Unlike them, Mel slowed down. Despite the darkness, he looked around and stopped when he came to the place where the fighter named Randolf had attacked him. The frozen grass was not yet thawed; almost a day later, an ice-blue circle stood in the middle of the road.
"I don't think anyone who would survive such an attack ever lived within the confines of the Far Circle, and that includes the Academy Officials. Look at the trees around; doesn't it feel like they're shaking too?"
Is that why Mel slowed down and then stopped? When he entered the grove, the plants began to respond to his presence, but when he arrived at the place where he was undergoing the Dragon Transformation today, the surrounding plants were worried about their lives.
