Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 39: Newsworthy

I WOKE UP, looking through the bars of my crib and seeing no sign of anyone else. Standing at the bars of a new crib, I couldn’t help but wonder where Caireen was. Having no other choice, I started crying at the top of my lungs to get her attention.

She came in and said, “There, there, baby, let’s get you cleaned for the day.”

“How are things here?” I asked.

“We’ll talk about that in a while after your bath. Until then, I want you to act like a normal baby and take a break,” she told me.

Somehow, I forced myself to smile and hug her.

“There’s my little baby girl! I bet she would like her nice warm bath!”

I was kind of hungry and decided to act like she expected and reached for her dress. “Oh, I hadn’t even thought of how hungry you probably are!” She turned around, found a cushioned window seat in the hallway, and began nursing me.

While she nursed me, I couldn’t help but think of all of the deaths that were my fault yesterday. Not to mention all the deaths occurring here while Camulus sought to catch me and bring Caireen to her knees. I felt the tears going down my face when she suddenly moved me to her other breast and began speaking softly, “There, there, baby. Just relax; the world has gone mad, but you are safe here for the moment.”

When I was finished, she burped me and took me to the oddly modern bathroom with running water and a beautiful clawfoot bathtub. She undressed, then stripped me before slipping into the water together. She gently massaged some soap and a cloth against my skin, and I couldn’t help but relax. Caireen washed my hair gently, and I realized how rarely she’d bathed me here.

After she was done scrubbing me, she splashed water at me - occasionally tickling me or playing with my toes until we both had the giggles. Eventually, she sighed and called for a servant who handed her a towel that she swaddled me in.

“Your Majesty, I took a set of clothes for Princess Sofia to your room so you both may dress there?”

“Thank you, Fiera,” she told her with a smile.

She carried me through a couple back passages to her room. I was quickly diapered and placed in a beautiful green dress that was more ornamented with frills, stitching, and embroidery than anything I had ever worn. She carefully placed my tiara on my head, kissed my head, and then placed me on her bed.

I watched as she dressed in a regal gown that matched my own. It was the perfect mother-and-daughter set of dresses. ‘I might just have to make a set of these for Hannah and me to wear on campus,’ I thought.

“Okay, Sofia,” she said while opening her arms up, “let’s go find someplace where we can talk.”

It felt so comfortable and safe in her arms, something I craved after the real world’s chaos and death. I still couldn’t believe that people had died just because they happened to be where I was! Caireen walked through the hallways to a room covered with maps and charts that I knew had to be the war room. Several of her generals were in the room, and all snapped to attention and bowed to Caireen.

“Your Majesty, Your Highness,” her top general greeted us.

“General,” Caireen said, and she stepped towards a chair at a circular table that seemed grander than the others. A matching highchair was to its right, and I was sat gently inside before she took her seat.

“Princess Sofia, I am so sorry for the loss of life in your world,” the general began, “I regret it more than I can say.”

“How did that happen?” I asked forcefully.

“Gut feeling?” He asked to which I nodded. “I believe she and King Camulus have decided that the best way to utterly defeat us here is to attack you there.”

“So, these are avatars?”

“Well, his son at least should be… I’m unsure of Rosemerta. Nothing she does makes sense. If she was simply an avatar, what you did and the shattering of her head from the gunshots should have killed her!”

“What if she’s a Mergent with extraordinarily high regen?” I asked Caireen.

“It could be that… but I think she had stored enough manna to travel there… and do whatever she does…?” She sighed, “Either way, she can’t take hits like that forever without dying. I highly recommend next time, though, you immediately burn her remains. If we capture her again in this world, we will do the same.”

“And Camulus’s son? Maponus?”

“Yes,” Caireen answered.

“What kind of crazy person names their kid that? And they want me to marry him? And have… with him?!?” I was near the verge of tears and couldn’t even imagine having that with him! I held back from crying, took a deep breath, and asked. “So, what will they try next in my world?”

“I don’t know,” was the simultaneous reply from her and the general.

For the next hour, we dissected every bit of the attack before Caireen carried me to a quiet place window bench to nurse me. When we returned, I was shown an update on where King Camulus’s forces were. “How soon will he be here?” I asked nervously.

“We believe he’ll be here sooner than our original estimates. Maybe even by the New Year in your world.” One of the Generals’ men answered.

Plans were revised, and arguments went on and on about the placement of troops. Grim discussions were held about when to abandon villages in their path. Most civilians would be evacuated to the castle’s surrounding areas until they got closer. Then, they could be held inside the castle walls for a very long siege. The concern was the blockade wouldn’t be long as Camulus had broken through the defenses of several other similar castles recently with impunity.

As I was growing weary of the round-and-round discussion, Caireen picked me up, and we left them to it. She led me down to the dungeons and said, “Okay, we need more attacks for you!”

Caireen spent a couple hours teaching me some new possibilities for doing things like Camille did with the tendrils to capture Rosemerta. “But it didn’t work with her!” I said, exasperated as I failed to ensnare a doll on the ground in my seventh attempt.

“You have more than one enemy Princess,” she told me, making a chill run down my spine.

About the time I had finally succeeded ten times with that new spell, there was a knock on the door.

“Enter!” Caireen called loudly.

A man dressed in what looked like nineteenth Century fencing clothing came in. “Your Majesty, Your Highness,” he said with a low bow, “you asked for me to come?”

“Yes, Sir d’Artagnan, I did.”

“What may I do for you?”

“Please teach my daughter how to fight using this blade,” she said and pulled out what would look like a long knife to an adult but, to my size, looked like it was a little longer than a short sword.

“Great, I’m like a Hobbit with a dagger!” I groaned.

“Your Majesty?” he asked, confused. “But she’s just a bébe…?”

“She will approach her training with the maturity of one who has come of age; she must be able to fight when the time comes! We both know this war won’t end without an attack here.”

He looked at me again and pondered things for a moment before saying, “It will be my honor, Your Majesty. I will insist on some proper clothing?”

“As long as I don’t have to have fur on my feet,” I agreed.

Both of them looked at me like I was mad. I just shrugged and was soon clothed in what I could only think of as nineteenth Century fencing clothes. “These clothes contain a spell that will keep any blade from cutting or piercing them,” Caireen told me reassuringly before patting my diapered rear and sending me toward d’Artagnan.

That began two hours of abuse while he taught me the fundamentals of wielding the blade. I’d love to say we were having a film-worthy knockdown fight by the end, but the most I had done was swung the sword and stab the blade in what would otherwise be katas to me in my past Tae Kwon Do experience.

I felt exhausted when Caireen fed me dinner and laid me down in my crib. “Caireen… was that THE d’Artagnan?” I asked sleepily.

She kissed me on the forehead, “Yes, Princess, but that is a story for another time.”

 
 

THE SOUNDS OF news on the TV and Camille moving around in our room woke me up. I sat up and stared at the screen through the crib bars. The scrolling bar at the bottom was giving updates about damages and casualties while a reporter stood in Rockefeller Plaza… or rather what remained of it.

“Last night, Rockefeller Plaza was rocked by a huge blast where the famous statue of Prometheus stood. The statue itself is seen on footage exploding like a large bomb. Following that, we see a battle that is clearly begun and waged by Mergents with no regard for the civilian population. CNN has just obtained footage of this battle; this is exclusive, and you’ll only see it here.”

“Mom! Dad!” Camille quickly hollered through the adjoining room door, noticing me standing and watching.

The footage began by panning around the buildings nearby. You could see some bright signs on one of the nearby streets. The person had just reached a view where you could see the statue but not the ice rink when the explosion happened, and you could see the person fall to the ground. Screams, cries, and panic reigned as the entire video became chaotic. The videographer somehow dodged the fleeing crowd to get a view of the rink from the top level. Camille’s mother and family had fled before then. Still, they managed to catch Camille and me as we ran up towards Rosemerta, standing in the former statue’s footprint.

It was kind of scary watching Camille and myself fight her. I winced when she grabbed me, and my nose landed on the ground. Then when I had finally frozen her, and the bullets rang out, the video cut back to the talking heads who discussed everything about the event.

“There you have it, ladies and gentlemen! We have no idea who was on what side here, but given Tigress shows up and seems to defend the girl and very short Mergent, we have to believe they were on the good side.”

“Is that short one a baby???” One of the anchors asked incredulously. “She seemed to be the one that took the villain out too?”

“It looks like it. Our staff is working on the video and enhancing it. Mike, do you think we have a zoom available on this yet?”

Over her ear, you can see her receiving instructions, “We hope to do better, but let’s see what they’ve got so far.”

The video zoomed into where we were speaking to the police. You could see technomages were involved because there is no way someone’s cell phone should have had the resolution to view us close enough to make a larger image of me. My pacifier mask kept my lower face from being seen. Still, it was pretty clear I was in a very short and juvenile dress with a diaper cover over what clearly had to be a diaper. My cute shoes and tights seemed to only encourage the thought. The tiara on my head glistened, and you would never have expected me to be able to do more than appear in a beauty pageant.

Of course, that had been my intention since it could surprise an attacker. The tights were a bonus bit of protection, made of the latest Zexlar, and the dress and mask.

“Okay, I have to say she is adorable!!!!” the lady anchor said. “She looks like she takes some of the costume designs after that cartoon my daughter loves so much!”

“Adorable but deadly. Did you see how much damage those blasts did to the walls where she missed? The other girl was just as bad! How can we…?”

The TV was turned off, and I saw Camille and her mom looking at me, concerned. I just shrugged, “Guess that was inevitable. At least so far, they haven’t found a video to figure out who I am?”

They both nodded, and Camille picked me up to hug me before saying, “we have a little bit of time for a quick bath before we go to breakfast.”

I nodded, “Okay.”

She gently picked me up out of the crib and laid me down on a changing pad she had sat on the bed. She gently removed my nightgown and diaper, wiping me quickly with some wipes. Then I was carried over to the bathroom, where Camille had already drawn a bath with some bubbles. I watched her quickly to see we were alone before she cast a privacy ward.

“How are you doing, Sofia?” she asked me.

I shrugged with bubbles on my arms, “I don’t know. People died yesterday because they just happened to be where I was. How am I supposed to be?”

I could feel the tears in my eyes as Camille lifted my head and her voice changed, “Princess, it is not your fault in any way. Monsters will always exist in every world - the only thing we may do is fight them till our last breath or theirs. Yesterday you never hesitated, and I know that Queen Nicneven herself would have been proud. As it is, I’m certain our Queen will want to meet you when she can.”

I just stared for a moment before muttering, “thanks.”

Camille’s voice returned to normal, “Okay, so we have all morning that you’ll have to go back to pretending, I think.”

I nodded, “I don’t think anyone has a video of me changing into my costume? But, I’m sure there are enough cameras they can make a master list of people and babies to look at.”

Camille nodded, “I think you need to be sure to act like a normal baby this morning as we go see the Statue of Liberty.”

“Then it is still open?” I asked, kind of surprised.

“The mayor came on and said security everywhere has been tightened, but at no time will he ‘give in to terrorists.’”

I sighed, “Okay.”

Camille took a few more minutes to wash my hair, soaped down my body, and then played with me for a few minutes. Unlike when Hannah played with me, Camille used her magic like Caireen. I watched the bubbles in my bath change colors and become moving animals, dolls, and castles, and we just had fun together for a bit. Then, as she dried me off, I asked, “Do you do that for your sister?”

She shook her head, “I try not to do magic around her so she doesn’t accidentally tell someone something she shouldn’t. I do things every now and then, but my parents ask me to limit them.”

I nodded, “Lily definitely loved when I would play with her since I would create clothes for her dolls and bears!” Then, I grinned, “Mom didn’t like it - especially one time her… well, that didn’t work out so well.”

“Oh?” She asked as she ran a comb through my hair. “This sounds like a juicy story!” She smiled at me, “I don’t have to tickle you to get this out of you, do I?”

I gulped, “No need for the tickle monster to come out!”

She laughed and playfully reached for my belly. “So… story?”

“Okay, okay!” I squeaked. “I was making her a really cute princess dress… but I forgot to create a diaper for her outfit. So she went to show Mom, and let’s just say it was a good thing we were in the kitchen… the puddle she excitedly made would definitely have been worse to clean up anywhere else!”

She laughed at me and continued to help me feel calm. Yesterday had been a nightmare, and I just hoped today wouldn’t be the same. A diaper was quickly taped on me, followed by a cute onesie with a short skirting and then leggings over it.

“Do I need to make a couple more strollers?” Camille asked her mom.

“Can you?”

“Sure,” she said.

I watched two strollers form in the space next to the door. They weren’t the same as the ones from yesterday, instead looking like a matched set of pink and purple strollers that looked pretty comfortable. “Those look like Amy’s daughter’s stroller,” her mom told her with approval.

“Yeah, I thought of hers with them. We think Sofia needs to appear to be as innocent as possible today… I know that these work with those infant seats too.” A moment later, an infant-style car seat with a handle appeared.

“What?” I said nervously.

“Well, Sofia, they’re looking for a short Mergent that just happens to look like a baby, right?”

I nodded, “Yes,” feeling Caireen nodding with approval.

“The idea of a baby who can still fit in and be carried in an infant carrier isn’t likely to be noticed, right?”

“Right,” I sighed. “So how are you going to carry me and it? I remember getting tired of carrying my sister in hers when she was about sixteen pounds…?”

“Well, aren’t you only twenty pounds?”

I sighed, “Yes.”

“Then trust me, with my paradigm strength, there is no reason for you to worry. Besides,” Camille smiled as she began helping my arms into my coat, “the reason I made these is that the seat goes into the stroller.”

Camille’s dad came in a moment later with Cassidy in his arms. While I was laid into the car seat and strapped in, she was strapped into her new stroller. She loved the pink one, so my car seat was latched into the purple one. I hated the lack of movement possible as I sat strapped in there! I was grateful that Camille placed a pacifier into my mouth, letting me soothe myself without saying anything I shouldn’t! I sighed and lay there as I was pushed down the hallway, unable to see anything other than Camille.

‘This is worse than the stroller yesterday,’ I whined.

‘Oh hush, you know you look adorable in this! And, the point is that I guarantee absolutely no one would possibly believe you are the baby who was on TV.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ I told her.

 
 

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