The Caged Lark's Song

Unraveling Truth

Sophie

While Mabel was freaking out, Sophie was calculating. She had arrived as soon as the characters from D, D&D had gone flying through the side of the shack.

Checking her mini-void in her pocket for her long silver daggers, she joined the now fully assembled crew that had been ready to watch Ducktective only a few minutes earlier. 

Sophie led them into the forest, easily bypassing the normalish parts for the part that truly hummed with magic from all around. Eventually, the group came upon a troll that asked them to complete math problems. 

Grenda solved that by smashing him over the head with a chair. Mabel being Mabel thought he was fine, and nobody wanted to correct her. 

Sophie signaled that she was going to distract the wizard, and that they needed to be ready for an attack, but also try to free their twins. 

She walked around carefully, then climbed a tree and watched Probabilitor start threatening her friends.

Dropping down from the branches, she said "That sounds lovely, but how about instead we compete. Dungeons, Dungeons, and more Dungeons. I'll be the third member of the party if you want. 

I'm plenty smart, but I'm also smart about not showing how smart I am, so ya missed me. If you win, you'll be able to eat my brain too."

Probabilitor accepted, and Sophie shrunk down on her own, a few seconds before Dipper and Ford, then levitated up to the board. 

Seeing the second-fast expression on the nameless elf-like creature's face made Sophie feel a bit better. He clearly had a mind of his own, even if he didn't use it much. 

He didn't like the idea of someone's brain getting eaten, especially someone that might be an elf. As soon as Probabilitor cast his 'ogres' into the arena, Sophie used a shard of glass and the heat of her inflicting to melt the stones beneath one of their feet into sludge that immediately hardened around him. 

Mabel and Grunkle Stan began casting spells for the others in the arena, but Sophie pulled her daggers out and cut down the holographic creatures easily, jumping off the walls and the creatures she was defeating. 

After a kill, she used bursts of levitation to lift herself into the air so she could rain down on the next enemy.

The game board melted away from reality, and they returned to size shortly after the boys had defeated a creature so formidable and disgusting that it had been banned shortly after its release. 

Sophie ignored the wizard that was slowly disintegrating into pure math and instead sheathed her daggers and went over to the stereotypical elf.

She bowed to him and said, "May your path be straight, the skies true and your heart pure. You are the master of your own life. Follow the path of the sun, friend."

 Sophie was using the word friend in the sense that they were, in essence, elves. They had been changed, but they were elves.

Grunkle Ford said roughly, "What was that language?"

Sophie was not in the mood for questions, but she said, "The language of my people," knowing that they would keep asking questions if she didn't.

Before she had melted fully into the forest, Dipper called out "WAIT! Does this mean you're an elf?" 

Sophie smiled, and although she didn't confirm it verbally, she dipped her head slightly, then left to continue down the path she had chosen.

Even if Ford, the author, knew of the barrier, he wouldn't take it down for her in fear of the triangle demon Bill, she suspected.

Sophie had a feeling, like a sort of... mental presence at the edges of her consciousness that she was sure was causing mayhem throughout the town but had not yet tried to possess her. 

She suspected the reason she was being kept here had more to do with the dorito shaped deity than she knew yet.

Dipper

Dipper was extremely worried about Bill invading Gravity Falls, but luckily they were taking precautions. Mabel and her friends (plus Wendy to look after them) went to go find unicorn hair, but Ford wasn't optimistic about their chances.

Dipper was sitting in the chair trying to strengthen his mental barriers and thinking about Luna. 

He and Grunkle Ford had updated the elf category a little bit, mostly about their looks, since Luna looked exactly like a normal human, except way prettier, and the elf category said they were uglier. 

She had also demonstrated more powers, and Grunkle Ford had theorized that some of those powers were specific to her.

If she had gone with Mabel and the rest of the questing group, Dipper would feel a bit better about their chances against Bill. 

Luna had experience wrangling mythical creatures, and she knew how to deal with unicorns in particular. His gaze shifted to Grunkle Ford, who had fallen asleep in a chair by hour three of waiting for Dipper's memories to encrypt.

Dipper wondered what he was dreaming, and before he could think twice, he slipped the helmet on Grunkle Ford's head.

Keefe

Keefe was almost out of places to look for Foster. He sat down on a bench, and watched Mabel and Wendy plus two girls Keefe hadn't met before run down the hill towards him.

They ran up to him and Mabel said excitedly, "Hi Keefe! What's this piece of paper say?" Before he could stop her, Mabel picked up a sign that had dropped onto the ground and studied the picture of Sophie.

"Huh," Wendy said. "It kinda looks like Luna. I'll let you know if I see her though. What's her name?" 

Wendy saw the similarities too.

"Sophie Foster."

But doppelgangers were pretty common. Keefe wanted to find her, more than anything, but he had to be patient. Sophie wouldn't hide from them without a reason.

He kept walking, looking left and right for any sign of her. His eyes caught on a small scratch in the pavement. 

Keefe's heart leapt when he saw the familiar swan, then took a nosedive. Scratched into the pavement next to it was a simple message: This town is a danger. Any who come may be trapped. You are warned. 

Keefe had been partially right. Sophie was, in fact, trapped. He didn't feel good about it, though, for more reasons than just the fact she was in danger.

If she was trapped, it would mean that she would not want them to try to undo the trap for fear they would get caught too.

Geesh, younger me was a little devil. I am going to try to finish up posting today so I can shift my focus to finishing other books before I begin one of the many crazy ideas I have stacking up.