World Between: Chapter 7 part 3

New moons were strange in this distant land. One reflected dazzling purple with its hint of green. Once blended into the dark blue sky with a deeper, darker blue of its own. Gone if you didn’t know where to look, but still visible. It grew impossible not to wonder, staring out into space. Was it worth it? Was this new home worth so much trouble? Where was this place? Questions like this had come up from time to time along Sofia’s adventure, but never any answers. Once again she sat on the cliff a few miles from the tavern looking up at the night sky.

“I hear it’s difficult to see the stars in your old world,” Talmo said as he approached the Demoness from behind, while she stargazed.

“Sometimes,” Sofia answered. “Usually in the more populated areas. I found them often enough. But… never this many… or this often.”

“Ya think we’ll end up that way?” Talmo sat down. “With all our tech coming about.”

Sofia shook her head. “It’s not used as lighting here, so I think we’ll be okay.”

Talmo looked over to Sofia “... You okay?”

 Sofia kept her gaze upward. Looking across the sky as she spoke. “You guys do constellations better than us. We’re not that creative, it seems.”

Talmo jabbed her arm with his elbow. Sliding away from her when she jumped in her seat and glared at him. Never one to let a glare push him back Talmo asked again. “You—”

“I heard you...” Sofia sighed and looked back to the star before repeating.  “I heard you… Maybe I don’t know yet. Ever think of that?”

“Ya don’t know? a been here a clockwork’s chuck of months,” Talmo replied. “Not that that answer doesn’t suit me.”

“Almost a year… Where does the time go?” Sofia sighed. “A long time ago, I use to feel like I didn’t belong in my home. Like I was meant for someplace else, and there was some mix up somewhere.”

“Where are ya here now?” Talmo asked.

“Yeah,” Sofia answered with a swift delivery given her uncertain tone until now. “It… I… I just wondered if… this was really the answer…”

Talmo looked at her and thought briefly  “When they circle back around and go beneath the tavern. What are you gonna be doing?”

“Kick ‘em. Really hard. ” Sofia said. “Make every last one go home knowing that I wasn’t coming back.”

“Sounds like it was an answer to me,” Talmo replied. “Maybe not the one you would prefer, but the one you thought was right.”

 “I wanted to fix that world, not abandon it,” Sofia said. “Sure, it abandoned me and didn’t want to be fixed, but it was home… for a time.”

“You found something like a family,” Talmo replied. “Reach out like they are, at least.”

“Still got some game nights to make, and I missed them,” Sofia said. “Hard to believe, but I still have a better connection than a few of them too.”

Talmo chuckled. “Ah, your lad’s electricity still confounds me.”

“You do it mentally all the time.” Sofia leaned in. “That stone you call ‘a bird’ works through similar currents.”
“They can tell me that all they like, but I’ve never gotten it.” Talmo got up. “You prepare—” Sofia grabbed his shoulders.

“You named it right?” Sofia asked.

“Folker?” Talmo replied. “Course I named him.”

“Close your eyes,” Sofia instructed waiting until he did so. “You know where he is, right? As I recall you never put him ‘away’.”

“He’s scouting the plains,” Talmo replied. “Lots of wildlife been roaming about.”

“You see the soul magic connecting you two? That green line zipping across miles?” Sofia said.
“Right?” Talmo replied.

“That’s a current,” Sofia explained.  “It goes from point A, in case you, to point B, Folker, and then back. And that loop is called—”

“You know you could’ve just said you didn’t want to alone tonight.” Talmo interrupted.

“I don’t want to be alone, and it bugs that you don’t understand electricity,” Sofia said.

“... The loop is called?” Talmo asked.

“A circuit, and…” Sofia slid a little closer. Sitting beneath the stars, and settling once and for, in her mind, that you can teach an old dog new trick.