Book Two: KOTLC One-shots and More

Alternate Ending: Lodestar 70 (part 3)

A/N: By popular demand, I decided to write one more chapter to my Lodestar 70 AE. One chapter turned into two because...that's just who I am.

When Sophie woke the next morning, she bolted out of bed so fast she startled Iggy, who had been sleeping on her pillow beside her.

"Sorry about that," she crooned, scratching behind his ears. "I guess I'm a bit jumpy this morning."

Iggy's only answer was to let out a loud and stinky belch.

Sophie barely managed not to gag as she carried him to his cage.

She then rushed into her closet, throwing on her Foxfire uniform as quickly as she could before standing in front of her spectral mirror trying to decide how to manage her unkempt hair. She'd slept fitfully, Keefe featuring prominently in her dreams.

At one point, she'd dreamt that Keefe and Fitz had agreed to duel for her hand.

Duel. For. Her. Hand.

It was one of those weird, obscure, ancient human stories that she hadn't realized her mind had even held on to until that dream.

But it had also been fairly enlightening, because in her dream, Fitz had won the duel, and Sophie had been...

...disappointed.

Okay, so she'd been really excited, too, that Fitz cared enough to fight for her, but Dream Sophie had been pretty hopeful that Keefe would win.

Now, in the light of day, Sophie was telling herself that Dream Sophie couldn't necessarily be trusted to make coherent decisions for her. Even so, she couldn't deny that she was in a bigger hurry than usual to get ready, and it wasn't out of a desire to get to school early.

"You look like you lost a fight with your pillow," Vertina told her as soon as she stepped in the mirror's range.

Sophie resisted the urge to tell the spectral mirror to shut up. Instead, she shrugged and said, "I didn't sleep well, okay? Can't you just help me fix it? I'd like to actually look human before leaving the room."

"Human?" Vertina scoffed.

"Oh. Right." Sophie wondered how many years it would take before slips like that stopped happening. "Um...I'd like to look...like a fully functioning person?"

"Grab some hair pins, and listen closely."

Sophie let Vertina talk her through fixing her hair, and was surprised at how easy it was to not only tame it but even weave a braid into the front, with the braid acting as a sort of built-in headband.

But she drew the line when Vertina wanted her to change her outfit and put on makeup.

She then wrenched her door open,  slamming into Sandor on her way out.

"What's your hurry?" Sandor asked, automatically grabbing her and preventing her from falling over.

"No hurry," Sophie insisted. "Just...really wanted to make sure I had time for breakfast today." Sophie resisted the urge to reach for an itchy eyelash and give herself away.

But Sandor wasn't fooled. He let out a resigned sigh, but let her lead the way downstairs.

Keefe was already up, and was sitting at the table with Grady and Edaline when she walked into the room. Edaline seemed to have just conjured Keefe a second helping of whatever gnomish vegetable they were eating that morning.

"You don't know how bad the food is with the Neverseen, so thank you," he told her before turning to look at Sophie.

He smiled at her, and her stomach fluttered. It began to flutter even more as his eyes slowly moved upwards, as though looking at her hair.