Chapter 2: Into the Mystic Forest they went
When Emilia turned and left, Kieran and Caelum were left to their own thoughts. "So, do you think it's her?" asked Kieran in a serious tone, all humor is gone.
"We still can't be sure, so let's observe how this plays out then we'll decide," said Caelum without emotion. Kieran nodded and they both left for their classes.
* * * * *
When you reached the library, you immediately sat down and took the book The Witch's Herbal Apothecary, from your bag and started reading. Fifteen minutes later of writing notes, an idea popped into your head.
"Maybe I could do some research about the potion," you said thoughtfully and stood up to retrieve a book on healing potions on the shelf when a book landed by the side of your feet. You bent down to pick it up when a pale white hand grabbed it first, "Oh frog!" you yelped startled.
When you looked up to see who it is, it was Caelum. "Here, I think you dropped this." and he handed you the book. You scanned how it could've fallen off the shelf but it was tucked in place, you were sure of it.
The book was wrapped in black leather and has the title Children of Shadows, indented on the cover. You haven't seen it before so you took it with you along with the book you originally came for.
"Uhh," you began, "I thought you and Kieran still had classes?" you asked. Caelum has seated on the chair in front of yours, reading a book on Dark Arts. He looked up at you from his book.
"The class was canceled because of a certain incident in the lab next to the classroom. Kieran though had Knights class still." and he went back to reading.
You were a bit surprised that he actually answered your question, seeing as all he ever did was ignore people around him.
"Oh." You nodded in understanding and sat down. You opened the book about healing potions and hid the Children of Shadows book inside your bag.
"By the way, you and Kieran seem pretty close. Are you childhood friends perhaps?" you asked to break the awkward atmosphere.
He closed the book and leaned on the table towards you, you were startled and realized he had purple eyes.
"We are." you couldn't help but stare at his beautiful purple eyes that started to darken as his gaze deepened. "Any more questions you would like to add while you're at it?" and you broke contact, looking down, a blush started settling in your cheeks.
"Well, why did you transfer late? It's already the middle of the year." you still haven't looked up. When he didn't answer you looked up again and saw that he wasn't there anymore.
You looked left and right until suddenly a hand grabbed your shoulder and you were startled once more, he was behind you.
"For personal reasons we rather not talk about," he whispered from behind you. You stood up to face him, your face even redder.
You huffed, "Could you stop startling me already!" you exasperated. "It's not funny." you sighed and sat back down but before that, you caught a glimpse of his mouth, it was slightly turned upward but disappeared as soon as it came.
You shook your head, thinking it probably was just your imagination. He sat back down and opened his book once more.
You stared at him for a few seconds before you decided to go back to your own book. Half an hour passed just like that, him quietly reading his book while you glanced up and back again towards him every ten minutes.
A few seconds later a head popped up beside yours, startling you again. "My gah!" then the librarian shushed you and you whispered a short apology.
"Can you stop that please? Geez, the two of you really are friends." Kieran chuckled quietly before taking a seat beside yours.
"I see the two of you have gotten closer. That's good," he pointed to Caelum, "that fellow needs a girl companion for once. I'm so sick of seeing his face every day, it's nice to get away once in a while." and laughed, teasing Caelum.
Caelum on the other hand just raised his middle finger without looking up from his book, "Ahh, how shameless you are sir!" said Kieran imitating a squeaky voice, and covering his mouth offended.
You laughed slightly at their choice of bond, you can't say you're close if you don't openly taunt and offend one another. They both stared at you, Kieran smiling widely and Caelum looked for a second then went back to his book.
"What, did I do something wrong?" you asked.
"Well, this is just the first time we've heard you laugh. You should laugh more often." with that you blushed almost crimson, good thing Damara popped up.
"Hello, mates! I'm glad we're already here." she looked at our seating arrangement and hesitantly sat next to Caelum when she realized it was the only vacant chair left. She settled down and put her things on the table.
"Oh! By the way, I heard a few of our classmates from Apothecary are already gathering their ingredients for the potion." then it hit you what the true purpose of this meeting in the library was.
"Oh, almost forgot. I already found the ingredients, unfortunately not all of them are available at the greenhouse so we'll be needing to look for them in the woods, and the Firefly is technically found in the Mystic Forest." you opened the book about the healing potions, and wrote the ingredients for the Blood of the Firefly on a piece of paper.
Kieran took a look and passed it to Damara who then handed it out to Caelum. "Basically we'll be needing four dragonfly wings, two blue butterflies, petals from a blue mountain flower, a purple deathbell, a glow mushroom, and lastly the blood of the firefly. We have the purple deathbell, dragonfly wings, and blue butterflies in the greenhouse," you instructed.
"But the blue mountain flower, glow mushrooms and the firefly can only be found in the forest." said Damara, "And the mushrooms can only be picked at night, blue mountain flowers are also not easy to find, and most of all, capturing a firefly is also no easy feat," she added.
"How about," Kieran started, "Caelum and I get the glow mushrooms, and blue mountain flowers, then the two of you get the rest of the stuff. Then we'll figure out how to catch a firefly once we get the five other ingredients first." he suggested, which was a good plan so you and Damara agreed.
"That's a great idea. So you'll be picking the blue mountain flowers tonight I assume?" you asked.
"Yes, tonight since that's the only time they sprout correct?" Kieran confirms, and you nodded.
"Oh, before I forget, you have to pick them up from the roots. We can then transfer them to a plant pot so they don't wilt and die. We need them alive on the day we make the potion." you added since the potion making won't be until a month later.
"From the roots, got it. Then that's that. Great teamwork. Anyways, Caelum and I will get going since we still have one more class today." you all stand up and gather your things to leave when the Children of Shadows book fell from your bag unto the floor.
You bent to pick it up but Kieran was already ahead of you, staring intently at the book with wide eyes, "Where did you get this?" he asked about the book.
"I found it here, on one of the shelves. Why, have you read it?" you take it from him and he hesitated a bit before letting go. "I can lend it to you after I read it." you offered.
You saw a glimmer of emotion in his eyes, but you can't pinpoint what. "No, I've already read it. It's a rare book that one, I was just surprised there was a copy here that's all." you nodded and put the book back inside your bag, deeper this time to prevent it from falling again.
You all went out of the library, "See you tomorrow ladies." said Kieran before leaving with Caelum. As soon as they were gone Damara took a breath of relief.
"Thank goodness he's gone." you looked at her weirdly. "What? Aren't you afraid of Caelum too, he's sooo… I can't even say the right words to describe it--kinda like brooding and mysterious--creepy!" she yelled when she found the right word. You just shrugged at her silly notion.
"I dunno, not really. I mean he is kinda mean but not scary. Mysterious yes but not creepy, and it's kind of a good contrast compared to Kieran's lively humor and character don't you think?" you replied before leaving towards the dorms.
"Ohhh, whatever. But he totally scares me." and you both laughed. This is the most unusual day I've ever had. You thought to yourself.
* * * * *
Back in the dorm room, your roommates are chatting about the two new boys and they were bugging you nonstop about it.
"I told you, they didn't tell me anything, now get off please. I'd very much like to have my personal space back." your roommates weren't pleased by your response.
"Oh come on, there must be something they said like why they transferred late or why they transferred late at the same time?" your roommate Sitara, pushed and had a tight hold, literally, on your shoulder. Your other roommate nodded in earnest, Briony who is also an elf. With bright green hair, golden brown eyes, pale white skin, and pointed ears.
"Please ease on the grabbing Sitara, you might break me, literally," you said because her grip started to hurt and you could already feel it forming a bruise. She's a member of the Knights which means her strength is ten times stronger than the average person.
She immediately let go, suddenly conscious of her own strength, "Sorry, got a bit carried away." she smiled apologetically.
You shook your head, "It's fine." you brushed it off, "Not really, Caelum just said something about personal reasons, and that they are childhood friends which kinda makes sense if their parents were close, they might've thought of enrolling them at the same time." you answered.
Sitara and Briony finally gave up and went back to their beds while her two other roommates were preoccupied with their own things.
Damara wasn't as enthusiastic since she already met them, but Corvina, on the other hand just didn't care and instead was practicing spells under her breath, wondering which unlucky bloke made her angry.
Corvina Azura is a witch, and she specializes in hexes so they made it a point not to anger her, or she will curse you.
You grabbed the book Children of Shadows from your bag which you want to read so badly and went to the window seat next to your bed and sat there to read.
"Children of Shadows, creatures, and creators of nightmares. These creatures come from abandoned babies, children that were thrown away, and murdered from birth--" you were slightly scared by the words. "Do these creatures really exist?" you ask yourself lowly.
Once you've recovered you continued on. "--that have taken a form of disfigured dark creatures, with tall and slim statures, elongated talons for fingers, and dark red eyes. They are also called "night-walkers" or Children of Shadows.
The fate of abandoned babies is truly tragic, they do not appear in the morning for when they have contact with sunlight, their already black skin gets charred and burned." you read on until you saw two shadows walking towards the Mystic Forest from outside your window. You wiped the fog and confirmed that it was them-- Kieran and Caelum.
You were so engrossed with the book that you didn't notice that everyone was already asleep. You looked at the clock by your study table to see that it was already past midnight.
You wonder how they were only now heading towards the forest when they should've gone earlier. You were afraid they might get in trouble so you slipped on your coat and boots then silently left the dorm rooms and followed them but as soon as you got outside, they were long gone and it would be close to impossible to catch up to them, so you went back inside and went to sleep.
"Maybe I'll ask them tomorrow." was your last thought before drifting to sleep.
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