I finally updated!

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Chapter 8: The Voice of Nature Part 2

"It's really difficult to listen to nature…"

Flora tries to whisper that, but I still hear her. I know she doesn't mean any harm. It is a fact that nature is actually afraid of me. Their progress would've been so much faster if I wasn't there.

After a bit of walking, we end up going into a field of strange red vines.

"Be careful, guys. This plant hates noise."

Taking Flora's warning seriously, I do my best not to do any noise. Stella, on the other hand, doesn't seem to want to follow any warnings.

"Silence? Really now? Do you really expect me to stay quiet for the sake of one selfish plant?"

"Stella…!"

Flora whispered to her, with urgency in her voice. Before any of us could do anything, the vines wrap around Stella's legs and lift her up, upside down. Of course, this causes her to scream, which causes the plant to start becoming more violent, shaking its victim uncontrollably.

"Stella! You need to stop screaming!"

Flora's still whispering. I don't think any of this is going to work. I step up to where Stella is. This whole charade is causing us to lose way too much time.

"Let her go or I'm going to get angry."

As if sensing the danger in my voice, the plant immediately let go of Stella and receded.

"Onyx… We could've reasoned with it."

Flora looks at me with disappointed eyes.

"We could've, but we couldn't have reasoned with Stella."

Flora sighs and we all resume our search. I get that Flora is not very happy about me spooking the plants she cares about so much, but it's not like there was any other immediate way to handle things.

"Aaaaaah! Help!"

"That sounds like the guys!"

Bloom then runs towards where the screams are coming from. As we all thought, they're already in trouble. The "Specialists" were wrapped up completely in the red vines.

"You guys! Don't be so loud!"

I might as well let Flora handle this one. I don't think she'd appreciate it if I did the same thing twice. After succeeding in calming the guys, she spoke gently to the plant. It then loosens its grip on the guys, who all let out a sigh of relief.

"What happened to 'Leave it to the Specialists!' hmm?"

Stella is just rubbing it in while they're still down.

"We could've handled this just fine!"
"You're not fooling anyone, Riven."

I look at him with an annoyed gaze. How immature can he be?

"What did you say?!"

"Why don't you stop wasting time and energy getting angry at me and direct all that towards finding and catching that troll?"

"Kuh…"

And he doesn't say anything else. Not like there's anything he could say. He knows that I'm perfectly right.

We all resume our search, this time together with the Specialists.

Walking through the swamp and the meadows, we reach a large swampy river.

"How are we supposed to cross this?"

Musa asks while looking around.

"What about these platforms? If we time our jumps right, we can make it through."

Bloom motions at the moving earth platforms on the river. This could be really dangerous, but what other choice do we have?

After everyone agreed to follow this course of action, we all start slowly making our way to the other side, jumping carefully from one plot of earth to the other.

Alright, I should focus on myself and make sure I don't miss a single stride.

So far so good… Already half-way there! Wait, what's happening?! The plots of land are moving much more than before!

"A whirlpool! Hurry up guys!"

Everyone has reached the shore already, except for Riven, Tecna, and me. I look behind me, and see a giant whirlpool sucking everything in. Tecna makes her way to shore, and, just as I am about to make my last jump, I hear a loud splash behind me.

"Riven!"

Musa shouts. I look behind me once again, and see Riven struggling to swim against the current. Without thinking about it too much, I jump after him, and get a hold of his arm.

"Onyx!"

The girls scream my name. This current is way too strong. Even with both Riven and my efforts to swim against the current, we keep slowly and steadily getting further away from the shore. This is not working. I'm sorry, Professor Palladium… I'll have to go against the rules of today's assignment. I know he'll be disappointed in me, but there isn't any other choice.

I concentrate my powers and immediately transform, black wings gushing out of my back. My clothes also transform into my black tight corset dress.

I keep a hold on Riven's arm, and fly up. The strength of my wings help me get both of us out of there with ease. As soon as I reach the shore, I drop Riven on the floor and transform back. The guys look at me with a lot of confusion and surprise apparent in their eyes. I think nobody actually told them that I'm an Ankelon.

"Onyx! You're safe!"

Stella runs to me and hugs me. The other girls join in, making it a big group hug. I can't help but smile and feel joy welling up inside me.

"You broke the rules, though. Is that alright?"

Bloom says to me with a worried expression.

"It's not like I had any choice. I had to help Riven before it was too late."

At the mention of his name, we all turn our gazes towards him. He averts his eyes.

"I guess I should thank you for that…"

Even though it doesn't sound like he was actually grateful, I'll still take it.

We continue our path, following the voice of nature. After a bit of walking, I sense dark magic for a brief moment. Right after that, Bloom looks around, a bit confused.

"That's strange… I can't feel anything anymore."

"You're right, Bloom. Nature is telling us that the troll disappeared."

Flora also looks confused at this turn of events.

"If it helps, I did sense dark magic right before you guys said that you lost track of the troll."

Everyone looked at each other, trying to find an explanation for this. After thoroughly searching the area, we all concluded that the troll had in fact disappeared.

The guys then offer to give us a ride to the clearing of Gloomy-Wood forest, which is the finish line of our assignment.

We arrive there in a few minutes, only to find out that we were the last ones to arrive.

We come face-to-face with Professor Palladium. I can't even look him in the eyes, since I feel like I went against his instructions.

"You girls are finally here, I see. Congratulations to everyone for completing this assignment. I must say that I am impressed with some of you, while I am disappointed with others. Nonetheless, I have decided not to put a grade on this assignment, but to keep it as an exercise. Class is dismissed. Let us all return to Alfea, now."

He then turns to me.

"I'd like to see you in my office after this, Onyx."

Oh great… I knew he wasn't happy with what I did. Did I really disappoint him that much?

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