Elysian- After Stellarlune

Chapter Two- Sophie

Sophie blinked, clearing the spots from her vision. She looked around, noticing she was back where they had first arrived, before they found the dome entrance.

Sophie spun in circles, looking for her friends. When she didn't see them, or the rippling barrier she had come through, she panicked.

"Keefe? Fitz? Marella? Maruca?" She paced, calling out their names.

She heard a faint sound, a familiar voice, though it sounded far off in the distance. She heard it again.

"Foster?"

Sophie straightened, looking around frantically for the source of Keefe's voice. "Keefe? Keefe! Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you." He responded, sounding just as relieved as Sophie felt. "Where are you?"

"I'm back where we started, when we first got here! Just go through the white barrier!" Sophie yelled back.

"Uhm, that's going to be hard, since the barrier isn't here anymore. It's back to normal."

Sophie let out a string of curses that would've gotten her grounded for life. Sophie pulled out her last Illusion Breaker, wishing she didn't have the only one in the group. Then Sophie realised.

The entrance.

If they had gotten in before, she could too. Sophie retraced her steps, and heaved a sigh of relief when she found. The small hole they had crawled through.

"Keefe! Can you hear me still?"

"Yeah, but you're quieter, where are you?"

"I'm at the entrance, I'm coming back through." Sophie replied.

"No!" Keefe argued. "Don't come back through. Why would you get yourself stuck back in here?"

"I have another Illusion Breaker!" Sophie explained. "So I can get us all out!"

A moment's hesitation. "Okay. Be careful."

Sophie crawled into the hole, expecting to arrive back in the stained glass dome. What she was not expecting was to arrive in a cold, empty stone room.

Except, it wasn't empty.

In the center of the room stood Keefe, Fitz, Marella, Maruca, and Elysian, with Sandor and Gisela a little off to the side. Sophie glanced between them, wondering why they couldn't just leave. They all were looking around, clueless to Sophie being there.

"Guys! I'm right here!" Sophie waved her arms around, trying to get their attention.

"Where? We can't see you!" Keefe hollered back.

Sophie let out a frustrated noise. "I'm to your left, Keefe. No, your other left." Sophie watched helplessly as Keefe and the others spun around to her general direction.

Her eyes flicked between them, finally settling in Marella, who was creeping closer to where Sophie was. She locked eyes with her.

Without breaking eye contact, Marella whistled for everyone's attention. "Guys! I think I see her!"

Keefe bolted over, the others right on his heels. Elysian walked steadily behind everyone, hands clasped behind her back.

"Foster! I see you, but you're barely here. How-wha-?"

"Stand back." Sophie ordered. "And close your eyes."

Sophie waited until they all turned away, and she threw Dex's device right where Marella had been standing. It sizzled, and a bright flash lit up under Sophie's eyelids. Once it faded, Sophie opened her eyes.

Nothing on her end had changed, the small stony cave and seeing her friends look around at nothing. Until she realised her friends were finally seeing what she was.

"H-how? This isn't possible!" Gisela growled from where she was being held by Sandor.

"Shut up." Sandor snarled, and he would've sounded menacing if his voice wasn't so squeaky.

Gisela snapped her mouth shut, giving Sandor a nasty glare. If looks could kill, Sandor would've died twice.

Sophie tested her telepathy on Elysian before everyone rushed at her, sighing angrily when her abilities were still muted. Keefe wrapped her up in a giant hug, crushing Sophie's windpipe.

"Need... air..." She gasped when he let go, mumbling an apology.

"Thank you, Sophie Foster. This feels... wonderful." Elysian raised her arms above her head, her hood falling off her face, revealing the prettiest features Sophie had ever seen.

Curly red hair cascaded in long strands down her back, and her eyes were a hard sky-blue. She had scattered freckles dotting her nose, and she seemed only a little older than Sophie, though she was probably centuries older, if not millennia.

Sophie was more focused on her the room started to shake the moment Elysian's hood fell down. The stone cracked, and rocks began to fall, smashing indents into the ground. Sophie scrambled backwards into Keefe as a rock crushed the spot she had just been standing.

"Run!" Sophie shouted over the noise.

Everyone bolted for the exit, which was already barely big enough to fit one of them through. Boulders continued raining down, and Elysian had vanished.

"Go!" Sophie stood off to the side, waiting for everyone else to get through. Keefe hesitated, trying to get Sophie to move before him, but he realised quickly that she wouldn't budge. He cast a quick glance behind him to where his mom and Sandor had been conveniently trapped by rock.

Sophie waited for him to get out before turning and running. She leaped over rubble and doves falling debris, trying to get to Gisela and Sandor before the stalactite hanging dangerously above them decided to break off.

"Sandor!" Sophie skidded to a halt when she got to them. "We need to get out!"

"Go, Miss Foster. I won't be able to fit."

"You fit last time!" Sophie argued.

"The hole has been covered too much by the debris. You must go, Miss Foster! It is my sworn duty to protect you, and in order to do that, I need you to leave!"

"But you and Gisela!" Sophie protested, tears threatening to spill over. She looked worriedly at the entrance, which was filling too quickly with rock.

"Go, go Miss Foster! Go now!" Sandor barked.

Sophie hesitated once more, looking back and forth, before she nodded and took off running back to the entrance.

"Goodbye, Sandor."

Her eyes blurred as she jumped through the hole, after saying the last thing she'd ever get to say to the goblin who had done everything he could to protect her.

I'm sorry. (Am I though?)

Here's some hope for you to cling to. Kinda.

Maybe he'll live. Maybe he won't. Maybe just Gisela will live. Or maybe just one of them will die.

Word count: 1046

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