Sophia's Story
A Disney crossover by talking2myself
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any recognizable Disney characters. All original characters are my own creations.
CHAPTER 48 A Spear in the Dark
As she watched Tanana disappear, it was hard not to feel as though she was being abandoned. Sophia's shoulders slumped and she drew a slow steadying breath. She looked down at the smaller shaman at her side. "So what about you?" she asked. "Are you bailing too?"
Innoko was thoughtful for a few moments. "Nah," she said. "I wanna see how this plays out. Besides, it will weigh on my conscience if I let this bunch loose on the forest."
"Thanks, I think," Sophia muttered. "Do you know them?" she asked. "The brothers?"
Innoko shrugged. "Can't say that I do. They're in the next village over. We don't see each other very often. This is probably the most traveling I've done in a while."
"I feel for him," Sophia admitted. "It's hard not knowing where someone you love is, whether they're even still alive." She thought of her own sister and the years of wandering before she finally found her. "I hope she finds him."
"Yeah, lets hope so," Innoko said. "In the meantime, shouldn't we be on our way."
"I suppose so." Sophia sighed. "Alright everyone, let's head out."
The rest of the day was exhausting but thankfully uneventful with no further signs of mammoths or sabretooth tigers. After a full day of walking, they finally collapsed to a halt. Sophia plopped to the ground, her skirts billowed around her. Her ankle was throbbing. A few paces away from her, she could hear Jack and Will bickering over how to start a fire.
"You need flint, Jack not sticks."
"Well, I don't happen to carry any flint on my person. Do you?"
"It's not going to work, Jack!"
"I don't see you coming back with any other ideas." Jack began to furiously rub two sticks together. Sophia rolled her eyes and limped over to the campfire.
"Move," she ordered shoving the two of them away. She looked upwards. Fortunately, there was still a bit of light left. Sophia removed her glasses from her face and angled them so a beam of light heated up the small pile of tinder. A few moments later, a tiny plume of smoke rose from the pile. Sophia knelt and blew a gentle stream of air into the flames. A few seconds later, a tiny fire burst to life. Sophia and grinned and sat back.
"Well would you look at that," Innoko remarked.
"Where did you pick up that little trick?" Will asked.
"Little thing I picked up back in my barding days," Sophia said. "Flewddur and I spent more nights camping out in the woods than I would like to remember. Of course, we didn't need to worry about sabretooth tigers back then."
"Sophia Godmother," Jack said approvingly. "Survivalist, Fluent in Mandarin, and really good at getting grass stains out of your britches."
"Real renaissance woman," Innoko said. She settled in front of the fire and held out her hands before the glowing fire.
"Any idea how much further it is to the mountain?" Sophia asked.
Innoko shrugged. "Beats me. Hopefully the mountain will get a bit bigger everyday."
"Swell," Sophia sighed.
"Let's ask the spirits," Innoko said matter-of-factly."
"Ask the…?" Sophia asked in confusion.
Innoko was digging into a pouch hanging from her belt. She pulled out a handful of dust. "Never leave home without it," she said before tossing it into the fire. The fire suddenly flared wildly to life. Sophia let out a yelp and humped backwards colliding into Jack.
"No offense love, but I don't think you're that good at building fires," he whispered.
"Okay, here we go," Innoko reached into her pocket and pulled out a conical shell. She pressed it to her ear. "You there?" she asked. "Uh huh. Yeah, we saw the bear boy. Wild, I know. No, that's Tanana's problem. I got nothing to do with that. I'm asking about the red head. Yeah, her. Thanks!" Innoko turned towards the others, "Okay, stand back."
They didn't need any further bidding. The little group scrambled backwards from the edges of the bonfire as it flared up again. "Now let's see what we got here," Innoko said running her hands together. Slowly, an image appeared in the flames. The dark silhouette of a cliff jutted up against the background of flames. "Uh huh. That's the mountain," Innoko said. "No surprises there."
The image of the mountain faded away instantly and was replaced quickly by a familiar brown bear plodding through the underbrush. What was somewhat unexpected was another bear. A small little brown bear tumbling alongside him. "Hmm… looks like we're not quite done with bear boy." Innoko was watching the images the way Sophia's niece watched cartoons in the New York apartment.
Then, just like that the scene shifted. The flames suddenly seemed black apart from blizzard-like winds swirling snow in the air. Then, out of nowhere a dark shape suddenly jabbed out of nowhere. Sophia very nearly stumbled backwards again. It was a spear.
As quickly as it appeared, the scene vanished once again. Sophia turned to Innoko. "What did that mean?"
Innoko seemed speechless, probably for the first time in her life. Innoko shrugged helplessly, "Beats me."
It's ch-ch-changing again," Jackie cried, pointing at the flames. Sure enough the image began to shift. This time it appeared to be something different. There was still snow, but it was light fluffy flakes this time. A figure emerged out of the snow. He was on the short side, at least by Sophia's standards although she was used to craning her neck to meet Jack and Will in the eye. He had dark eyes and curly brown hair beneath a cap. The strangest thing was his ears. Each one came to a delicate point.
"Friend of yours?" Will asked Sophia.
"No," Sophia said in genuine confusion. She searched her memories, but she couldn't recall meeting this person. Not during her time with Kelsey or Fleweddur or Madam Leota. Sophia shivered as she remembered the previous image of the spear. Was this mysterious person the one wielding it? It didn't seem accurate. After all, he didn't have the look of a seasoned killer.
The flames swirled again and a new figure appeared. The snow disappeared and was replaced by the leafy trees of a forest and plumes of smoke. A strange ethereal figure appeared in the mist. Unlike the previous vision, Sophia recognized the figure. The flowing hair, the lithe, nimble figure. It was the same mysterious entity who had given Sophia her gift all those years ago. It was the sprite.
"I know her," Sophia said. "It's been a while… she made me a fairy godmother."
"Huh," Innoko remarked. "Apparently, she's not done with you yet." With that, the flames died back down to a more manageable level Sophia. Sophia stared at the embers willing them to flame up again. "Is that it?" she asked.
"Well, I guess the spirits are in a cryptic sort of mood today," Innoko said, crossing her arms. "Darn. Just when it was getting good."
"Getting good?" Sophia cried. "What was the spear about?"
Innoko held up her hands. "Hey! I just saw the same thing you did. They didn't give me any other subtitles."
"Do they only tell you the future?" Will asked. "Maybe it was something from the past?" He looked at Sophia. "We've been on the wrong end of spears before."
"I don't think so," Sophia said softly. She had a bad feeling that this was something in the future. Something dark and looming ahead. Sophia drew her legs up to her chest. She thought the danger was behind her, but apparently it was still very much a part of her life.
-888-
"Pointed ears?" Bernard interrupted Sophia's story. He leaned forwards eagerly in his seat. "And brown curly hair?" Sophia halted in her seat and took the time to examine him again. It had been such a long time since she had last seen the vision in the woods. She hadn't thought about it in years. Sophia paused and looked at him more closely. Bernard had bouncy dark brown curls, distinct brows, and surprisingly soft, deep brown eyes. And most importantly his ears came to a delicate point. "You said the next figure you saw was The Sprite," Bernard said. "The same Sprite we just left?"
"It was you," Sophia whispered.
Bernard smiled warmly. "I guess so."
"Wow," Sophia repeated. The vision had always been in the back of her mind. It had never made any sense to her until now.
"I guess this means that part of this is kind of meant to be huh?" Bernard asked with a smile.
"Yeah," Sophia said. "I guess so." Sophia wasn't sure why but she could hear her cheeks burning with blush.
Bernard's smile fell. "And… the spear…"
Sophia let out a heavy sigh. "That was yet to come…"