UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 42

"Helloooooooo Foster," somebody said from above Sophie, but as soon as she heard the nickname she knew exactly who it was.

"Keefe, what are you doing?" she asked, trying to pull her eyes open.

"Waking you up, duh!  Check out the view." He helped her sit up as she tried to get her bearings.

She was sitting on Luna who was fluttering and flapping her wings as they sailed over Havenfield.  Keefe was sitting on Wynn with a smirk that made Sophie stare for just a minute longer than she should've of.  She blushed and looked forward as they started to race across Eternelia.

Sophie had never really payed attention to where things were in the Elvin world because light crystals could leap you to wherever you needed to go. Now she could see the whole city, the entire Lost cities and everything looked majestic and sparkling in the new day's sunlight.

They finally spiraled to a stop in front of Foxfire.  Wynn and Luna bent down as Keefe helped Sophie off and the two twin, baby alicorns went fluttering across the blue sky again.  They stumbled into the Healing Center together- which, if nobody knew better, was like putting an atomic bomb in the room.

There was one collective gasp and then there was hugging and Sophie had know idea who was even wrapping their arms around her and sobbing but she hugged them back and cried right along with them.

And then finally, Elwin made them both come in to get checked up and guzzle an entire tray of about a dozen chunky, gross, colorful elixirs that burned Sophie's throat and cleared her head.

And then before Sandor could launch into full lecture mode, Sophie made sure that she very, very carefully positioned the blame on Adela and not her- otherwise she would probably be grounded for life.  That had happened a lot of times, but elves simply didn't seem to like following the rules, did they?

They did before I came along, Sophie thought, unsure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"So you've been communicating with my sister every single night since your encounter with her at Nightfall?" Mr. Forkle asked, the ruckleberries making it impossible to read his expression, but his eyes were full of regret and hurt and a million other emotions even Keefe wouldn't be able to decifer.

"Yeah," Sophie mumbled, staring down at her hands as she took a swig from her Bottle of Youth.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Sandor demanded, looking less than pleased that Sophie had sneaked off without him.

"I don't know... maybe I just didn't want you guys to think I was a freak or something."

"Okay, one, Foster- if I was to say you weren't a freak you'd start arguing that you were- so say that I said you were a freak. We like freaks!  We're all freaks in this place, okay?  In Fitzey's famous words-"

"We could all use a little more weird in our lives," Fitz said with a smile- that for some reason didn't make her heart melt of flutter anymore.

"So feel free to tell us anything, okay Sophie?" Dex said, flashing her a dimpled grin.

"I'll try," she relented. "But.. it's not easy being me."

"Somebody should really get that embroidered on a tunic," Keefe reasoned, looking like he was actually thinking.  "Along with your other quote, 'there's never a good time to almost die' and maybe 'I totally Fostered it!' and then every time somebody almost dies we'll get them Foster accessories and then-"

"Somebody shut him up," Fitz grumbled.

"Gladly," Ro said, prancing over and sticking a wad of balled up gauze in his mouth.  She looked around the room and gave a very un-graceful curtsy.

The room applauded.