39 Meeting the Plumeria spirit
Standing outside, the door absent minded, Emilia's hand lightly brushed her hand below her neck where the plumeria flower once bloomed. For whatever reason her hand continuously rubbed that area unconsciously as if in search for something that was supposed to be there but now missing. After a few minutes Emilia finally broke out of her thoughts and looked down at her hand that was placed on her collarbone.
"Something that is supposed to be here but now missing," …. she mumbled." Plumeria! How could completely forget about that?!" she said as she headed straight to the indoor greenhouse.
After she entered the code she walked straight to the centre where she was surrounded by plenty of plants. Her hand reached out to grab the leaves of the tomato stem and just like before, a plumeria plant began to appear on her collarbone. Its appearance was light at first but after she grabbed the larger plant stem it completely appeared.
''A strange flower that appears with me touching plants. This is definitely not something normal. How could I ignore it for so long? But don't tell me that the flower is just for show, what exactly does it mean or what is it for?" Emilia mumbled as she stroked her collar.
Even though the flower was clearly there, her hand could not feel its presence, almost as if the flower was one with her skin so she couldn't feel the difference. While standing outside Ling Qin's room and listening to him talk, Emilia had been hit with the realisation that she had been too relaxed. Because of their advantage over everyone else she had gradually lost her vigilance after staying too long in this peaceful time.
'Qinqin was right, being reborn did not make them invincible and the tides of the game could change at any time so her vigilance shouldn't be dropped even for a second.' With that thought she also began to think of all the dangers that could occur on this expenditure of Ling Xiao's. Thinking about it, a lot could really go wrong here. Just like Ling Qin she had also begun to think that is was best if he did not go, but that thought was quickly shot down by her because she understood that this mission was one that he needed to do and the benefits that come with it are just as big as the risks. So instead of thinking of ways to make him stay, she decided to think of ways to make his trip safer and almost immediately the plumeria flower had come to mind.
Even though she did not know what it was about she instinctively knew that whatever it was she needed could definitely be found there, even though she did not know where there was. Emilia wasn't a fool, all the changes that had happened to her body after that dream in the woods were definitely real. Her body had become stronger, her speed became faster, her reflexes also improved and her height had also increased by just a few inches. She had also noticed that bodies healing ability and pain tolerance had increased. Even though she couldn't heal instantly and speed wasn't visible to the eye, she had noticed that injuries that would usually take a few hours to heal would have almost healed in almost half the time. And all those changes happened almost overnight
She knew that something had happened to her during that walk but she just didn't have the time to investigate it all with everything that had been going on so when the flower had later on appeared she was able to connect it to that strange dream. She thought that since that flower had something to do with her drastic increase in strength, then maybe it could also help Ling Xiao and make him stronger. It could act as an insurance for him, but before she got there she had to first find out how the flower was connected to that place or what secret it held.
If it was normal times she would have taken her time, but since he was leaving tonight, she wanted to see if she could discover the secret before he officially departs for his mission at midnight today." How does it work though? Does it have anything to do with plants."
'Now that I think about it the flower appears when I'm in contact with plants, and the first time I encountered something to do with this was when I was in contact with some trees. And the flower becomes completely visible when in contact with a larger part of the plant and not just a small section, so maybe if I hold multiple plants at once in both hands something might happen?' Thinking that Emilia stretched out her hand to grab other tomato stems, but thinking otherwise she moved towards a flower pot and held all the flowers stem with her two hands. Her hands could barely wrap around them all but that wasn't what attracted her attention at all because the plumeria had begun to become more visible then brighter and brighter until a pale blue light begun to appear. Seeing a reaction, she continued trying to increase the amount of flowers in her grasp and eventually the light became so bright she couldn't even open her eyes fully.
Suddenly she felt a little dizzy and when her mind finally stabilized she felt a soft breeze and heard some water moving. Quickly snapping her eyes open she realised that she was now standing in a field surrounded by trees with a gleaming lake not too far from her.
She had once again appeared in the land she had once visited in her dreams. " This place…" she mumbled as she spun around slowly trying to take a good look. This was the exact place she had fallen to when she had been in contact with that tree, Emilia could now confirm that this place wasn't a dream after all.
At that exact moment there began to be movement in the lake. The once still lake now begun to stir as ripples began to form. It appeared as if something was coming out of the water. Emilia immediately became vigilant and got into a fighting stance. Just then a golden vine slowly rose out of the water, the tip of the vine facing away from her.
Just as if it was searching for her, the vine swung left and right until it faced her. It then slowly began to move closer to her, sliding along the water like a snake. Emilia took a few steps back when she saw the vine approaching and as if sensing her unease, the vine also stopped where it was, its body rising to stand straight while its tip faced her. For some reason Emilia felt like she was facing a snake even though her intuition told her that this vine was friendly.
It probably had to do with the fact that during her first time here, she was pierced by some vines and had her blood sucked away. Even though she earned some benefits, it stilled didn't stop her from being wary. The vine once again started moving towards her but when it saw her moving back again it paused again in its place. Just as Emilia thought it was going to remain there, the vine suddenly shot out and wrapped itself around her arm. Emilia's first thought was to break the vine in order to release herself and just as she was about to move a voice suddenly rang in her ear
"Calm down, I'm not going hurt you" a soft voice rang besides her ear
"How am I supposed to believe that when you drained my blood the first time I was here" she responded having figured out that the voice originated from the vine.
"Oh come on I was just trying to help you get rid of all that dirty stuff inside you. It made it so hard for me to look at you when you were so dirty." The plant replied unwrapping a bit of itself from her. "plus I was helping you so shouldn't you be grateful to me. I made you stronger. And so what if you lost some blood, you got it back didn't you, and it's not like your dead anyway. Stop being so uptight."
Emilia was left speechless by the vine. Everything it said was the truth so holding that grudge when she clearly benefitted made her look childish and petty. Emilia took a breath to calm herself down before she began asking the important questions. '' What are you anyway?"
"I'm a golden vine "
"Well clearly" Emilia rolled her eyes. "I meant what type of vine are you since you clearly aren't a normal plant, since plants can't talk. And what is this place?"
"oh I'm the golden vine spirit of the divine Plumeria tree and this is my space" the vine replied.
"Divine what now?" Emilia inquired not quite understanding. Just then a soft sigh sounded by her ear and the vine that had earlier loosened its hold on her tightened it and suddenly pulled her straight into the lake.
"Aahh!" Emilia screamed startled as she tried to pull herself back and not fall into the water. The feeling of suffocation from her previous fall into the water still clearly ingrained in her mind. And just like last time Emilia was still dragged into the water by the vine and the heavy sense of suffocation returned. Her body felt so heavy as if she was being buried under the earth and piles of metal. She wasn't even able to move her limbs in order to try and swim and escape. A heavy feeling of powerlessness enveloped her, not giving her room to breathe. Just as her eyes began to close from lack of oxygen, fresh air suddenly returned into her lungs and the heavy suffocation disappeared, her limbs also became lighter and she was able to move them again. Just as she was about to move, feeling suddenly disappeared from under her feet and Emilia began to free fall. After falling uncontrollably Emilia landed on her butt heavily.
"Aghhh!" She groaned, a stinging pain rose from her behind causing her to stand up quickly.
