Serendipity

Broken clock

Naida's pov

Sam and I were in the workshop trying to figure out how to fix the clock.

"It's so old that the redstone just makes no sense." I complained as I tugged at my hair in frustration.

"We could remove all the old redstone and just completely redo it. It would make it easier to repair in the future." Sam suggested.

"That could work, but it'll take forever." I whined rolling my sleeves up for like the 10th time today. "Why does ant have to have such long arms! The sleeves are so freaking long!"

"Well Ant is taller than you so of course his shirt is too big for you. I'm surprised he hasn't noticed you're wearing it yet." Sam said.

"It's mine now, I stole it. He isn't getting it back." I said.

"You haven't even buttoned it." Sam pointed out.

"You can tell its way too big for me when it's buttoned. Now how do we remove all of this without damaging it?" I asked.

"Watch." Sam said, taking the clock from me.

Sam had been teaching me redstone for as long as I could remember. I had designed the automatic doors to the throne room with him when I was 9, we made a cannon together when I was 12 and I had been begging my father to let us try and invent automatic stairs of some kind for years. When it came to this clock however I had no idea what to do, it was old, I had never seen redstone done like this and I was terrified of breaking it.

I watched Sam expertly remove the cogs and redstone. Placing it all out on the table.

"There, a full blank slate. I have a more modern clock that I made in one of the drawers if you want it as a reference." Sam said, handing the small gold clock back to me.

I hopped up to sit on the table and got to work trying to fix it, Sam occasionally coming over to give me advice or help with some finicky bits. We had been working on it for a few hours and it was almost finished.

"Look out bellow!" Ant called from the air after jumping off the balcony overlooking the workshop.

I didn't manage to move in time and Ant ended up landing on me, knocking me off the table and to the floor. The clock went flying out my hands and crashed to the floor, the cogs and redstone scattering everywhere and the actual clock face shattering into a million pieces.

"Ant! What the hell! Naida, are you alright?" Sam asked, shoving Ant off of me.

"I'm fine." I replied, allowing Sam to pick me up and set me on my feet.

My attention immediately turned to the clock shattered on the floor.

"It's broken again." I said, sniffling slightly, it might not be repairable this time.

Sam noticed how upset I was and grabbed his trident. He began stalking towards Ant, Ant backing away from him knowing he was in trouble.

"Please don't hurt me, it was an accident!" Ant pleaded.

Sam ignored it and took of towards Ant, Ant taking off in a sprint to escape him. I followed after them, walking normally and drawing concerned glances from the Palace staff. When I reached the throne room I saw the same three men we had ran into earlier standing infront of the dias that held my father and I's thrones. Sam and Ant were arguing on the dias directly infront of my father's throne which he was currently sat on. Skeppy was just sat on the arm of my father's throne with an amused look on his face.

"Is someone going to explain what happened?" Dad asked.

"Ant hurt Naida and made her upset." Sam replied.

"It was an accident! I wasn't trying to land on her!" Ant exclaimed.

"Ant, what have I told you about jumping off of balconies." Dad said.

"It's fine dad, I told them I was okay." I said, drawing everyone's attention to me.

"Are you sure muffin? Ant hasn't hurt you at all has he?" Dad asked, getting up from his throne and coming down to check on me.

I notice the men in armour at the front of the dias gulp as my father walked past them. His large height and demonic appearance obviously frightening them.

"I'm completely fine, I'm just sorry I broke your clock." I replied looking down at my feet.

"Its alright muffin, it was already broken anyway." Dad said, placing a hand under my chin and tilting my head up to look at him.

"I had fixed it for you as a present but now it's even more broken." I explained, my father pulling me into a hug after I finished speaking.

"It's the thought that counts muffin. Now why don't we all head through to the dining hall? Dinner will be ready soon." Dad said.

We all followed my Dad through into the dining hall and got into our seats. My father as usual sat at the head of the table with the man without armour sat to his right, his two guards stood behind him at attention. I sat on my father's left with Sam in the chair beside me, then there was Ant and then Skeppy.

"Oh! Silly me forgot to introduce everyone. Prince Eret this is my head guard Sam, my personal guard Ant and my advisor Skeppy. And this adorable little muffin is my daughter Naida! Naida, this is Prince Eret and his guards Daniel and Nathaniel." My dad introduced.

Prince Eret looked a little surprised, maybe it was at the fact that my father spoke to everyone like they were equals or maybe it was my lack of princess like qualities.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm sorry that our encounter earlier was not quite pleasant." Prince Eret said.

"The pleasure is all ours, we ourselves were not the most pleasant of people either." Sam said.

"You're allowed to sit down you know, I can't imagine it'll be easy to eat standing behind him like that." I said.

The two guards looked at me in confusion, as if they had never been invited to sit down let alone eat. My father caught this look as well.

"What? You didn't think we were going to make you stand and watch us eat. No-one here I any better than anyone else." Dad said.

The two of them hesitantly sat down beside Prince Eret. Once they were situated my dad clapped his hands and the staff began brining in the food.

"Yes! Fish!" Ant cheered making me and my dad laugh.

"Sometimes your excitement over fish makes me feel like I should just pull out diamonds and start eating." Skeppy said.

"That's just strange Skeppy." Dad said.

"Isn't that cannibalism? Cause you're like part crystal." I said making skeppy go pale and the rest of us minus Prince Eret and his guards laugh.