Dreamwatcher | KOTLC

Chapter Five: Tam and Linh

"Okay, ready?" Sophie said, walking between them. "I only want to explain this once, so let's get Tam and Linh. Got it?" Mabel nodded her head. "I'll just call them," Sophie said, moving towards a quieter spot near a tree. (I don't even know if Tam and Linh have Imparters, so we'll just say they do.) 

Sophie pulled out her Imparter and said into it, "Show me Tam and Linh." Linh answered the imparter on the fifth ring. "Hey, Sophie," Linh said. Looking at her surroundings, it wasn't her room. 

"Um, Linh," Sophie asked, "where are you right now?" Linh grinned. "I'm in Tam's room. He went out for groceries, and I needed something to do, so I'm going through his things."

"Oh, wow," Sophie answered. "Find anything good?" 

Linh shook her head. "Unfortunately not. The best thing I could find was this picture of this girl, but we've already met her, and he's shown no interest in her." Mabel walked up behind Sophie. "Is that Linh?" she asked.

Linh's face lit up. "Mabel! What are you doing here?" Sophie's head turned back and forth from her Imparter to Mabel. 

"You guys know each other?" Sophie asked them both. "Yes," Mabel replied. "I met her and her brother before I came to find you. I needed someone to help me navigate around the Lost Cities 一 and help me find you." 

"She's right," Linh agreed. "I got bored so I went to take a walk . . . places, and then I met Mabel." Sophie grew a little suspicious of the way that Linh explained the situation: she paused before saying "Places" and suddenly said the rest extremely fast as if trying to hide her uneasiness. . .

"Anyway," Sophie attempted a subject change. "The reason why I hailed you is that I need you and Tam at my house as soon as possible. Emergency." Linh frowned at the explanation. 

"What's wrong?" She asked. 

"I'll tell you and Tam when you get here. I've gathered everyone else here so I can explain it to everyone at the same time. And why does he have a picture of Mabel?"

Linh shrugged, nodded, and said, "Well, okay, I'll get Tam and we'll come as soon as possible." 

"Thanks," Mabel answered. "We can't have Dex missing for long. . . . Oh! Look at the time, it seems like I must depart now. Um, hail me when Linh and Tam get here." 

Sophie furrowed her brows. "Do you have an Imparter?" Mabel widened her eyes ever so slightly.

"Right. You're right. Well一" 

"You can borrow mine," Fitz said, walking up to Sophie and Mabel. "You said you had to go somewhere? Well, Biana and I can share her Imparter for the time being, and Sophie can hail you when Tam and Linh get here." Fitz flashed one of his movie-star smiles that made Sophie partially wish he was talking to her. 

But he wasn't.

He was talking to Mabel. Sophie shook her thoughts out before they got too emotional. Mabel beamed right back at him. 

"Oh, thank you . . . Fitz! This is so very kind of you. You don't have to." 

"No, no, I insist," Fitz answered. "You're new here; I can tell, so I'm gonna help you adjust to the Lost Cities. By the way, I've been wanting to ask you this: Where are you from? Sorry, the question is so straight-forward, but I've never seen you before, so I was just wondering . . ." Fitz trailed off, hoping Mabel would answer his question in the meantime, but she didn't. 

"I'm sure I can explain my past to everyone some other time, Fitz. I better be off. Thank you for letting me borrow your Imparter for the time being. Bye for now!" Mabel turned around and walked down a path that led away from Sophie's house.

"Um, why don't you guys come inside while we wait," Sophie asked Fitz and Biana. "There's no point in us waiting outside when we can wait inside!" Sophie added some enthusiasm at the end, hoping to raise the mood. 

As they were walking inside, Biana suddenly asked: "Hey, where's Dex?" Sophie froze, heart racing. They can't know, she thought. Not yet. 

"Um, you're right!" Sophie answered. "You two go wait in the living room, and I'll . . . I'll go hail him." 

"I can hail him," Biana offered. 

"Um, no, it's fine, Biana. I'll go to my room and hail him." Sophie walked in the door but got stopped abruptly by Biana. 

"Sophie 一 what's wrong?  Why can't we talk to Dex, too?" Sophie was highly annoyed and tired at the same time from all these questions, and had to come up with a white lie at the top of her head every two seconds! 

"Dex has been having a bad couple of days recently, and it has to do with you two, so I think it'd be better if I talked to him alone. Got it?" Sophie didn't even wait for a reply; she quickly walked up to her room and closed the door behind her, leaving Fitz and Biana.

Sophie sighed, then went and spread herself out on her bed. "Maybe I should actually hail Dex," Sophie thought aloud. "Maybe he'll answer?" She pulled out her Imparter and pressed the button that read DEXTER D (Don't ask Sophie's a weird little nut). It rang for what seemed like ten rings, then suddenly Sophie heard a new sound. It sounded like a voice. A very recognizable voice. 

But Sophie was so confused. "Mabel?"