Sophie stared at the moonlark symbol she'd drawn. Not exactly like how Keefe would draw, but Mr. Forkle was right; it was a pretty good symbol.
Keefe...
"I wanna show this to Keefe," she said. "He might like it. Or at least give pointers. After all, he is the artist in the group."
Even Mr. Forkle chuckled a little.
"Hopefully Mr. Sencen will be up to the visit," he said.
Soon, Sophie glittered onto Splendor Plains. She had no idea where in the large house Keefe was staying, but she knew Elwin knew this place, so she decided to start there.
"Sophie! I thought I wouldn't see you!" Elwin said, squeezing Sophie into a hug, then quickly broke off. "Wait, don't tell me--you have another injury? Ailment? Near-death experience?"
Sophie grunted a little. She had so many brushes with death that people, especially Keefe, had started joking about it. Keefe now said that whenever she had a near-death experience, she was simply "Fostering" it.
"I'm fine, for once," she said, trying to hold back her giggles. "I'm actually here to see Keefe about... um... some drawing... thing."
Elwin's face twisted into a frown.
"What do you mean?" he asked, confused. "I haven't seen Keefe anywhere."
Sophie scrunched her face in confusion.
"What do you mean, you haven't seen Keefe anywhere?" she asked.
"I saw him last night, but went to check on him this morning, and he wasn't there," Elwin explained. "There was no note or anything to explain where he'd gone."
Sophie wrinkled her nose.
Maybe she could head back home, grab her Imparter, hail Oralie, and ask her to check Keefe's feed to see where he'd gone.
So she ended up in Havenfield, rushing up to her room.
"Anything wrong?" Grady asked.
"Keefe's missing," Sophie said. "I went to check on him at Splendor Plains, but Elwin says he hasn't seen Keefe since last night."
She swore she saw Grady pale.
"Where's Keefe?" she asked, beginning to panic. "Did he tell you where he went?"
"Well... he didn't actually tell me where, but..." Grady stammered.
Sophie didn't reply; she rushed up the stairs to her bedroom.
The first thing she noticed was Iggy.
He'd changed color again, this time a mermaid rainbow hue with tiger stripes.
"Did Dex come in here?" she wondered aloud, and Iggy let out a burp.
This didn't seem like Dex's work, though...
That's when she saw the parchment underneath his cage.
Sophie gently lifted the cage up and found a letter underneath. She skimmed over many different phrases and stuff, until she got to the sentence that broke her heart.
I'm going to hide the same way the Black Swan hid you.
Sophie choked, blinking back tears as she finished the letter.
I'm going to hide the same way the Black Swan hid you.
That's why you have to stay away. Well, there are lots of reasons. So again, please, just... trust me, okay?
YOU ARE READING
Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Second Moonlark (a KOTLC/MLB crossover)
FanfictionThe Black Swan had kept everyone in the dark for fourteen years. Sure, they had kept Sophie Foster from the Lost Cities for twelve years, but they had another large secret that had gone on for even longer. You see, the Black Swan had been prepared...
