Chapter Six
Even though he had visited many times in his 32 years of life, Keefe's breath was still taken away at the sight of the former gnome leaders, now the Four Seasons Tree. He loved the snowy branches, the crispy warm autumn leaves, the spring buds, but most of all the leafy green section; it reminded him of Foster so much.
He noticed seven silhouettes were under the tree; upon moving closer he saw they were the Songs, Bangs Boy and Biana, the Endals, Wylie and Linh, the Dizznees, Dex and Marella, and Fitz.
Fitz was glaring at his hand, which was still entwined with Foster's. He hadn't realized he hadn't let go yet. But under Fitz's glare, he just held on tighter.
"I think we all know why we're here," he said, doing a quick sweep of the group, trying to make sure everyone nodded before continuing. "We need to figure out what's causing"ー an even larger tremble cut him offー"that." He finished.
"Are we sure it's not just an earthcake or whatever the humans call them?" Linh said softly. Everyone looked to Foster for clarification, as the Keefe-proclaimed (which, let's be honest, was better than any other kind of proclamationing) human-stuff-Mentor-that-actually-isn't-boring-because-she's-Foster-and-we-love-her.
"I grew up in San Diego, which had a lot of earthquakes, and believe me, those were not normal ones," she replied. "Dex, could you figure out where the epicenter is? That's the place where the tremors are biggest," she added at his slightly confused face.
"Well, I mean, I knew that," he said. Almost everyone rolled their eyes.
He pulled out his Hermione (the elvin super-Siri named after the one who always knows everything) and started tapping. "I can try, but I don't think Hermione'll pick up the signal. Maybe you could enhance me, Sophie?" They grabbed hands. "Woah," Dex said, as usual. He started mumbling to Hermione in a techie nerd language not even Foster could translate, and said, "I think I've got it."
When he showed it to Foster, she sucked in a breath. "That's Italian. And it's Italian for Pompeii!"