Mrs Sophie Foster-Sencen (Sokeefe Tale of Two Times) - KOTLC

Shadows

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~ Present Sophie's POV ~
Searching around Havenfield's perimeters was pointless and excruciatingly boring, to my surprise.
Seriously, with such large ground area, you'd expect there to be at least one interesting thing.
But no.
There was nothing on Havenfield's grounds.
But honestly I'm not sure what I was expecting to find.
The only other places were Everglen and Solreef.
And I definitely carried doubts about anything being there either.
Honestly, I wanted to go back to Magnate Leto for help, but I knew the vagueness he provided would vex me beyond extent.
So Keefe and I settled by Calla's panakes tree, out of view from the wide glass that was Havenfield's walls.
His legs were spread in front of him, and my head was in his lap.
We knew that this wouldn't be weird in any way, considering that we were married.
A gentle breeze glided through my hair.
"What do we do now?"
I whispered, turning over a fallen panakes leaf in my hand, and squinting to inspect it.
I felt Keefe shift, and I looked up at him.
The second I saw him, a warm smile spread over his face.
He ran a soft hand through my hair tenderly, being cautious not to muss it.
"We haven't exhausted every avenue yet. There's still more to search."
He leaned his head back against the familiarly braided bark, closing his eyes and soaking in Calla's presence through song.
I, too, breathed in and closed my eyes, taking in the sensation of him running a hand through my hair.
"But what use is it? I doubt there's anything there."
The words felt so dull on my tongue and in the air, filled with hopelessness.
Keefe sighed and traced his finger along my jaw.
I opened my eyes and caught his delicate gaze, of love.
Of pure and whole love.
This was happiness.
This was warmth.
This was euphoria.
This was endless desire.
This was a utopia.
This was perfection.
This was an inescapable void that I never wanted to leave.
This was love.
This was eternal.
I wanted to drown in it.
Hit the waters, the depth of passion, and sink under, never returning to the surface.
I wanted to feel my lungs tighten from the loss of air.
Feel the moment my heart stops providing the rest of me the with the only life it knows in shades of red.
Because it doesn't know that there's more life out there.
The rivers that run through my veins aren't what give me life.
Only what give my physical form life.
My body is my unit.
My body is not me.
My spirit, my mind, my heart.
They are powered and given existence through emotion.
Pure, raw, real emotion.
And for these moments, I wished to detach from my physical body, and float away in the life and form of emotion.
I want to know that everything's ok, worry about myself and my loved ones.
And no one else.
I want to believe that everything's ok.
But it's not.
And now I have to fix it.
That's not fair.
Why do the unsuspecting have to clean up after the ones who knew what they did.
"Foster?"
A voice from a blonde boy brought me back to the moment.
I opened my eyes to the all too blinding light.
His head was tilted curiously to the side, still hovering over me.
His eyes glimmered, twinkling with the stars that weren't even visible at this hour.
I couldn't even blame a biting cold on the soft rosiness of my cheeks in that moment, as the day was temperate.
And Keefe.
I could feel his sincerity.
It radiated off him like a streetlamp in the midst of a dark urban night.
Not that elves even knew much about those anyway.
"Yes?"
I bit my lip.
"Don't lose hope."
Weren't the words I expected him the say, but they were delivered with such courage, affection, and admiration that I would have stumbled and struggled to keep my balance if I weren't already laying down.
"You've never lost hope. Never given up. Not in me. Not in anyone. So don't lose hope over this."
He tucked an arrogant strand of my blonde hair behind my ear, only for it to come loose once again.
I searched his face for any sign of hesitancy, but he didn't waver.
I took a breath, letting his words wash over me like the sensation of a wave above someone who's underwater.
"You're right. We can do it. We can do it together."
"Together."
He promised.
A few beats passed.
"Now we should probably go or nothings gonna get done."
I advised, breaking the silence.
"But I wanna lay here longer!!"
Keefe whined, pouting.
I rolled my eyes and moved my head outwards away from Keefe so I could get up without hitting him.
I then sat up gingerly, doing my best to avoid a head rush.
I pushed my back against the braided bark and headed got to my feet, dusting myself off.
Keefe was still sitting there, I noticed, just looking up at me.
I raised an eyebrow at him and folded my arms over my chest, leaning into my left hip.
"Are you going to get up now orrrr....?"
"I don't want tooooo..."
I sighed, running a hand down my face.
"Get up."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"No- wait what?"
"Got ya didn't I?"
He smirked, winking.
"Whatever."
I rolled my eyes once again.
"Get up now or I will wipe that smirk off your face."
I glared at him threateningly.
"Gee, one second you encourage a girl and the next she's threatening you."
He muttered, slowly rising to his feet.
I just gave him an innocent smile and fluttered my eyelashes.
"So where should we go next?"
I asked him once he was on his feet and dusting himself off.
"How about past Havenfield's parameters?"
"Are you trying to get us killed?"
"By what? The Neverseen are gone."
He raised a challenging eyebrow.
I sighed.
"Ok but what good will that do us? We didn't even go past the borders."
"There! Again with the hopelessness, Foster!"
His hand gesturing was almost flailing, very frantic and overdramatic, as he tried to prove his point.
"Not hopelessness, just logic."
I pointed out, narrowing my eyes.
"Look around us."
He extended his arms beside him wildly, motioning towards our surroundings.
"What about this is logical?"
He did have a point.
There was absolutely nothing logical about this situation.
"Fine. Let's go beyond the property parameters."
I mumbled in defeat.
"Yay I win!"
He hooked his arm through mine and started leading me away to the woods behind the meadowed pastures.
I shot him a death glare, which would phase everyone but Keefe.
He just smiled and said,
"Love ya too Foster!"
I sighed and focused on my footing as he lead me the rest of the way to the woods so I wouldn't fall off balance.
When we entered the forest area and Keefe stopped, I finally looked up and inspected the area around me.
The forest was...enchanting.
It was a lush haven of quiet, peace, and melody with almost no open land, unlike Havenfield, which was quite contradictory given the name.
Vivacious flora sprouted at every corner, each with various shades, tones, and patterns all in one, almost like abstract art. Emerald vines hung from the thick trees, and the grass grew untrimmed, reaching up to our knees. The bark of every tree had a braid-like texture, and the leaves were each drooping with the heavyweight of colossal petals belonging to flowers.
It looked completely untouched, as if it had never even been noticed before, never mind entered.
At least, that's what I thought at first.
I squinted up ahead in the path in front of me.
"Keefe, do you see that?"
I grabbed his elbow and pointed my hand in the direction I was looking.
"Wait what Foster? I don't see- oh my gosh."
Keefe gasped suddenly, his eyes widening.
We both turned to eachother and stared, fear in both of our eyes.
I felt as if my heart was to pound out of my chest.
This could either be something helpful or something...bad.
And from previous experience, it would be hard to trust.
Because what Keefe and I were staring at was irregular.
See, trees like this should cast a thick shadow.
And they all did.
Well, almost all.
One particularly hefty tree straight in front of us was standing tall like normal, the light shining from behind it with the sun up at noon, and a large hole directly in the center signifying some creatures home.
And it cast no shadow.

~ Heya readers! Sorry for the delay- I'm hoping this will excuse my poor scheduling! Can you all catch on as to why shadows are important? I hope you can- without shadows something isn't real. That makes it a poorly hidden illusion, and we see that with Vespera. Can't tell you much more...let's see what happens now shall we? By the way- yes Vespera is dead- but this takes place before that. Anyway, thank you all for reading! Bye!
Love you all,
Your author 💕 ~