The Sorceress And Her Nightmare

Finding Mia

"Mr. Cedric!" Sofia called as she burst back into the workshop.

Cedric jumped at his workshop door almost flying open, dropping the vial he was about to put his finished potion in. The vial fell and shattered on contact with the floor.

Sofia winced at the sound of breaking glass. "Sorry."

Cedric took out his wand and cleaned up the mess. "It's alright. But this is why I keep extras."

Sofia shook her head. They were getting off track. Running forward and taking Cedric's hand, she headed out the door. "Come on!"

Cedric yelped as the princess dragged him away. "Sofia! Where are we going?" He did a small double take, raising an eyebrow. "And when did you change?"

Gone were Sofia's sorceress robes. Instead, she wore her StoryKeeping adventure outfit her Aunt Tillie gave her.

"I'll explain later. We need to find Mia."

Cedric softly gasped and made them stop, pulling his hand away from Sofia. Conveniently enough, they had stopped at the entrance to the stairs to Cedric's workshop tower. "Wait, how do you know where she is?" He's tried to find her for years, and with no luck!

Sofia sighed. "I don't... Know exactly where she is. But I have an idea where, and it's a start. Please, Mr. Cedric, trust me. I think she's in trouble."

Now it was Cedric's turn to sigh. "... Alright. Meet me outside in fifteen minutes."

Sofia beamed at him. "Great!" She turned to run outside again when Cedric gently grabbed her arm.

"Ah ah ah. On one condition." He crouched down to look her in the eye. "If it gets too dangerous, for any reason, we both come home, with... With or without her." It hurt him to say it, but he didn't want to take any chances. Especially with Sofia.

Sofia nodded. "Deal."

Fifteen minutes later, Cedric met Sofia by the stables with a small bag of 'just in case' potions and a few spare wands.

They each got on a flying horse, Sofia naturally on Minimus, and started south.

"Um, Sofia? Where are we going, exactly? And how do you know Mia's in trouble?" Cedric asked. Sofia did still owe him an explanation.

Not exactly sure how else to explain, Sofia told him about the Secret Library. When she finished, he still seemed very confused, but for the sake of not getting a headache, he left it alone.

"As for where we're going, we're heading to a forest a few miles from Hexley Hall."

Cedric stared at the princess with a dumbfounded expression. "You don't mean the Forbidden Forest?" Why didn't he think of that before? Oh, right, because it's called the Forbidden Forest for a reason and didn't possibly think Mia was desperate or insane enough to go there.

"If that's the name of the forest, I would assume so." She really didn't like the fact they called it the Forbidden Forest.

Only half an hour later they arrived at the edge of the forest and landed to give the horses a break.

The trees of the forest seemed to loom over them. The trees had to be at least twenty feet tall, with a canopy so thick that hardly any light shone through, making it so they wouldn't be able to see five feet ahead of them. Cedric was already regretting telling Wormwood to stay behind.

Taking out his wand and muttering a simple light spell that surrounded the tip of the wand in a ball of white light, Cedric told Sofia to stay close together as they went in.