THE QUEEN´S DAUGHTER
CHAPTER III: FLYING THE NEST.
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And thanks to my beta for her support :) Hugs hunni! And good luck ;)
So, this is it…
It was barely dawn. Sun was lazily creeping out through a purple stained sky. A worried and very careful Sophia quietly left her room and became a shadow sliding into the kitchen. She grabbed exactly the same things her mother brought her the night before –bread, cheese and grapes-. Diana did know her daughter´s favorite food. She tried to be as good passing unnoticed on her way out as she was when coming in, but she got lost in her thoughts and she tripped with her human mirror in the middle of the halfway. Don´t get distracted, silly.
"Aunt Donna!" she gasped.
"Where are you going, Miss Cellophane?"
Sophie smirked at the nickname her aunt used to refer her skill to go by undetected.
"Back to my room…"
"Why are you outside your room this early?"
She shrugged nervously
"I went to get some breakfast. I´m so hungry. And, hey, you´re up too…" she stuttered, holding the food closely against her.
"I´m always up this early. Don´t eat too much. Remember we have horse riding lessons today."
"I won´t forget. I´ll go get Black Thunder ready in a bit."
"Good. Have you seen your mother?"
"She´s still asleep, obviously. But I´ll tell her to find you as soon as she´s up."
"Thank you. I´ll see you later."
Donna walked away and Sophia loudly sighed in relief, finally inhaling some air again. That was close.
She regained her room in complete silence and stuffed the food inside her holdall. She brushed her hair and put on the jeans, boots and white shirt she rescued from Diana´s chest. At last –but not least- she grabbed her arch and the quiver with her arrows. All without the sound of even the slightest breeze. She was nearly ready. She took a glimpse and her image in the mirror and it certainly took all of her will power not to burst out laughing. She raised her hands to her mouth and stifled her giggles.
"I am a princess because my mother is a queen?" Where did you get this mom?
Sophie kneeled beside her mother and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.
"Bye, mom. I love you. I hope you can forgive me one day. I hope you can understand. And I hope to see you again soon. I´ll miss you. Lots. I am a princess because you are a Queen…"
She slid her hand underneath the duvet and dexterously grabbed the magical golden lasso, saving it inside the holdall too. The Queen didn´t even flinch, but guilt did make the princess shiver.
And that was all. She only needed to reach the invisible plane without being seen.
.-.-.-.-.-
Hours later Donna walked into Sophia´s room nervously. She rolled her eyes when she finally found her sister lying on the princess´s bed. After I´ve been looking for ages! She sat next to Diana and shook her arm forcefully.
"Diana, Diana…"
The Queen slowly stirred and sat up.
"Oh, Hera, what time is it?"
Donna frowned and ignored the question.
"I can´t find Sophie."
"What? But she was here, sleeping beside me."
"I saw her going for her breakfast very early today, but now I can´t find her. We were supposed to go on riding classes."
"She´s very good at riding already, you can let her pass today." Diana yawned and ran her hand through her disheveled hair.
"Diana, is not that. She´s gone."
"That´s silly. Where…" Suddenly, realization painted Diana´s face with horror and she turned from sleeping beauty to huntress in full alert in a second. "No, no, no. Please, no."
"No… what?"
"Did you ask Artemis?"
But before Donna could reply, the door opened and the very same amazon ran into the room, out of breath.
"Finally, Diana, there you are."
"Artemis, what´s wrong?"
"The invisible jet. It´s gone!"
She squeezed the pillow in powerless desperation and looked down, only to notice the golden lasso was gone too. She did it! By Hera, she did it!
And she screamed out loud.
.-.-.-.-.-
By the time her mother found out, Sophia had already hit her intended destination and she was freely walking across man´s world. The trip was shorter than she had expected. She felt really proud.
At first, she had to walk around with her hands over her ears because the streets were excruciatingly noisy. People walked too fast. Buildings were too tall and shiny. Everything was spinning too quick.
She felt dizzy before she reached the third block.
The amazon tried to take a breath and observe how everyone around her was dressed. She saw all kinds of clothes, some of them were similar to the ones she put on, others were grayish and strained looking. She also saw women with dresses, but the dresses were different to those they wore on Themyscira: so light and airy. And it was so hot. She really missed her short light blue dress. She sighed.
"You can´t wear your light blue dress."
And out of curiosity, she started observing the men. Some had gray hair and dark outfits –her mother said they used them to work-, others had trousers similar to her own, some were young, others not that much. She specially stared at the young ones. She found them all so… nice. Diana never taught her daughter to hate men, and therefore she didn´t. But still she was… quite reluctant to accept them completely. There were so many things around her that trying to spot everything on her surroundings was driving her crazy. It was so much to learn! Her gaze fell over a young couple sat on a bench and kissing. They noticed her intent stare when they broke apart, and a menace flamed up on the girl´s eyes. Before the loved up youngsters could notice Sophia blushing, a woman walked by between them and her attention floated somewhere else completely, behind the baby boy she was carrying and the little girl holding her hand.
"Kids. I´ve never seen kids before. They look so adorable."
Sophie was admiring the woman´s beautiful red hair when she started crossing the street. It reminded her or Artemis. Everything reminds me home. A very thoughtless driver had to stab his foot into the brakes to help running over the pedestrians and the three cars behind him also stopped, claxons furiously complaining. The man shouted something at the woman. The little boy started crying and the girl hugged her mother´s leg.
"By Hera, can´t you stop the deafening racket?"
Then, a woman hurriedly left the store behind her and hit Sophia´s shoulder, sending her to the floor. She didn´t stop to help her out, she didn´t look back. The young amazon only saw a blond hair pulled back in a bun too tight, and a navy blue suit of skirt and jacket –also too tight- walking away at full speed. Her aggressor had a hand next to her ear holding a small device and she was yelling something hysterically.
"I have to find out what that device is and why it prevents people from helping someone they just hit."
She stood up upset and shook the dirt out of her clothes. Incredible. No one noticed.
Disgusted, she crossed the street to enter the park on the other side -drivers were still furiously hitting the claxon, this time, at her-. She sat on a bench and looked up to the flowering trees. What am I doing here? What am I going to do?
"Finally" she smiled "Something that looks like home."
She picked up one of the cotton-white flowers from the floor and slowly pulled out the petals, one by one. It was a very comfortable distraction. When she raised her head again she noticed the red haired woman had taken a sit beside her and she tripped with her daughter´s intense and piercing stare.
"Hey." She smiled. She actually already liked this… tiny little persons. Well… maybe not that much. "Ouch" she yelped when the girl took a step closer and pulled at her braid.
"You have nice hair." She said, observing Sophie with sheer curiosity. "You´re pretty."
"Don´t do that, Amelia." Her mother scolded her and smiled apologetically. "Sorry."
"It´s okay. Thank you, Amelia. That´s because I´m a princess."
The little monster´s eyes opened wide in amazement.
"Really? A Princess?"
Sophie giggled and nodded. "Yes, and all princesses have lovely hair. My mommy haves nice hair too."
"Your mommy is a princess too?"
"No." Sophie sighed sadly when she thought about Diana. "My mommy is a Queen."
The child gasped and her little hands rose to her mouth. Her eyes suddenly opened wide..
"Wow. She haves a crown?"
Sophia nodded. "And she looks very pretty when she wears it."
"Your mommy is pretty Queen." She nodded. "Why don´t you wear your princess dress?" She asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
"I didn´t want it to get dirty."
"That´s silly. Princess´s dresses don´t get dirty."
"My mommy wanted to keep it."
The little girl shook her head in disapproval.
"Bad mommy. Do you know princess Jasmine?"
Sophie frowned. Who the hell is princess Jasmine?
"No, I don´t think I know her."
"And Cinderella? Do you know her?"
Sophie thought again. Who?
"I´m sorry. I don´t."
The girl sighed exasperated.
"Or little mermaid. Do you know princess Melody? She looks like you." (A/N: Melody is Ariel´s daughter.)
A mermaid? Where does she get all those strange characters?
"I don´t. I´m an amazon, we don´t talk to mermaids."
The girl pouted and crossed her arms in disgust. "You´re not a good princess."
And her attention went back to her mother.
"Mommy, are you a Queen too?"
"Yes, I am baby."
"Yay." She clapped delighted and ran away. The mother thanked Sophie for her patience and for making up the story for the kid.
Huh? I didn´t make up a story.
Sophie rubbed her head –it still hurt from the hair pull- and walked away from the park. She needed to keep moving if she ever wanted to get her task done. Thinking of her mother really got into her heart and a heavy sadness washed over her. Calm down, Sophia. You´re not gonna see her for a long, long while. And when you do, she´s going to be mad. Like, really mad. So she grabbed the little bag where she had the diamond necklace hidden and took it out to admire it. It was beautiful, and the sunlight reflecting in a magical rainbow was mesmerizing. For a second, she held it closely against her chest. She didn´t want to give it away –it probably meant a lot to Diana-, but she had no choice. Surviving without money wasn´t an option. Neither was stealing. She would get something for her mother in return. Something big enough to pay up for it. She turned into an alley in saved it back into the brown container… and then, someone ripped it out of her hand and ran away frantically. The amazon jolted in surprise and reacted immediately.
"Hey, stop!" A young man´s voice shouted behind Sophia.
Undisturbed, she grabbed her arch and one of her arrows. Ruthlessly, she shot.
The arrow went straight through the bag, recovered the jewelry from the thief´s hand, and stabbed the wall. Bulls eye.
The boy, who had the intention to pursue Sophie´s attacker, froze in amazement. She walked to the wall and picked up her arrow and her necklace, watching him over the corner of her eye. Tall, well built, black hair, blue eyes. He could be her brother. She couldn´t help to giggle.
"You know, I don´t need someone watching my back." She said, turning to face him. She still didn´t trust men completely…
That lasted until she saw him grin confidently. And her own feelings –those butterflies tickling inside her stomach- made her blush lightly. It would be a lie to say she wanted him to go away, as every other amazon would say she should. And, well, he seemed very comfortable around her.
"Alex Kent." He introduced, extending his hand to her.
She shook it. The strength of his handshake was appealing, and it´s gentleness was charming. He was a charmer, and she definitely didn´t want him to leave.
"I´m Sophia. Prince…"
"Nice to meet you, Sophia Prince." He cut her off, before she finished saying she was the princess of Themyscira.
"Nice to meet you too, Alex. You can call me Sophie."
"Well, Sophie. I would strongly advice you don´t go showing that around." He pointed to the little bag in her hand. She frowned, that wasn´t charming at all. She wasn´t one to be told what to do.
"As my mother would say, I can deal with my own disasters." She replied coldly.
"Come on, sugar. You don´t mention your mother to a guy you just met."
Sophia turned around startled. She found a blond, green-eyed girl, smirking behind her with her arms crossed. The boy standing next to her could easily be her twin.
"I´m Amanda Queen. And this is my twin brother, Ryan."
Oh, he really was.
"You´re twins? I would have never guessed…" She raised an eyebrow. "I´m Sophia Prince."
She liked the way it sounded… and she also liked the fact he made it up for her. She was better not telling she was a princess.
"I see you already met Mr. Prince Charming."
"I think you just met Miss Viper…" Alex retorted.
"Hey, don´t call my sister that."
"Ryan, don´t start."
Amanda smirked in amusement and raised her hand to silence her brother. She looked at Sophia up and down with a poker face.
"Gosh, were did you get those clothes? They´re like a hundred. You have definitely no style…"
Sophia frowned, offended. She had tried her best to look like everyone else. She didn´t care about the… style.
"Well, I wouldn´t say…"
"No, no. That wasn´t a question. And those arrows. You look too much like my father. Olddd."
"Your father?"
"Yes, you know. Green Arrow."
"Green Arrow?"
"He´s our father. And Smallville here is Superman´s son. What´s your story?" Ryan asked her, eyeing her up and down too, in a different way than her sister just did.
Sophie frowned and started thinking. What was my mother called in man´s world? Miracle Lady? Marvel Girl? No, it was Woman… That´s it.
"Wonder Woman. My mother is… was Wonder Woman."
Sophie realized she made a big mistake before she saw their jaws drop.
A/N: Please let me know what you think :) *Little green button twinkling twinkling*