Robbie was still sitting on the floor when he began to hear the sounds of those surface dwellers getting fired up over something. He could hear each damn step they took, bouncing and running about – making his head ring with the sound. Feeling particularly put off by their high energy on today of all days, Robbie at first tried to ignore them. Dragging an orange pillow over his head in an effort to smother the echoing pound of their feet overhead.
He should have known better than to try, it seemed whatever efforts he made to block them out were easily drowned out and he'd be damned – but it sounded like they were getting louder.
The ringing of people rushing about overhead had the beginnings of a headache for Robbie. He couldn't believe this. The sheer discourtesy of these people was stupendous. Hadn't he already had a bad enough day, a bad enough week, without this nonsense?
The pillow abandoned and tossed across the lair floor, Robbie dragged himself up onto the observation platform. The periscope hadn't been getting used as frequently those past few days and almost seemed surprised when it was called down. This time it didn't even try landing atop Robbie's head and instead dutifully fell down, making Robbie somewhat suspicious.
Glancing around warily at the questionably still lair, Robbie gingerly took the periscope into his hands before peering inside. He really ought to have exorcized this place in a sense, obviously he'd never do such a thing, but he didn't know where the underground abode had gotten such an attitude. It certainly wasn't his influence that left it with such a malicious temperament – perhaps it was the result of having once housed both Robbie and Glanni. The lair probably liked the older boy more – that would be just about right.
Now in a decidedly fouler mood, Robbie searched for the source of all the ruckus. He expected to find the kids playing games now that school was out. Part of him was a little hesitant to look. Wondering if he'd see Ella up there joining in their noisy activities.
Robbie wasn't sure how he felt about that prospect.
What if she was having fun? What if she was happy? Then he'd have to drag himself up there and try to foil all their fun and boot Sportacus out of town. Would Ella look at him like the other kids did then? Would she also say his name like a curse and send him slinking back underground. Maybe not today, maybe not the first time – but she would eventually.
Dwelling on that scenario did nothing to brighten Robbie's mood as the periscope popped out at the usual spots around town. It took a little longer than he'd expected, it seemed that the group of towns people he most often spied on were all split up.
He found a few of the kids running, but he couldn't guess what game they were playing. They didn't look like they were having fun as they rushed across the town in different directions. They were looking in odd places, up in trees, behind houses and inside bushes. It looked like they'd lost something.
Without being able to pin down just one of the hurried children, Robbie instead set out looking for anyone that wasn't running. He's almost been sick when the tricky child rushed past the periscope – whirling it and himself around a few times. She didn't even seem to see his spyglass. Not unusual, the kids rarely took notice of it.
"What on earth are they doing up there?" Robbie hissed once he'd managed to stop himself and the periscope from spinning around. He was even able to keep himself from being sick. After a few seconds passed of Robbie just getting his bearings back, he begrudgingly went back to looking for some answers and hopefully a way to make them all quieten down.
What he found was Sportacus and the pink girl. For a moment he was startled by how still Sportacus was.
He was crouching next to Pinky, the girl sitting up on the side of the road outside of her uncle's home. She seemed to have been crying, still wiping some tears out of her eyes while the blue clad hero held her hand. Looking a little closer Robbie could see that the hand was freshly bandaged.
This was shocking to him for a number of reasons. The thought that someone was actually able to get hurt while Sportaloon was on the case just seemed impossible. Since his arrival Robbie didn't think there'd been one serious injury among the children. Maybe a scraped knee once in a while but very rarely.
What had he missed?
The periscope crept up closer so Robbie could hear what was being said. Needless to say what he heard was not what he wanted to hear.
"I'm sorry." Pinky – Stephanie – was saying, still clumsily rubbing her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset her, I just wanted…I'm sorry." She was still clearly coming out of a crying fit and Sportacus – the poor hopeless elf – was struggling to work with emotional problems. But of course he tried because despite being completely unable to eat sugar – he was so sweet that even Robbie cringed.
"Hey, hey…" He spoke, patting Stephanie's hand gently as he tried to sooth her. "You didn't mean to upset Ella. You were trying to make friends, you didn't know." Stephanie sniffled, trying to hold back her tears and doing a fairly poor job of it. "I'm sure she didn't mean what she said either."
"She hates me." Stephanie told Sportacus miserably, looking down at her bandaged hand. It wasn't really that bad an injury – it seemed to her that her uncle and Sportacus had overreacted but she could still feel the slight sting and knew it would still be bleeding. Ella had shoved her and Stephanie wanted to be angry, wanted to right – but…when she thought about Ella's eyes when looking at her after the fact – Stephanie just felt guilty.
"No, no." Sportacus quickly tried to sooth her. "Ella doesn't hate you, Stephanie. She didn't mean that."
She wanted to believe Sportacus. He'd never lied to them before, never let them down either – but Stephanie felt completely hopeless. She'd been so excited to see Ella there that she hadn't thought about the things she was saying. Hadn't even considered that Ella might be angry that she didn't have the nicest things to say about her uncle.
Stephanie only realised after what she'd done was just that – mean.
More tears started to surface and she felt terrible when Sportacus panicked. She could see the hero looking for the words to say to try and make it better, but he didn't have them. Besides Stephanie didn't want to be comforted at all.
"Sportacus?" She broke in, wincing at how shaky her own voice was, but pushed on all the same. "Please just…find her?"
At first Sportacus simply searched her face, looking for any sign that she would be alright if he left. He knew that Milford would be there to take care of Stephanie but he had to come back after initially losing sight of Ella to check on her.
Stephanie managed a tiny smile for him and Sportacus took that as enough, she was a strong girl – she'd be alright.
Nodding Sportacus slowly gathered back to his feet, managing a smile of his own to help assure Stephanie. "I'll find her." He promised, still able to feel his crystal buzzing against his chest. It had stopped crying out loud but he could still feel it, the crystal wouldn't settle down until everything was right once again.
Neither he nor Stephanie noticed the third set of eyes watching the scene, which was likely for the best because Robbie was reeling.
They'd lost Ella. They'd lost Ella.
"How did they lose my niece? In an hour?!" Robbie shrieked, waring between disbelief and anger.
Oh sure, he couldn't get rid of the girl for the life of him despite a solid week of effort and these fools could lose her in little under an afternoon. Yeah, no, that seemed logical. Of course.
Robbie was furious and he had half a mind to march himself above ground and tell Sportaloser as much. Tell them all how infuriating they all were and how their near constant and never ending source of surprises were not welcome. His blood pressure was going to skyrocket at this rate. Just once he would like it if this town wasn't working against him.
He was prepared to go on like this, spitting and fuming to his heart's content…except then a thought occurred to him. He might have been angry but Ella was missing.
Unwelcome thoughts of the child being lost and scared began to creep into his mind and no matter how Robbie tried to ignore them or push them back out – they persisted. Becoming worse at the seconds trickled on by, Robbie's brain rather gleefully supplied all the 'what ifs' that he didn't want to consider.
What if she was hurt or scared? Would she be crying in some corner hidden away from the townspeople? What hope did they have of finding her when he couldn't even find her?
Quickly Robbie's anger was turning into panic and even as the air around him seemed to warm with smug approval, Robbie paid it no mind. It was stupid of him to think that he'd actually washed his hands clean of the girl – one way or another she was going to be a problem. He couldn't very well leave her out there on her own and if Sportacus and his merry band of idiots couldn't look after her than what choice did that leave him?
Really he wished he was not that child's best option – but unfortunately for them both it seemed he was just that.
…
…
One half hour stretched into a full hour and another two after that – still no luck finding Ella.
The children were being called home as the sun began to set and Sportacus was feeling more anxious with every minute the girl went unfound. His crystal had become more and more insistent, beginning to burn a little bit as it became irritated with its owner.
'What?' it seemed to say, buzzing angrily against his chest. 'Can't even find one child? What kind of hero are you?'
Sportacus was inclined to agree but he couldn't understand how he'd lost little Ella. When she first took off running he'd followed immediately, shocked but not scared of losing her. Ella was so young and he didn't think she'd actually practiced running a day in her life. But sure enough with the very first wall he vaulted over, she was gone.
He'd startled, skidding to a halt to look around. So sure that his eyes were playing tricks, she couldn't just be gone. Robbie was known for vanishing but he had years of practice as well as more than a little bit of magic on his side – but Ella? She couldn't do that surely. Sportacus looked around for her relentlessly, going so far as to look for any traces of those hidden passageways he knew Robbie had scattered around.
But nothing. No girl, no hidden vent or trap door. He found absolutely nothing.
After that the rest of the town had been informed by the mayor as to what had happened and of course all the children jumped on the chance to help. They were all good kids at heart and Sportacus felt a small swell of pride as he watched them scatter out in search. But as the hours passed and their efforts turned up nothing, he felt that pride dwindle into something sad. He hated seeing the looks of hopelessness on the children's faces and even as they protested giving up their searched at the behest of their parents – Sportacus knew they couldn't stay out there once night set in.
They did not want to lose anyone else once the sunset.
Stephanie took it the worst of all and as Sportacus continued his search, doubling back to check places he knew he had looked, he saw her shadow in the mayor's window. The lights were on and he couldn't make out any expression with little more than a silhouette to go off of, but he could guess. Sportacus had promised to get Ella back, he'd promised and the longer this took the more he was letting them all down.
Again the crystal buzzed, a touch more violently. 'What kind of hero are you?'
"I know." He muttered, flinging himself over another wall out of habit more than any real energy of his own. "I know."
They crystal didn't settle down, it wouldn't until the child was found and even then Sportacus would carry the weight of it's disapproval for days after. This crystal that was now his and had once belonged to his grandfather – well Sportacus felt that it distinctly disliked him. It would always go off when trouble was afoot – it was just in its nature – but that did not mean it had to like him.
A hero and his crystal were partners in a sense but Sportacus thought that his crystal found him to be a subpar replacement for his family.
Tying his best not to let his own personal troubles distract him from helping a lost girl Sportacus continued his search. He'd climbed across every rooftop in Lazytown, scaled every tree and gone through every undergrowth – nothing. He was doing something wrong, he just didn't know what that was.
Then he saw it.
A blur of motion so abrupt that he almost missed it, just out of the corner of his eye and cloaked heavily in some type of concealment charm – that was Robbie's periscope. For a fleeting moment Sportacus stopped running, having been sure he'd just seen the unusual pair of googly eyes. Then again he saw the shape shoot up behind a wall a few meters further down the road.
Almost on a whime, Sportacus followed behind it. Again and again the periscope shot up, whirled around once or twice and then disappeared only to repeat the process a little further away.
Sportacus found this to be odd. He knew for a fact Robbie wouldn't be sleeping this early or at all given his track record for sleepless nights. He also knew that Robbie woudn't be trying to spy on the kids right now, it was unlikely he had a new scheme up his sleeve this soon and without the kids outside to make noise he had no reason to be checking in.
That was…unless….
"He's looking for Ella." Sportacus whispered, the realisation all but punching the air out of him.
Robbie Rotten – the man that had only a few hours earlier told him that he wanted nothing to do with Ella and would be pleased to have her off his hands – was looking for her. If the frantic motions of the periscope were anything to go off, he was desperate as well.
For a while Sportacus could only watch the periscope shoot out of the ground across town time and time again. He wondered why Robbie couldn't have been more honest, wondered why he couldn't have had a little more faith in the man.
Ella hadn't protested at all, trusting the pair of them to do what was best for her – and this is where it got them.
No longer needing the buzz of his crystal to feel like a failure, Sportacus shot off again. He had to find her, he wouldn't sleep – nine past eight or not – until she was safe again. He went back, did it all again. Sportacus didn't care how many times he had to look he was going to keep searching until he found what he'd missed.
They crystal hadn't been able to show him anything, not a single image or hint of where she was. Usually the crystal would give him something. A feeling, sight from the person's eyes, an image of the area – just something to give him some direction. But he got nothing tonight, it was as though the crystal couldn't see Ella anymore than he could.
That thought didn't mean much to him at first, but then Sportacus had it go through his head again and abruptly stopped running. He already knew the answer, he'd thought of it the precise moment he first lost sight of her.
Vanishing.
Oh yes, Ella wouldn't be able to do it. She was far too young and while she no doubt shared Robbie's blood – Sportacus didn't actually know what Robbie was.
But regardless there was undoubtedly magic there and while Ella might be unable to turn herself into wisps of smoke of move herself around at will, there was every chance that she had a few other tricks he didn't know about.
More to the point– someone else could have laid any number of charms or enchantments on her.
It felt like tapping back into a muscle he hadn't stretched in years. A skill he hadn't dusted off for as long as he'd been a hero and one that wasn't nearly as simple as climbing back onto a bike. Touching back into his magic was difficult but Sportacus need only think about the lost child to find his motivation to try harder. He wasn't going to preform any great feats of magic, didn't know if he even could anymore, but he could at the very least look for traces of it.
What he found was something like a cobweb. One draped across every inch of Lazytown.
Startled by the sheer volume of magic threads he could see stretching out across the town, Sportacus was briefly left at a loss.
The numerous threads, some old and others alarmingly recent, were all in different colours. He recognised a few as his own – extremely weak and mostly unintentional. Not unlike Robbie's claim over his lair. In fact he could spot Robbie's influence a mile away.
His threads were distinctive to Sportacus, they were fresh and aged alike – all a distinguishing purple hue. He almost smiled at the sight, thinking it was fitting of Robbie. There were other colours and types of thread that Sportacus did not recognise. At least not intimately. There were faint golden chains strung up high above his head, attached to only heavens knows what. They were shimmering and clearly very old.
Among the gold there was also another magic signature that Sportacus was more familiar with, an auburn shade that was just shy of being gold itself. His heart ached a little bit at the sight of yellow and auburn magic signatures. His family had left far more in the town beyond their memory and he hadn't even attempted to match their magical ties to Lazytown.
Trying not to let himself get waylaid by those thoughts Sportacus began to search through the threads, gingerly moving between them in a conscious effort not to disturb any of them. He couldn't tell what each was form and it would simply be in poor taste to accidentally undo any of them.
Gold, purple, auburn, yellow, blue, the rare thread of something black that left Sportacus with a chill down his spine and an abundance of pink as well. Then finally something that wasn't quite purple but wasn't quite pink either. That would be Ella. It was the colour of her teddybear.
Sportacus was careful when he found this string. It was like his own – extraordinarily weak and not at all intentional. Sportacus found the first strand was a little older than what he expected. It was buried into the ground behind one of the walls surrounding the playground. If he were to guess he'd say it had been left there for at least a few days – probably since Sunday or Monday.
Next he found something more recent and exactly where he expected it to be. A new thread shooting out from around the bend he'd first lost sight of her. So there had been some form of magic there. Sportacus followed this one. Carefully tracing it through the town without daring to touch in case it broke under his fingers. The charm would lose its power if he did, but at the same time he would be left without a way to find her.
What he noticed while following the colour of Ella's magic was that the pink strings followed hers very closely. They were brighter, stronger and far older than any of hers. Sportacus frowned down at the string as it ran along side Ella's own and if he were to guess he'd say that would be her father's magic. It was not difficult for these strings to be attached to people so he wasn't surprised to see one had moved with Ella – but there were other pinks strands littered around the town. Many of them far older than this one, had Ella's father once lived in Lazytown?
Curious but not ready to let it distract him from the job at hand, Sportacus followed the lilac string all the way back to the grass fields and he knew where she was before the strong finished.
The sun had set by now and Sportacus was working with little more than the light of his crystal but as he stood on the ground staring up at the children's tree house he knew his search was over. The strings went up and inside tree house and Sportacus took a moment to gather himself before he jumped up after them.
Landing softly as he could on the rickety wooden floorboards, Sportacus carefully looked around the tree house. It felt strange to be positioning himself between a girl that he could not see and the door. He did not mean to be intimidating, but if she scampered out while he still hadn't properly found her they'd have to do this all again and he wasn't built to stay up late.
The tree house had changed since he'd last been inside. Most notably was the blackboard, which was now sporting new names. It took him a moment to figure out that Wobby was probably Robbie and despite everything he had to bite down a laugh at that. He recognised Ella's full name and then felt some sort of vague remembrance at seeing the one under it.
Glanni, Sportacus knew that name.
He'd head it somewhere but he couldn't quite place the memory. Instead he focused on trying to find the child. Which proved to be difficult because it seemed whatever magic was involved it was very good magic and Sportacus couldn't see anyone at a glance. Taking a moment to adjust his eyes to both magic and the dark, he tried again. It was only when he noticed his eyes trying to shift away and blurring when he passed over one spot in the tree house that he knew he'd found her.
Despite the sting of looking directly at a glamour designed to turn people's eyes away, Sportacus forced his eyes to stay focused and crept deeper into the tree house. In the darkness Sportacus could just make out the shape of something vaguely human shaped curled up in the corner. The longer he looked and the more firmly he told his own eyes he was seeing someone there, the easier it got.
Very quietly he spoke. "Ella?" The human shape twitched and curled in on itself tighter. He tried again. "Ella, you're not in trouble. Please come out."
There was a pliable silence for a few seconds as Sportacus waited the child out. And then very slowly he saw her beginning to uncurl and for a moment felt hopeful. However the harsh tone he was answered with dashed that.
"Liar."
Ella's voice hissed and Sportacus startled. It was definitely Ella speaking, but it sounded off. Perhaps an effect of the concealing charm, but no less unsettling. "Elves lie." She continued in that voice that was both hers and not at the same time. "You always lie." She insisted and Sportacus thought he could pick up a second tone there, one that was clearly a male's voice.
"You lie and cheat. Never thank and elf. Never take food from an elf. Never trust honey sweet words from an elf. Never make a deal. If an elf chases you, run. If an elf catches you, fight. If you cannot do either – hide."
Each rule sent a small chill down Sportacus's spine. These were old teachings, out dated in many respects and yet in others still very important rules to follow. Sportacus had heard tales of elves that never left the dark ages behind – he'd been warned of their trickery along with countless other creatures. But for the most part these rules were no longer in use, not at significant as they'd once been.
What were these teachings doing coming out of Ella's mouth?
"I promise you, I'm not lying. I would never hurt you. Never hurt anyone." He tried, willing his sincerity to shine through in every word. He did not know if he was capable of a lie and dearly hoped Ella would see that too.
There was another pause and Ella shifted again. He couldn't make out any of her distinct features, just a vague outline of where the child should have been in the room. "You won't trick me?" She asked with deliberate slowness, some of that other voice bleeding out of her words. Encouraged by this Sportacus risked a step forward but immediately froze when Ella shrank away again.
"I won't." He promised without hesitation.
"You won't hit me?"
Sportacus's stomach twisted into tight knots, but he didn't ask her why she would ask that. Didn't dare say anything besides another promise.
"I won't."
"You won't lock me away?" Her voice was just one now, just hers and the questions continued.
"I won't."
"You won't…send me away?"
Without a single breath of hesitation. "Never."
Suddenly the charm was dropped.
It all but shattered, the remaining fragments of magic melting away as Ella reappeared in her entirety and immediately flung herself into Sportacus's chest. His arms instinctively came up to catch the girl and she was crying before she'd even grabbed a hold of his shirt.
Quietly he hushed the girl, not willing to hear a single one of her sobbed apologise. He didn't want to listen to her say she'd been bad or disobedient or that she'd hurt someone. He didn't need to hear any of that, anything she might have done wrong had been forgiven hours prior and now all that mattered was that she was safe again and he was able to sooth away some of her tears.
The crystal stopped buzzing.
Sportacus's attention was split away from Ella once he noticed a few remaining shards of pink magic haphazardly trying to cling onto the girl that no longer needed them. The string he'd followed along side hers was still wound firmly around Ella.
More than one actually. He could see tiny threads stretching out across her body, invisible to the naked eye. Dozens of them, so many that Sportacus's head was almost spinning.
Her father had been very thorough with his magic.
Which may have explained how she'd so easily weaved a concealment charm while fleeing from Sportacus earlier. But it begged the question as to why.
At a glance Sportacus could hazard a guess as to what most of the enchantments were for. These were protection charms. He vaguely remembered the burn Ella's box had given him earlier that day.
Protection charms and anti-elf wards. Not only that but that had clearly been her father's influence driving her words moments earlier.
Ella's father, Robbie's brother, clearly had no love of elves and had left his daughter with countless protections against them. But why? Sportacus kept wondering why this elaborate magical net had been weaved. Especially given that Robbie seemed intent on painting his brother as far lazier and unfriendlier than himself. A deadbeat Robbie had said. A no good criminal that couldn't care less if his daughter was alive or dead so long as she was out of his hair.
A man who did not care would not spend so much energy creating wards and enchantments like these.
Promising to get to the bottom of it once everything had calmed down, Sportacus turned it attention back to Ella. Her crying had quietened down now and he was still murmuring gentle nothings to her without realising it. He could paly detective later; search for answers when Ella was safe and sound back home.
"I'm so sorry…" Ella whispered, only slightly less hysterical now. "I didn't mean to push her…I just…she was saying such mean things about Robbie." Jolting up Ella looked at Sportacus pleadingly. She still had big fat tears leaking from her eyes and Sportacus could see she'd been crying long before he'd shown up. She looked exhausted.
"Robbie isn't bad." She told him desperately. "I promise he isn't. Please you have to believe me, he's not bad."
"I know, I know." Sportacus murmured, again gently shushing Ella before she could work herself up again. "I know Robbie isn't bad. A little lazy and grumpy – but not bad."
Gradually Ella seemed to take this to be enough to satisfy her for now and settled back down into Sportacus's arms. "How about we get you home?" He offered her gently. "I think you've been away for far too long."
"Home…" Ella mumbled not looking all that certain where that even was.
So Sportacus decided it was high time he showed her exactly where home was.
Gently he gathered Ella up into his arms and was a little surprised when she insisted on riding on his back again. He didn't stop her from situation herself against his shoulder blades of course, and once he knew she was secure they set off again.
Getting out of the tree house was an easy jump but Ella still squealed for the short distance, burying her hands into his hat as though it would give her a little more balance. Sportacus was relieved that the cry was followed by a nervous giggle – she didn't sound ready to be happy again just yet, but it was a start.
Optimism was never a bad idea in Sportacus's mind.
But perhaps he should have known better when Ella asked her next question. "Mister hero?" She began in a tired voice, keeping herself quiet, as though she was cautious of being too loud. "Do you have a family?"
At first Sportacus hesitated, his feet pausing just for a split second before he was able to continue walking and pretend he hadn't just stuttered. "Everyone has family." He answered vaguely and would have left it at that had he not still been wary of the girl's mood. In an effort to keep her from crying anymore on the way to the back home, Sportacus continued. "My parents lived far away from here, high up in the mountains with my grandfather. We speak occasionally by letter." He explained, able to feel his own words getting away from him.
He hadn't sent letters to Afi or his parents in a while now and again there was that small tug of guilt in the back of his head. The family was not known to keep in close contact, not because they were not incredibly fond or very close to one another, but simply because they were. There was no need to talk frequently to reassure one another that they were still cared for and thought of.
But a letter every few decades was appreciated to let one another know that they were all still alive.
Sportacus smiled to himself before he told Ella the next part of his family tree. "I have six brothers and sister." He heard Ella's little amazed gasp and couldn't help but laugh softly. "It's a pretty big family." He mused just before Ella scrambled her way up onto his shoulders. For a moment he didn't know what she was doing but then suddenly her little face appeared upside down in front of his eyes.
He could still clearly see how red her eyes were from crying, but now there was enough wonder there to warm her expression again. He would keep talking if it would keep her happy.
"Six?" She whispered, lilac eyes huge on her face.
"Five sisters and an older brother." Sportacus explained, now being careful not to let Ella fall off his shoulders as she kept herself balanced to look at him.
Then it all came tumbling out.
Anything that came into his mind was suddenly on his tongue, given freely and without needing any more prompting than Ella's awe filled eyes staring back at him. The years he'd spent chasing after his grandfather's shadow, just for the old man to laugh when he tripped over his own two feet before pulling him up again with a quick word of encouragement and the promise of a strong future. Sportacus recalled each of his sisters and their individual quirks. Being the second youngest of seven children left Sportacus at the mercy of his sisters at times.
Ella seemed to think it was wonderful, hearing about how the two youngest girls insisted he let them find clothes to suit him. He still wore blue as a kind of paid respect to their decree that it was his finest colour. His second eldest sister would show him how to do a handstand and whipped his flips into shape while their eldest would spend her hours meditating and trying to get some peace and quiet from the house. Sportacus could never sit still for very long, but she'd managed to drag her little brother down onto the grass sometimes – teach him about the value of stopping to take a deep breath and let his thoughts settle.
The stories continued as they walked back through the grass fields, each one coming to his mind faster than the last. Thought and moments he'd all but buried away and allowed to gather dust, all suddenly dragged back up to shine brilliantly in his memory once again.
His father, whom he had spent hours training with in the hopes he would one day become a hero worthy of both his father and afi's admiration. The stories his mother would weave for the children once the sun had settled behind the mountain range. Tales of other heroes and far away courts, of magic and lands far away. Some tales made to caution, others to inspire – not a single one without at least a shred of truth and all of them an adventure.
Ella didn't speak anymore, she settled down atop his shoulders with her little arms cradling her head. She listened to Sportacus speak, finding a sort of melody in the stories, a comfort in each warm memory he offered up. Ella noticed a slight hope in the hero's step had returned and smiled to herself, it was nice to see him happy again. Ever since they'd talked back at Robbie's home – he'd been dragging his feet, looking almost as miserable as she had felt. Although he tried to hide it – this hero was transparent.
That was good, she could trust transparency. Perhaps her papa would forgive her for placing trust in an elf – but Sportacus felt like a good person and Ella couldn't doubt him when he spoke with such honesty and kindness. Maybe it would be alright to let this elf be her friend, he'd searched for her all night after all and he hadn't so much as shouted at her once she'd been found.
"And your brother?" Ella asked when there was a pause in the stories. "Papa talks lots about uncle Robbie, what about your brother?"
Sportacus hesitated and Ella noticed. She always noticed, the key to staying alive was to watch for pauses like that. Weaknesses, gaps in attention – Sportacus didn't try to hide his own. Curious the child's fingers tightened idly on that funny floppy hat Sportacus wore. It looked nicer in blue, but she missed the little bell thing that other hero's hat had.
"Íþróttaálfurinn was…" He looked for the right words, a jumble of more recent feelings colliding and clashing with those from childhood. "He was the oldest." Sportacus settled on finally. "Until my little sister was born we were the furthest apart. So we didn't play together much. But sometimes he and afi would take me out and we'd train together. I liked that." He admitted gently, a faint smile tugging on his lips.
The stories of Íþró as a young man were easy. He remembered clearly following after his older brother with admiration in his eyes, watching as Íþró took the steps he needed to take in order to become a hero. He still remembered very clearly the hours he spent mirroring his older brother, and the rare instances where Íþró would speak to him and correct his form. Most days he didn't seem to notice Sportacus's efforts to follow in his footsteps, always too busy pushing on ahead with his own ambitions.
"I haven't seen him in many years." Sportacus told Ella eventually. "I haven't seen any of them for a while."
"What?" Ella looked horrified and he could feel her tugging at his hat in protest. "Family should never be apart that long!" She protested and while Sportacus understood her disapproval he wanted to tell her it was alright. They knew they loved one another, there was no need to go any further than that.
He opened his mouth to reassure her that it was alright when the harsh tugging abruptly stopped. "Aren't you lonely?" She asked him, voice lowering into a whisper. "Without them?"
"Ella?" Sportacus turned slightly trying to catch a glimpse of the child's expression but judging by her tone alone it would be a miserable one.
"I miss papa."
Sportacus expression dimed and once again he found himself without an answer. Children's games and health were easy. Exercise, fun and friends – all that he could help with. But things like this often felt beyond him. Still Ella needed something from him and Sportacus wouldn't let her down. She was part of this town now after all – that made her one of his kids.
"I know you do." He said gently, staring up into the sky as they walked.
The stars had come out brilliantly that night, none of the city pollution there to block them out. Ella seemed to notice this and followed his gaze upwards.
She was amazed by the sight and Sportacus could hear her soft little gasp of wonder. If she could take comfort in the stars then Sportacus knew he could help her feel a little bit better. After all she was always going to have this view in Lazytown. The stars weren't going anywhere. "But you know, we're still all under the same sky." He told her quietly, the crunch of his boots across the dried leaves perhaps louder than his words.
"And if you're able to think of them and still feel your love for them in your chest when you do, then it really doesn't feel like they're that far away."
Ella managed a tiny giggle, the sound gentler than Sportacus had expected. She then lowered herself back down and looped her arms across his forehead, he legs dangling over his shoulders in a decidedly lazy way.
"Sometimes mister hero," She told him quietly. "You say the silliest things."
He noticed Ella's body growing lax on his shoulders and carefully adjusted his hold to account for her being to doze off. Sportacus could all but feel her smiling when she added.
"The most wonderful things."