"I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE we are following Bigfoot," whispered Sophie, gazing in awe at the giant footprint in the muddy ground. Each enormous toe was as wide as her arm, and inside the track a deep, puddled pool had formed. Dex laughed, showing off two perfect dimples, and stood on tiptoe to examine a scratch on the bark of a nearby tree. "Do people really believe there's a giant ape-man wandering around here trying to eat them?"

Sophie turned away and hid her face with her blonde hair so her flushed cheeks wouldn't show. "Totally crazy, right?" It had been almost a year since she discovered she was an elf and went to the Lost Cities, but sometimes she forgot and sounded like a human. She knew that sasquatches were nothing more than tall, hairy, green creatures with beady eyes and beak-like noses—she had even worked near them in the fields of Havenfield, the vast estate and animal sanctuary she now called home. But it was hard to forget a whole lifetime of human teaching. Especially when you had a photographic memory.

A lightning bolt split the sky and Sophie jumped. "I don't like this place," muttered Dex, his violet eyes scanning the row of trees as he approached Sophie. The damp, heavy air made his blue shirt stick to his thin arms, and his gray pants were covered in mud. "Let's find this thing and get out of here." Sophie agreed. The swampy forest was dense and wild. It was as if time had forgotten this place.