"Do you think I'm joking? Do not tell anyone!" Sophie begged, aggressively shaking Tam by the shoulders. All he could do was howl with laughter.
"You have had a secret tattoo this whole time? When does it end, Sophie?!" Tam joked, trying to choke down his laughter.
"Tam! Promise me!" Sophie begged, letting go of his shoulders.
"Okay, okay! I promise. But why were you trying to hide it from us, to begin with?" Tam asked.
"I... don't know. I just didn't want to bother anyone, I guess. We were already dealing with so much, I felt like it was irrelevant to what we were doing." Sophie explained. Tam simply nodded his head.
"Let's get you out of here." Sophie sighed, putting on her bloody shawl and putting Tam's arm over her shoulder. They limped out of the large hall and down the entrance staircase outside. Outside they had tents set up around the grass. The guards were all strewn around a strategy table, figuring out how the Neverseen got in. Once everyone saw Sophie and Tam limp down the stairs, they all went quiet, except for the medical staff which rushed towards Sophie and Tam. They picked Tam off from Sophie's shoulders and whisked him away to a medical tent. Tam sent Sophie a look of worry over his shoulder before being ushered into the medical tent.
Sophie glanced over the crowd and met eyes with magnate Leto, who tried to quickly avert his eyes.
This pissed Sophie off to no end.
She rushed towards him, determination in her eyes. She managed to corner Leto in a random tent.
"Hello, Ms. Foste-" Magnate Leto started.
"Why have you been ignoring us? We want to help, and after today I don't think you are going to be able to convince us to leave you alone this time. PLUS I would love details on why I just went X- Game mode on those Neverseen goons." Sophie questioned, stepping closer with each question.
"X-Game mode?" Leto asked, a grin growing on his face.
"Human thing. And stop avoiding the question!" Sophie pushed, pointing a finger at him.
The Black Swan leader sighed and looked around as if glancing around for someone.
Magnate Leto leaned in close.
"We believe we have a traitor among our ranks. We have no idea who it is, but we didn't want them to gain information about the Moonlark project. So we have been cutting off contact to protect you and the other Black Swan agents within the Elven world." Leto explained, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Though that may have been smart then, what about now? We are constantly attacked and harassed! Is this better than what you imagined would have happened if we stayed with the Black Swan? Tam nearly died today!" Sophie scolded.
"We couldn't take any risks, Sophie! We needed to cut off some contacts just in case we did have traitor!" Leto harshly whispered back.
"Leto. My friends and I are tired of just sitting idly by waiting to be attacked while you deal with this traitor issue. We are coming back to the Black Swan, now. No use stopping it." Sophie said stubbornly, crossing her arms.
Leto let out a sigh of defeat.
"Okay. But you need to promise you will continue with extreme caution and come to me with any concerns or leads about the traitor." Leto ranted sternly. Sophie nodded with each requirement Leto made.
"I agree to all of that. But what about my... moment where I went crazy on those Neverseen guys, what happened?" Sophie mumbled the last part.
Leto looked around." We will talk about that in a more secure location. But for now, update your team. You will be returning back to the Black Swan main headquarters in a week." Leto confirmed.
Sophie smirked.
They were finally taking down these Assholes.
Sophie texted everyone on her Imparter to meet at the treehouse in 20 minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About two and a half miles away from Havenfield deep in the Havenfield forest, the main squad sat in their homemade tree house. After Calla past, Sophie started to spend more and more time in the woods, closer to nature. Eventually, Keefe joined her in the forest in mourning. Then Dex. Then Linh. Ultimately, everyone was spending all of their time in the woods. They decided to each pitch in their resources and effort to create the best tree house anyone could imagine. It became their home base for their joking, relaxing, and plotting.
(K just imagine this but like over a twinkling lake and hidden in a lush forest and other fairytale bs like that)
Sophie even built her own add on that was like a mini apartment so she could spend some time away from home. She also kept all of her training equipment in their as well, like her vests and knives.
"You are kidding! Are we going back to the Black Swan? Nice work, Foster!" Keefe laughed, clapping Sophie on the back from his spot on the hanging net. (see picture)
"Aww, come on, you guys! It wasn't much! I, uh, persuaded him to stop ignoring us!" Sophie reasoned, nervously tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
"Please, stop kidding us, Soph! You scared the crap out of him! I heard it all from the medical tent!" Tam added in from the corner of their tree house, rummaging through the snacks.
"That is an over exaggeration, Tam. I just made him see the truth using a more stern voice. " Sophie reasoned, rolling her eyes.
Everyone laughed at that.
"So what do know how long we are going to be gone for? What we should be prepared for?" Dex asked, tinkering with the treehouse's lighting system.
"I don't know to be honest. Leto just said to pack, and we will be leaving in a week." Sophie explained.
"I'm so excited to get back into action finally! As much as I love the Elven world, nothing beats taking down those Neverseen goons!" Biana rambled, slapping her hands together evilly.
"That reminds me. If we are going to be leaving Foxfire, that means we should probably leave in style, right?" Keefe said, a smirk growing on his face. Sophie, Dex, and Tam smirked right back at him, all of them thinking the same thing.
"No! No, no, no, no, no! You four have been getting in too much trouble over these years! After the end of this week, we will peacefully leave with no explosions, pranks, or angry teachers on our tails! Do I make myself clear?" Linh scolded, jumping up from her seat on the hanging net. Tam, Keefe, Dex, and Sophie all made eye contact.
"Fine." Sophie mumbled, crossing her fingers behind her back.
"Good. Let's get going guys. It is getting dark." Fitz said, trying to diffuse Linh yelling at the trouble makers.
Fitz and Biana go down the ladder, then nudged Linh down the ladder with them. Linh was known to be too sweet for some good old pranking.
"We will meet you guys back there in a minute! I forgot something, and they are helping me look for it!" Sophie yelled down the ladder to Biana, Linh, and Fitz. Linh looked at them suspiciously but shrugged and followed the Vacker siblings back to Havenfield. Once they were out of clear earshot, Sophie leaned went to her small apartment and reached behind her gnome hand carved guitar that she got during Elag day shopping, and pulled out a large roll of paper.
"So, the biggest prank in Elven history. Let's see what we can come up with." Keefe said excitedly, leaning over the roll of paper with the other friends at the table.
Oh yeah, they were going out with a bang.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Give me some recommendations for what the prank should be! I love this little group thinking up pranks together. I'm also a huge fan of the Sophie and Tam FRIENDSHIP (I do not ship them romantically, I repeat, I do not ship them romantically) and we will be having a little bit of that thrown in there as well. See you guys in the next chapter. Please remember to vote comment, share, and follow! Doing all of these helps encourage me to keep on writing and post chapters faster!
_Sibylline_