I don't own Sofia the First

A/N: So it's been a long couple of years since this story was last updated, but I want to thank you all for the reviews thus far. I fear that since its been such a long time, the characters may seem OOC. If so, I shall do my best to keep them in character.

Enjoy!

Giving the amulet back to that little princess was the last thing that Wormwood wanted to do. However, given to his master's clumsy nature and how he had foolishly ignored Wormwood's warnings, it was a mess that would have both of their heads if King Roland and Queen Miranda were at the castle grounds. Wormwood hovered in midair as he looked at his surroundings, making sure that those two crows and parrot were not following him. If he had to hear that parrot's annoying caws again, Wormwood didn't know what he would do.

"Ohh," a defeated voice came from below as Wormwood looked down and noticed the little princess sitting on the outdoor stairs with her step-sibling surrounding her. "I can't believe we haven't found it yet."

"I'll have Rex sniff out for it," James suggested. He couldn't help but feel that he was to blame for losing Sofia's necklace. If he had kept a better control of Rex, then nothing like this would have happened.

Amber looked at her brother with a raised eyebrow. Even if Rex was more than willing to help them out, the dog was just too playful that he might find the necklace and bury it in the ground and they would wind up playing hide and seek with it. "No," she disagreed with a shake of her head, "Sofia and I will take another look around the garden. Hopefully, Rex hasn't buried it."

James shook his head to Amber. "He's been with me this whole time," he said to her.

"Maybe its best you take him inside and have him bathed," Amber said as she looked down at the dog's paws. Baileywick wouldn't appreciate the floors of the castle having dog prints all over. "Come on Sofia, let's go and find your amulet." Amber knew how important this amulet was to her sister. In fact, she had used Sofia's amulet before and it had almost wrecked havoc on the castle ground with that malicious princess that had wished to take over Enchancia.

Sofia followed after her sister. She replayed the situation in her mind over and over, in hopes that she wasn't leaving out any detail. She had been standing behind Cleo who bumped into her when Hildegard was bumped by Rex who was chasing after a butterfly. Cleo had reached out and grabbed onto Sofia to keep herself from falling to the ground, only to hold onto her amulet. Just like that, her amulet had snapped from her neck and it should have fallen to the ground, not disappear into thin air. "Thanks for helping me out with this Amber," Sofia suddenly spoke up as she looked at her stepsister, "and I'm sorry that your tea party was ruined."

It was an event that Amber wished to have avoided. Perhaps it was a better idea to have the tea party inside than out. She felt that she would have known better that Rex was going to eventually crash their tea party. "It's not your fault Sofia," Amber said to her, "I just wish that James would have listened, then we wouldn't be in this mess. How can an amulet as big as that disappear?"

Sofia wished she had an answer to that question. "I don't know," she said in a defeated voice, "at this point, I just wish that amulet would just fall out of the sky." The moment she said that, the amulet landed right in front of her feet and she gasped taking a step back. "What?" she immediately scooped up the amulet into her hands and looked at it.

"Hey!" Amber's eyes brightened as she ran towards Sofia and looked at it. "You found your amulet."

"More like it found me," Sofia said. She turned her head towards the sky and noticed Wormwood hovering above them. He then swooped towards the ground and landed in front of Sofia's feet.

Sofia exchanged a look with Amber and immediately tied her amulet around her neck. Wormwood was one of the many animals of the kingdom who was very rude towards her and her other friends. There was something that Sofia sensed in the crow that made him seem distressed than anything she had seen in him before. "Wormwood, what's wrong?" she asked him. "Is it Mr. Cedric?" she asked.

It took a moment for Wormwood not to roll his eyes at the little princess. Ever since she had stepped foot into this castle, she had shown admiration and respect for the bumbling sorcerer to the point where Wormwood felt nauseated by her kind demeanor. "I am fine, thank you for asking," he answered sarcastically to her before flapping his wings in the air. "If you would like to know, my master is stuck in an hourglass."

Sofia gaped when Wormwood said that. "What?" she gasped, "how did he get stuck in an hourglass?"

Amber looked from the cawing crow and over to her stepsister. "What's going on Sofia?"

It was his opportunity to let it all out in front of the princesses. Then they could let Baileywick know about what Cedric had done and alert both the king and queen to come back from their trip. But then, where would that leave Wormwood? He would be without a master and he didn't know what his own fate would be afterwards. "Let's just say, he had a slight accident. Now he can't get himself out of it."

"How much time does he have?" Sofia asked, "wait a minute, what am I saying? I must go and help him."

Amber watched as her stepsister was about to head back into the castle. "Sofia wait," she called out after her, "is there anything I can do?"

Rarely would Amber offer her help to anyone, let alone Sofia. The little princess appreciated her stepsister's willingness to help her out but Sofia felt that this was something that she had to do on her own. "Thanks Amber," she said to her, "but I can help out Mr. Cedric." With those words, she pulled away from Amber and headed inside to castle to help out her friend.

When she finally arrived at Cedric's tower, Sofia was about to gently knock on the door but quickly remembered that he wouldn't answer. She gave the door a push and her eyes widened when she noticed that he was buried halfway in the hourglass. "Mr. Cedric!" she exclaimed when she saw him trying to dig himself out of it.

Cedric flinched at the mention of his name but was relieved when he saw Sofia. "Oh thank Merlin!" he said, "Princess Sofia, you must get me out of her quick!"

Sofia immediately rushed into the room and tried to find any sturdy object that would break through the glass...but any object that her strength could support. Her eyes caught sight of a small stone as she quickly grabbed it and hurled it towards the hourglass. The stone made a crease on the glass and with the sand pushing up against it, the glass broke and sand was spilled all over the floor along with Cedric. Sofia hurried over to the sorcerer and helped him up to his feet. "Are you alright Mr. Cedric?" she asked him.

He had sand all over himself and inside his sleeves. "Spectacular," he answered her. He was glad that he had been rescued from that dastardly hourglass before he met his demise.

"How did you manage to get yourself stuck in there?" Sofia asked him.

Ah here comes the questions Cedric thought to himself. What could he tell her? I was trapped by another sorcerer that escaped from your amulet that my crow stole from you just so I can take over the kingdom? That conversation would go very well with the king...as well as lose the trust that this little princess had for him. "Just a minor mishap," Cedric answered her, "now run along Princess Sofia, I am extremely busy."

"Oh?" Sofia said as she turned around and looked at him, "maybe I can help out with that 'minor mishap.' I did learn magic from the best," she said with an warm smile upon her lips.

"This magic isn't for the young at heart, now is it?" Cedric said to her. He looked down at her and noticed that the amulet was secure around her neck. At least Wormwood had been able to give it to her. However, how was he supposed to break the curse without Princess Sofia's knowledge? Before Cedric could close the door of his lair, he noticed Sofia craning her neck to look behind him when she heard a noise.

"What was that?" she asked him.

"What was what?" Cedric asked when he too, heard the same noise. "I'm sure it was nothing. Perhaps you heard Wormy perching on his stand."

"It sure didn't sound like Wormwood," Sofia said as she walked deeper into the room and came upon two crows and a red parrot. "Mr. Cedric where did you get these crows?" she asked him.

The red parrot shook his head and glared at the princess. "Who're you callin' a crow, missy?" he snapped and flew right in front of her face. "It's Iago to you." He looked to his left and then his right, "and where is Jafar? Left me all alone in here." He flapped his wings and flew out of the tower with the other two crows following right behind him to find their mistresses.

Sofia tilted her head to the side at the sound of that name. "Ja...far?" she echoed the name and then slowly turned to Cedric. "Who was that?" she asked Cedric, "what's going on, Mr. Cedric?" she asked him.

If Cedric played it off as if nothing was wrong, he knew that Sofia would continue to question him until she got an answer out of him. At this moment, time was valuable to him, especially when he wanted to stop these villains from taking over the castle. Merlin knew what they were doing now. "I think you'd have better sit down for the Princess Sofia," Cedric said to her and she did just that as Cedric narrated the circumstances to her.