Falling For His Charms

CHAPTER 56

Sophie was walking along a gravel path, the dark, starry sky above her. She heard barely any noise; the only sound was the light breeze whistling in her ears, and the sound of her shoes grinding on the gravel. The path continued as far as she could see, and grassy planes surrounded her.

She walked for seconds, minutes, hours, she didn't know. The path never stopped, never looked any different than it did a minute earlier. You could think that she wasn't moving forward at all. As of her legs were moving, but she couldn't go further.

Suddenly, out of the thick silence, she heard a voice.

"Sophie," It whispered, soft, barely audible. The young elf stopped walking, and stood listening. "Sophie."

She looked around frantically, looking for a cause of the noise. There was none.

"Hello?" She asked, so naive. Everyone knew that saying "hello" into a void never did any good to anyone. Were the stars talking to her? Out of curiosity, she looked up, and stared at the bright flecks in the navy blue sky. "Are you talking to me?" She asked.

Sophie received no answer, evidently. Then what was calling her name?

"Sophie?" Whatever it was said once more, more clear, and said like a question. "Sophie?"

Sophie looked everywhere again, flailing around helplessly. She ran down the path, hopefully towards this mysterious voice. "I can hear you! Just tell me where you are!" She cried.

"Sophie!" The voice said, now accented. Much like... Fitz?

His panicked voice echoed through the air, shattering Sophie's heart. Where was he? She needed to get to him! Then out of thin air, far off in the distance, a small light appeared. It seemed to be all the way at the end of the path. Sophie's heart leapt with excitement; maybe that's where Fitz was. She sprinted as fast as she could, ignoring the fact that her lungs burned, and her legs began to get sore.

However, no matter how fast she ran, she never got closer to the light. On the contrary, it seemed to fade farther and farther away. Desperate, Sophie reached her arms out, as if she could grab the distant light with her fingers.

"Fitz! Fitz! No! Please don't go! Please... No..."

The light was fading from her vision completely. If she didn't do something, she'd be enveloped in darkness, all alone. "No, no, no..." She helplessly repeated, crumbling to her knees, slowly falling apart-

Sophie sat up in bed, gasping for breath. She could some liquid dripping down her face; she didn't know whether it was sweat or tears. Elwin appeared ot of the corner of her eye, looking concerned.

"Bad dream?"

She nodded, and hastily wiped her eyes. He gave her a sympathetic look.

"With the amount of medicine and elixirs I gave you, that's bound to be one of the side effects. I'm sorry, I should have told you."

Too tired to respond, she nodded, and layed back down slowly. It was now late afternoon, around 7pm, meaning that the Everglen troops had been gone for nearly five hours. At around 4pm, seeing how exhausted and bored Sophie was, Elwin forced her to take a nap. Sophie would never admit it, but she was thankful that he had done so; she hadn't slept that well in a very long time.

"Here, why don't you have something to eat? You must be starving," Suggested Elwin, his voice kind, and Sophie could hear him rummaging around in cupboards. He let out a disappointed sigh. "Sorry Sophie, but there's no more food in here. I'm going to have to go to the kitchen tent and get you something. Are you alright here on your own?"