Pendulum || TAENNIE FF

⚔Chapter 50: Echoing

A U T H O R

"She had taken too much tarits. Her body wasn't able to contain them for long." The school nurse told Flake who sat near the bed for almost an hour. "...which is surprising. I never encountered a situation like this. It's affecting her very differently."

"What do you mean by that?" He asked.

"A tarit potion will only last a few hours in a creature's body. It won't affect her this much, to the point where she loses her consciousness. The marks on her neck are also too visible. She's an unusual creature." Flake furrowed his brows at her observation. "Nevertheless, she will be okay soon. Don't worry too much." The nurse said and turned to other patients.

"I guess I was right. Everything leads to one answer," he quietly said and looked at her. "You're a human." He pulled his stool closer and rested his chin comfortably on his arms on the bed. His eyes focused on the side of her face. "And I understand why you and Firo didn't want me to know."

Heather's eyes suddenly fluttered open. She was facing the ceiling with such confusion. When she noticed the side of the bed sinking to her left, she casually turned to that direction, and when she met his earnest stare, "You!" she exclaimed. "What...what are you doing here?!" She forced herself to sit and quickly moved away from him. 

"Obviously, I brought you here. If it weren't for me, you'd be dead by now." Flake answered and sat straight. Heather looked away and cleared her throat. "Are you feeling better?"

"I was just hungry, that's all." She attempted to leave the bed but Flake immediately went before her and blocked her way. "I'm completely fine. I don't need to waste my time here."

"You were under a tarit spell, weren't you?" She furrowed her brows and shook her head. "Maybe you weren't taught about it yet," he said under his breath. "Did eat a lot of...something...?"

"Ah, right! I was in this cottage and they offer free desserts and drinks--"

"Hawk's Cottage?" he said, cutting her off. "No wonder."

"Heather?!" Maya went inside the wide clinic and ran towards her bed. "I heard what happened from the lady in the cafeteria. Why did you leave the bed so early? You should've woken me up. I would've gone with you. Are you okay?"

"I'm a lot better, no worries," she answered. She looked at Flake and wanted him to keep talking about Hawk's Cottage but doing so will only make her hate him less than before--and that's the last thing she wanted. "I should go," she said and left with Maya.

They went to the cafeteria and bought another bowl of soup for breakfast. "I should've told you about tarits earlier. This wouldn't have happened if I did," Maya said with a concerned look. "I was too carefree, thinking you're smart enough to know about it yourself."

"Well, you can tell me about it now."

"All right. Tarits are used to avoid the shortage of food in Parailla. The king and queen thought about it themselves when they knew about the uneven distribution of food to the townsmen. Tarits are pink liquids that magically appear in our food or drink whenever we consume too much of them."

"What happens if we eat them? I mean, what happened to me last night when I ate them?"

"I'm not sure but you clung onto Firo when he brought you in. Tarits cause you to completely lose control of your awareness and it will be replaced by the opposite of your personality. That's Paraillans' high form of embarrassment, that's why it works so well. You're someone with a strong mindset and you're independent so I believe you...were extra clingy and dumb?"

"Clingy. Dumb." Heather repeated and laughed. "No. No, even when I'm sleep talking, all the words I'm saying are logical and they make perfect sense. There's no way I embarrassed myself in front of..." She stopped, realizing that she didn't embarrass herself in front of just anyone. "What would they think of me?"

"She called me Peony." Firo and Chase came to sit with them. "Do I look like a peony to you?"

Heather gulped. "Technically, you do." They looked at her, confused. "I knew it. I knew it! Even when I'm under some spell, I'm sane enough to call you that. Peonies mean bashfulness and reserved. You're...you're like that, aren't you?" She managed to save face in the middle of something she considers chaos.

"And you called me pretty," Firo added.

Now that was just dumb. "Well, when you turn your face sideways, your eyes kind of make you look...flowery?" They just gave her judging looks. "Okay. I'm out of here." She quickly left her seat and ran towards the door. Unluckily for her, Flake was also passing by. He stopped walking when he saw her. "Don't tell me I called you pretty too?"

"Ahh, you're talking about the things you told me when the spell worked on you again?" She nodded and waited. She strongly hoped it wasn't as mortifying as what she called Firo. "Mister Ice Queen strikes again." Heather furrowed her brows. "You accidentally fell on me, and when I caught you, you said that."

"Mister Ice Queen." The hell was I thinking?! "Was I wrong though? It makes perfect sense anyway!" She didn't waste another second and made her way out of the school.

An hour ago...

"Heather?" Flake called to wake her up. "Heath--" She suddenly held onto his cloak to pull herself up. "Are you okay?"

She looked up to see him and scrunched her brows. "Ulch, of all wonderful creatures..." She stood on both feet and looked around them before shouting, "Mister Ice Queen strikes again!--" Flake immediately covered her mouth and hid her in one side of his cloak. "Where's the door? Knock knock..."

He looked around them and found the other kids looking in their direction. "I never felt so humiliated." He told himself and took her to the clinic to return her sanity.

--

You guys asked for Flake moments so, I present them to you😁 I kind of messed up my "Moments Calendar" for this but whatever🤡 Anyways, Flake knows about her now🙈 I thought about the perfect time for this revelation and because of the other scenes I planned out, I figured he should know sooner.

I'm quite excited to see the comments in the previous chapter so Imma hop right to it💖 I hope you guys liked it! Thank you for reading🤍