Part Two

He stood by the window of her room, and he looked across the familiar sights of the city, and the everyday resident the knight's protected, and his eyes strayed to a particular tower.

A frown bore on his expression and he remembered a few days after she had stayed with them, they thought everything had been all right, how wrong they had been, and they had suddenly found themselves staring up at the child perched on the rooftop of a tower about to jump.

Flashback

860

(A few days later)

He had been in the training grounds, about to train his squire, when the doors to the training grounds suddenly sprung open and Sandi appeared before him, completely breathless.

Having run from the other side of Gummadoon, she had only enough energy to point her finger at the knight's tower and stutter out "Child, Tower, Suicide".

It had been all he needed to hear, and he ran out the training grounds, his friends following close behind him. He ran to the other end of the city, without once stopping, and he rounded the last few corners, and saw in the distant where many residents were gathered.

Nearing the tower, he stopped dead in his tracks, unable to believe what he was seeing and he saw opposite the knight's tower on the rooftop, Aurelia, looking down at him, teary eyed.

Frozen from shock, he was unable to tear his gaze away from the child's face, and he snapped back to reality and immediately took to action, reaching for his bottle of gummiberry juice. Retrieving it, he could feel the eyes of Aurelia watching his every movement, and he downed his bottle of gummiberry juice.

Instantly he felt the effects, and his adrenaline boost up, and he bounced among the walls of several towers.

Aurelia knew he was coming, and so had taken action herself, throwing herself off the rooftop, causing several gummies below, to gasp. Panicking slightly, he ignored the gasps below, and only concentrated in getting to her, and he to descended after the child.

Descending rapidly to the ground he soon found himself near enough level with her, and he reached out towards the child, grasping her hand and he pulled her towards him, and into his arms, protecting her from harm, and he bounced back, and along the wall, he heard a sigh of relief from the crowd, and he looked down at the child in his arms, who had passed out.

End of flashback

He closed his eyes to block out the memory. Aurelia had scared the whole city that day, and very soon the Councillor's found out, why he had rescued the small child.

Turning from the window, Sir Plucki looked in the direction where her bed was, and he remembered the night she had told him everything about her parents, and what had happened to her family, and had decided that she could stay with them.

Flashback

860

A week later

He and his friends had just finished their knightly duties for the day, so for the rest of the evening they could relax, and watch as the young squires entertained themselves in the hall, but he had left for the time being, wanting to first check up on Aurelia.

Walking in the direction of the knight's tower and up the stone staircase, he stood outside her door, next to his room.

Listening he could hear Aurelia's quite whimpering and cries in her sleep, and he knew she was having a nightmare.

Careful to be quite as not to awake the slumbering child, he opened the door to her room, amazingly without it creaking, and he slipped into her room, the door closing behind him.

She laid in her bed, tangled up in the sheets, occasionally lashing out but mainly she whimpered. Sweat beading on her brow, and her face flushed, he approached the foot of her bed.

After a week of the child staying with them, they had still not managed to find Aurelia's parents, and the child had hardly spoken a word to them since the day he rescued her. But despite the fact she hardly spoke to them, she refused to let him out of her sight, and would follow him wherever he went.

Looking down at the child, he approached the side of her bed, his paw outstretched intending to wake her from her nightmare, but then her eyes snapped open and she sat up letting out a blood-curdling scream, causing him to outwardly wince, and cover his ears.

Uncovering his ears, he knew he startled her, when his hand came to rest upon her shoulder, letting his presence known, and he saw her head whip round to look at him. Her eyes filled with fresh tears of relief, and she wailed and jumped into his arms, catching him off guard.

Taken mildly by surprise, he pulled the wailing child closer to him and sat down on the edge of her bed, and he tried his best to comfort her. Her small arms were wrapped around his neck, and her face was buried in his tunic, which he could feel was starting to become slightly damp through her tears. Smiling, he stroked her hair, and he whispered soothing words meant for her ears alone, and he pulled her somewhat closer, and felt her grip around his neck loosen.

"Mommy, Daddy!" she sobbed breaking the silence in the room.

Her outburst immediately had his full attention, but still he said nothing, at least not for the time being, his main task at the moment to calm the young child.

Rubbing small circles on her back, sometimes more forcefully, he felt her grip slacken and she became drowsy again. Seeing this, he wrapped one arm wrapped her slender waist, the other supporting her neck, he shifted the position so she sat in his lap, with her head resting against his shoulder.

Aurelia stared up at him rather drowsy, but refused to go back to sleep, instead she settled for wrapping her arms round his waist and burying her face in his shoulder.

Sir Plucki smiled down at the young child he had in his lap and seeing she was calm he decided to ask her about her parents, and he leant forth and whispered softly in her ear

"Aurelia"

She turned her head away from his shoulder to look at him, her eyes red and sore from crying and she locked eyes with him.

"Where are your parents?" he asked.

"Gone" she sniffled then turned her head in the direction of the window "Stranger says they went to heaven"

Fresh tears shone in her eyes and she turned her head into his shoulder again, the tears spilling on her already tear stained face, and she cried.

"I want my mommy!"

Silence bestowed the room, her crying and sniffling the only sound to his ears and he allowed the child in his arms, to grieve. Deciding not to question her further, he set about his task to try and lull her back to sleep, but she shook her head sideway, not wanting to go to sleep just this moment.

"Bad guy killed them" she whispered so softly he only just heard her "Made me watch" she shuddered in remembrance, seeing her parent's lifeless bodies flash before her eyes.

He sat there for a moment, slowly digesting what the child was telling him, and was horrified to know the child had been forced to see her parent's death, against her will. No child should have to see a war, let alone see their parent's be executed before their eyes.

Deciding he'd heard enough, he slowly began to rock Aurelia back to sleep.

"I will look after you, little one" he whispered and looked down to see she had fallen asleep.

End Flashback

Lost in his thoughts, he almost didn't hear the gong, until he snapped back to reality and realised that half the day had gone, and dinner was being served.

He remembered that very night, after he managed to get Aurelia back to sleep, he had immediately gone to see the Councillors and explained the situation about her parents. After which lead them to several hours of discussion of what they would do with the human child.

In the end it had come to an agreement that he and his two friends Sir Blastus and Sir Gumlittle would have full responsibility of the child, and when notified of the situation the next morning, Aurelia seemed more than happy to have him as her guardian. They had hit off immediately, him being her guardian, and his friends being her uncles.

It had been that day, she had changed everyone, and he walked over to her bed, and placed the teddy bear back on her pillow, exactly how he'd found it, and he passed over to her dressing table, and looked at the many pictures she had stuck on her wall. Smiling he traced the outlines of the drawing she had first drawn, and he looked at what resembled him and his two friends in the training grounds. Of course she had only been five and a half when she drew this.

Pulling away he opened the door to her room, and walked out, the door closing behind him, and he descended the stone staircase, and out the knight's tower.

End of Part Two