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 35: Whittle Baby

I WOKE UP in Caireen’s arms in a rocking chair, “Shhh,” she said to me as she patted me gently. “We both had a long day here yesterday.”

I nodded. It couldn’t last, though, as a knock came at the door of my room, “Your Majesty, may I come in?”

She spoke clearly, “Yes, come in.”

“Sorry to disturb you, Your Majesty, but we just received word that King Camulus is on the march again.” Caireen’s top general, General Slane, came in with a facial expression that was as somber as a funeral.

“Any idea what his endgame is?”

“Our spies and scouts believe he is heading here, Your Majesty.”

“Well, at least he’s not dilly-dallying,” she said while holding me tighter. “When can we expect him to make it here?”

“I believe it will be four to six weeks, Your Majesty. We’ll try to delay them with our forces, but there’s no way to know.”

I shifted my body to where I could look up at Caireen, “That should be long enough to plan an ambush, shouldn’t it?”

“Maybe…”

“How large are his forces?”

“He is marching twenty-thousand troops, Your Majesty.”

“How many do we have?” I asked Caireen nervously.

“Ten-thousand - if we lose, no one stopping them from advancing.”

“I need to think about this; if you have any ideas, draw up your plans. I want to see you and all senior commanders in the throne room just after noon. Take that time to plan and figure out what we need to know to survive this and kill that monster.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

I looked up at Caireen and saw a nervous fear on her face, “We can make it through this,” I reassured her.

“Oh, Sofia, you are indeed the daughter I always wanted. Unfortunately, I’m not as certain as you are here. Too many things in play.”

“Well, let’s figure out that plan and get things sorted out!” I told her confidently.

She tickled me, “I guess you’re right. I bet you’re hungry, though, first!”

I was fed and changed, and we again headed to the dungeon practice room. We stayed down there for hours working on spells. Our only breaks were for Caireen to nurse and change me. I noticed that it seemed she had almost a class schedule approach to teaching me now. First, we would practice gathering more manna from ley lines. At this point, I could only laugh at the amount I had begun with, as it seemed limitless now. Like at Bechtel, her castle ran over a major artery that would scare the other students in my class with the amount of power available. I could now tap into that without effort, which meant that my spells became more and more powerful - and destructive.

Caireen would then move into a session on healing spells for a while. Next, onto wards, some more practical spells for cleaning and other mundane tasks, and finally, she finished with combat techniques.

“Okay, Sofia, this is the last one I want to teach you today,” she said as I breathed a little heavily from creating a magical napalm torch. “The Asian cultures have always talked about the Yin and the Yang bringing balance to life?” She asked.

I nodded, “My Tae Kwon Do master was big into that back in Los Alamos.”

She smiled, “This is basically looking at the Yang to fire. You always need to be able to switch tactics to something opposite what you’re doing if an opponent keeps evading your attacks.”

I nodded, “Yeah… so Yang to Fire… Water?”

She smiled, “Think further…?”

I thought briefly about how Fire was highly energetic with particles highly energized. ‘What’s the opposite?’

“Ice?” I asked.

She smiled and patted my head. “Good girl!”

A couple weeks ago, that would have made me blush, but instead, I felt pride at being told that. ‘I sort of wish she’d even give me a sticker!’ I smirked to myself. “So, what about Ice? You’ve already taught me how to freeze water?”

She smiled, “This’ll be very much the same thing. So tell me, what are human bodies made up of?”

I felt the blood drain from my face, “Water… you want me to freeze the water in their bodies?”

She nodded, “It is a little cold of a tactic to use,” I forced a smirk at her lousy pun, “but it takes less energy than a fire spell.”

For another hour, she instructed me by bringing in a few pigs, chickens, and other animals for me to try on. Initially, I had been reluctant until she told me they were for the servants’ dinner. It was scarily easy to do so with the animals. “People… They’re the same?” I said. I couldn’t help but feel a bit of bile up the back of my throat.

“Yes, the exact same.”

“Why does this feel crueler than so many other attacks?” I asked her.

She shook her head, “I do not know the answer to that, Sofia, other than maybe it speaks to a deep-down fear you have?”

After a bit longer, she said, “Come, my little princess, we need to get you fed and changed, and then I need to have a chat with my generals while you take a nap.”

 
 

IT WAS ALWAYS startling to wake up immediately after getting comfortable in one world. Still, it was even more so when I woke up in Camille’s arms instead of Hannah’s. I squeaked a little, “Shhh… It’s okay, Sofia; Auntie has you.”

I groaned when it came back but kept up the good baby act and squirmed a little. My diaper was really soggy, and I wanted a new one soon. If I was really going to be pretending to be a baby, there really was only one way to ask for a fresh diaper, and so I started crying.

“Oh, shhh baby,” Camille said softly, “I’m guessing you want a new diapee, huh?” She tickled my side.

My body was on autopilot now, and I just started crying more. Camille picked me up, took me back to the bathroom, and quickly changed me on the changing table.

“There, all dry now!” She said to me while giving me a hug a few minutes later.

Several minutes later, we were back in our seats, with her holding a bottle of warmed milk for me. “Better now?” She asked when I finished.

I nodded.

“Ready to see your grammy?” She asked me with a smile.

I whispered, “My grammy?”

“Well, if I’m Auntie, you’re my non-existent sister’s daughter…?”

“Oh,” I said.

We quickly found my stroller and our luggage when we pulled into the train station. I was fastened rapidly into the harness for the stroller, and we were off to find Camille’s parents. I could tell when she had found them as she sped up a bit in her excitement to see them.

“Come here!” her mom said, and I watched from my seat as she hugged her mom and dad. Her dad was holding her baby sister, so she also got her own hug.

“Cassidy, I want you to meet someone!” Camille said as she took her from her dad, “this is Sofia!”

Suddenly I had a taller toddler in a cute purple dress coat and pigtails staring inquisitively at me. “Hi,” she said to me shyly, “she’s a wittle baby!” she said excitedly while jumping up and down to her sister.

“Why yes, she is! Not a big girl like you!” Her mom said as she came down to my level. “It’s nice to meet you, Sofia. Camille has told me all about you.”

I blushed, “Nice to meet you, too,” I said softly.

“Shhh…” she said, “we’ll talk more when we get to our hotel.”

“Do you have everything, Camille?” her dad asked.

“I think so,” she said.

“Ready, Cassidy Bug?” Camille asked her little sister.

“Uh-huh!” She said excitedly, “Uppy Cami!”

“I need to push Sofia,” she started to say, but her mom interrupted.

“I’ve got Sofia; you can hold Cassidy,” her mom told her.

“Okay,” Camille said and looked at my face to ensure I was okay. I gave her a slight nod and zoned out as I was pushed through the train station. I was just wondering how we were getting to the hotel when I realized we were at the entrance to a subway. Then, without warning, hands appeared out of my view and picked me up, and I found myself in the hands of my’ grammy.’

“You are so light!” she told me quietly before bouncing me up and down. “Honey, can you get the stroller folded up?”

“Yes, sweetheart,” her husband said.

I looked at her more closely from my view from being held on her hip. Camille’s mom didn’t really look that much like her. While Camille was pretty petite, her mother, while not severely obese, was more rounded than her. Her face was kind, with her hair styled very nicely down below her shoulders. She was apparently dressed expensively based on how the clothes flattered her larger frame. When Camille emerged, I knew she had changed to look more like an elf, but I could tell she had her mother’s chin and nose still.

I watched as she placed a pass for the subway through the card reader before carrying me through. I had read the sign that said children under forty-four inches were free, so I had no doubt that applied to me. But then, I felt fingers tickle my side, and she asked, “Ready for a ride?”

I gulped as a subway car screeched to a halt in front of us. I knew a baby would behave in one of two ways, cry and hide or smile and be excited. A large part of me was nervous about it for some reason, but I chose option B. “Yay, Grammy!” I said with a smile.

She shifted my position as she found a seat sitting across from Camille and Cassidy. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched Camille tickle and play with her sister, whom she hadn’t seen since the beginning of the school year. It reminded me of how I used to be with Lily and made me homesick suddenly.

Camille noticed my look and worriedly mouthed, ‘Are you okay?’

I nodded. Before I could even think of somehow pretending to be a baby and telling her how depressed I was, her mom began playing patty cake with my hands. After a while, she followed that with a game of peek-a-boo and then several other embarrassing baby games before we reached our subway station for the hotel. I pretended to have a blast while she played with me, giggling and smiling. ‘Good girl,’ Caireen told me.

As we got off the subway, I caught signs that we were at 59th Street - wherever that was. Then, just before we boarded another train, I felt the intruding hand from Camille’s mom checking my diaper. I was pretty sure it was wet by now, “Aww… you’re wet, aren’t you, Sofia?” she squeezed me. “We’ll get you out of that wet diaper when we get to the hotel!”

Like my own mom, she couldn’t keep her comments about my toileting quiet. Camille looked sympathetic and apologized with her eyes. Cassidy said, “It’s okay; you’re just a baby Sofia,” she told me. “One day, you wear big girl panties wike me!” And with all the discretion a toddler has, she pulled her dress up to show me her dry pull-up.

“Cassidy,” Camille scolded lightly and pushed her dress back down, “Big girls don’t show everyone their panties.”

“Sowwy Cammy…”

Camille hugged her, so she knew she wasn’t mad, and we boarded the next train. I watched the people as the subway car sped toward wherever our next stop was. A teenage girl about our age smiled at me and waved. I shyly smiled at her and waved back with as awkward of a motion as I could.

“She’s adorable!” the girl said to Camille’s mom.

“Thanks,” she told her with a smile.

“How old is she?”

“Eighteen months,” she said with a smile. “Learning all sorts of things now and running around with nothing that slows her down.” She squeezed me for a moment.

A ding announced that we were at 5th Avenue and 59th Street, and everyone stood up, with Camille’s mom placing me on her hip. ‘Cassidy really missed Camille,’ I said to Caireen.

‘Yes, I think she did.’ Caireen told me, ‘you may be spending a lot of time in ‘Grammy’s’ arms on this little vacation.’ I sensed a smile behind her voice.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘I do believe you’re finally getting in the spirit of things here, Sofia,’ she said. She didn’t elaborate anymore as we moved through the crowds toward an escalator.

I just played my role as the good baby and looked around. An older lady in front of us smiled at me and waved nicely. A guy behind Camille glared at me the whole time, and I wondered if I had gone in my diaper without realizing it. As I looked at him more, there was something that seemed vaguely familiar about him, but I felt confident I didn’t know him. Camille’s mom bounced me in her arms as we neared the top, and she asked, “Want to ride in your stroller now?”

I just nodded. I didn’t really care one way or another. Walking around on my own in New York City was probably not a good idea, I decided, as the crowds seemed to thin a little. I looked around some more and realized we were in front of a huge hotel that I recognized even before I saw the name - it was the Plaza! I remembered watching a movie about Eloise at the Plaza as a kid. I couldn’t deny that I was extremely excited to stay there! Camille must have felt the same way, “We’re staying at the Plaza?” She asked excitedly.

“I figured if we were going to meet you in New York City for Thanksgiving, it would be a good place to stay,” her dad said with a smile.

“I can’t believe it!” Camille said, obviously excited.

‘What’s the significance of this hotel?’ Caireen asked.

‘You’re asking me a question?’ I asked, kind of startled. ‘You have access to my memories?’

‘It’s kind of jumbled there…?’

I smiled again inwardly, ‘Probably because I had to pretend not to like that movie and the books... Eloise was a fictional little girl who lived at the Plaza full-time and caused all sorts of mischief. She and this hotel have almost become synonymous, I guess… I remember as a little girl wanting to come here… They have a special suite with her name on it. I’m sure we’re not staying there, though.’

‘Hmm… You said when you were a little girl?’

I turned red, ‘I was certain I was really a girl by the time I was five or six, I think… too bad I had to emerge as a baby to become one.’

Before our conversation could go any further, we walked through the doors and into a fantastic hotel. “Why don’t we go up to our rooms and change Sofia and drop your stuff off,” her mom directed.

“Can we come back down to the Eloise shop then?” Camille asked. With her giddiness, she looked like she had regressed ten years of age right then.

Her mom laughed, “yes, then we’ll get a bite to eat.”

 
 

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