Keeper of the Lost Cities Moonlark

Chapter Five: Forkle

"Sophie! Can you hear me?" Mr. Forkle's mental voice somehow cracked as he searched through the chaos. There were memories that had been all jumbled up that he couldn't even make up what he was looking at, but in the middle of it all was a small dark narrow path. He first tried to push his consciousness through but had no such luck. "Great, the child has built her own mental barriers." Mr. Forkle muttered to himself as he tried to think of other ways to get through.

"Hello, I am Sophie's inner voice. What do you need Mr. Forkle?"

"Oh! Clarisna! I was wondering if you were still intact from all those years ago. I thought something had switched you off."

"I am stronger than ever before, you don't have to worry about old me. What can I assist you with? It seems you are having trouble with the Moonlark's newest barriers." Clarisna responded.

"Yes, I am. Do you know how to disable it?"

"Of course I do! What a silly question. I'm always inside here after all, controlling everything." she laughed as she wondered about. Knocking on surfaces and feeling in between small cracks. "There it is! Ha!" then she whispered some sort of password and the barrier dissolved.

"Thank you Clarisna."

"No problem! I'm always happy to help."

Mr. Forkle then continued his journey through Sophie's mind. "Well this is a tad bit harder than I thought." He said to himself in a full blown sweat. He decided to keep going. Wondering when Sophie's mind got so complicated.

A few minutes later he found what seemed to be a lever and flipped it, revealing Sophie sleeping on a big squishy mattress. He created a mental image for himself so he could hug her. "Sophie! Wake up!"

Sophie moaned as her eyes fluttered open. "Mr. Forkle?" That one question took up so much energy that she fainted. Mr. Forkle then slowly rested her back down on the soft bed and pulled his conscious free from her mind.

"What happened? Is she okay?" seemed to be everyone's question. Mr. Forkle simply put his hands up in the universal stop sign until everyone quieted down. "Yes, Miss Foster is fine, she's just taking time to recover, all she needs is some rest." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Livvy gently picked Sophie up from her spot on the sand.

"The Moonlark is strong, I'm guessing she just needs to take some time to heal. I'm going to take her to a place where she can be properly treated." Livvy said, though her voice sounded a little strained.

"I would like to come as well then." Elwin told her.

"I figured as much." And then they glittered away. Lord Cassius came forward from his spot among the crowd.

"I think it's time for me to take my son home, he has had a long day. As have all of us, we can regroup tomorrow."

"Yeah I'll pass." Keefe interrupted. "I much rather go back to where I've been staying." He said looked at Grady and Edaline.

"That would be okay with us." Edaline said as she reached for Grady's hand and clung to him. "You can stay there as long as you want. Here's an extra crystal that leads to Havenfield." Then they leaped away.

"Okay, now that we have that settled I have a question, where's Fitzy?"

 Alden turned pale. "I don't know, he didn't go to Everglen if that's what you're wondering, I thought he might've stayed here to at least see if Sophie was okay."

"Well as far as I know, he ditched us the second I dove into the water." Keefe replied. He silently hoped Sophie would be okay soon and stood up quickly as he stepped into the beam of light leading to Havenfield with his head down.