The Caged Lark's Song

I wanted a break and this is what you gave me?

Sophie

Sophie jumped backwards over the cliff. Yeah, Sandor would be more mad than Verdi at bathtime, but she needed a break from expectations. They had defeated the Neverseen, but there was still work to be done on getting the world back to normal. 

First, Sophie just wanted to stare up at the sky and forget her problems. She had carefully unlatched her registry pendant, set it on her desk, and exchanged her elven clothing for human-style wear. No sense in getting caught by astronomers.

She focused on a picture of a small town in Oregon with a pair of cliffs, each with a wedge taken out of them, perfect to sit on and think. The thunder cracked and she settled on the ledge, watching the moon and counting the stars. 

There was a small town below her, silhouetted by moonlight and surrounded by trees. Her eyes were drawn back up to the sky.

There were so many constellations there, meaning that the spot she had chosen was so remote there was no light pollution whatsoever. 

Looking across at the other cliff, she realized something. The valley's shape was like what humans thought an U.F.O. would look like. Smiling, Sophie amused herself by looking over the town. 

All of the buildings were small. Her eyes were drawn to a light in the windows of the cabin in the middle of the woods. There was someone... watching her. The person saw her. Sophie jumped off the ledge, focusing on Havenfield, her home. There was a crack, and then another crack, and she was dumped... right back where she started.

What in the name of Everblaze was going on? She floated up carefully, until she was right next to the town barrier. She reached out and tapped the barrier, seeing the yellow shock ripple into a dome. 

She was stuck. 

Sophie had left her Imparter, and she was too tired to send a telepathic message to anyone. Besides, she wouldn't want to call her friends and have them get stuck too. 

First things first, she would walk to town. (She didn't want to be seen floating.) Sophie tried to walk quietly, but she kept tripping over branches shrouded in shadow. The itchy feeling of being stuck in her own skin she had begun to get recently didn't help with her nerves. She wished that she had the eyes of an owl, so she would stop bonking into things.

Dipper

"Hey Mabel... I just saw something on the cliff."

"Really?" Mabel said, sitting up on her knees to look out the window. Suddenly, a golden ripple spread over the town for a second.

"Huh." Mabel said. "That's weird. We can investigate tomorrow." Mabel turned back around and promptly fell asleep, but Dipper couldn't relax.

Suddenly, a bright silver owl burst from the trees and flew up to the tallest pine tree around, settling there carefully. 

There were so many mysteries in Gravity Falls, and now Dipper had another one. Was it a ghost?

Or maybe it was an Owlcat... whatever it was, Dipper had goosebumps all over his arms. He knew that anyone could be anything. Dipper wondered about Bill and the author almost daily.

But unlike the author of the journals, he trusted his friends and family. If you didn't have anyone to watch your back, you were in more danger, not only from the monsters but your own mistakes.

Dipper knew that firsthand. He and his sister had already met and bested many creatures together. His mind wandered to Bill. 

The dorito shaped demon was crazy, and Dipper had this horrible feeling that he would continue to mess with their minds and their lives.

Finally, he was able to fall into sleep.

The next morning, Dipper and Mabel went down to the Gift Shop to get ready for the first tour group of the day. They found Grunkle Stan interviewing a blonde girl with midnight purple hair tips who was about 5'3 and very relaxed despite the interrogation-like interview from Grunkle Stan .

"If a cop starts poking around, what do you do?"

The girl smiled, then said, "I keep him away from the office, direct him away from any illegal activities and then sell him a souvenir keychain."

Grunkle Stan considered that for a second, then said, "And you have no papers, take cash only and previously worked as a wild animal wrangler?"

The girl nodded, and Grunkle Stan said "You're HIRED!" 

Keefe

Keefe looked around the room nervously. Sophie had gone missing. After the battle. 

That meant that either they hadn't captured enough of the Neverseen to defeat them for good, which Keefe doubted, or Sophie had gone to the human world to relax a bit, without having the high expectations of the elvin world on her shoulders.

When Sandor showed them the penned note, that option seemed even more likely. 

In true Foster fashion, it read: 

Don't worry, I'm fine. I went to hang out in the Neutral Territories until things calmed down a bit. I'm in a forest close to this small town, so there won't be humans around this late. I'll be back in an hour. 

♡ Sophie.

Keefe frowned. She should be back by now...

Sophie was in danger. They quickly came up with a plan: they would split up, searching the parks in disguise. Keefe had the west of the United States, which was good, since he had no idea how to speak anything but English.

Luckily, Councillor Oralie approved of the plan, so they agreed to begin searching the next day. As Keefe light leaped away with Ro clinging to his arm, he wondered why Oralie cared so much about Sophie. 

It was true that it seemed practically impossible to hate Foster, but even from the beginning Oralie was on Sophie's side. That somehow got stuck in Keefe's mind, but Ro quickly distracted him.

"Yeesh. Did Blondie run away on purpose and leave that note to buy time? If so, my respect for her has definitely grown."

Keefe glared at her. "Foster's honest. If she was running away from home, she would tell us, and give some half-baked reasoning like trying to 'protect' the elven cities."

Keefe hoped that was true. Otherwise, Foster might not want to be found.

So IK this is kinda trash, please be kind :D