The Dragon Stone ↣ Riven ↢

07: Yes, Hit Me

''And when you're close up, give me the shivers''

As Rose was following the specialist to headmistress Dowling's office, she kept making up scenarios of what this might be about.

She was stressing herself out as she thought about getting expelled for almost lighting the forest on fire or for sneaking out at night and the voice of the specialist startled her as he spoke up again.

'You can go inside, you know.', he gestured at the door while giving her a curious look.

Rose realised she'd been staring at the door for a while now as she was thinking it all over.

'Yes, of course, I'll go do that now.', Rose coughed while trying to hide her embarrassment. 'Thank you.', she quickly added before turning the knob to headmistress Dowling's office.

'Hello, miss Lindor, thank you for coming.', headmistress Dowling welcomed her while gesturing for Rose to take a seat at her desk.

Rose obliged while mumbling back a shy hello. Her nerves still hadn't calmed down and she knew for sure headmistress Dowling noticed this.

'To cut to the chase,' headmistress Dowling began, 'there's something I need to discuss with you.'

Just hearing those words, caused Rose's hart to thump loudly inside her chest and negative thoughts were clouding her mind. The anxious feeling inside her stomach kept building up and as her nervousness took over her senses, Rose couldn't keep her thoughts to herself anymore.

'I'm really sorry for trying to sneak off into the forest at night, headmistress Dowling. I just wanted to see if the big spider was still there.', she blurted out.

Wow, it sounds even more insane when I say it out loud, Rose thought to herself. She had to resist the urge to bury her face in her hands as she realised by the confused look on headmistress Dowling's face that that was not wat she wanted to talk about.

'That's not exactly the subject I had in mind, but please, continue. What big spider are you talking about?', she asked in a stern voice while raising an eyebrow.

Rose could tell that she was not at all amused and decided it was best to just rip off the bandaid. She let out a big sigh and started to explain everything that had happened yesterday in the forest.

'Ah, I see.', headmistress Dowling began in a calm voice, 'I don't think the spider will oppose a threat, but I will keep it in mind and send someone out to patrol at the barrier.', she assured Rose. 'However, I do think there need to be consequences to your actions.'

At those words, Rose could feel her heartrate increasing again, causing a dizzy feeling. She averted her eyes as she feared the worst.

'I have called you into my office because it has come to my attention that you are struggling with control. I'd like to suggest that you take some extra lessons from Professor Green, one on one, so you can get in some more training in a safe environment.', she said while putting an emphasis on safe, 'Do you agree?'

That was not at all what Rose had expected, but then again, it did make sense.

'Yes, of course, I could definitely use that.', Rose agreed while looking up again.

Putting in more hours wasn't exactly  something to be happy about, but Rose was still grateful for the opportunity. Her thoughts went back to the consequences headmistress Dowling had mentioned before. 'And what about the consequences to my actions?', she mumbled while folding her hands in her lap uneasy.

'I think taking extra lessons are consequences enough. Don't you?', headmistress Dowling responded, causing the tension to disappear from Rose's body.

She nodded hastily in return as a smile appeared on her face and Rose was glad to see Headmistress Dowling return it.