~ Shards of Topaz ~

Watching his child develop from an infant to a toddler was one of the most fascinating experiences Geordo had ever had in his entire life, especially when Amelia was learning how to talk. Her first words were Mama, Dada (as was common for most babies), cookie (because of course she shared her mother's love of sweets), up, hi, bye-bye, no... and, most bafflingly, Nate.

Geordo didn't know anyone called Nate, so he had no idea what his daughter meant by it when she started saying it.

The first time he heard Amelia say it was when he and Katarina were walking through the palace gardens and the child suddenly pointed and called out excitedly, "Nate! Nate!"

Geordo looked in the direction she pointed, but the only people he saw were one of his brothers and several of the royal gardeners, none of whom were called Nate.

He turned to his wife and asked, "Who's Nate?" but Katarina just laughed awkwardly and asked the baby if she wanted a cookie.

"Cookie!" Amelia replied, clapping her little hands, and forgot all about 'Nate' as Katarina fished a napkin-wrapped treat out of her pocket and handed it to the toddler.

A few days later, Geordo found out who Nate was.

He was in the nursery trying to trade a new stuffed animal for the wooden knight that his child had swiped from Jeffrey's chess board. (Jeffrey had thought it was hilarious and said she could keep it.)

"Here's a stuffed horse you can have if you just give back the chess knight," Geordo tried.

"No!"

Amelia snatched the stuffed horse from her father's hand and threw it to the floor, where it landed beside the stuffed bunny and two teddy bears that had already met the same fate.

Geordo sighed and swept the child up into his arms.

"What I am going to do with you?" he said.

But Amelia wasn't paying any attention to what her father was saying, because from this new vantage point, she had spotted something up on a high shelf that caught her attention.

"Nate!" she cried out excitedly, pointing. "Nate!"

"What? Who is Nate?" Geordo asked, nonplussed.

"Nate!" the child repeated insistently.

Geordo looked where she was pointing. He saw the accursed 'Nate'.

A royal nanny (who mostly stood in the corner unobtrusively, since the prince and princess insisted on personally taking care of their own child) went to the shelf and got 'Nate' down. Geordo cringed as the nanny handed Katarina's masterpiece over to his daughter.

"Nate~" Amelia cooed happily, cuddling the realistic-looking toy snake.

~oOo~