Falling For His Charms

CHAPTER 28

They had finally found the triplets in one of the kitchens (apparently there were seven total in the castle), stealing blitzenberry muffins. Rex had blitzenberry all over his face, Lex looked like he had eaten so much that he was going to be sick, and Bex was nibbling on her second muffin.

Finally, the older elves had been able to pull the younger three away from the food, and walked with them down the corridors. Sophie turned to Fitz and Keefe.

"Thank you so much for the help, however I think that I can handle these three for now. You two boys probably have more important things to do, anyway."

"Are you sure? " Fitz asked, his eyebrows furrowed. "We can help, you know."

She smiled at him and nodded, reassuring him. He smiled back and gazed into her eyes, admiring the way her hazelnut brown eyes mixed with honey yellow swirls, shining in the light coming from a nearby window. Her blonde eye lashes blinked up and him, and he felt a fluttery feeling in his chest.

"Am I the only one feeling the chemistry in between these two?" Keefe asked the triplets, who sniggered at his question.

"Oh, you're not the only one," Bex replied, grinning evilly, as her brothers wiggled their eyebrows. Sophie sighed, and shot a glare at Keefe for starting this.

"Any who, Fitzy-boy here and I have important business to attend," Keefe chirped, swinging his arm around his friend's shoulder. Fitz rolled his eyes.

"Correction: I have important business to attend to, and I'm just bringing you along because you won't go away."

Keefe scooched over to Sophie, and whispered in her ear, "He's lying." Sophie simply chuckled.

The triplets and Sophie waved at the two boys until they rounded the corner, then she turned to the children.

"Who wants to go visit Dex?"

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Sophie knocked softly on the huge white door. This is where King Alden had told Sophie to go if she had wanted to visit Dex, and she was nervous that she had gotten the wrong door, especially when nobody answered. She glanced down at the triplets, not wanting to get their hopes up, and she saw them staring at the door in anticipation. Sighing, she knocked again, harder this time, and someone finally opened the door.

The man was wearing big goofy glasses, which made Sophie jump for a second; she had not been expecting that. Grinning, he elf lifted his glasses, showing his bright blue eyes.

"Hello, my name is Elwin. What can I do for you?"

"Oh, hello. We, um, w-we're here to see Dex Dizznee," Said Sophie, almost as a question. Elwin chuckled and opened the door wider, to let them in.

"I suppose that you're the older sister?" He asked as he led the way to Dex's bed. "You look far too young to be a mother."

Sophie let out a small laugh. "No, I'm not related to the Dizznees in any way; I'm their soon-to-be adoptive sister."

Elwin nodded, and didn't ask why in case it was a touchy subject; in which case, it was. He brought them over to grey curtains, which he pulled back to reveal Dex sleeping. Sophie sucked in a breath.

"Is he sleeping, or is he.... Unwillingly unconscious."

"He's sleeping, don't you worry," Reassured Elwin with a smile. "I have given him all the treatments he needed, so all he needs to do now is rest and take a daily medication."

"Is... Is he going to be okay? " Rex squeaked from beside his older brother, and he was holding his hand. Lex was sitting in a chair next to the bed with his knees pulled into his chest, staring at the sleeping figure, while Bex stood in a corner staring at the ground darkly.

"Of course! He's feeling much better than he did yesterday, he told me himself."

Everyone sighed in relief. Sophie thanked Elwin for taking care of Dex, before going to sit next to Lex on another chair. Elwin walked away to give them some privacy, and the four of them sat in silence.

After a few minutes, Lex broke the silence, whispering. "He looks so peaceful."

"Yes, he does." Sophie agreed.

"When Mommy and Daddy died, do you think that..." He took a deep breath. "That were peaceful like this?"

Sophie didn't answer for a moment. She had forgotten that Dex hadn't told his siblings how their parents were killed, only just that they hadn't made it. She placed her hand delicately onto the boys' smaller one, and she made him look into her eyes.

"I'm sure they were thinking of you all along the journey, hoping that you were alright. "

"But where are they now? What happens after someone... Goes?" He asked; being seven years old, death didn't make much sense to him. All he knew about it was that you never, ever saw the person again.

Sophie, on the other hand, didn't know how to answer that question. She gathered up her memories, to one of her most dearest and guarded ones.

"One time, before I was adopted-"

"You were adopted?!" Lex whisper-screamed.

She nodded. "Grady and Edaline kindly took me in when I was five years old."

"Wow..."

"Yes, they were very kind, and still are, since they are going to help you now," She booped his nose, and he giggled.

"So as I was saying, before I was adopted, I lived in a very nice home with my parents. I can't remember exactly what they looked like, what their names were, but... I can remember their voices, and things that they had told me. One year, my aunt passed away from a terrible disease."

"I'm sorry," Lex said, squeezing her hand. Sophie smiled and kissed his forehead.

"It's alright, you didn't do anything." Lex nodded, eager to her the rest of the story.

"So, when I didn't see her around anymore, and why people looked so sad at her funeral, I asked my mother, 'Where is she? Where has she gone?' I was only three then. My mother took my hand and told me that she had died. Being so young, I still didn't understand... " She sighed, thinking over these memories.

"When we had gotten back home, I asked her another question, 'What does that mean, when we're dead? Where do you go?' She had made me sit down on the couch, and she told me, in the most motherly voice, 'Your aunt is up in the stars, where the brightest ones go, looking over us, protecting us'."

Lex gasped. "Really?"

"I think so... We can never really prove something for sure without having anyone ever going and coming back, but I'm sure that that's what happens."

"Wow," He breathed, before running towards the window, looking up at the bright blue sky. He turned back to Sophie. "Can we go star gazing tonight?"