The Dragon Stone ↣ Riven ↢

11: Where's The Fire At?

'Guys.', Rose started to get their attention. 'Now that we're all here, I really need to talk to you about something.'

All the girls had stopped talking and were now looking at Rose with an unsure expression, probably curious as to what she was referring to.

'You can tell us anything.', Musa said reassuringly, nodding for her to continue.

Musa had probably picked up on Rose's worrying. Her heartbeat had sped up lightly, nervous to share what had happened earlier that day, but she had set her mind on sharing it with them since she could be a danger to all of them. She took a deep breath and put on a brave face before continuing. 'Okay, well, here it goes.'

Rose explained what had happened today in the forest. How one moment, she was just carrying out the assignment, and the other moment she woke up with an injured Riven sitting in front of her. She told the girls about how her eyes had turned black, how she had attacked Riven and how she had had her mind set on getting through the barrier. The fact that she was willing to hurt another person, even a person she cared about, just to get through was what scared her the most.

'Well, good thing it was only just Riven.', Terra remarked with an amused chuckle as Rose finished her story.

'Really not the point right now, Terra.', Musa butted in. 'How are you feeling right now, do you feel okay?', she questioned with a concerned look on her face.

Rose didn't really know how she was feeling but she did know that she was glad she had her friends to talk to.

'Yeah, I guess so. But I really don't know what happened. For all I know, it could just happen again any time and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it.', Rose responded with worry clear in her voice.

'Good thing you have us, then.', Stella said. 'We'll all just have to take turns in keeping an eye on you until we figure out what is happening.'

Stella's suggestion warmed her heart, but she had to suppress the relieved smile that was trying to form on her face. She couldn't do that to her friends, she couldn't put that task on their shoulders.

'I really appreciate that, Stella. But you're not babysitters, I couldn't ask that of you.', Rose protested instead.

'You don't have to ask, we just offered.', Stella stated matter-of-factly as she waved her hand to dismiss Rose's objection.

'I think that's a good idea.', Aisha began. 'But we still need to figure out what's going on with you. Do you not remember anything that happened in between? Maybe a feeling, something you saw, anything.'

Rose wanted to to remember. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, but no matter how hard she tried to go back to that moment, no matter how hard she tried to remember, she just couldn't.

'I'm sorry, I really don't.', Rose replied while letting out a sigh of disappointment.

'You don't have to apologise.', Musa said. As the words left her mouth, her eyes lit up all of a sudden. 'Oh my god, the girl from the restaurant!', Musa exclaimed.

'Oh yes, the creepy girl with the dark eyes. Maybe there's a connection.', Terra pointed out as she seemed to be in deep thought.

The mysterious girl. Rose remembered her. A shiver crawled up her spine as the memory resurfaced.

'I don't know, could be. But that girl, she was talking to me. I don't think I talked during the time I was in that state, riven didn't mention it.', Rose responded.

'Well, maybe he forgot. We should check just to be certain. There's also something else. Rose, when you were thinking back to that moment, I could feel something. It felt urgent, like you needed something really bad.', Musa revealed.

'Well, yes, I wanted to get through the barrier.', Rose mumbled as she was thinking it over. 'But there had to be something on the outside that I was after.'

'Something or someone.', Aisha specified. 'Are you going to tell headmistress Dowling?'

The thought had crossed Rose's mind. Should she?, she wondered. She had already told her about the big spider and the sneaking off, revealing another problem would probably not do her any good.

'I don't think you should. I think it's best if we figure this one out on our own first.', Stella interjected.

'You don't think it's a good idea to involve headmistress Dowling?', Rose questioned as she looked at Stella.

'I'm just not sure. You did attack another student.', Stella began. 'What if she thinks you're dangerous and she decides to lock you up somewhere.'

Stella's words caused an uneasy feeling to settle in Rose's stomach, though, Stella was right. At the moment, Rose was a danger to all the other students.

'She wouldn't do that!', Aisha disagreed. 'There are less profound solutions to disable someone's magic, but maybe Stella is right, let's just gather some more information first. Terra, maybe you can find out if your dad knows something about this stuff. Musa, you could use your powers to see if you can gather any more information from Rose's subconsciousness. Rose, you can ask Riven if there are details he forgot to mention. Bloom, you can take the first round of keeping an eye on Rose and Stella, you and I can head off to the library to see if we can find some books about this subject.'

'Sounds like a plan!', Terra exclaimed while all the other girls nodded, but to Rose, it still didn't feel quite right.

'Wait guys!', Rose started. 'Are you sure you want to do this? I could hurt you and I understand if you have better things to do with your time.'

A loud yes could be heard from her dormmates, which left Rose with  a mixed feeling. Musa apparently sensed it as she spoke up. 'Don't even try to stop us. We are with you, whether you want it or not.', she said as she sent Rose a playful glare. 'Now, let's get to it.'

And with that, they all got started with the tasks Aisha had given them.

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