Keeper of the Lost Cities- Deathgrip

Oh lightning, I summon thee!

"Sophie, are you up?" Edaline asked, knocking on the door to Sophie's room.

Sophie quickly put down her memory log which had an image of her and Keefe wrapped in the same cloak in the middle of the hall of Foxfire. It was perfect. Sophie had worked hard to remember every last detail- even with her photographic memory.
"Yeah! Come in!"

Edaline pushed open the door and sat down on the foot of Sophie's queen bed. "Mr. Forkle is downstairs. I think he has something important to talk to you about."

"Yeah, I'll be right down," Sophie said standing up and walking to her dresser. She didn't want any more surprise encounters where she went downstairs in her pyjamas while all her friends were there, fully clothed.

Edaline nodded and went back down. Sophie could hear Grady talking to Mr. Forkle, but she couldn't hear her friend's voices, so she didn't bother brushing her hair and instead just tied it in a loose ponytail and headed down the stairs. "Miss Foster, it's nice to see you!" Mr. Forkle said, greeting her warmly.

Okay, so it wasn't anything too serious. That was good. "Hi, Mr. Forkle."

"Sophie, I wanted to talk to you about one on one training." He continued.

"What do you mean?"

Mr. Forkle looked confident when he said his next words. "You've experienced what it feels like to gain an ability many times before and as you know, there may be a chance that Keefe gains a new ability."

Please don't go where I think this is going, Sophie thought, eyes widening. "Go on."

"He will be doing ability detecting at Foxfire, but I want you to help train him and take him on new experiences to help him as well. We don't want any surprises. Is this okay?"

No. "Umm, are you sure? I don't really know what I'm doing and-"

"Miss Foster. The thing is, you do know. You and Mr. Sencen have a truly unique understanding of each other, as I've told you before. So please, help him and me- let's conquer the Neverseen!"

The speech was kinda cheesy, but Sophie had to give it to him, it was a little motivational. "Okay! I'll do it. When should we start?"

Mr. Forkle smiled. "As soon as he's out of the healing center."

"That's in, like, an hour!"

"Yes. You better start planning something."

* * *

"Foster, as thoughtful as it is for you to have put me in mortal danger, I don't think this is such a good idea!" Keefe shouted over the wind blowing wildly around them.

About two hours earlier, after Mr. Forkle had left, Sophie had done her research to find out where the nearest lightning storm in the Forbidden cities was. She had then flown Keefe there on Silveny to see if he was a charger. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that she was in the middle of a raging storm, with nothing but Keefe's arms around her and an alicorn underneath of her, she was starting to agree with Keefe. "Just see if you can, I don't know, channel the energy to zap something!"

Keefe scooted closer to her and his stomach was flush with her back. She couldn't help but notice how perfectly they fit together. "Okay, Foster. I trust you." She relaxed a little until she felt his arms leave her waist.

"Keefe?" She turned around best she could, and to her complete astonishment, a wobbly Keefe was squatting, slowly standing up on the sparkly back of Silveny. "Keefe?! What the heck are you doing?"

He stood up fully, shakily balancing at threw his arms up in the air. Despite how dangerously unstable he looked, he had the most massive grin on his face. "OH LIGHTNING, I SUMMON THEE!" Keefe screamed. He flexed and unflexed his fingers in a 'come hither' motion, his hair blowing wildly in the wind.

Sophie started laughing uncontrollably, the scene was just so ridiculous. "Keefe, get down..." She paused to take a deep breath between fits of giggles. "Keefe, get down from there before you fall!"

He continued to thrust his arms towards the lighting, and then a massive gust of wind blew towards them, tipping Silveny to the side. The winged horse let out a surprised whinny and flapped her arms to regain balance. But it was too late. Keefe had already slipped sideways off her back and was plummeting dangerously fast towards the ground. "KEEFE!" Sophie shouted. She wrapped her arms around Silveny's neck. "Silveny, dive! Save him!"

Silveny's mama alicorn instincts kicked in and they started freefalling at such a fast speed that Sophie could almost feel her checks flapping around against the wind. Sophie just hoped that Silveny could see through the darkness better than she could because she could no longer see Keefe's silhouette falling ahead of them. "Go, go, go!"

Uh oh. The ground was growing dangerously near. And there was still no sign of Keefe. Silveny stuck out her wings, slowing them to a stop before her delicate hooves touched the ground. Sophie? No find. KEEFE KEEFE KEEFE KEEFE.

Sophie ignored Silveny's loud chants and jumped off her back, boots squelching in the muddy ground. "Keefe! Keefe, where are you?! Keefe!" She had just gotten him back. She couldn't lose him again. "KEEFE!"

This was all her fault! "KEEFE!" Her screams were getting higher and higher pitched, and she was verging on hysteria. Tears fell freely off her cheeks and she ran faster, searching for him desperately, panic settling in. "KEEEEEEEFE! Keefe, Keefe, Keefe, come back! I lov-"

"Foster?" Keefe's familiar thankfully cut off what she was going to say.

She whipped around and threw her arms around Keefe, squeezing him harder than she had anyone before. They went flying to the ground and landed with an 'oomph' on the muddy ground, but she didn't care. He was alive. He was alive! SHE DIDN'T KILL HIM!!!!!! "How are you alive? Keefe, I'm so sorry, this was a terrible idea if I could take it back I would!"

Keefe returned her hug, pulling her closer. "It's okay Foster. I told you I trusted you. It was me who stood up in a thunderstorm on a horse's back!"

Sophie raised her head to look at him, teary eyes wide. "Wait- did you manifest? How did you not die?!"

"Magic. A true magician never reveals his tricks." Keefe said with a smirk, using his thumb to wipe a tear spilling down her cheek.

"Keefe. Seriously."

He laughed. "Foster, you always forget about levitation!"

Sophie rolled her eyes, throwing her head back in exasperation. "Omigod, of course. I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid. At all." Keefe said, face becoming serious again.

She blushed and looked away for a second, and then, something wet smeared across her cheek. Sophie snapped her head back to Keefe and wiped her face. Her fingers came back coated in mud and she gasped in indignation. "You did not! How dare you? It is soooo on."

She leaped towards him with a fistful of mud and smashed it directly into his hair, giggling. He yelped in surprise and jumped up, grabbing mud with him. "NOOOOO! Not The Hair!"

Sophie ran away from him, shrieks of laughter bubbling up from her mouth. "Catch me if you can!"

Keefe powered after her, shouting threats and Sophie caught a glimpse of Silveny, watching them with mama alicorn amusement. And then, as her clumsy self, Sophie slipped and landed face-first into a huge mud puddle. She heard Keefe slow to a stop beside her and then he dropped his handful of mud by her ear. "Guess I won't need that anymore." He snorted. "Kaaaarma!"

Sophie pulled her face from the mud. "Hey! You started it!"

He grinned smugly. "And I finished it too."

Before he could react, Sophie pulled his ankle with enough force to send him flying onto his butt beside her with a grunt. The stunned expression on his face only made her laughs return. "Don't speak too soon, Lord Muddyhair!"

Keefe scowled playfully back at her and tackled her once more to the ground and they rolled around kicking and laughing, not making too much progress on ability detecting, but having a lot of fun.