In Her Eyes – Josh Groban
Disclaimer: I do not own Sofia the First nor the characters.
With a racing heart, Cedric sat upright in bed. He ran his hand through his hair and glanced over at Sofia sleeping soundly. Climbing out of the bed carefully so as not to wake Sofia, Cedric tip toed out of the room shutting the door quietly behind him. He leaned his head back against the door, willing his pounding heart to settle.
Once his heart rate had calmed to a normal pace, Cedric walked to the bathroom finding his way in the darkness. He stared at himself in the mirror without blinking until his face began to blur. Turning on the faucet he splashed his face with cold water and towel dried it. "Pull it together." He told himself. "You need to be strong; you need to be a king."
A knock at the bathroom door drew his attention away from the mirror. "Cedric? Are you okay?" Sofia asked.
"Yes." He said as he opened the door, stepping out. "I just couldn't sleep. Did I wake you? I'm sorry."
"No, I woke up and noticed you were gone, and then I thought I heard talking in here. Were you talking to yourself?" She asked, sounding concerned.
Chuckling slightly, he admitted, "Yes, I was giving myself a pep talk for the day in the mirror."
Sofia giggled at that and then asked, yawning and heading back towards her bedroom, "It's a little early still. Are you staying up?"
"I think so. I will get some work done in the workshop before heading up into the castle to be harassed by Baileywick. I don't think I can sleep anymore anyway." He told her, not wanting to admit he had been having nightmares lately and didn't want to sleep, too afraid of what he'd see in his dreams. "You can go back to bed and get more sleep though; I'll just be down the hall."
"Okay, I think I will. I'm still tired. Don't work too hard." She said, yawning again and heading into her room, climbing into bed under the pile of blankets.
"Night." Cedric called out heading down the hall to his workshop.
Inside the workshop Cedric pulled out a spell book and began flipping through the pages looking for something to cure nightmares. Ever since taking over as king he'd been plagued with nightmares. King Roland II was such a beloved king it was difficult to replace him; it felt impossible to live up to the standards he had set. Cedric was determined to try but his nightmares were trying to ruin his little bit of self-confidence he had.
Night after night in his sleep, Cedric was tortured by his old desires to rule the kingdom and use the amulet for evil. He now held all the power he needed to carry out his previous plans but he'd buried that part of himself and those wishes long ago when he'd found the acceptance and companionship of friendship. In his dreams he lets down Sofia and the people of the kingdom by becoming a corrupt and deceitful king; using his powers for unethical purposes. Cedric felt worried these dreams were warnings that perhaps he still had a hidden unconscious urge for total power and control and that he would never be a good person no matter how hard he tried.
Finally landing on a page that held the ingredients to a potion to cure nightmares, Cedric got to work. He began to mix and pour fervently until it was all bubbling in the cauldron. Now he just had to wait and let it simmer for 12 hours then drink one teaspoon before going to bed. "Seems simple enough…" He said as he exited the workshop, locking the door to ensure Sofia didn't accidentally knock over his potion as she had in the past causing him to have to start over from scratch. What he didn't realize was that he failed to read the fine print at the bottom of the page in his haste…
"Sofia, I realize you'd love to live the rest of your life living in this underground home in secrecy where you feel safe but it's not healthy." Cedric pleaded with her later that day. "You need to come above and get some fresh air and sunshine at least once every day. That's the deal if you want to live here."
"What if it's not sunny outside? Then what?" Sofia challenged, crossing her arms.
Pinching the bridge of his nose and trying to remain calm, Cedric took a deep breath before responding, "That's not the point and you know it. You can't lock yourself away underground. Besides, your animal friends miss you and Baileywick keeps bothering me because he hasn't seen you."
"I can't speak to Clover anymore or any of my other animal friends now. Not without the amulet." He noticed Sofia looked sad as she turned away from him so he couldn't see her face. Kneeling beside her, Cedric turned her chin so she'd face him.
"Sofia, look at me. I'm sorry. I realize how lonely you must be and you need your friends. You can have the amulet, too anytime you want. In fact, I have an idea." Cedric suddenly stood up and walked away quickly. He returned a moment later with the amulet and his family wand. He held the amulet in one hand and the wand in the other, "I hope this works," he said as he began to say a magical spell.
Although she was curious what he was doing, Sofia didn't dare interrupt. A moment later she saw a beam of light shoot from the wand into the amulet and it began to shine brightly and vibrate in his hand. Next she noticed a bright light moving towards her and she gasped about to move away but before she could the light wrapped around her right hand. It was warm and felt like a soft caress moving gently over her whole hand enveloping her fingers in an affectionate embrace. She looked at Cedric who had his eyes closed in concentration and she looked back at her right hand, the light was beginning to fade and the warmth was diminishing. As it returned to the amulet she saw a small purple stone ring on her middle finger of her right hand. It looked like a smaller version of the amulet. When she looked back up at Cedric in awe he was watching her. "We should go test this out with Clover... you should be able to talk to your animal friends whenever you want now." He told her with a smile.
"That was amazing, Cedric." Sofia said gazing at her ring. As she moved it around in the light she could see it shimmering different shades of purple.
"The amulet has immense powers that you were not aware of Sofia. Even I'm not aware of all that it's capable of. But with that ring and this necklace we should always be connected now as long as we're both wearing the stone. This basically means, if you're ever in trouble I will feel it, the amulet will let me know. Just another added safety measure." Cedric explained to her, as he put the amulet around his neck and hid it beneath his shirts.
"So, does that mean it also goes the other way as well and I can feel when you're in trouble? And what do you mean by trouble'?" Sofia asked.
"Hmmm… I never thought about that, but I suppose it will connect you to me as well. And by 'trouble' I simply meant if you're ever hurt, in danger or some other situation such as that. The amulet will know when you need help and when you don't." He told her.
Giving him a hug, Sofia told him. "Thank you Cedric. You're my angel. Always there to protect me and look out for me. I'm ready to go outside now. Let's go find Clover and try out this new ring."
"I doubt I'm an angel, sweetheart." Cedric chuckled, thinking about his nightmares. He stood up taking her hand to transport them outside to the gardens to locate Clover who was most likely eating their vegetables.
"Of course you are." She told him as if he were silly for thinking otherwise.
Cedric watched Sofia and Clover meet and begin talking before they took off to go play in the gardens; he smiled knowing she would be okay and was happy. She willingly left his side and was outside speaking with her friends again. It was all positive signs. He took off to go find Baileywick so they could get to work on castle business. Unfortunately as the new king he had no idea how to do anything and Baileywick had to walk him through everything; therefore, they spent a dreadfully large amount of time together lately.
Entering his new office, Cedric found Baileywick stacking papers anxiously. He looked up hurriedly and exclaimed, "Your majesty, I've been looking all over for you. We have much business to attend to today."
"Take a deep breath and calm down first. I can't handle your nervousness Baileywick. You're too high strung for me." Cedric said as he sat down calmly.
"And you're too careless for me!" Baileywick retorted, causing Cedric to smile.
"Thank you, I consider that a compliment. No matter, what is on the agenda for today, Baileywick?" Cedric asked as he put his feet up on the desk. Cedric had to use all of his willpower not to burst into laughter at the sight of Baileywick's eyes bulging out when he saw Cedric's feet, sans shoes, on the desk.
"Um, uh, um, well, first, your majesty you are to go through requests from the village and you either approve or deny. I can help you with it and tell you what King Roland previously had done or what I think he would have done. Though of course you are now the king so you have final say. The rest of the day is mostly just catching up on paperwork and such. I will teach you how to go through all of it and fill it all out. Before you entered I was just organizing the piles. There are no appearances for at least another week. I will begin preparing you tomorrow for your public appearances." Baileywick finally finished speaking.
Cedric let it all sink in before finally saying, "I have to learn how to appear in public? Can't I just be myself?"
"No, I can't have you casting spells on people and making sarcastic remarks. You have to learn to restrain yourself when in public. Also in certain situations you are expected to act in particular ways. I will teach you everything you need to know."
"Ugh… Great." Cedric complained covering his face with his hands.
"Well, King Cedric, I suggest we get started on the requests from the village. You have a large pile of paperwork to catch up on." Baileywick told him, checking his pocket watch. "Would you like any refreshments brought in, drinks, food?"
"No thank you. I just want to get this done with." Cedric said as he grabbed the first sheet of paper.
"Okay, this is the local school in the village. They are asking to meet the new king. The young children would be most appreciative to meet you and have a chance to ask you questions." Baileywick said, expecting him to deny the request.
"Sure, of course. So what do I do to accept the request?" Cedric said quietly looking at the sheet of paper.
Baileywick looked at him in astonishment for a moment before finally answering, "You stamp 'ACCEPT' across the top and then sign at the bottom and I will make sure it gets sent off." Cedric picked up the next request which was for the local park to have their slides fixed, but they didn't have the money for the repairs and they were requesting a donation.
"Are you kidding me?" Cedric exclaimed. Baileywick was about to hand him the DENY stamp when Cedric continued to speak, "I could fix this myself without costing anyone any money." Cedric took the 'ACCEPT' stamp to the sheet of paper and had Baileywick add it to his calendar for tomorrow and continued going through the paperwork, shocking Baileywick at how generous and benevolent Cedric was turning out to be.
A few hours later, once a large portion of the paperwork had been finished Cedric went to check on Sofia. He found her wandering the gardens with Clover and her bird friends Mia and Robin.
"Are you ready to head inside Sofia?" Cedric asked as he approached them. He noticed her cheeks had some color to them and she was smiling.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow!" She called out to her friends as she went to join Cedric. Together they transported underground into their home. He lit the fire with his wand to begin warming the place up.
"It appears you had fun with your friends. I take it the ring worked just fine?" Cedric asked.
"Yes, I can talk with animals again. Thank you so much!" Sofia said throwing her arms around Cedric hugging him tight. "And thanks for making me get outside today. I guess I didn't realize how much I really needed it. You were right. Sorry for giving you a hard time earlier."
"It's alright. We've got a lot to work through to learn to live together. We'll get there though." He told her returning the hug.
Sofia left him to grab a blanket and snuggle in the chair in front of the fire waiting for the room to warm up as it was a little cold under the castle. "So what did you and Baileywick work on today?"
"Nothing too exciting, he just taught me how to do paper work. Tomorrow I get to go to a park in the village and fix some slides and I approved some other requests from the village such as to make appearances at the schools and loan money to businesses and stuff like that." He told her as he sat beside her, climbing under the blanket to get warm, too.
"You are going to make a great king, Cedric. The people are going to love you once they get to know you." Sofia said as she snuggled up next to him.
"I doubt that." He muttered. Then he added, "Well, to balance the scales, not wanting to ruin my reputation too severely, I decided to irritate Baileywick and I took my shoes off and put my feet on the desk, you should have seen his eyes about pop out of his head!" He laughed as he remembered the look on Baileywick's face. Sofia also giggled as she imagined how that must have bothered poor Baileywick's sense of order.
"You're so mean to Baileywick." Sofia teased.
"I need to find some fun; all he wants to do is work, work, work. He's so serious. Plus he infuriates me so I've got to do something return the favor."
"Oh I'm sure it's returned…" Sofia told him giggling.
Chuckling, Cedric stood to go check on his potion, "I will be in my workshop for a bit if you need me." He said as he walked down the hall. He unlocked the door and went inside, it was just finishing brewing so he turned it off and put it in a jar to keep in case anyone else ever needed any. He added a label to it and set it on his shelf of healing potions.
Once he was finished he went to Sofia's room to see what she was up to. He knocked on the open door to announce his presence. "Do you like what I've done?" She asked, standing on top of her bed, near the wall, paintbrush in hand. Cedric walked closer to see what she was doing. It looked like she was painting a purple dragon flying with a crescent moon overhead. He was startled because the dragon resembled him when he had shape shifted. "It looks great, Sofia. Where did you get the inspiration?" He asked, gulping nervously.
"I don't know." Sofia answered him shrugging her shoulders. "Sometimes I dream of this dragon at night. He comes to me like a guardian angel. I don't know how else to explain it." She then climbed off the bed with her paint set and left the room, leaving a dumbstruck Cedric standing there staring at the painting.
Before bed that night, Cedric snuck into his workshop and took a teaspoon of his anti-nightmare potion while Sofia was getting ready for bed. He went to sleep anticipating his first night of peaceful sleep.
Sometime during the night Sofia was awoken by a sensation. She wasn't sure what it was. It wasn't anything she'd ever felt before. It was a warmth around her hand. She felt almost as if there was a tugging on her hand toward something important. Sofia wasn't sure if she were awake or dreaming. She looked at her hand and noticed a soft light wrapped around it, emanating from her ring. She wondered if it had to do with Cedric and the amulet. Was he in trouble? She tried to force herself awake and sat up. She looked over towards Cedric and saw him thrashing in his sleep, sweat pouring off him. He was calling out her name in a panicked voice. She touched his shoulder about to try and wake him up but she was pulled into his nightmare instead.
Sofia looked around and noticed a giant dragon on top of the castle breathing fire. She quickly realized it was the same dragon she had painted on her bedroom wall earlier that evening. However, it no longer seemed peaceful and angelic. She fell backwards on the ground, backing up away from it, hoping it wouldn't see her. She stood back up and began to run away. She knew she was in Cedric's dream. Somehow touching his shoulder had pulled her into his nightmare. She wasn't sure how it had happened or what was going on.
As she ran Sofia looked for Cedric but was too afraid to call out for him for help. She noticed the dragon was attacking people and throwing them off the castle rooftop and burning them with fire as they tried to slay it with their swords to no avail. Maybe it was fighting to protect the castle. But what if it wasn't? What if it was attacking the castle? Where was Cedric? Maybe he was trying to find her, too. She kept running, now she was running towards a forest and into the darkness. She could hear water ahead.
As she was running the sound of water continued to draw closer and closer until suddenly it felt as if the earth gave out and she was falling. Sofia began to scream for Cedric. She grabbed onto the cliff side and was hanging on. There was a waterfall next to her and looking down it was a dark black abyss below. She couldn't see anything. If she fell she'd surely die. She continued to scream for Cedric. She then noticed something around her neck. It appeared to be the amulet. "How did this get here?" She wondered.
On the castle rooftop Cedric continued to fight off the attackers. They wanted to kill Sofia and take the amulet from them. He was alone to fight the army of men as most of the guards had already been killed. He blew fire at the men and kicked with as much strength as he had as well as hitting those behind him with his tail. They continued to batter him with arrows and swords but it barely punctured his thick dragon scales. Suddenly, he heard a voice pierce through the night. He stopped fighting to listen. It came again. It was Sofia! She was screaming his name. He soared from the rooftop and took off in flight.
As he followed her voice through the forest he found her hanging from a cliff by the waterfalls. When he approached she seemed so startled by his arrival that she let go and began to fall. That's when he noticed something else. As she fell, the amulet he had secured around her neck for safe keeping during the battle fell off. He wouldn't be able to save them both. By saving Sofia he would lose his powers forever but he'd always have her love. However, by saving the amulet he'd have all the power he could ever want forever. Without hesitation, he dove off the cliff…