Opening her eyes, the first thing that Emmia saw was a white ceiling. Vision blurry from just regaining consciousness, Emmia tried to rub them with her hands.
Pain flared through her muscles as she moved her hands. Gasping softly, Emmia stopped moving once more.
"You're awake," A feminine voice sounded out in the room.
Turning her head, and baring with the soreness that came with it, Emmia saw a nurse writing down some paperwork.
"...What happened?" Emmia asked confused. Her memory seemed blurry on how she ended up here.
"Well, you collapsed in front of the school gate. Mind telling me what happened?"
"..collapsed? I don't.....ah," Emmia's foggy memory cleared away immediately. Embarrassment started to set in as she remembered how she pushed herself beyond what her body could take.
"So? What happened?"
"I uh.....fainted due to running too much..." Emmia murmured in a small voice, her face slowly turning red.
"..You did what?" the nurse's voice turned sharp as she questioned Emmia.
"I..." Emmia started again.
"I heard you the first time." The nurse cut her off. "I'm just astonished at how young people can be so immature sometimes. Shouldn't you know where the limits of your body lie and when and where to push them? You clearly were pushing your body very hard. You're very lucky that you made it into the academy gates. Who knows what would've happened if you had collapsed on the way here? And don't get me started on....."
The nurse continued her rant to admonish Emmia's reckless actions. While Emmia did achieve what she wanted to do, she too knew that it was reckless.
Swallowing her excuses, Emmia listened to the nurse's rant until she was finally done.
"Since you seemed to have collapsed only from exhaustion, I'll send you back to class without any treatment."
"Excuse me, but what's the time?" Emmia suddenly asked, finally realizing that she was sitting in the nurse's office when there were classes going on.
"9:30, now your body should still be extremely sore, so I'll write a slip that will exempt you from any physical activities that you might have."
"Thank you miss." Emmia thanked the especially kind nurse for looking out for her so much.
"Don't thank me," The nurse dismissed with a wave. "Thank the girl that brought you here. I think Luna Kires was her name."
"Oh, I will then," Emmia shelved the action in her mind so she wouldn't forget.
Receiving the note from the nurse, Emmia rushed to her class as fast as she could.
Watching her patient leave, the nurse jotted down some more points of observation. While Emmia was sleeping, the nurse had been taking notes on her condition. Analyzing Emmia with her gift, the nurse found a lot of fascinating observations such as Emmia's abnormally weak muscles and the increased amount of nerves that she had. The nurse decided that when her shift finished, she would deliver these notes to the head nurse herself.
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Class was taking place as usual for section 7 in the academy. Icarth was surprisingly in class that day.
Close to dozing off, Icarth forced himself to stay awake.
The teacher was talking about wildlife biology and how the gifts of the organism affect its physical structure of it.
"A common plant usually has the gift «Longevity», now, not much is known about the internal workings of this gift but it is well known that this gift lets plants live for an extremely long time. Due to this, we have never actually seen a plant die due to old age as such. The outer appearance of the plant looks normal as such, without any extreme growth or pigmentation or any extra organs."
"Coming to plants with abnormal gifts-"
The teacher was cut off by a knock on the door. It promptly opened to reveal Emmia standing, slightly out of breath.
"May I come in?"
"Yes, do you have an excuse for your tardiness?" the teacher asked with a slight frown.
"Yes ma'am." Emmia limped into the room and handed the teacher her note from the nurse.
Scanning it, the teacher handed it back and softened her voice towards Emmia, "Go sit down."
Emmia nodded and limped toward her seat next to her brother.
"You're late," Icarth noted in a low voice.
"I was in the nurse's office," Emmia whispered back as the teacher restarted her class.
"Now the plants with a predatory gift or a defensive gift grow extra limbs or color to accommodate for their respective gift....."
"What happened?" Icarth asked sharply, still keeping his voice low.
"I fainted. From running too much." Emmia whispered hurriedly before Icarth jumped to conclusions.
"Oh," Icarth relaxed his body which he had tensed up unknowingly.
Icarth didn't say anything to lecture his sister. He knew she was smart enough to learn from her mistakes.
Time flew by and finally class ended.
"I'll be talking about the portion for animals in the next few days. Please do some light reading and come to class."
Grabbing her books, the teacher left with a goodbye, "I'll see you guys in the next class."
And as customary, a few students followed right behind the teacher in order to ask more questions and doubts as if the hour-long class wasn't enough.
Icarth slumped down in his seat. While the class wasn't half bad, he hadn't gotten what he had come for.
'Hah, I'll kick Sefir later. Time to sleep now.' Icarth promptly put his head down and fell asleep like a log.
Sefir, sitting on the front bench felt a chill shoot down his spine while he was arranging his notes.
Turning around, he looked around to check if anyone was thinking ill about him.
His gaze settling on the sleeping Icarth, Sefir thought 'It can't be.....right?' The bad feeling increased after seeing his roommate's peaceful visage.
Emmia sighed in frustration. While she had gotten a personal achievement, it came at the cost of two classes that she had missed. While she had made it halfway into the third class for the day, she hadn't really understood it.
'Sefir will have the notes,' Emmia thought in relief.
This time Sefir sneezed. 'Who's thinking of me this time?'
While Emmia was deep in thought on how to catch up for the day's classes, a soft voice called from her side.
".....um...how are you?"
Turning her head, Emmia spotted Luna.
"Oh! I'm fine now, just a little sore." Emmia stumbled a little with her words. She didn't notice Luna until now due to Luna's silent nature and lack of presence.
Remembering the nurses' words Emmia continued, "Thank you for getting me to the nurse's office."
Luna shook her head as if to say don't mention it and gave a small smile.