Princess Knight [Dropped]

[2.1] Early Years (1) Baby

[At some point someone had said that the time skip between chapter 2 and 3 was too long.

Heres the comment taken directly from RoyalRoad.com and user Alegdra: "The time skip is a bit to big."

{So, I guess you can thank him or her for this bit of work I'm being forced to undertake.}

So, here we go.

The first part: Baby Maria.]

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"Say it....say 'father'." The brutish face, Its expression spread out in a thickish smile,  commanded the baby while an index finger waved above its head.

However, the baby was not all too happy to see such a show of lovingness. Its face visibly scrunched up and its minuscule amount of hair on its brows seemed to furrow. It seemed to be contemplating something, and indeed it was.

'Why did he pick me up from her lap? I was enjoying the story!' Maria thought to herself in dissatisfaction as her head wobbled in the direction of her mother.

Earlier her mother had been reading to her a book called 'The Begining". A cheesy name, but a book that spoke of various information about this world. It talked about the creation of the world and the goddess Gaea that birthed the planet with a wave of her hand. The book was in the form of a children's picture book, with crude lifeless pictures that seemed to be etched within in a black ink. Now, sadly, the book was beyond the reach of her little baby hands.

Martha, slowly shaking her head, closed the leaf green book before putting it back on the shelf. She then gracefully walked towards the father and daughter pair and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Abraham, don't you see you're scaring the baby? Here, how about you let me hold her?" She asked.

However, the husband dutifully ignored the wife, turned his back to her, and continued speaking to the baby as his head drew closer, "come on...say 'farther....'faarr--daaa'."

He seemed to be preoccupied with teaching the baby to speak as he dutifully smiled with leisure. However, that single motion didn't seem to please the baby as it squirmed about.

'That tickles...." Maria couldn't help but frown within her mind, the red-haired beard of the man before her was in constant contact with her baby soft skin and tickled it to no end. She did not like that feeling.

Finally, she figured the quickest way to escape this hold was to do as he wished.

"faardaaa." She tried her best impression of a baby as the nonsensical word flowed from her mouth and morphed into a tiny voice.

"..." Abraham

"..." Martha

It took a few seconds for the two to process what had just happened.

"What just hap-? Hey! give her back!" However, his words were ignored as Martha had already snatched the baby and held it in her arms.

"There there, don't worry about that brutish man. Mommy is here for you, yes 'mom--miii'. You can say it right? 'mom--mii'." She looked down at its face as she revealed a kind smile.

Maria decided to humor the two, after all, it was only saying a word or two; What could possibly go wrong?

"mommii." So she spoke once more.

The face of her mother instantly brightened by at least 1000% more and she nodded to herself in a pleased expression as a weight seemed to lift off her. It seemed she didnt like the idea of her husband being the only one

"Give her back!" A voice bellowed as the baby was snatched away.

"Hey! I'm not done!"

No one bothered to question why a one-month-old baby could understand their words much less accurately speak and pronounce the example given. Nope, not one bit did they stop and question their child, the two were too busy competing for it to speak again. They were both too occupied with trying to steal the baby from the others hand.

At this time, a maid walked into the room as she looked uneasily at the couple playing tug of war with the baby. She wasn't sure if she should interrupt them or go about her business. Then she thought to herself 'I've been given the job of taking care of the princess, I do have the right to speak in this situation right? It does involve the personal health of the princess after all.' With that thinking, she convinced herself of the matter and that her decision was the right one.

  "Erm," She managed to utter. 

""What?"" The couple both turned and asked at the same time as they held the hands and feet of the baby respectively.

"We-well," Although she had a good reason, she still stuttered to speak to her employers. The King and the Queen.

""Well?"" The two asked once more.

"It's...the princesses' nap time." She finally built up her courage.

"..." Abraham

"..." Martha

'Thank God.' Maria

Then there was the boy, Arthur, just standing at the corner of the room and staring with his big red eyes. Alas, he seemed to have been completely forgotten by everyone.