Katolis, a year later

"And this is where you will be staying in the meantime, at least until we have your workshop set up. If there is anything you need, please let me know." Viren says as he opens the door of a room to lead a man and a young girl inside. "Are there any specific items and supplies you'll need for your job, Damian?"

"Mmm... probably a small stool for someone to stand on while I take measurements, maybe two work tables where we can do our work at. We already have some supplies like needles and threads, we'll just buy some new supplies if needed." The man says as he examines the room. "Otherwise we're alright for now."

"Daddy, how long are we gonna stay here?" The girl asks as Viren walks out. "I thought we were going to Duren."

"I know love, but I think we have a much better opportunity here than in Duren, don't you think?" Damian asks as he kneels to be level with her. "We're not only working for the king, but the entire kingdom as well. And we don't have to travel far either, you can easily make more friends here than in Duren."

"I wish grandaddy was here, and mama."

Damian smiles as he brushes back a lock of hair from his daughter's face. "I miss them too Enya, especially your mama. But you know why we had to leave home, we couldn't stay there anymore after what happened. At least here no one can blame our family for whatever bad thing happened, we're starting a new life here. And at least here, you won't have to hear snarky remarks from my snobby cousins and their children about the state of your clothes."

His daughter smiles as he stands and ruffles the top of her head. "Can I go exploring? I'll be right back!"

"Alright then, just be careful."

Enya grins before hurrying out the door, taking off down the hall opposite from where they came from. Viren mentioned there were some children in the castle who she could play with if she had no work to, children of the soldiers and servants, along with two of the king's own children who were much younger than her. She could at least familiarize herself with the layout of the castle so she wouldn't get lost while delivering and picking up clothes that were mended or had to be mended, and maybe make some friends-

"Aah!" She lets out a shriek as she crashed into something and toppled backwards onto the hard floor. "Oww..."

"I-I'm sorry! Are you okay?" Enya looks up to see a boy much younger than her getting to his feet and holding a hand out to her. "I was drawing and didn't see you, I'm very sorry!"

"It's my fault, not yours." Enya says as she takes his hand, pushing herself up so she wouldn't accidentally pull him down. "I should be apologizing. What were you drawing?"

"Bait!"

"What's a Bait?

The little boy picks up a book from the floor to hold it up, revealing a messy drawing of a lumpy looking salamander creature with a grumpy expression on its face. "He's my brother's pet!"

"Oh...is Bait a... salamander?" Enya asks, squinting at the drawing.

"Nope! He's a glow toad! He can change colors depending on his mood, he's in here, look!" The boy grabs her hand to pull her into the room he had walked out from.

The room inside looked like some kind of playroom or nursery with all sorts of stuff toys, some large chairs and small stools, tables covered with piles of paper and pencils, a large window to let the light in, and the walls were covered with multiple messy drawings. Sitting on a rug in the middle of the room was a small boy with the fluffiest hair Enya had ever seen, playing with a large yellow and blue animal that looked just as big as him.

"Ezran! Can I see Bait?" The boy asked as he hurried to the smaller boy. "Just for a minute?"

"Otay!" The toddler says as he lets the older boy take the creature. It lets out a loud croak as the boy holds him out for Enya to see.

"This is Bait! See, he's a glow toad, likes jelly tarts and head scratches!" The boy says with a grin. "He can't do much."

"Oh but glow toads have lots of practical uses if they're not being used for bait or pets." Enya gives a gasp as she turns to see a boy around her age standing in the doorway of the room. Something about his voice sends a chill down her spine, her instincts screaming at her to run or at least keep him from getting close to her.

"Bait is not for dark magic use Desmond! He's our pet!" The younger boy says as he stands behind Enya. His voice is trembling slightly, she could see the fear in his eyes as he is holding the toad creature to his chest.

"Well Bait obviously has his uses, but other glow toads can be used for many things, Callum." The boy, Desmond, sneers as he walks into the room. Enya's hand shifts behind her to grab the handle of her knife as she shifts herself to keep the two children and toad behind her. "And who's your new friend?"

"None of your business you creep." She states and yanks the knife out to hold it in front of her. "Leave them alone."

"You have a knife?" The boy, Callum, squeaks as he peeks out from behind her.

"Yeah, and I can use it." Enya says as she takes a step towards the boy.

"Desmond! Desmond where are you?" Enya quickly hides the knife behind her as lord Viren comes through the doorway. "There you are! Why aren't you studying?"

"I finished the entire book sir, I was simply coming in to see how the princes were doing." Desmond says as he walks back towards the doorway. "And I couldn't help but notice a stranger coming into the playroom, got me a bit worried."

Enya flinched as Viren's eyes land on her, expecting him to start scolding her until Callum and Ezran poke out from behind her.

"I was showing her Bait, I think he likes her." The little prince says quickly, the glow toad giving a grunt and turning a bright shade of orange as if to confirm his statement.

"Happy!" The younger boy who was holding Bait earlier exclaims.

"I see, well continue playing. And do be careful with the young princes Enya, especially Ezran." And with that, Viren and Desmond were gone.

"I don't get why lord Viren always tries to have him spend time with us, Desmond is weird!" Callum finally says when they were sure the two were gone. "He makes creepy remarks about magical creatures if we're reading a book on them, he stands in the shadows like a ghost and acts like we're dumb!"

"Mean!" Ezran agrees as he is handed back his glow toad. "Bait no like!"

"Don't you have any other friends to play with?" Enya asks with a small frown. "Lord Viren mentioned there were many other children in the palace I could play with if I was lonely, why don't you play with them?"

Callum gives a small shrug. "I used to have two friends, but they moved somewhere far away." He says sadly as he hands Bait back to his baby brother. "So...I don't have any friends."

"Well...I don't have any either, I just moved here." Enya admits. "If you'd like, I can be your friend and Ezran's too. I won't be able to play as much because I will be helping my daddy with his work, but when I have free time I can always come and play with you two."

Oh one would have thought she had told the little Prince that the winter holidays had come early from the way his little eyes lit up in excitement. Enya braced herself as Callum runs to her and hug her tightly around the waist, and she couldn't help but smile and hug him back. Ezran gave an excited noise before crawling over to them, still holding onto Bait, until he was hugging one of her legs. Guess making friends here would be easier than she thought.

---

"More snow!" Claudia yells as Magnus tries packing his small snowball into a bigger one. "We gotta finish the snowman before lunch! Soren help us!"

"But I'm busy!" Her brother exclaims as he swings his wooden sword at the air, trying to mimic the way Sigrid would swing her real sword.

His cousin had promised him the other day that she'd train him, but because of her duties in the palace (which for some reason consisted of her having to babysit the oldest son and daughter of the king and physically try keep them from trying to murder each other) they could never find time to train together so he had to try and train himself. Other relatives such as his grandfather and a handful of his mother's cousins had offered to try and train him, since they had all had combat training and had either already served time in the army or were still in it, but Soren had insisted he wanted to be trained by Sigrid and only her. Some days he would settle for training with his mother or uncle Raul when they weren't busy, but other days he'd try and train himself with whatever he could remember from watching the soldiers back at home and here in Del Bar combat each other.

"You're no fun!" Claudia states and sticks her tongue out at him. "Fine, Magnus and I will make the snowman ourselves and you can't join in to help!"

"Snowman building is boring anyways!" Soren throws back at her before stabbing at the air again.

"Hey kiddos! Miss me?" A familiar voice calls out, drawing their attention.

"Sigrid!" The three children yell as the older teen approached them, still wearing her armor with a fur cloak thrown on over it and her helmet tucked under one arm.

"Are we gonna start my lessons right now?" Soren asks excitedly.

"Are you gonna help us build a snowman?" Magnus asks. "Soren was supposed to help but he didn't want to!"

"Yeah he said snowman building was boring!" Claudia adds before sticking her tongue out at her brother.

"Because Sig is gonna show me how to fight like a real crownguard!" Soren argues.

"You really wanna learn don't you?" Sigrid asks as the three kids crowd around her.

"Yeah because when I grow up I'm gonna be in the crownguard too!" Soren declares loudly as he thrusts his wooden sword into the snowman, earning upset protests from his little sister and younger cousin.

"Big talk for a little boy, but do you have what it takes?" Sigrid asks and Soren nods eagerly. "Because it isn't easy. Vigorous training is required, you can't get in on just skill alone. And the boot camp out in Del Bar is not so kind to everyone, you have to practically fight bears, wilderness survival during the snowstorm season, and apparently they also have to train you to know how to fight elves, especially the assassin ones."

Soren could already feel the blood drain from his face at that last bit. Elves were dangerous, and while he had never seen an elf before, he had a healthy dose of fear for them thanks to the scary stories one of their older cousins would tell the younger children. That and his father would tell him about how many times he narrowly died trying to retrieve ingredients for his magic spells while avoiding Sunfire, Skywing and even elusive Moonshadow elves.

"I'm...I'm not scared of some blood thirsty elf!" He states and yanks his sword out from the snowman. "I can take them! Even the Moonshadow and Sunfire ones!"

"Has Bjorn been telling you those dumb stories again?" Sigrid asks with a frown. "Elves don't drink blood Soren, just because they've missing fingers, have pointed ears, horns, magic and sometimes other weird features doesn't make them monsters."

"Eww, blood smells gross." Claudia gags as she is trying to repair the snowman. "I wouldn't want to be friends with someone who does that!"

"But daddy said they're evil and selfish." Soren points out.

"So are humans." Sigrid says with a shrug. "But enough talk about blood, I think Magnus and Claudia are going to be sick."

"Have you seen elves before?" Claudia asks Sigrid as her older cousin bends down to collect snow into her gloved hand.

"Yeah, my instructor actually took us on a trip to the border at Katolis a few weeks back and I actually came face to face with one." The teen responds, earning gasps from the children. "I was taking a walk along the area where the lava falls were when I saw one."

"What did it look like?" Magnus asks excitedly.

"He was a Sunfire elf, I was close enough to see he had the palest blue eyes I had ever seen, gold markings painted across his nose and on one cheek, and this fiery red hair that was pulled back in a braid and wore no armor but was carrying what looked like a sunforge blade. And he was just as surprised as I was when he saw me."

"Did you fight the elf?" Soren asks and his cousin shook her head.

"Nah, he just immediately turned and ran back the way he came. I did the same because one of my fellow cadets was calling out for me to come back."

"You didn't fight the elf?"

"I didn't even have my sword on me, just my knife strapped to my thigh. You think a weakling like me could take on a possibly jaded warrior like him?" Sigrid laughs as she holds up a misshapen snowball. "I'm not that dumb to take on an elf, I probably would have died or been taken prisoner."

"That's so boring Sig!" Soren states with a pout, earning another laugh from his cousin.

"That's being smart dummy, and I highly doubt I'll be fighting any elves considering how we have two kingdoms standing between us and Xadia for them to cross over." Sigrid says and smiles. "You know, I think someday this actually will stop. Maybe in a few years we'll be able to befriend elves again, and we won't have to worry about a war brewing."

"Uncle says it's impossible." Claudia pipes up. "Daddy said so as well, but mama says he's wrong about a lotta things."

"Yeah, like how dark magic is good." Sigrid scoffs as she stands up. "Alright enough sad talk, who wants to get the other cousins for a snowball fight before Granna calls us in for dinner?"