Send Me on My Way – Rusted Root

A/N: Because of all the nice comments I decided to post the next chapter early. Thank you all for the favorites, follows and comments. Hope you enjoy! I skipped ahead another two years for this chapter.

With effort, Sofia managed to keep her giggles as muffled as she could while working quickly and quietly. Using her wand for magical help as well as her physical strength she finally finished her task at hand. She stood back and smiled with her hands on her hips, her hair all disheveled. She blew a stray lock of hair out of her face and then exited the room, shutting the door behind her in case Cedric happened to walk by and look inside. Walking into the kitchen Sofia bumped into a solid wall.

"Ugh. Oh, I'm sorry." Sofia said as she stumbled backwards, Cedric caught her by her arms before she fell.

"Why do you look so rumpled and sweaty? What have you been doing?" He asked looking her over.

"Way to compliment the ladies. No wonder you're single. Geez." Sofia said as she walked around him. "Maybe I was exercising." She told him in a challenging voice as she walked to the sink and got a glass of water drinking it all down.

"You look like you've been wrestling a whole den of bears. I know you weren't exercising. You hate exercising." He told her stalking closer, raising his eyebrow, now growing suspicious of why she was obviously hiding something from him.

"It's nothing. I'm going to go get cleaned up now. See you later." She said hurriedly as she ran out of the room.

Cedric just looked at her curiously wondering what she was up to and shook his head. In the last few years they had managed to learn to get along fairly well while living together. He was used to her playful antics and figured she was up to something; he'd find out soon enough. Deciding to let her be, he grabbed his lunch and went back to work in the castle above.

When Sofia exited the bathroom after taking a quick shower and changing she noticed Cedric had left, probably back to work. She checked to be sure calling out for him. When she received no response she went back to the room she'd been working in. Opening the door she surveyed around her and smiled at her work, it looked great. Sofia knew Cedric would probably be angry when he discovered it but he'd get over it, he never used this room anyway. He didn't seem to mind as she slowly began to take over his closet over the past two years so she decided to just go all out and take over the room completely turning it into a game room as she'd originally told him she would. She moved all their clothes into her room expanding her closet and added a larger bureau to accommodate all their clothes.

Later that evening over dinner, Cedric kept watching Sofia trying to figure out what she had been up to earlier. He had yet to figure it out. Sofia was wondering why he kept looking at her so strange. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and she put her fork down, "What? Will you stop looking at me like that? What is your problem?" She asked.

"I'm still not convinced you weren't pulling some prank earlier or doing one of your usual games. I'm just trying to figure out what it was…" He said studying her face for her reaction. He noticed she looked down at her plate and picked up her fork, not answering him right away.

"I told you, I was exercising." Sofia told him trying to hide her smile.

Completely ignoring her excuse, Cedric said, "I'll find out. I always do. I know you better than anyone Sofia... You did something, I can just tell." Sofia turned a slight shade of pink but refused to look up or meet his eyes which further confirmed his suspicions that she had been up to no good. He'd have to go exploring their home and see if he could find what she did.

After dinner had been finished and cleaned up they both retreated to the reading nook and were silently enjoying their books. Suddenly Cedric stood up and excused himself; Sofia didn't think anything of it and continued to read, lost in her story. She wasn't aware that Cedric was off looking through each room trying to find out what Sofia had done earlier that day. He started first in his workshop. He was thankful it appeared untouched. Next he checked Sofia's bedroom, it appeared she'd added an extra bureau but he could hardly see why she'd lie about that and look so disheveled. Next he checked his spare room. As he opened the door his eyes widened and he stepped in. "SOFIA!" He hollered.

In the reading nook Sofia was startled when she heard Cedric yell her name and dropped her book. "Uh-oh!" She said out loud and then quickly got up and ran out of the room to hide as Cedric was exploring his newly remodeled bedroom turned game room.

"Sofia! Get in here now!" He yelled. He realized she wasn't going to come and walked to the reading room. When he got there he saw her book lying on the floor and that she was gone. He smirked realizing she had hid from him.

"You can run but you can't hide Sofia… I will find you…" Cedric drawled in a sinister way as he began to look around the house for her room to room. What he didn't realize was that Sofia had used magic to conceal herself. She was actually following him around the house with her wand in hand using all her might to not laugh.

"I know you're near, I smell your shampoo." He said as he began to tear apart the living room. Sofia was about to burst. A slight snort escaped and Cedric stood up quickly.

"I heard that. You're in this room." Cedric said as he began to slink around looking behind furniture.

Sofia moved past Cedric to give him another whiff of her shampoo. However, it made him realize she was using magic and had just walked past him when the scent hit him. He smiled darkly and Sofia got worried so she tried to quickly retreat from the room but Cedric was too quick. He reached out fast and grabbed on to her around the waist and she screamed.

"I told you, you can run but you can't hide." He said in her ear. In an instant she was unveiled and no longer invisible. Throwing her over his shoulder he carried her to his spare room as she continued to scream for him to let her down. He ignored her until they got in the room. Cedric set her down but didn't let her go.

"Sofia… do you mind telling me what exactly happened to my bedroom today?" Cedric asked.

"Actually, Cedric… I do mind. So, I think I'll just leave now." She said as she tried to extricate herself from his arms.

"Let me rephrase it. Tell me, what happened to all my stuff and why you replaced it with a game room?"

With a sigh Sofia stayed where she was, "I didn't get rid of your stuff, I wouldn't do that. Your clothes and bureau have been moved to my room. You sleep in there anyway, may as well keep it in there."

"What about my bed?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"Despite that you never use it, I didn't get rid of it because that would be rude. I simply shrunk it and put it in the corner over there." And she pointed to it. Cedric saw something small in the corner and walked over to it. He couldn't believe what he was looking at.

Kneeling down, he examined it, "It looks like a dolls bed!" He exclaimed.

Shrugging, Sofia said nonchalantly, "Well, I didn't get rid of it."

Standing up, Cedric walked over to examine the shelf of games Sofia had stacked up. She grinned knowing exactly what he was looking for. Ever since their disastrous game of Yahtzee he has refused to play it again and threatened if he ever saw it he will destroy it.

"Don't worry, it's not there." She said, smiling at him.

"Just checking." He said as he continued to walk around the room.

"Hmm. A dart board? Since when do you know how to play darts? Or pool?" He asked gesturing to the large pool table in the middle of the room.

"I don't, but it looks fun."

"Right. And who are you going to get to play all of these games with you?" Cedric turned to face her, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow.

Sofia's mouth dropped open. "You… I, I thought…" She said quietly.

Slowly Cedric began to smile and Sofia realized he was messing with her.

"You jerk!" She laughed and shoved his shoulder and he fell backwards onto the couch and sat down.

"You deserved it after shrinking my bed to the size of my hand." He said chuckling. He propped his feet up on the coffee table and then asked, "So why did you look so sweaty and messy earlier today then? Don't tell me you did all this yourself without using magic?"

"Hey, I'm pretty strong for a 14 year old!" She exclaimed flexing her muscles. "I told you, I was exercising. It was a lot of exercise to move the couch around to get it to the right position I wanted it in, and this coffee table as well as the pool table and the other game tables and shelves. It was a lot of work. So I just called it exercise."

"You cheeky little…" He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Sofia began to scream as he tackled her down and started tickling her. A minute later he let her up so they could pick a game and play. Since Sofia had taken over his room she let him choose the game. He walked over to a glass chess table with two stools.

"A game of chess?" He smirked at her.

"Of course you'd choose chess."

"Yep. And how about loser makes dinner?" He added.

"You already know I'm going to lose, so how is that even fair?"

"You've been getting better the past year. You've won a few games. Just focus and try and you may win. Depends on how badly you want me to cook dinner tonight."

"Actually I don't really want you to; you're not a very good cook." She said laughing.

Clutching his heart, as if he'd been hurt Cedric responded playfully, "That hurts my feelings."

"No it doesn't. You hate cooking. Let's bet on something besides dinner."

"Fine. I win and you start shadowing me at work next week. You win and you don't have to start for another month."

"But as it is I don't have to start for a month anyway. So how will I be winning anything if I beat you?" She asked, looking confused.

"Because you won't have to start next week if you win." He said spreading his arms wide with a big grin.

Sitting up straight and cracking her knuckles, Sofia said in a serious tone, "Fine. Let's do this."

An hour later, Sofia dropped her head in her hands and stood up from the table leaving the room. She walked silently to the kitchen to begin making dinner. Cedric watched her walk away. He entered a moment later coming up behind her placing his hands on her shoulders. He said quietly and tenderly, "It'll be okay Sofia. You're going to make a great Queen." A few tears fell and she leaned back against him as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I don't feel ready." She whispered.

"You're ready. And I'll always be here for you every step of the way." Cedric reassured her, then he added, "And you know Baileywick will be as well whether you want his help or not."

Sofia chuckled at that because she knew it was true. She returned to making dinner and Cedric let her, knowing she preferred to cook alone. Then she turned and asked him, "Tonight after dinner, want to go up into the mountains and fly around? It's been a while since we've done that. I miss the fresh air and feeling of soaring through the sky. And it's a full moon tonight so it'll be really beautiful."

He smiled and said, "Sure, I'd love to."