps.
The students rushed to finish storing their weapons and training equipment while Sir Gareth approached Arc.
"Arc, do you have a babysitter for Emmeline, or do you need to sit the quest out?" Sir Gareth asked.
"I'm good to go. Ciara told me she'll watch Emmeline after she leaves the nurse if she's feeling well enough, or if she's still not feeling too well, she'll take Emmeline to the back up babysitter, one of Ciara's family's friends," Arc informed him.
(The back up babysitter was actually Ciara's lady in waiting, a responsible nineteen year old girl that had done some babysitting before she became a lady in waiting. She was also the only one other than Arc who knew of the princess's secret life as Ciara. How she found out… well, that's a story for another time).
Sir Gareth smiled, proudly. "You seem to be adjusting to life as Emmeline's guardian very well."
Arc grinned in return. "What can I say, sir? I love my sister. I'd do anything for her."
Sir Gareth nodded. "Arc, you are full of surprises, but that is one thing I am sure of when it comes to you."
Later that day, while Sir Gareth, Arc, and the rest of the Knight School students traveled back from the Treasure Cove Caverns, the king and princess stood on the small balcony overlooking the courtyard, gently waving to their people.
Ciara had left Emmeline with Wendy, her lady in waiting for the time being, and she longed to be playing with Emmeline rather than faking a smile as she waved from a balcony instead of going to the Treasure Cove Caverns with her friends, her squad, or at least doing something more important for her kingdom- like feeding the hungry or giving the homeless shelter or improving the protection of the castle and the people inside and around it. Doing something more important than waving to them for an entire hour.
"Isn't this great, Princess? Connecting to our people through the power of waves," the king stated.
"I love the king and princess waving hour, but we could finish it in half of the time if we switched to double waving," Princess Catherine, aka Ciara, suggested, waving both hands frantically, as though flagging down a carriage on a busy street.
The king frowned. "Why are you in such a hurry?"
Ciara shrugged. "I just think there are more important things the princess can be doing for the kingdom," she admitted, stopping her waves and turning to face her father completely, preparing her argument for being allowed to attend Knight School for the umpteenth time.
"Come on, the people love it as much as we do," King Harold the fourth pointed out as he waved to more passerby. "Plus, we can scan the courtyard for new food carts."
As if on cue, three teenagers, smiling politely, walked past the balcony, each waving to their king and princess with one hand and holding a small plate of lamb chops in the other.
"Oh, those look delicious. Guard, find me the cart that makes those lamb chops," the king commanded, and the guard nodded curtly before descending the steps to search the courtyard for the food cart that sold lamb chops.
"What I'm saying is…" Ciara took a deep breath, hardly daring to hope her argument would finally succeed, "You should let me go to Knight School."
"No, and here's a no for the next seven times you ask. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" The king ranted, obviously tired of having this argument time and time again.
"Would it change your mind if you knew I was the greatest warrior in Astoria?" Ciara asked, hopefully. Maybe she could finally get the huge secret off of her chest…
"I refuse to have this conversation again. Guard, bring me my crown of silence!" King Harold demanded, and a guard rushed forward and placed a crown on top of the king's head. It had a red top that covered his head with a golden band that wrapped around his forehead and the back of his head to hold it in place. White fluffy earmuffs were attached to the crown and covered his ears.
"With your sister Eliza away," the king yelled, not realizing how loud his voice was with the earmuffs covering his ears, "You have a responsibility to this kingdom to stay safe. Hey... this really works! I can't hear myself!" The king added, as though that weren't obvious, before screaming loudly to prove his point, drawing the attention of the people in the courtyard, who cover their ears at the shrill cry of their… rather unique king.
Ciara, fighting down the embarrassment she felt at her father's usually amusing antics, reached forward and took off the crown while her father was mid scream, and he stopped short, clearing his throat in slight embarrassment as he tried to act casual.
Sir Gareth and his students entered the courtyard with Prudy carrying a large wooden, slightly dusty chest in her arms. The quarter giant rested the chest on a nearby cart while Sir Gareth addressed the king.
"Your highness, we have returned from the Treasure Cove Caverns," Sir Gareth announced.
Prudy grinned. "Who wants to see some treasure?" she cheered.
"I do, I do!" The king squealed like a child on Christmas morning, and Prudy opened the chest to reveal several shiny objects inside.
"All the bling that's fit for the king," Prudy rhymed, stepping back so the king could examine the treasure.
"Oh, thank you. Nothing excites me more than your generous gift of-"
At that moment, the guards returned with the food cart that sold the lamb chops to the teenagers the king had spotted earlier.
"Lamb chops!" The king abruptly changed topics in his excitement as he accepted a plate of lamb chops and eagerly bit into one. "Well, Princess," he said with his mouth full and his lips covered in greasy, messy sauce. "I have my treasure. What would you like?"
"I don't want treasure. I want to go to Knight School, and- you're wearing the crown of silence again!" Ciara realized as she turned away from the Knight School students to see the crown of silence back on her father's head, the earmuffs securely placed over his ears.
"I can't hear you!" The king shouted before releasing a shrill scream once again that had the Knight School students, their teacher, the rest of the villagers, and even his daughter, who'd been expecting it, cringing at the high pitched yell and covering their ears with pained expressions on their faces.
Ciara sighed in discontent as her argument to try and convince her father to allow her to attend Knight School failed once again.
Less than half an hour later, Ciara stood before her bling cabinet, staring at a tiara that sparkled and shined in the mid day sun. Emmeline sat behind Ciara on her bed, surrounded by mountains of pillows to prevent her from falling off, and Ciara glanced back every few minutes to make sure Emmeline was safe and happy as she played with the toys Arc and other members of the Phoenix Squad had bought for her.
"Back to your home, Mr. Sparkles," she said in a babyish voice as she placed her tiara back in her cabinet, gently resting the tiara on a shelf in its rightful place.
She didn't notice the soft sound of shifting bricks as her secret passageway opened, and Arc strolled into her room while she lifted a golden tiara from the shelf and grinned at it as though it were her child and not a tiara.
"Yes. I'll wear you tomorrow, Mr. Dazzles!" Ciara promised the golden tiara she pulled out of the cabinet.
"You talking to your tiaras again?" Arc chuckled from behind her, surprising Ciara, who whipped around, fighting down a blush of embarrassment at having been caught speaking to her tiaras.
"No!" she lied before murmuring to her tiaras in a quieter tone to avoid Arc hearing, although he heard her anyway. "We'll talk more later," she told her tiaras, placing the golden tiara she had named Mr. Dazzles back in its assigned place in her bling cabinet, as Arc often called it.
"I told you to stop using my secret passageway," Ciara reminded him, sounding annoyed but not truly angry.
"You also told me to stop using your snack catapult," Arc pointed out as he walked past her and yanked on the rope beside her balcony. "Pigs in a blanket!" he called over the edge of the balcony.
A loud cranking sounded before several small hotdogs wrapped in breading were flung at Arc's face. The student flailed his long arms, batting away the pieces of food as they scattered across the floor, before standing still as the pigs in the blanket stopped attacking him, trying to act like that hadn't happened.
Ciara laughed. "Here to pick up Emmeline?" she said as she lifted the baby into her arms while Emmeline continued giggling as she played with the stuffed animal she held in her pudgy fingers.
Arc smiled. "Yes, but I also brought you something. I found this bottle at the Treasure Cove Caverns and brought it back to cheer you up," he said, handing her a blue bottle with a small circular bottom and a long neck. Ciara held the bottle as Arc lifted his baby sister and held her in his own arms so Ciara could open the bottle.
"Open it! Open it!" Arc cheered, eagerly. Emmeline squealed as though trying to mimic her brother, clapping her hands in excitement.
Ciara grinned as she twisted the cap of the bottle to open it, and as soon as the cap was off, green smoke billowed out of the bottle, and sparkles fell to the floor as a girl appeared out of the green smoke. A tall girl with brown hair and wearing a green one piece outfit (meaning the pants were connected to the shirt) with golden trim stood before them.
"It's genie time!" The girl announced, doing jazz hands.
"You're a real genie?" Ciara asked in awe.
"Yep, and she is going to grant you three wishes," Arc answered, holding up three fingers. Emmeline giggled as she waved at the lingering green smoke and the falling sparkles in the air.
"Yes, but first, I am going to celebrate being out of that bottle. So much space," the genie said, happily, as she jumped into the air, kicking out her legs. "I'm stretching. I'm kicking. I'm moving!" she cheered, stretching her limbs after so long of being trapped in that bottle.
"But there haven't been genies in Astoria for centuries!" Ciara exclaimed.
"Eh!" Arc responded, sounding proud of himself for managing to find a genie.
"So you're really going to grant me my wishes?" Ciara questioned, turning back to the genie.
"Again, I feel like I have to say eh!" Arc repeated, and Emmeline chirped a similar sound, trying to mirror her brother the best she could in baby talk.
"Yes, but first, we need to go over the genie wish rules. Number one," the genie began, waving her hands to form the rules in the air, "Nothing about war. Can't start 'em, can't end 'em. Nothing about love. You need to figure that one out for yourself. And three, you can't wish for more wishes. I know you were thinking about it," the genie stated, pointing an accusatory finger at them.
"She's right. I was thinking about it. This is a good genie," Ciara said with a smile.
"Yes, and if you want to fix things with your dad, just ask this magical blabbering mouth," Arc told her.
The genie didn't seem offended as her mouth formed an o shape in curiosity. "Ooh, what's up with your dad? If he's a big booger head, I can literally turn him into a big booger," the genie offered, beginning to wave her hands.
"No," Ciara responded, grabbing her wrist to stop her. "My dad is wonderful… except he won't let me go to Knight School, so I created my secret identity, Ciara," Ciara explained.
"Secret identity? So you've had other genies before me?" The genie looked close to tears as she muttered to herself to keep it together, but her worries were for not as Ciara smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder to continue her explanation.
"Don't cry. A Pixie gave me a magic ring," Ciara told her.
"A pixie? Well, there's your problem. My motto is if you want your wish to come true, don't be a weenie, use a genie," the genie giggled.
"Yeah, make your wish, weenie," Arc told Ciara, who smiled and excitedly did so.
"I wish my dad would let me go to Knight School," Ciara stated.
"My name is Kiki, and your wish is my command. I can also say whatever you wish for, dude. Do you like it? I'm trying it out," Kiki asked.
"You can also say wiki-wiki-wish it up!" Arc suggested like some kind of DJ.
Kiki and Ciara stared at him, and Arc blushed as he began to fiddle with the string on his shirt.
"I'm just spit balling," Arc said, awkwardly, as he avoided their gazes.
"If you just do it, he'll stop talking," Ciara told Kiki, who nodded and stood tall, waving her hand.
In a poof of green smoke, Kiki, Ciara, Arc, and Emmeline vanished.
Ciara blinked open her eyes, and a grin stretched across her face as she realized not only was she dressed as Ciara, but she was also missing her ring.
"Arc! It worked!" she glanced up, and her smile turned to a puzzled frown when she saw that Arc and Emmeline were no longer standing beside her.
"Arc?" she called again.
"Hey, Ciara!"
Ciara leaped about a foot in the air as Kiki appeared at her side, dressed in Astoria armor similar to Sir Gareth's.
"Kiki, you scared me. Okay… uh, did the wish work?" Ciara asked, a million questions swirling around in her brain, the most prominent of all where are Arc and Emmeline?
Kiki grinned. "Yep! Your dad now allows you to attend Knight School!"
Ciara managed a smile, albeit a nervous one. She was not used to the empty space beside her; she was not used to quiet. Arc was talkative, and Emmeline was constantly babbling. She quickly decided she didn't like the quiet, the air devoid of Arc's rambling randomness and Emmeline's adorable giggles.
"Well, why am I still Ciara?" Ciara/Princess Catherine questioned, and she wondered why that had been the first question to come out of her mouth when Arc and Emmeline were missing!
She tried to convince herself she was overreacting, but that thought didn't calm her down at all.
"Your Ciara hair was just so gorgeous, I decided to go with the whole Ciara package," Kiki answered.
Ciara nodded. "Okay… where are Arc and Emmeline?"
Before Kiki could reply, Warwick and Prudy appeared beside Ciara, and Ciara turned to find them smiling and laughing normally. They didn't seem to be worried about Arc's absence, so she tried to tell herself she was wrong to worry. Class/training was in session; Emmeline was probably with Wendy or Warwick's aunt Joywick (I assumed Warwick's family all had names that was simply a word plus wick. Warwick, Fizzwick… Joywick), and Arc had probably forgotten his sword and had gone back to get it or was just goofing off somewhere.
"Hey, guys," Ciara said to her two friends. "Where's Arc?"
Prudy frowned. "Ciara, we know you miss Arc, but you need to move on."
"What?" Ciara demanded. "What are you talking about?"
"Did you get hit on the head again?" Warwick inquired, and the question was obviously rhetorical, making Ciara wonder how many times she hit her head in this dimension/time line/alternate universe/whatever you want to call it. "Ciara, the princess had Arc kicked out of Knight School, saying she didn't think raising a baby and attending Knight School was a good idea. We all knew she had some kind of bias against Arc, though."
"But I would never do that…" Ciara muttered.
"None of us would," Prudy agreed, "But we're not the princess and neither are you, so… what can we do?"
Prudy and Warwick returned to the group of students, conversing about some card game or whatever, and Ciara turned to Kiki.
"What do they mean I'm not the princess?" Ciara almost snarled.
Kiki shrugged. "You said you wanted your dad to allow you to attend Knight School. Well, now you're not the princess and your sister never went to battle, so he allows you to attend Knight School now."
"I have so many questions," Ciara mumbled. "First of all, what do you mean my sister never went to battle?"
Kiki frowned. "Your sister got injured during Knight Training, and since you're not the princess, you don't have a top of the line medical staff. She's healing just fine, but her injured knee would never hold up in battle, so she never went to fight Ryker, and your father isn't extremely overprotective."
(Note: the whole reason the king was so protective of the princess was because her sister had gone to battle- hence why he said "You're all I have left" whenever the princess asked about Knight School- not because she was the princess. So if Eliza still went to battle, I don't think the king would've allowed her to attend Knight School, princess or not.)
Ciara's frown deepened. "When I said I wanted to be allowed to attend Knight School, I meant I wanted to still be the princess and be allowed to attend Knight School."
Kiki shrugged. "Ciara, don't you know the number one catch with genies? You have to be specific and be careful what you wish for. Genies take everything literally, remember? It's like saying I want everyone to admire me and being surprised when a genie turns you into a statue or another piece of art."
Ciara sighed. "I get it. I'm going to go see Eliza and then undo this wish," Ciara told Kiki. Maybe it was selfish to want to see her sister before helping Arc and Emmeline, but Ciara hadn't seen her sister in months; I'm sure wanting to see her again is understandable.
Ciara marched into the Tasty Trunk with Kiki not too far behind and the genie bottle held in her hands; the minute she stepped inside, she stopped in her tracks as her eyes landed on Eliza.
Ciara's older sister could only be described as beautiful; she looked just like Ciara when she was Princess Catherine with wavy brown hair and gorgeous puppy dog brown eyes. Eliza was taller and curvier, perks of being older and having finished going through puberty. Today, Eliza was wearing a white T-shirt and brown battle pants; she looked just like she did when Ciara was the princess and their family was royal except Eliza was devoid of a gown and a tiara and now had a knee brace on her right knee.
Ciara walked across the room, a girl on a mission, as her sister picked up abandoned dishes on numerous tables and rested them in the gray bin under her arm. Eliza barely had time to look up before Ciara was hugging her, her brown, curly mass of hair obscuring Eliza's vision as Ciara wrapped her thin arms around Eliza's waist.
Eliza frowned in confusion before smiling and patting Ciara's back. "What's up, sis?"
Ciara smiled and shook her head. "Nothing. I just don't hug you often enough."
Eliza chuckled. "Well, you know I'll always accept a free hug from my baby sister."
Before either could pull away, the bell above the door chimed as several castle guards marched inside. Four guards blew some trumpets before standing down as the… princess… strolled inside.
"Sage?" Ciara gasped.
"Yes," Kiki responded. "If you're not the princess, someone has to be, and in this alternate reality, it's Sage."
"Hello, my loyal subjects, bla bla bla," Sage said in a bored tone. "It is I, your royal princess, and-"
"And I'm the royal jester!" Buttercup exclaimed, waving her hand in excitement.
Sage laughed at Buttercup's antics, and she took a seat at a nearby table with Buttercup. The people around her hastily bowed and scurried away in fear of the princess.
Ciara wanted to snarl in anger. Her people, scattering in fear over the royal family? You should never be afraid of the royal family. They're supposed to take care of the kingdom, not make the bravest knights stumble over their words in terror at the mere presence of a royal. That wasn't how things were done. That wasn't how things were done in Astoria.
Ciara turned back to Kiki.
"Kiki, return to your bottle," Ciara muttered, angrily.
Kiki frowned. "Why?"
"Because I can't make the wish until no one is around, and I do not want to look at you. I can't believe you created this alternate reality," she muttered, uncorking the bottle and watching Kiki disappear in a cloud of green smoke.
Ciara knew she had no right to be mad at Kiki. Genies were notorious for taking everything literally, but Ciara was mad at herself for wishing away her problems, and Kiki was just standing in the way when her anger seeped out.
"Oi, giant girl!" Sage called to Prudy. "Lift this table," she said, gesturing to a wooden table nearby.
"But you put these pain bands on me that would shock me if I tried to use my giant strength," Prudy told Sage, holding up her wrists, which were encased in aquamarine bracelets.
"And?" Sage drawled, raising an eyebrow.
Prudy accepted her fate and lifted the table, trembling as electric currents coursed through her arms.
Sage sighed in discontent. "It's not funny the tenth time."
Prudy dropped the table and backed away, rubbing her arms and wincing in pain.
"I've got to unwish this wish," Ciara mumbled before reaching to uncork the genie bottle.
"Hey!" Sage interrupted her action. "Give me that bottle."
"No way!" Ciara hissed. "I don't care if you're the princess. You have no right to demand me to give you my property, as said in Law 121."
Sage raised her eyebrows. "You know the law book. Annoying wizard," she ordered Warwick. "Get me that bottle."
"Yes, Princess," Warwick replied and uttered a spell that brought the bottle into his hand, which he handed to Sage.
"Hey, give that back!" Ciara shouted.
Sage smirked. "No."
Ciara knew she was fighting a losing battle. She wouldn't take the bottle from Sage by force; she'd be stopped in a heartbeat. Sage didn't have loyal subjects, but she did have subjects that feared her. She would need to steal the bottle back, and to do that, she needed help.
She needed to find Arc.
Ciara had searched every inch of the castle and the courtyard and no Arc. She was beginning to fear he had left Astoria when she heard a very familiar crying pierce the air, originating behind the castle.
Emmeline.
Ciara didn't hesitate as she sprinted around the castle and what she saw shocked her.
A pitiful figure was leaning against the castle walls, wearing clothes that were so worn, they were practically rags. The figure was wrapped in a tattered brown blanket and was hunched over a bundle in his arms, his blonde hair (which was so dirty, it was almost black) being the only thing Ciara could see. The bundle in his arms was crying, and the figure was humming to try and sooth the baby.
No. It couldn't be.
"Arc?" Ciara whispered, and the figure jumped, his head whipping up at breakneck speed, and his blue eyes, usually so full of humor and laughter, were now nothing but broken, skittish orbs staring out of a dirty, sunken face.
"Ciara?" Arc murmured, and Ciara crossed the ground, kneeling down beside him.
"Arc, what happened to you?"
Arc nearly burst into tears at the simple question.
"I should have given her up. Now, she's starving and dirty and unhappy. I was so selfish," Arc practically growled, and Emmeline only cried harder at Arc's self depreciating tone.
"Arc, don't say that. This isn't your fault. It's mine."
At Arc's confused glance, Ciara launched into the tale of Kiki and the alternate reality, telling Arc how he had been the one to get the bottle for her, how her wish had turned everything upside down.
"Ciara," Arc said after she finished, his voice cracking with hope. "You better not be messing with me."
"Arc, I wouldn't do that," Ciara stated. Especially not now, Ciara added in her head. "I'm telling the truth, and I can undo the wish, but I need your help to get Kiki back from Sage."
Arc nodded, and he stood. Ciara flinched when she was able to see how thin he'd truly gotten.
Arc either didn't notice or didn't mention it.
"Let's do this," he said, determination filling his eyes. "For Emmeline."
Ciara smiled. "For Emmeline."
And for you, Ciara thought.
Arc flipped onto the balcony, rolling into a somersault and landing on his feet (how he was able to do that with Emmeline in his arms, Ciara had no idea). Ciara quickly copied his movements, and they entered Sage's room.
"What did she do to my room?" Ciara demanded, staring at the gloominess of the room, the dark curtains, the blood red bedspread, and overall creepy atmosphere of the entire room.
Arc ignored her. "Where would she keep the bottle?" he asked, eyes scanning the room. "Maybe in her bling cabinet," he suggested, opening the cabinet that Ciara had used for her tiaras when she was princess.
"Not a bling cabinet," he muttered, and Ciara peaked into the cabinet.
"Definitely not a bling cabinet," she agreed as she shut the cabinet full of hanging baby doll heads before resuming her search elsewhere.
"I don't care if it's against a rule! Just get it done!" a familiar voice yelled from down the hall.
Arc and Ciara looked to each other.
"Hide!" they hissed in unison before quickly shimmying under the bed, so close to each other, they could feel each other's breaths. Arc held Emmeline close to his chest, wincing every time Sage's shoe clacked against the floor.
"I wonder what it does," Sage muttered. "It's probably just a bottle."
"If it's just a bottle, why did you want it?" Buttercup chirped.
"Because Ciara wanted it," Sage answered.
They heard a small thump as she presumably threw the bottle on the bed.
Emmeline began to whimper, and Arc flinched, holding her tighter.
"Shh," he whispered, pleadingly. "Don't cry. Please not now, Emmy. Please not now."
But it wasn't to be. Emmeline began to wail, and Arc and Ciara could barely breathe from the anticipation.
Clack… clack… clack went Sage's shoes until they stopped right beside Arc's head.
A beat of silence and then Sage kicked outward, hitting Arc's wrist, and Arc cried out as Sage used the distraction as an opportunity to grab Arc and drag him out from under the bed.
"Uh… hi?" Arc tried.
"Aw, if it isn't little, homeless Arc, the teenager who got saddled with his little sister. Left Knight School to take care of her. It doesn't look like you've been doing a very good job," Sage cackled, nodding to the crying, dirty, thin baby in his arms.
Ciara winced at the low blow. Wow, that wish had really messed things up. Sage hadn't been anywhere close to this cruel in her universe, and that was saying something.
Arc managed to make it to his feet. "Uh, Sage-" he began.
"Guards!" Sage called, and dozens of footsteps came thundering down the hall. They were out of time.
Ciara knew what Arc's plan was before it happened. She rolled out from under the bed, having gone unnoticed by Sage, who was distracted by Arc. Meanwhile, Arc stumbled back, pretending to be frightened, before smirking in a mischievous way and snatching up the bottle. He pivoted on his foot and tossed it to Ciara, who caught it easily, and began rubbing it frantically.
Kiki appeared in a burst of green smoke.
"Ciara, there you are!" she exclaimed, not noticing the shocked and angry Sage or the innocently bewildered Buttercup. "I'm so sorry about the wish. I-"
"No time for that!" Ciara yelled. The footsteps of the guards were getting closer. "I wish I had never made the wish in the first place."
Sensing Ciara's urgency, Kiki snapped her fingers, and when Ciara opened her eyes, she no longer looked like Ciara. She was Princess Catherine standing in her room with the purples and blues and yellows and none of the blacks or reds that had been there only moments before. Her pixie ring glinted and shined on her finger.
"Thanks, Kiki," Ciara sighed in relief.
Kiki nodded. "You still have one more wish," she pointed out.
Ciara contemplated it. She had had more than enough of wishes and genies for a lifetime, but there was one more wish she could make.
"I wish for you to be free."
Kiki's eyes widened. "You'd use your last wish on me?"
"I made a selfish wish, and it didn't work out so well, so I thought I might try to use my wish to help someone else," Ciara told her.
Kiki smiled, eyes practically glowing with excitement, and she snapped her fingers. The golden bracelets (more like hand cuffs) disappeared from her wrists.
"Thank you," she stated before snapping her fingers and disappearing in a flash of green smoke.
The creaking of her secret passage way got her attention, and she turned, eyes lighting up at the sight of Arc- her Arc, the one with the golden blonde hair not blackened by dirt, the one with a lean but not an unhealthily skinny figure, the one with eyes not broken or skittish, but happy and bright- stepping out of the secret passage way. He was holding a bubbly, healthy, excited Emmeline in his arms.
"I know you don't like me using your secret passageway, but-"
Ciara cut him off by practically picking him up in a hug, and he yelped in surprise.
"Woah!" he exclaimed. "You never hug me! What's the special occasion?"
Ciara pulled away. "Can't I just hug you because you're my friend?"
"No," Arc replied, raising an eyebrow, "But anyway, how'd the genie go? You're still the princess…"
Ciara shrugged. "I decided I like my life just the way it is, and I wouldn't change it for all the genies in the world."
Arc blinked. "Okay, I don't know what happened while I was gone, but you can tell me later. Warwick, Prudy, Emmeline, and I are going to the Tasty Trunk. Want to come?"
Ciara smiled at her best friend and his sister, and she couldn't help but think that they were her family, just as much as her dad or Eliza. She wouldn't trade them (or Warwick or Prudy for that matter) for anything.
"Wouldn't miss it," she responded.
Thank you for reading!
Note: there was some Arc/Ciara implied, but I made it vague enough that you can take it as romance or friendship, whichever works for you.
