Land of Eight

18- Fighting With Paper Stones

Fighting with Paper Stones

Chapter Eighteen

Date: May 11, 2019

Word count: 2118

Editing chapter 19 now and forgot to add this memory to this chapter... so ehre's the updated version of chapter 18:

I could feel Silva running through my veins like stinging nettle. I was ready, more ready than any other Lander, and everyone knew that. It wasn't a secret. I had created an entire new species of plant, there was no way I could fail this exam. I had yet to grow a Camellia flower but after the show I had put on for all the professors, professor Kia wasn't worried about it.

But I was. I knew that I could grow it, but I just wanted to be sure.

So after the exam tutoring sessions held at the main Gardenhouse for the lower grades, I went to practise.

The Gardenhouse was completely empty, the sun too low in the sky to illuminate the practise tables. I pulled out protein-rich soil and sprinkled it into a wide garden box. I had two hours. The sun would be set by then but I didn't need light to grow a Camellia flower, all I needed was Silva.

I dipped my fingers into the mud, feeling that connection slide into place as I began creating. Heat rushed through the tips of my fingers and moulded with the soil to form the beginning seed of a Camellia flower.

I closed my eyes, seeing as it was dark anyway, and let the connection take control, only guiding it to the right species of plant. As amazing as growing my own species of plant had been, I only passed final examinations if I grew a Camellia flower.

The sudden thought caused a nervous rush to flow into my veins. I peeked an eye open, momentarily breaking my concentration as I tried to gauge my progress.

I frowned at the results. There was nothing there. Not even a stem of a flower.

My heart sped up as I looked around, looking for an explanation. I had full access to Silva's connection and yet I could not grow something half as difficult as I had grown last week? It didn't make any sense.

I dipped my fingers back in, forcing that heat to flow through me, that power. And I felt it, but it wasn't burning, not addictive the way it usually was for me.

What was going on?

My heart began to race faster as my panic increased. What was happening to my connection, where was my flower?

I jabbed my fingers into the soil again, desperate to feel the connection but it was down to less than a small fire, nothing but burning embers.

I only just managed to catch myself on the garden box ledge as my legs buckled beneath me, suddenly weak.

"Why? Where are you going?" I sobbed into the empty Gardenhouse. Only my echo replied.

"Where did you go?" A tear slipped from my eye, rolling down my cheek to land on my thigh.

And I sat there for hours until the sun vanished completely behind the horizon and the beams of curfew watcher's flashlights blinked on the path outside the Gardenhouse.

∞ ∞ ∞

I had yet to have a quiet meal in High Eveevia. Breakfast had been interrupted by the little Stormer, I fell asleep during lunch and dinner was silent chaos. Of all the chaotic meals I had had since getting here, dinner on the day of the Winder's arrival definitely took first place.