ForestLands Institution

Chapter | 9√

Nadia sat alone in the silent woods, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Silent tears were running down her face. Her body hurts and she was losing a lot of blood. But, she didn't want to get up, she doesn't even have the strength to get up.

She rocked her body back and forth, the sun has set and soon there will be darkness but she didn't care. She kept thinking about the embarrassment she will face. Why did she even challenge Leia? In fact, she has picked a fight with everybody since childhood. She always wanted to prove she was strong, but she was stupid and weak.

Weak. It kept repeating in her head, like a haunting melody.

She cried and screamed till her throat hurts. She cried until there were no more tears to shed and then her body could no longer keep up and she fell asleep.

When Nadia woke up, she found herself in a white room. The clinic to be precise. Nurse Anya was busy sorting out the drugs when she saw Nadia was awake.

She walked over to her, helping her to seat up and putting a pillow behind her. "It's almost been two weeks since you arrived, yet you have been in my office three times. You seem to be attracted to trouble, right?"

Nadia smiled sheepishly and responded weakly, "Kind off. Who brought me here?" her voice was hoarse.

"Your friends. I heard you challenged Leia, you know-"

Nadia interrupted her, "I know, I'm stupid. I was weak, yet I went and challenged her."

Nurse Anya sat at the edge of the bed, facing Nadia. "I wasn't going to say that. You are not weak Nadia, no one is. You are very strong and I can see you have potential. You stood up for your friend and face her head on, some students aren't even able to look her in the eyes. You challenged her at the wrong time, you are new here and Leia has been here for a long time, perfecting her skills.
You just need time and training, then you can face her again and this time, make sure to kick her ass."

She grinned at Nadia and Nadia saw herself grinning back.

"I was able to reduce your pain. You sustained multiple injuries and some of your ribs were broken." she lifts Nadia's shirt to reveal bandages around her ribs that were already spotting a horrible bruise there.

She continued, "You can't go to your dorm now, you are to stay here for the night, so that I can monitor you then you can leave in the morning if you want but I suggest you take a day off," she says earning a nod in return.

Nurse Anya removed her coat and hung it on a coat rack. She turned to Nadia. "I will be in the next room, It's late. Try to get some sleep. Goodnight."

She entered the room connected to the clinic after putting off the light.

Nadia laid back down on the bed, staring into space. "Goodnight," she mumbled softly before closing her eyes.

Nadia walked through the hallways, her notebooks clutched to her chest and heading for class. She went to her dorm when the first period started and disobeyed Nurse Anya's orders to take a day off.

A group of three boys was leaning on the lockers. Probably ditching classes, their attention turned to her when they saw her coming. They turned to each other, snickering and whispering.

She ignored them and walked past but stop when one of them started mimicking her.

"Stop, stop, please stop," he made his voice to be high pitched and his friends laughed.

Just ignore them, Nadia, they are not worth your time.

She breathed in before resuming her walk, but he started again. Louder this time.

"Mummy! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

She spun around, her eyes glowing a bright silver. Not the usual green color for earth Elementalist. She clutched her books harder, wrinkling the edges as she watched the boys laugh, oblivious to what was about to happen.

The ground shook and vines erupted from the ground, wrapping themselves around the boys. The boys began to struggle, canines began to sprout out from their mouths and their nails lengthened into claws.

Fur started to sprout out from their skins but just with her eyes, she commanded the vines to squeeze them harder, stopping the transition. Tiny spikes began to form, piercing their skin, and causing them to scream.

Teachers and students came out of the nearby classrooms wanting to see what was happening. She ignored their shouts for her to stop. Instead, she squeezed harder making blood flow.

Someone grabbed her hand and spun her around to face them.

She came face to face with smoking black eyes. "Stop it, Alexandra! You will kill them!"

Kill them

She didn't want to kill anybody again, so she stopped. Her eyes turned back to brown. She blinked, slowly coming back to reality.

"Miss Crawford," A stern voice called from behind.

Nadia and Jace directed their attention to the principal who was standing on the other side. The huge crack in the ground separated her from the others.

"My office. Now!"

"What were you thinking attacking my students and damaging properties?!"

Nadia sat down with her head bowed. The principal is behind her desk, standing with both hands placed on her desk. She was livid.

"I get that what the boys did was wrong but that didn't give you the right to almost kill them and worse, damage my property!"

"I was only defending myself," Nadia claimed, her hands clenched into fists on her lap.

"If someone is bothering you, report to the disciplinarians or me, and we will handle them."

The girl remained silent, not saying a word. The principal sighed, taking pity on the girl.

"I guess you're overwhelmed with everything that is going on in your life and again, the fight you lost. But that doesn't mean, you should take your anger out on the students," Principal Victoria said softly. "I will let you off because you are still new to this. But next time, I won't take it lightly. You are dismissed."

Nadia murmured a small thank you before she walked out of the office.

She avoided everyone throughout the day by staying in the library. She sat in a secluded area, reading books yet the words weren't processing in her head.

She only got out of the library when 7 pm struck and the Librarian had to lock the library. She missed lunch and dinner but she wasn't hungry, she decided against going to her dorm but instead snuck past the guards and exited the school doors before going to the woods.

When she got deep into the woods, she stood in silence, clenching her fist, wanting to let all her anger out. So she did. She punch the tree close to her hard, and she felt something crack but she didn't care. She kept punching until she was satisfied and stopped. By then, she was breathing heavily, her hand throbbing painfully.

She heard a swooshing sound around her and she quickly turned around, but she saw no one. She shook her head, she was probably hearing things. She heard the swooshing sound again, coming from her left, she spun around but saw nothing. She was beginning to get scared now.

Nadia then felt someone breathing on her neck from beside her and she immediately took off running. She looked back and saw a black figure flying towards her. she couldn't see the face but she could see the black wings on its back.

She tripped due to her not looking at where she was going, she tried to get up again. But it was too late, the figure wrapped its arms around her waist and they took off into the sky.