Hugfia: The One That Got Away

Chapter 14

There was a light knock at her door.

"Princess Sofia?"

"Yes Baileywick?"

"I didn't want to wake you because you were sleeping so peacefully, but it's 2pm. You've slept through breakfast and lunch."

Sofia rubbed her eyes and yawned. "No worries, I'll be up soon."

Sofia was exhausted from last night's events. She was so tired she had returned to her room, collapsed onto her bed, and had fallen into a deep dreamless sleep. She was still tired as she got ready, and ate an afternoon "breakfast" at an empty table.

She now made her way down to the courtyard where everyone was said to be playing enchanted croquet.

From far away she heard Amber yelling.

"CEDRIC YOU INCOMPETENT BUFFOON WHY AREN'T THE CROQUET MALLETS WORKING?!"

Cedric looked like he was going to give her a piece of his mind but he seemed to be holding it in.

"Now, Amber I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding," reassured Dad, "I'm sure Cedric will be able to figure it out."

"We can play regular croquet in the meantime," added Desmond.

"Unacceptable. The hoops should be moving around and floating in the air! Not limp on the ground," Amber retorted.

Sofia approached them, "Mr. Cedric, why isn't the magic croquet set working?"

"I've got no darn clue, princess. It was working just fine yesterday. And I tried fixing it but it appears my wand isn't working either,"

Sofia thought about her amulet and enchantlet malfunctioning last night.

"Mr. Cedric, is it possible that magic can stop working?"

"Impossible! Unless..."

"Unless?"

"Unless someone has tinkered with the Fountain of Magic." Cedric pondered for a moment. "I'm going to have to go reference my books..." He started heading back to his tower.

"But what about our croquet?" Amber called after him.

Sofia looked around. "Where's James?"

"He went to Freezenburg this morning. Didn't he tell you?"

"No! I told him to wait before doing anything,"

"Wait he didn't get your permission? He was supposed to get your agreement!"

"We have to stop him before he messes things up."

Amber slapped her palm against her forehead, "What an idiot. Let's go,"

Desmond said, "Wait for me, I'm coming too!"

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

"What happened to the flying horses? They don't have any wings anymore! They're just horses!" Amber wailed dramatically.

Desmond flipped through the pages of a book, "It really does seem that someone tampered with Ever Realm's magic."

Amber sighed and regained her composure, "We'll just have to make do. Is everyone ready?"

Desmond nodded and returned the book back to his satchel, which was filled to the brim with other books.

Sofia mounted Minimus and patted his side, "Let's go Minimus!"

Minimus neighed in response. She missed the sound of his voice. She would figure out how to get the magic back to Ever Realm, as soon as she dealt with this situation first.

Desmond and Amber mounted their horses and two knights mounted their horses as well. Mom and Dad didn't want them to set out alone, so they had two guards as protection.