Moonlark Rising

Sadness ;-;

Keefe

Keefe stared down the path at his father's house. He really didn't want to see him again and be subjected to a lecture about how he had to be more responsible, or worse, how his new power should be used to elevate his father's status. 

He wrinkled his nose then continued down the path quickly.

Maybe he could slip past his dad and avoid an uncomfortable situation, but even if he couldn't, he would take a lecture from his dad with a fake smile plastered over his face if it meant he could finally get out of the healing center and start looking for Foster. 

Opening the door quietly, he held it for Ro, then gently shut it again, signaling to Ro to be quiet. He had almost made it to his room and temporary safety when his dad stepped out into the hallway. 

The brief flash of surprise on his dad's face was almost worth the epic length talk he got from his dad. Finally, Lord Cassius let Keefe go, and he threw his notebook on his folded down bed. His dad had obviously had his room cleaned, but he had luckily missed most of Keefe's hiding spots.

Smiling to himself, he tucked his notebook back into its drawer, rigging the bacteria tube Ro let him borrow into its place in the trap. There. Now, at least if his dad came poking around in here while Keefe was looking for Foster, he would get a faceful of bacteria if he tried to get at Keefe's sketchbook.

Smiling, he pulled out a paint set and a few beads. Sticking his tongue out slightly, he began painting each bead carefully, not really thinking about the designs. He set the first one down to dry and continued, making enough for a bracelet. 

He picked up the first bead carefully now that it was dry and looked at it. The design made a lump stick in his throat.

A moonlark. He carefully picked up each bead. A panakes blossom. A direwolf. Silveny. An image of his flight across the sea with Sophie. He wished he could be a telepath like Fitz and locate Sophie by her thoughts like Silveny.

His heart leaped into his throat. That.... might work. If he told the mama alicorn about Sophie's disappearance, and if she was somewhere Silveny could transmit to her, then Silveny could easily find her. 

Even if Silveny just saw her, even if she ran, it would be okay with Keefe. As long as the plan worked. He needed to know she was alive and free. Then he could adjust his plan to be able to go to her and convince her to come back. 

He was sure that he could, if only he could get her to listen. He put the bead in his hand down and began pacing.

Ro called to him from the corner, "Oooh! You're pacing again! Are you still worried about your girlfriend or have you finally come up with an actual plan to find her, rescue her and convince her to come back and on top of it all FINALLY tell her about your little crush? 

Because as long as you include me in all of your little plans, I'm all for it! I don't know about you, but I think it's your turn to be Blondie's hero."

Keefe smiled at Ro, thankful that she was going to help him. If he had any other bodyguard like Sandor, he would have been stopped immediately. He knew that Ro thought he would try to sneak away without her, but he actually would need her help for this.

"Well..." Keefe said. "It involves one very worried mama alicorn and a whole lot of luck. Unfortunately, we'll probably also need Fitzy to talk to Silveny afterward so we can hear what she said."

Ro's face lit up when she began to understand. "OOH! You're right! That sparkly flying horse can't be blocked by Blondie, so if she can connect to her mind then teleport there and back, you can get your BFF to talk to her so you can learn what happened." 

Ro smiled. "Except for the part where Fitzy learns what happened first, it sounds pretty good. Project Alicorn is a great idea! Now how are we going to convince Grady to let you talk to the sparkly horse?" Keefe smiled at her.

"We tell the truth, or a version of it. We tell him that we wanted to ask Silveny and Greyfell if they knew anything about Sophie's disappearance. That will explain Fitz's presence, and why we're talking to the alicorns. 

If the plan works, we can tell Grady what we learned. 

If not, we tell him Silveny didn't know anything."

"Works for me." Ro said. "All you have to do is convince Fitz to work with you, then talk to a horse and ask her to find Blondie. Seems easy enough then." 

Keefe knew that just like with every other plan, it would most likely be harder in practice than in theory, but it was a plan, and right now he was a little short on those.

'Don't worry, Foster.' Keefe found himself trying to broadcast his thoughts, hoping that she would hear his thoughts echoing towards her. 'I'll save you. No matter what.'

This one was sweet :D