❝𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐜𝐲.❞ ― 𝑴𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒙 𝑲𝒐𝒕𝒍𝒄

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟎.𝟓┊ 𝑺𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒆

At night, Sophie was startled by a yank on her pajamas sleeve.

Sleep had somehow found its way to her, even though it seemed impossible a few hours ago. But sleep always came with nightmares... at least for her. 

She was dreaming about the Neverseen finding Keefe... trapping him... and Sophie and the gang had tried their best to save him. They'd run all the way to him... out of breath, but it was too late.

The Neverseen were too strong, and too fast. They pulled Keefe away, out of Sophie's reach... into the light of a leaping crystal. 

"No! Keefe! Keeeefe!" Sophie screamed hysterically. She wasn't losing him again.

The last thing she saw was Keefe being pulled away by his sleeve.

"No- I'm going WITH YOU! I'd go there and defeat you all and get him back- and this'd be all over!" Sophie cried. She tried running forward desperately... the light was fading... they were going to be gone...

And Sophie was determined to get them this time.

Please, move forward, she begged her legs. It seemed like time was mocking her, making her slow down. But no- there was something holding her back. Restraints. She couldn't... move... She could literally hear someone laughing, so loud... She tried to block it out...

A final burst of strength, and the barriers broke. She lunged forward, ready to let the warm light wrap around her...

Only to hit herself on the wall really hard. 

Sophie's eyes flew open and she became fully aware of a throbbing head, four or five pairs of blinking eyes, screams, the door flying open (with so much force, the hinges almost fell off), a big block of muscle blocking the doorway, and footsteps rushing in, shoving the big block as they entered, concerned. It was a lot to take in right after you had a nightmare in the middle of the night, especially since she just woke up. 

"Sophie? Is she alright? What happened?" So many different voices and questions from all directions. A headache flared, and Sophie groaned. "Give her a break ... Elwin..." Bits of a conversation registered in her mind.

She felt herself being whisked away. Her body was still in shock. Somewhere along the way, the world went black, and she slacked in the arms of her bodyguard.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sophie opened her eyes for the second time of the night, and bright lights flashed in her eyes. Wincing, she shut them tightly. She smelled medicine - Elwin's clinic. Again.

Trying to sit up, Sophie saw Elwin get some medicine. 

"Ah, you woke up," he said. "Thank goodness. You passed out on the way here. Did you remember waking up just now?"

"...Yeah, I was having my daily nightmare." Sophie recalled. 

"Daily?" Elwin raised an eyebrow. "That sounds a little ... never mind. What was it about?"

"Oh.. um, nothing. Related to the Neverseen."

Elwin waited for Sophie to continue, but she didn't, so he didn't push it. "Your friends - Biana, Dex, Tam, Fitz, and Marella were found in your room when you woke up," Elwin informed Sophie. That explained the five pairs of eyes she saw... but why were they there? Elwin seemed stumped too. From the questioning way he was staring at her, it seemed that he thought Sophie knew something about this, because one, they were her friends, two, some of them were from Team Valiant, and she could have asked them to meet up at her room or something at midnight. 

"Why would I do such a thing?" Sophie asked after Elwin told her his suspicions. "Have you seen how draining this has been - I look tired - even by my standards." 

Elwin agreed. "You need more sleep, that is true - but that means if you didn't know they were coming, then they came on their own. They are currently being questioned by the adults... the rest of them are outside, waiting to know if you had any serious injuries. Well, knowing you, no one knows what to expect." A half-smile formed on his lips. 

Sophie didn't smile, and he stopped too. "I got them outside because it'll be pretty traumatizing... Waking up from a nightmare and banging your head on the opposite wall, questions bombarding you, fainting on the way to my clinic, bright lights in your eyes when you come to, and add a dozen or more people looking at you concernedly and asking you a lot of questions again? Not very ideal. But let's get back on track - I think you have a bruise on your forehead - it would be kind of sore for some time, but it'll heal fine in a few days. Nothing serious, as far as I can see. I'd do a few more tests for you, and if nothing else, I'd let you go back to bed." Elwin told her as he shuffled through shelves and rows of little bottles with tiny lables on them. "I am curious, though, how did you end up hitting the wall on the other side of your bed? You didn't run towards it, did you?" 

Sophie blushed. "I have no idea. I felt something pull my shoulder in my dream, and the Neverseen was taking Keefe away to some unknown place and they were already almost gone...  I was trying to run to him, but there were things that kept me from moving fast... when I finally managed to get to Keefe, I waited for the light from the leaping crystal to take me away, but instead I awoke and realized I hit my head." It did sound pretty ridiculous. "I have no idea what Biana and the others were doing in my room - at past midnight, even more - but they were probably trying to wake me up, and seeing my reaction, tried to calm me down. I have no idea about the rest..." She trailed off.

Elwin gave her a small plaster for her head and finished some quick scans.  "We'd ask them later. For now, everyone's dying of panic. You'd better get out there and tell them you're fine."

Sophie stepped outside. 

It was chaos. 

Sandor squished everyone and came forward, muscles bulging. "She can stand on her feet without support, doesn't look like in terrible pain... better than I expected..." he murmured to himself. Sophie stared on as everyone fussed over her. 

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. "I'm not a piece of china that fell on the floor and broke into smithereens! I just hit my head on the wall, so it's no big deal..." She stopped. It was kind of a big deal.

Plus, of course they were worried. It wasn't like hitting yourself on the head on the wall in your sleep was perfectly normal. Also, the fact that five of your friends secretly snuck into your room at past midnight to give you a heart attack didn't back up that very well. She was the Moonlark, and she had to be in good condition to take down the Neverseen. Not to mention, strange injuries and things seemed to always happen to her, so anytime anything unusual happened, they'd be worried too.

Sophie felt like running away from her life.

Once everyone was assured that she was safe and fine, and they were sure there wasn't any sort of attack or bug in her room, they set up some extra security measures (as if there weren't enough at the moment) - just in case. All the adults insisted she go to bed and they'd discuss everything else tomorrow - but Sophie wanted to know what her friends were doing in her room at night without telling her (which resulted in her bruise - ow!) now. 

However, there was no arguing with the council. All she could do was go back to bed, try to sleep again, try to not hit herself on the head again, be extra careful to lock the door and windows so no one could come in again, and forget whatever that just happened, for tomorrow's discussion.

Hey guys! Sorry for slow updates, I'd try to update every few days now that I'm a little more free. Chapter 6 - Keefe's POV will come shortly. 

Remember to vote and comment! Also, some chapters might be in different POV's - Chapter 7 may or may not be written in Biana's POV (not confirmed) - probably not, so don't get your hopes up.

Mainly it'll alternate between Sophie and Keefe, but keep a lookout for anything different! <33

~ GlitterButt23647