Crossed Blades (KOTLC X HOO Crossover)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Several hours later Sophie was wiped of all energy and brain functionality. She and the remaining group of Fitz, Biana, Keefe, Lihn, Tam, Marella, and Maruca had all been pouring over the papers Dex had given them. And there were a lot of papers. Sophie had been staring at one about a giant rockslide where huge boulders had somehow been thrown across the Alps mountain range. Dex had attached several news stories about it and full details of basically every rock location change. Sophie had no idea how he could be so productive at basically all times. Maybe it was his technopath brain. If it was, Sophie didn't know if that would be a curse or a blessing. Sophie decided on blessing, at least for the moment. None of them had heard from Wylie or Dex since they left, and they figured they were still meeting with the council. Sophie let out a long sigh and stretched her arms over her head, feeling her back, shoulders and fingers pop all at once. Sophie immediately slouched over again.

"We need a break." Lihn declared, standing up and stacking the papers she had been looking at into nice, neat piles. Biana nodded in agreement and her form flicked just for a second. Sophie immediately averted her eyes from the papers, feeling as if her brain was going to explode if she kept looking at the crisp white sheets and blocks of handwritten notes any longer. As if on cue Della walked into the room, holding several trays of Mallowmelt. Sophie felt her mouth water.

"Thanks, Mom," Biana said, reaching out and taking a slice. Della nodded, her eyebrows raising at the stacks of paper each of them had. The plate of Mallowmelt was passed around the table, everyone took a slice, and when it finally reached Sophie her mouth was basically watering. Sophie took a slice and started eating it, standing up from her cushy chair and stretching her legs.

"We should go outside." Keefe groaned, also standing, the piece of Mallowmelt gripped dangerously loose in his hand. Sophie waited for it to fall to the floor with a splat. Keefe miraculously didn't drop the Mallowmelt.

The sun blinded Sophie and she shielded her eyes as she stepped out onto the sprawling lawns of Everglen. The grass blades tickled Sophie's ankles as she and her group of friends trooped across the grass, no one talked, and Sophie wasn't complaining. She barely had the energy to keep her thoughts going.

"What now?" Tam asked, shoving his hands into his pants pockets, his silver-tipped bangs falling over his silver-blue eyes. Sophie shrugged, looking at Keefe who had suggested the idea of going outside.

"I dunno, we could play tackle bramble or something," Keefe said. There was a murmur of agreement from everyone. They set about deciding rules for the game and decided that all abilities were banned. Once Biana counted them off they all scattered, running through the forest in different directions, trying to avoid each other for at least the first few minutes. Sophie found a nice tree and tried to climb it. Tried being the operative word. Sophie, being her normal clumsy self, fell off the trunk and landed hard on her butt. Sophie groaned and decided to just give up, she didn't care if anyone found her at this point. Sophie laid back on the soft soil and closed her eyes. She inhaled deeply and just absorbed the scent of the moist dirt. It reminded her of Calla and the underground tree tunnel she had made to get them into Ravangog. Sophie knew they were still in the middle of the game of tackle bramble and abilities were banned but Sophie let her consciousness sink into the ground. Sophie felt small as her mind sunk down, down into the earth. Sophie could feel all the small conciseness of the ants and worms in the soil beneath her. Sophie didn't go down too far, just a few meters. Sophie let a small smile spread across her face as she heard the tiny little ant thoughts, so consumed by their duties and not worrying about anything else. Sophie wished she was an ant. No problems other than finding food and defending the nest. That was sort of like what Sophie was doing now, defending the nest. The Lost Cities had a lot of problems, including minor corruption of the government and dangerous rebel groups. Even the Blackswan was a problem.