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Chapter 4 - Sophie

"Soooooo, I'm guessing by the look on Blondie's face things didn't exactly go well," Ro said from the corner of her room.

Sophie shook her head and bit her trembling lip.

"What did he say?" someone asked, but she couldn't make out the voice over the pounding in her ears.

Sophie buried her face in her hands and refused to start crying again. If she was going to make any process, she had to stop breaking down at every little inconvenience.

It was stupid to think that Keefe would listen to her. She knew he was stubborn like that. She thought maybe hearing his voice would make her feel better, but hearing him and not being able to see him felt so gut-wrenching she couldn't handle it anymore.

Sophie trusted Keefe. Even after all they'd been through, in the end, she'd always depended on him. And... he'd broken that trust. Made her feel horrible. Like when he'd joined the Neverseen.

Fought King Dimitar.

Went to Loamnore even after she told him to stay away.

And now this.

Sure, she was mad at Keefe. Mad was probably an understatement to how she was feeling. But she was desperately longing for him too. She missed his jokes, his smirks, his smiles, everything about him. Most of the time she was torn between being so angry she couldn't think, or so sad she couldn't breathe.

Usually the sadness always won, making Sophie feel useless and desperate.

But not this time.

The conversation with Keefe had made her feel something else.

Something new, that she hadn't felt in so long.

Determined.

Determined to do whatever she could to find him. Determined to keep him safe.

And with that determination came another new emotion.

Hope.

A smile peeked at the edge of Sophie's lips at that thought. Maybe she had some hope left after all.

She kept that small burst of confidence in her mind as she looked out the window and saw a few dandelion seeds drifting by lazily in the wind. It instantly reminded her of a memory from only weeks ago, a few hours before they went to Loamnore.

Sophie's smile faded.

The sadness threatened to take over again as she remembered her and Keefe walking through Havenfield's pastures one afternoon. He had come over with Ro to check on Sophie to see how she was holding up. It was the last time she had seen him before all the awful things that had happened in the Dwarf Capital.

They were walking through an overgrown field of flowers with every type of plant possible blooming in the earth. Wind threw their hair around playfully, and Sophie had to keep tucking it behind her ear to keep it out of her face. Keefe laughed when she almost tripped from a strong gust of wind blowing her over.

He caught her in his arms just before she hit the ground and hauled her back up to her feet. "The Mysterious Miss F, clumsy as always."

Sophie tried to hide her blush, "Hey, I'm getting better."

"Maybe," Keefe admitted with a smirk, "but it seems that I'm always catching you."

She rolled her eyes, but a smile still peeked through. Together they continued walking through the fields, both of them enjoying each other's company. Sophie spotted the baby alicorns playing underneath Calla's Panakes tree, swooping and driving through the petals and causing purple and pink to scatter in the air. At that moment she had felt peaceful, her worries drifting away on the breeze.