It had been thousands of years since Fred died, Xara was imprisoned, and Romeo covered the world in bedrock, creating an entirely new one above it. In that new world, deep in an abandoned temple, was a strange structure that was mainly composed of cobblestone, with four gold blocks at the bottom. The most unique feature of this structure was the block in the center of it, which was a diamond block with iron edges and a gold center. This was one of the few nether reactors left in the world. Nether reactors were created long before people discovered how to make nether portals. These structures were a way for them to gather materials from the nether without having to travel there. This one hadn't been used in centuries. It was just sitting there in the darkness, waiting to be discovered.
Suddenly, muffled mining sounds could be heard before a hole appeared in the wall of the temple, sunlight streaming through it. A diamond pickaxe could briefly be seen before someone's head poked through the hole. "The coast is clear," said Soren. "Let's go in." After the hole was made large enough to walk through, Soren went into the temple, followed by the rest of the old Order: Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus, Ivor, and Ramus. A group of bats flew over their heads, causing Gabriel to swing his sword out in terror. "Relax, tough guy," Magnus barked out laughing. "What, is the mighty Gabriel afraid of flying mice?" "N-no," Gabriel muttered, sheathing his sword. "Lay off, Magnus," Ellegaard scolded. "Gabriel is right to be on his guard. There could still be traps in here." "Oh, you'd know all about that, wouldn't you, miss know-it-all?," snarked Magnus. "Is now really the best time for you two to be bickering?," Ivor hissed. "Relax, Ivor," said Ramus. "Do you see anything dangerous? We're safe here."
"So is this it?," asked Magnus, pointing at the nether reactor. "The nether...reaction… what was it again?" "The nether reactor," Soren explained. "It's a device that people in ancient times used to have in order to gather materials from the nether. They didn't know how to build nether portals back then. Didn't I already tell you that?" "Okay, in my defense," said Magnus, "I was sleeping with my eyes open." "Of course you were," Ellegaard muttered.
"So how do we start this thing?," asked Ramus. "It's simple," Soren answered. "All we have to do is touch that core in the center of the structure, and it will activate." "Well, alright!," Ivor said enthusiastically, walking towards the reactor. "Let's do it then!" He reached towards the core but was quickly stopped by Soren. "No, no, no, no, no!," the architect said, shaking his head. "Ivor, don't you remember? If we activate the reactor, hostile zombie pigmen will start spawning in!" Ivor winced. "Oh, right...got a little carried away there," he said, causing Ramus to chuckle. "Aren't you usually the cautious one, brother?," he teased.
"So what then?," asked Magnus, shrugging his shoulders irritatedly. "We're just not gonna activate it? Then why the hell did we come all the way out here?" "Oh, we'll still activate it," said Soren. "We just need to be prepared. Remember, once the reactor is turned on, the entire structure will transform into glowing obsidian, including the gold blocks. Ramus, your job is to mine the gold before the reactory fully transforms. Do you have your pickaxe with you?" Ramus smirked and took out an iron pickaxe. "I never leave home without it," he said. "Yes, that's perfect," said Soren, grinning. "Gabriel, you will kill off any pigmen that spawn in the vicinity. The rest of us will run around and grab as many materials as we can. And everyone, make sure to avoid the netherrack that will burst from the ground."
Everyone else nodded to show that they understood. Soren took a deep breath and crept towards the reactor, as if he was approaching a sleeping animal. Then, very slowly, he tapped onto the core with his finger, then quickly drew back. Gabriel immediately took out his sword while Ramus readied his pickaxe. However, instead of turning into glowing obsidian and spawning mobs like Soren had predicted, the nether reactor core began to glow brightly, nearly blinding the heroes. "Holy crap, Soren!," cried Magnus, covering his eyes. "I thought this was gonna give us some monsters to fight, not a damn light show!" "I don't know what's going on!," Soren yelled back, also covering his eyes. "This wasn't supposed to happen!"
After a few moments, the light finally went away, allowing their eyes to readjust. When they gained their vision back, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. At first, it didn't seem like anything had changed, but upon closer inspection, they saw an infant of all things sitting inside of the nether reactor in the exact same spot where the core had been. The baby stretched and yawned, then saw the Order staring at her and let out a cute laugh, reaching out to them with her stubby little arms. "...okay, am I dreaming or did that weird block just transform into a baby in front of our very eyes?," asked Magnus, gesturing to said baby. "'Cause if I'm dreaming, then somebody pinch me- ow!" He rubbed his arm and glared at Gabriel. "Ramus, are you seeing what I'm seeing?," asked Ivor, staring at the baby. Ramus nodded silently, unable to form words right now. "It's...it's…," Soren stammered. "It's impo-"
"She's so CUUUTE!," Ellegaard squealed, running towards the baby while knocking Magnus to the ground in the process. "Seriously?!," the griefer groaned while laying on the ground. Ellegaard ignored him and swooped the baby up into her arms. "You're the most adorable thing in the world, yes you are!," she cooed while rubbing her nose against the baby's, who didn't mind at all if her laughter was any indication. The rest of the Order could only stare at their fellow redstone engineer acting so out of character. "E-Ellegaard, put her down!," said Soren, snapping out of it. "That baby might be dangerous!" "Dangerous?," Ellegaard scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Look at her, Soren! How could you possibly think that she's dangerous?" "I don't think we have anything to worry about," said Gabriel, placing a comforting hand on Soren's shoulder. "I usually have a sense for how dangerous something is, and I'm not feeling it right now." "Nope, it's okay, I'm fine!," groaned Magnus, getting back up. "No need to worry about poor ol' Magnus." "Still...a block turning into a human?," said Soren.
"It's strange, I'll admit," said Ivor, nodding in agreement. "But we DO have a block back home that can bend reality to its whim. This isn't so bad in comparison." "Okay, hold on," said Magnus, gesturing to the baby in Ellegaard's arms. "Is no one gonna mention that the baby has blue skin and gray hair? Doesn't that seem a little weird to you?" "Actually, it makes sense," said Ramus, observing the baby closely. "Her color scheme actually matches that of the nether reactor core. Her hair is silver, her skin is light blue, and her nose is yellow. The core is basically a diamond block with iron edges and a gold center." Suddenly, the baby started looking ill, like she was about to puke. Magnus mistook it for something else. "Uh oh, look out, Ellie!," he teased. "That baby's about to drop a bomb on you." Ellegaard began to panic and frantically look around for a safe place to put the baby down. Thankfully, instead of dropping a "bomb" like Magnus thought, the baby started glowing again, but not as brightly as before.
When the glowing stopped, the baby had changed almost completely. Her hair was now blond instead of silver, and her skin tone matched Ellegaard's rather than the light blue one that she had before. "The baby can change how she looks too?," said Gabriel, his eyes wide. "Fascinating!," said Soren. "I've never seen anything like it! Imagine what I could find out from analyzing her!" "Now hold on just a minute," Ivor said sternly. "You're not going to turn that baby into your personal guinea pig, are you?" "Er...n-no," said Soren, wincing. "Sorry about that. I got a little carried away." The baby looked at Ramus and tried reaching towards him while babbling happily. Curious, Ellegaard placed her down gently. The baby began walking towards Ramus and tugging on his leg. "Uh...sweetie. Dear," said Ramus. "I'm not Ellegaard. She's over there." The baby ignored his words and continued tugging on his leg.
"It looks like she's taken a liking to you, Ramus," Ivor chuckled. Ramus bent down and gently picked the baby up, bringing her closer to his face. The baby smiled at him. Ramus couldn't help but smile back. "So what do we do now?," asked Ellegaard. "We got our nether reactor core...sort of. Do we bring her home?" "Yes," Ramus said immediately, causing everyone else to look at him. "Well...we have no choice, do we?," he explained. "We can't just leave her in this temple, and taking her to an orphanage just seems...cruel." "I agree with my brother," said Ivor, nodding and smiling. "So do I," said Gabriel, raising his hand. "Thirded," said Ellegaard. "...well, I see no reason that we shouldn't," said Soren.
Everyone turned to look at Magnus, who had been silent for a while. "...what?," he asked in confusion. "Do you agree with us, Magnus?," asked Soren. "You're a part of this team, after all. Your opinion matters." Don't you dare say no, Ellegaard mouthed at Magnus angrily. The griefer was unbothered by her threat and shrugged. "There's not much left to say, is there? She's a baby, she's cute, and we're already about to go home. So why not?"
"Well, then it's decided," said Soren, smiling and clapping his hands together. "Let's go home, team. We have a new member to welcome when we get there." As the Order began filing out of the temple with their newest member, Ramus murmured something under his breath that nobody else heard except for himself. "Lucy...that's a nice name to give you."
Afterwards, the Order of the Stone began their journey home, which was a very long way, so they had to ride on horseback most of the time. Their temple was about three weeks of travel time away from the nether reactor temple, so they had to stop in the middle of their trip to gather supplies from a small village in the desert. Soren went ahead to trade with the villagers, since he was the only one in the group who understood their language. Gabriel went to a blacksmith to get his sword sharpened and Ivor went to buy ingredients for his potions, leaving Ramus, Lucy, Magnus, and Ellegaard to wait for them. Ellegaard was busy cooing over the baby and rocking her on her knee. She had also wrapped Lucy in a blanket to protect her from the hot sun. Ramus had to admit that he was both impressed and a little jealous.
Magnus, being the loudmouth he was, broke the silence first. "Man, those three are taking forever!," he groaned, flopping onto the sand. He quickly sat back up when the hot sand began burning his back. "It's boiling hot out here! I feel like I'm gonna shrivel into a raisin if I stay here any longer." "Oh, quit your complaining," said Ellegaard, taking out a water bottle and letting Lucy drink from it. Magnus tried to snatch the bottle from her hand, but she held it out of his reach and tossed it to Ramus, who also drank from the bottle. When Ramus finally handed the bottle to Magnus, the griefer was dismayed to find that it was now empty.
"You guys suck," he muttered, tossing the bottle over his shoulder. If Soren were here right now, he would have given a long lecture on the immorality of littering, but the king of Boom Town couldn't care less. "You know, it just occurred to me," said Ramus. "We don't have any baby supplies back at our temple. Do you think the villagers here have some that we could trade for, Ellegaard?" "Perhaps," said Ellegaard, nodding. "And now that I think about it, my redstone supply has been running pretty low." "Then it's settled," said Ramus. "I'll go into the village and look for any milk or diapers. Ellegaard, you can search for any redstone to buy. And Magnus…" He took Lucy from Xara's arms and placed her into Magnus'. "You'll look after Lucy while the rest of us go into the village." "You mean I'm a babysitter now?," Magnus groaned. "Why can't I visit the village as well? And seriously, is it smart to trust ME to look after a baby?"
Ellegaard let out a snort that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. "Maybe Ellegaard doesn't trust you," said Ramus, "but I do. Look after her, alright? Make sure she doesn't go anywhere." With that said, Ramus and Ellegaard went into the village to gather supplies. Right before entering the village, Ellegaard turned around and made an "I'm watching you" gesture while scowling at Magnus. The griefer responded with a lazy salute.
Once the nagging old witch - a name that Magnus was wise enough not to say to Ellegaard's face - was out of sight, Magnus chuckled and looked down at Lucy. "Well kid, looks like it's just you and me." Lucy grabbed Magnus' fingers and began sucking on them. "Hungry, huh?," said Magnus, pulling his fingers out of her mouth. "Maybe we got something for you to eat. Stay here." He placed Lucy on the ground, then turned to look into a bag attached to the saddle of one of the horses. "Let's see...we got some steak, some carrots, a half empty bowl of mushroom stew...oh hey! A lint ball!" He took a small ball of lint from the bottom of the bag and examined it closely. "That's good lint," he muttered, putting it in his pocket. If Magnus had known better, he would have realized that a baby couldn't eat solid foods due to having no teeth. "Hmmm...maybe a carrot will do." He took out an orange carrot and turned around. "Thanks for waiting, kid. Now open wiiiii…" He trailed off, staring at the empty spot where Lucy was just sitting. He frantically looked around, but the baby was nowhere to be seen.
"...oh shit, all the others are gonna skin me alive for this…"
Meanwhile, as Ramus and Ellegaard walked together in the village while keeping an eye out for baby supplies and the rest of the Order, they were completely unaware of the plight that Magnus was in. "Do you think it was smart for us to leave Lucy with Magnus?," asked Ellegaard, nervously glancing back. "You know how irresponsible he can be." "True," Ramus agreed. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't give him a chance. Otherwise, how will he learn?" He gave Ellegaard a worried glance. "Ellegaard, you've been oddly antagonistic towards Magnus for the past few months now. Did something happen between the two of you?"
Ellegaard found herself staring at the ground uncomfortably. Was she ready to tell them about it? She sighed and shook her head. "Just an argument," she insisted. "It's fine." Ramus frowned, clearly not believing her. "Uh...hey look, it's Ivor!," the redstone engineer exclaimed, pointing at the potionologist standing in the distance. "Let's go see if he needs anything!" Ramus was not stupid and knew that Ellegaard was changing the topic for some reason, but decided not to prod any further. "Alright," he sighed, following her to Ivor.
Outside the village, Magnus was frantically looking for Lucy. He didn't see any footprints in the sand that could belong to her, nor did he hear any crying or giggling. He had to find her fast, otherwise she'd perish under the boiling hot sun. "Damn it kid, this isn't a game!," the rogue hissed, looking through the Order's saddlebags in case she was hiding in one of them. She was not. "Where are you?," he asked with panic in his voice. "You couldn't have gone far. I only took my eyes off you for a few seconds! How could you get anywhere with your stubby little legs?" Suddenly, Magnus heard what sounded like laughing and giggling coming from a nearby ditch. He instantly recognized it. "Thank god!," he sighed in relief, running towards the ditch. "That's where you ran off to! Geez, you sure are fast for a little-" He stopped in his tracks and stared down into the ditch. Lucy was sitting at the bottom, laughing and clapping her tiny hands. But that wasn't what stopped Magnus. What stopped him was the creeper standing right next to her in the ditch, glaring at him with soulless, pitch black, and suicidal eyes.
Magnus stood absolutely still. Despite his love for explosions and TNT, even he knew that creepers were serious business. What a creeper was doing in a ditch in the middle of the desert was beyond him. But what really shocked him into stillness was that even though there was a vulnerable baby girl sitting right next to it, the creeper seemed completely uninterested in her. Actually, that wasn't true. Upon closer inspection, Magnus saw the creeper move one of its legs every so often and gently prod Lucy in the belly, tickling her and causing her to laugh. He had no idea why the creeper hadn't exploded yet, but he definitely wasn't complaining.
Magnus knew exactly what he had to do. He had to go into the ditch and somehow get Lucy out of there without getting the creeper to blow up and kill them both. "Why me?," he groaned, looking up at the sky as if demanding an answer. When none came, Magnus took a deep breath and rolled his sleeves up. Then, he slowly inched his way into the ditch so as to not provoke the creeper into exploding prematurely. The creeper hissed angrily whenever Magnus made any sudden movements, but other than that, things were going smoothly.
Now came the hard part: getting Lucy as far away from the creeper as possible. He stopped just three blocks away from them and whistled like he was calling a dog. "Hey, Lucy!," he whispered. "Come towards me slowly. I'll get you out of here." Lucy, being a baby, didn't understand a word that Magnus had said. Instead of following his instructions, she grabbed one of the creeper's legs and began nibbling on it. "Lucy, no!," Magnus hissed, mortified by what she was doing. Seriously, how the hell has the creeper not exploded yet?
Even though Lucy was drooling all over the creeper's leg, it remained eerily passive, which made Magnus both relieved and nervous at the same time. "Kid, get that thing's leg out of your mouth!," he whispered frantically. Lucy finally seemed to understand and removed her mouth from the creeper's leg, leaving a string of drool. "Now get over here," he ordered, bending down and spreading his arms wide apart. Lucy babbled happily and hobbled towards him, thinking she was going to get a hug. Magnus quickly scooped her up and ran out of the ditch as fast as he could. Miraculously, the creeper STILL didn't explode behind them.
Magnus ran back to the horses, taking in deep breaths to calm himself. "Sheesh kid, you got more guts than I had when I was your age." Lucy babbled and reached for Magnus' nose. The griefer chuckled and held her at arm's length. "Seriously, don't pull something like that again." He began patting the sand out of her chair, and just in the nick of time too. Soren, Ivor, Ellegaard, Ramus, and Gabriel were walking towards them, blissfully unaware of what had happened while they were gone. Ramus and Ellegaard arrived with some diapers and redstone dust respectively, while Ivor returned with some ghast tears and spider eyes.
"We're back," Soren announced. "One of the villagers was kind enough to give me a map that would help us on our way home. I believe his name was Nurm." Then, he noticed how nervous Magnus looked and how dirty Lucy was. "What happened, Magnus? Why is Lucy covered in so much sand?" "I knew it," Ellegaard grumbled under her breath. "Nope! Nothing!," said Magnus, frantically shaking his head. "I totally had everything under control while the rest of you were gone. Yep, totally fine." Needless to say, nobody was convinced. "Wow, would ya look at the time?," Magnus continued, shoving Lucy into Ramus' arms. "We better get going! Don't want any creepers sneaking up on us, don't we?" "Creepers?," Gabriel asked incredulously. "Magnus, why would there be creepers in the middle of the dese-?" "Ah bup bup bup!," Magnus interrupted, pushing him towards the horses. Ramus stared at Magnus, then looked down at Lucy, who was giggling and reaching for his beard. Then, he faced his brother.
"I bet you a diamond that Magnus messed up while we were gone and is lying through his teeth right now," he said. Ivor snorted. "Please. Only a fool would take that bet."
Fortunately, the rest of the trip went off without a hitch. Other than the little incident with the creeper - which Magnus will take to his grave - the Order of the Stone arrived at their temple a few days early, thanks to Nurm's map. Once they arrived just outside the temple, the group immediately got off their high horses (heh) and began stretching their limbs. "I don't know about you," said Gabriel, sighing in relief, "but riding on that horse for so long has made my rear end profoundly sore." "None of us needed to know that, Gabriel," Ivor muttered, though he couldn't help but fight off a smile. "Well, it's good to be home," said Ellegaard. "Let's welcome our newest member, Lucy, and show her around the temple. What do you think, Ramus?" There was no answer from him. Everyone turned to Ramus, who was staring down at his empty arms in shock. "...Ramus," Soren said warily. "Where's Lucy?" "...I-I was holding her in my arms just a few seconds ago," said Ramus. "I have no idea what happened…"
Magnus groaned and facepalmed. "Here we go again," he muttered, then started panicking when he realized that everyone else was staring at him. "I-I mean, come on!," he said, hoping to cover his tracks. "We better go find that little stinker!" He immediately started running around, obviously making a big show of himself looking for the lost baby. The rest of the Order rolled their eyes and joined in the search by splitting up, with Soren mouthing the word "stinker?" to himself incredulously. After a few minutes, the group heard what sounded like a girly high-pitched scream coming from the other side of the temple. Since Soren, Ramus, Ivor, Magnus, and Ellegaard were currently in view of each other, that could only mean… "...was that Gabriel?!," Ivor asked incredulously. The group quickly ran around the temple and towards the source of the noise, which turned out to be Gabriel, much to their disbelief.
The normally composed warrior turned to look at them with a frightened expression, then pointed up. "Look! She's up there!," he cried. The rest of the Order looked in the direction that he was pointing at and saw Lucy about to crawl off a tree that stood over one hundred blocks tall. "...how?," whispered Magnus, falling to his knees. "How did she climb all the way up there?" Playing with a creeper in a ditch was one thing, but this? "No no no no no!," cried Ramus, shaking his head. "She's going to fall off!" "Soren, you're our leader!," snapped Ivor, waving his arms like mad. "Do something!" "Are you crazy?!," asked Soren. "You know I'm afraid of hei- I mean, it was raining yesterday so the bark must be pretty slippery…" "Lucy!," Ellegaard hollered up. "Hold still or you're going to fall off!" Thankfully, Lucy seemed to understand and stopped in her tracks. The Order sighed in relief. "Okay, she stopped," said Gabriel. "But how do we get her down?" "One of us is gonna have to climb up there," said Magnus.
"Good thinking, Magnus," said Soren. Please don't pick me, please don't pick me, please don't pick me! Ivor saw the panicked expression on the architect's face and rolled his eyes. "Alright, I'll do it," he groaned. "...if you insist," said Soren, stepping aside. Ivor walked right up to the tree's trunk and looked straight up. It was the tallest tree he had ever seen in his life. Ivor quickly looked away when he started feeling a sensation of vertigo. After steeling himself, the potionologist jumped up and tried to hold onto the trunk. However, he immediately slid back down and painfully landed on his rear. "...I told you the bark was slippery," said Soren.
"If we can't climb up that tree, then there's only one other thing we CAN do," said Ramus. "Everyone, head into the temple and gather some wool blocks. Hopefully, we can get Lucy to fall on them and they will soften the blow." They quickly ran inside the temple and started opening numerous chests in search of wool blocks and even ripped the stuffing from their beds. They had to hurry before Lucy took another step and fell off the tree. The group hurried back outside just in time to see the baby lose her footing and plummet down. "OH GOD!," Ellegaard screamed. "Hurry, place them down!," Gabriel ordered. The group started placing the wool blocks in the exact spot where Lucy was going to fall. Not even a second after they finished, Lucy bounced off the wool blocks and landed in Ramus' arms. Unhurt, the baby laughed and clapped her hands, unaware that she had almost died.
"Thank god!," cried Ellegaard, swooping Lucy up while knocking Ramus to the ground. Her eyes were shiny with tears. "Don't ever do that again, do you hear me?!" However, she couldn't stay mad at her forever and began rubbing her cheek against the baby's, cooing unintelligible words. "And she's back to being a weirdo," Magnus drawled. "Well...that was rather exciting," said Soren, wiping sweat off his forehead. "Let's hope that something like this never happens again." Unfortunately, there was no such luck. Lucy proved to be far too much for the Order to handle. In the span of just a few hours, the infant had gotten herself into plenty of situations that she would have died from if one of the Order hadn't intervened. Lucy attempting to suck the mucus out of a sleeping Ivor's nostrils was the last straw for them. They had to do something, or they would never get a moment's peace for the rest of their lives.
Hence why they took Lucy to listen to one of Soren's lectures on endermen.
"...quite fascinating, especially with the way they place blocks down at random, and if you observe their mannerisms very closely- Oi! Are you guys even listening?" "Huh? What?," Magnus snorted, startled from his nap. "Is it over?" He wasn't the only one who was sleeping. Ramus, Gabriel, Ivor, and even Ellegaard had just woken up from Soren's outburst. "I don't believe this," Soren huffed. "I'm telling a very interesting lecture on endermen and you're all taking naps!" "No offense, Soren, but your lectures are enough to put a zombie to sleep," Ivor grumbled tiredly. "We're very sorry," Gabriel yawned. "I guess that adventure earlier today took a lot out of us." Soren sighed. "Has Lucy finally relaxed, at least?," he asked hopefully.
"See for yourself," muttered Ellegaard, tilting her head at Lucy, who was vibrating in place while sitting in a baby chair that Ivor had gotten from...somewhere. She didn't look the least bit tired, even after sitting through one of Soren's lectures. "This is impossible!," Magnus groaned. "If listening to one of Ginger Beard's ramblings wasn't enough to put her to sleep, then what will?" "Ramblings? Ginger Beard?," said Soren, looking slightly hurt.
"Don't be rude, Magnus," Ramus scolded lightly. "Why don't we just sing her a lullaby? Doesn't that usually work on babies?" For a moment, everyone was silent as they let that idea sink in, before Ivor slapped his forehead irritatedly. "Of course! Why didn't we think of that before?," he groaned. "It WAS pretty obvious in hindsight," Ellegaard agreed.
"Alright, I'll try singing a lullaby," said Soren, and was about to sing, only to stop when he heard everyone else groaning. "What?," he pouted. "Do none of you like my singing?" "We're not saying that at all," Gabriel assured him. "Your singing is...well…" "It's terrible," Magnus said bluntly, receiving an elbow jab in the stomach from Ellegaard. "Oof! What? It is!" "What Magnus meant to say," said Ramus, "was that your singing could use some...improvement."
Soren sighed in annoyance. "Alright then," he conceded. "Who's going to sing the lullaby, then?" "Not me," said Magnus, shaking his head. "I'm still the king of Boom Town. I got an image to uphold." "I've never sang in my entire life," said Gabriel. "Neither have I," said Ivor. "Plus, spending years inhaling potion fumes tends to mess with your throat."
"I'm out too," said Ramus. "Singing was never one of my talents." After that, everyone turned to stare at Ellegaard. The redstone engineer sighed. "Alright, I'll do it," she said. "It's been a while, so don't get too excited." "This oughta be good," Magnus chuckled, probably hoping that Ellegaard would mess up and embarrass herself. Ellegaard cleared her throat and began to sing. Her voice was beautiful, soft, melodic, and haunting.
"When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you. If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme, when you wish upon a star as dreamers do. Fate is kind. She brings to those who love the sweet fulfillment of their secret longing. Like a bolt out of the blue, fate steps in and sees you through. When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true." Everyone couldn't help but stare at her, shocked beyond belief by what they heard. Their attention was quickly diverted when they heard snoring and saw Lucy cuddled up in Ramus' arms, fast asleep.
"Well, what do you know," Ivor murmured, his eyes wide. "It worked." Soren clapped enthusiastically. "That was amazing, Ellegaard!," he congratulated. "Where did you learn how to sing like that?" "I kinda wanna know too," said Magnus, trying to hide his blush.
"I...I took singing lessons when I was a child," said Ellegaard, slightly embarrassed from the attention she was getting. "I never thought they'd pay off, though." "Still, that was excellent," said Gabriel. "You should be proud." Ramus stared at the sleeping infant in his arms and suddenly felt a deep sense of dread. "Guys…," he said, "...what if I do something wrong? What if I end up being a terrible father?" Everyone else looked at each other, then smiled at Ramus. Ivor walked over and placed his hand on Ramus' shoulder. "You'll be a great father," he assured him. "And if you have any trouble, we'll be there to help," said Soren, followed by murmurs of agreement. Ramus smiled at them gratefully. "Thank you, my friends," he said. Maybe having a child wasn't as bad as he thought. Now if only he knew how to break the news to Isa...