Three Years Later
"Oww! Dad be careful!" Enya yelped as she tried to jerk away from her father.
"I'm sorry Enya, but you know you can't move while I'm trying to attach the pieces of the cloth so we can sew them together." Damian apologized and his daughter grumbled something unintelligible. "Oh calm down, just a few more minutes and you can step out of the dress."
"Good because I really have to use the bathroom and my feet are hurting." Enya groaned before straightening herself again. There was a loud knock from the door of their workshop, but Damian just ignored it. "Dad, aren't you going to answer it?"
"Later, I've got to focus."
The door knocked again, this time a bit louder.
"Dad."
"Later Enya, tell them to leave."
"It's probably the king or lord Viren."
With a sigh, her father stopped his sewing to look over his shoulder to yell "it's open!" over his shoulder before turning back to his work. Enya watch the door open before the person outside poked their head into the room.
"Soren? What are you doing in here?" Enya asked in surprise as the young guard stepped into the room. "Wait, don't tell me, your training shirt got torn when sparring again?"
"Huh? Oh no! No that's not it!" Soren said quickly and held up a small bundle he held in his hands. "Claudia accidentally blasted my clothes with her dark magic and...it caused the shirt to come apart."
"One of these days that sister of yours is going to end up hurting herself with that magic, I swear. Damian muttered as he abandoned his work to take the bundle from Soren. "Let me take a look at the mess and I'll see what I can salvage. If it's a lost cause, I'll sew you a new shirt. Go sit on that stool next to Enya."
"Thank you sir." Soren said with a nod and went to sit.
"Can I sit dad? Please?" Enya begged.
"Go ahead, I'm going to be busy for a while."
With a sigh of relief, Enya climbed down from the stool to sit down and rubbed her aching legs.
"So...what's the occasion?" Soren asked gesturing to her dress. "Or is that for someone who's the same size as you?"
"It's her coming of age dress she gets to wear for her sixteenth birthday!" Damian yelled from his worktable. "She's going to be a woman soon!"
"Dad!" Enya groaned and Soren laughed before she silenced him with a look.
"So do you know what you want for your birthday this year?" Soren asked her. "Claudia has been going crazy trying to find the right gift for you. Like she keeps dragging me to the market and going through jewelry she thinks you'd like, though I think she wants to get you this really nice looking knife."
"I don't use knives, my dad won't let me." Enya points out in a low voice. "My dad won't even let me learn how to wield a sword or any kind of weapon, saying I don't need to know how to fight."
"Okay but what if someone tried to hurt you, like some drunk at a festival?" Soren asked, recalling how last year some drunk man had grabbed Enya by the arm. He would have struck the man down himself, but Claudia had beat him to it and set the man's pants on fire to allow Enya to escape. Of course afterwards he got to drag the man off and punch him when he tried attacking an unsuspecting Claudia.
"After that incident? I don't think anyone will want to hurt or mess with me. Also, you're forgetting I managed to knock you over with one blow to the head when we were kids."
"And here we go, again with reminding me of the most embarrassing moment of my life."
"Hey you were asking for it, you were too cocky and said 'hey I'll go easy on you!' like, seriously? Never tell a girl that, every."
"Okay I promise, but next time you want to spar to 'defend Callum's honor' again, I won't go easy and I will be ready."
Soren gave a small laugh before turning a bit serious. "So, what is the one thing you've always wanted for your birthday?"
"Well...I had always wanted a dog, but because my dad and I were struggling with keeping food on the table and we couldn't afford another mouth to feed we never got one." Enya explained and glanced at her father. "Also dad was worried that keeping a dog indoors would lead it to chewing on our work and unused cloth. And because we had a small workshop we didn't want the dog to feel crowded."
Soren nodded quietly. "Well at least you two are living a lot better now. You're getting paid well, have a much larger workshop, more cloth to work with, a better life for the both of you."
"Well the good news is that I can fix your shirt." Damian said getting up from his table and walked over to them. The two teens quickly faced away from each other to pay attention to him.
"And the bad news?" Soren questioned nervously.
"Oh it's going to stink in here for a while. Whatever your sister used to accidentally blast your shirt stinks to high heavens." Damian replied and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I'll have to wash it must, knowing the maids won't want to do it."
Enya heard him give a sigh of relief. "Oh good, I was expecting the worst."
"Like we couldn't save it? It was beyond repair and it was your favorite shirt?" Enya asks and looks at him puzzled. "How exactly did your shirt get in the crossfire of your sister's spell?"
"I was...taking it out of my closet to see if I could wear it and...she was practicing one of her weird spells and it just happened to hit it."
"Odd, normally her spells would have turned this to ashes or bewitched it into strangling you. What spell did she use again?"
"I don't know! I don't know the difference between a lot of her spells!"
"Alright enough yelling, Soren, go back to your room. Enya, back on your stool." Damian said ushering the teen out. "Come see me tomorrow afternoon if you need anything else to fix."
"Thank you sir, thank you so much!" Soren said as he hurried back to the door. "I'll be expecting a reply on my shirt by next week!"
"Strange boy." Damian chuckled to himself as he helped his daughter back onto the stool. "Thought he'd outgrown that funny little trait of his on saying the strangest of things."
"It's fine, better than him being stiff around me like all the other boys who are my age." Enya commented as she held her arms out. "It's kind of...cute honestly. I mean I know he can be stupid at times, but it's not that bad. Like just the other day when he heard one of the maids say she had corns on her feet he literally asked her if a mage did that to her."
Damian chuckled again and shook his head. "Well let's at least hope that boy matures in a few years, Vieren says he's close to becoming the youngest captain of the guard for this kingdom."
⚔️⚔️⚔️
"Happy birthday Enya!" Ezran yelled as he and Callum hugged their friend tightly. "You're sixteen now!"
"It doesn't feel anymore different than being fifteen, but this means I'm a year older now." Enya laughed and ruffled their hair. "And that means another year for the two of you boys as well, and you're both getting quite handsome by the year."
They held a small party in the courtyard near the workshop, just Enya, her father, Callum, Bait, Ezran, king Harrow Soren and Claudia seated around a small table that had been brought outside and covered it with a colorful tablecloth Enya's father had seen.
"I still can't believe you got Claudia to wear a dress that's not black!" Soren laughed as his sister glared at him and smoothed down the skirt of her new blue dress.
"I'm wearing this for my best friend, and it's a special occasion too." She scoffed and stuck her tongue out at him. "We're all wearing blue and green, which happen to be her favorite colors."
"My dress is actually teal, but it's kind of a mix of blue and green." Enya chuckled as Ez placed a crown of colorful flowers on her head. "Ez where did you get this?"
"The gardens!" The young prince replied happily. "A birthday gift from me and Bait!"
"Awww, you too are just so sweet!"
"I drew you something!" Callum added, handing her a folded up slip of paper. Enya carefully opened it to find a sketch of herself... riding a dragon and wearing a suit of armor? "I spent hours on it too!"
"This looks like you spent hours." Enya agreed, folding the drawing up and placing it down on the table to give him a hug. "And I love it! You really have became such an amazing artist!"
"Ooh ooh! We're next!" Claudia yelled as Soren ran off. "Okay so we spent a lot of time trying to get it, keep it nice and clean before we give it to you. You really gotta take very good care for it!"
"Claudia did you two get me a knife or something?" Enya asked and her friend shook her head.
"It's way better than a knife! And we had to ask your dad before we got it!" Claudia said and pulled her out of her seat. "Come on before Soren loses your present!"
Both Callum and Ezran followed the teens as they ran past the workshop to find Soren seated on the small bench under the tree with a blanket around his shoulders and trying his hardest not to move.
"Uh...Soren in a blanket is my present?" Enya asked in confusion as they came to a stop in front of him.
"Nope! Show her Soren!"
Soren grinned and opened his blanket to reveal a wiggling ball of black and white fur that was barking excitedly and leapt off his back to bound right towards Enya and knocked her right to the floor.
"Oh my gosh! You two got me a puppy!" Enya squealed as the little wiggling ball of fur yipped and licked her cheeks. "You actually got me a puppy! How?!"
"I actually found her on the streets when looking for something to give you in the town." Soren explained as he hurried over as Callum and Claudia we're trying to help Enya up. "Hungy, dirty and matted fur, but I saw a little fire in her eyes so I knew she deserved to live. Brought her back to my room to clean her off and feed and make sure she lived through the night. Of course I had to ask your dad if it was okay to give you a puppy."
"Well, this little lady is certainly going to be helpful when I need to make my deliveries." Enya laughed as she lifted her puppy up. "I think I'm gonna name you...Amaya!"
"After aunt Amaya?" Callum asked as Enya set her puppy down.
"Well she is quite fierce as your aunt, also it looks like she's already responding to it." Enya said as the puppy sat attentively at her feet, as if waiting for orders. "Aww look at her, she's sitting straight up like a soldier!"
Amaya barked proudly and puffed out her little chest, one ear sticking straight up and the other perked up slightly as she wagged her fluffy tail. Enya smiled and bent down to scoop her up into her arms and kissed the tip of her little wet nose.
"I have a feeling you're going to be a great help to me when you get older." The young tailor whispered to the pup and rubbed noses with her. "My little fearless warrior."
Enya's birthday dress!!!