Eden Reawakened - KOTLC an alternative end

Part one - Emomemory

“Sophie!” Lady Gisela implored. ”Can you please concentrate?” snapping Sophie back to reality. 

“Our host will be back home any moment, we only have a couple of days to align our back stories with him. So get yourself into a presentable shape and be downstairs in no more than 15 min. Otherwise I'll come back up to drag you!”

Lady Gisela went out carefully tucking back the strands of hair that went loose due to Sophie's “attack” and Sophie wished she had crashed harder into Gisela's head, but as soon as Gisela disappeared behind the door, Sophie found she didn’t really care about revenge. She didn't care how futile their task was or how horrible it was that she had to work with a murderer. 

She was a person and she was allowed to take time for herself and she was planning on doing just that, treasuring the “NOW” she was granted! Of course it would have been nicer to be doing that at Havenfield or even the Shores of Solace (Keefe’s dad's “beach house”) but… this small cottage at the edges of some unknown village in Scotland will do, as long as Keefe was ok and they were together. 

Keefe was OK! She could practically sing it, and she almost did, but then she heard an argument picking up downstairs. She couldn't make out the words but these were clearly Lady Gisela and Keefe. 

She was still wearing her fighting outfit, which soaked in all the nightmares she must have sweated through during the night. Luckily there were a pair of slightly loose blue jeans, a stray kids t-shirt and a funny smelling greyish grandpa sweater tossed on the large wooden chair next to her, no, their bed. She hastily changed into the human clothes, deciding she can handle the cold and giving up the sweater, and headed straight to where the voices were coming from. 

Sophie didn’t even stop to brush her teeth, not admitting to herself she was rushing, less because of the argument and more because she heard Keefe’s voice, and she wanted to see, with her own eyes, that he really was ok. 

When they arrived at the cottage in the middle of the night, he didn’t look all that well, and while she believed Elysian it would pass, otherwise what was the point of striking deals with her, she preferred to be sure, and as soon as possible. She felt light and fast like the morning breeze, sprinting down the wooden spiral staircase but she lost her balance towards the end, slamming right into Lady Gisela (2nd time in one morning… She was sure Lady Gisela would interpret this as an attack). 

Both Keefe and lady Gisela turned awfully quiet. Sophie stole a quick glance at Keefe as she was balancing herself back to her feet and saw him snorting, as if he was fighting to hold back a burst of laughter. It stung, but not as much as when he actually burst laughing! Her cheeks burned with embarrassment and anger, but Keefe held his hands up, as if saying don't kill me just yet, and managed to stop his roaring laughter to say:

     “Foster, you have outdone yourself. See mother, I was right to keep to my Elvish clothes, as obviously Foster is much better than me at wearing the pants in this house.”

As Sophie pooled the pants back over her heaps to prevent them from falling off, she realised these were supposed to be his clothes, not hers.

Lady Gisela turned to face her and… smiled!!! Sophie wasn’t sure what to make of this. Her smile was always creepy, especially now, with her skin so stretched. But… this was a real smile, an amused warm kind of smile that a parent would grant their child when they said something out of place but still funny and clever. The smile quickly faded, and Lady Gisela went back to her cold self, picking up the argument that had been going on before Sophie's grand slam and bold fashion statements. 

"We need to look, and act like law-abiding normal humans! No running around in capes, no talking in the enlightened language and certainly no flying on alicorns! "