"Sophie. It means 'wisdom'."

"Cool."

"Yeah. My mom picked it."

Which, wait, back up a second. "Your dad went on an errand, you said? Do you know what he was doing? What kinds of errands do psychic bear dads go on? And he had a lab?"

"Huh? Oh! I'm adopted, Dad's a human like you. Well, taller. I don't know what he was doing, he just said it was important."

Otso very rarely knew what his dad was doing, and up until this exact second he didn't see anything strange about that.

Right, Otso said other people. "Do you think your dad might have caused - " she jerks her head to take in the wind, the constant lightning, the roars of thunder " - all this?"

That's actually a little offensive.

"No way! Dad's good. He keeps everyone here safe! That's his job, and it's going to be my job when I'm older. If..."

If he's OK, which he might not be, right, time for a change of subject. Does she have anything at all in common with this bear, aside from magic weirdness that might have killed his dad and might still kill her friend.

"How do you like this part of Flint Hill? It's one of my favorites in town."

"Right now it's kinda scary? But normally I think it would be really nice!"

"You haven't seen it before? I figured you'd probably been all over town and I just never noticed you."

"Not really. My dad said I should hide most of the time, remember?"

"Sure, but even at night?"

"People sleep at night."

"Right, that's why it would be safe. Well, safer."

"I'm people."

He's got her there, doesn't he.

Around then you break through the trees into the school parking lot. Nobody's hanging around outside, of course, but the lights are on in the gym. What now, Sophie?

Hmm. Sophie doesn't, actually, want to show whatever's going on with her to all her friends and neighbors -- not until she understands it better, and maybe never. She doesn't know how to turn it off. Also, if she did turn it off her dad and teachers and everybody would probably make her stay inside where it's safe, rather than going off to find whatever that new extra sense she has is pointing her towards.

Leaving Emily in the rain in the parking lot obviously doesn't work. Neither does standing around dithering while her concussion gets worse, or whatever it is.

Emily's started muttering to herself, eyes still mostly closed. The gist seems to be that she doesn't like Christmas pageants.

That thing you can sense is slowly getting closer, by the way.

OK, no more thinking time. Emily didn't recognize her, maybe whoever's at the door won't either. And if they do she'll...figure it out then.

First, to Otso: "Stay here in the trees for a sec, I'll be right back once I drop off my friend."

She'll step out of the trees and into the rain, hunched forward to keep Emily out of the rain.

Your rain shield still covers Emily, even here in the open.

This is a pretty convenient set of superpowers!

Probably people are mostly in the gym, since that's where the pancakes were? She'll trot across the parking lot to the gym door and peer through. She's looking for a responsible adult to hand Emily off to, ideally one who doesn't know Sophie personally.

The adults have only just realized that Emily might be missing. People are searching the empty classrooms right now, just to be sure, before they send a much-riskier rescue party out into the storm.

They don't know about Sophie. She asked her friends to cover for her, and they said they would, and no one has directly asked them about her yet. They're having a furious, whispered argument in one corner of the gym, the kind where you both know the right answer but you want the other person to be responsible for saying it out loud. If Sophie were there, she'd just...but she's not.

And Pastor Reed is standing at the gym door, watching the lightning illuminate the world and praying for Emily's safe return.

They're not very coherent prayers, just variations on Both of them, Lord? Not that. Please not that. Please...

And then a face appears in the window!