Then after a minute, Wes told Charlie, "I understand they haven't had much time together with your aunt the way she is, but could you get them to stop? It doesn't have to be for long, but I would at least like to not have to wait with them going at it like that."
Charlie sighed. She really didn't want to get involved with them like that, but knew she likely should anyway. Especially since they'd finished discussing the matter of them meeting Petals.
–Emily?– Charlie asked with her magic, as she figured this might keep her from having to get too close to them while they were making out, just in case they'd started doing something more that she couldn't see from the angle she was in relation to them. –Emily!–
Emily broke away from Ruthie, "What?" she looked like she'd just been woken up in the middle of class.
Ruthie, however, was leaning towards Emily again, which let Charlie see Emily's hand clearly up Ruthie's shirt and under her bra.
"We agreed to send someone to ask Petals," Charlie said, averting her eyes from what she could see Emily doing to her cousin.
"Okay, when do we find out?" Emily asked, putting her finger on Ruthie's lips.
Ruthie pouted about having to stop kissing Emily, but carefully pulled away and fixed her clothing as she removed Emily's hand.
Charlie was about say something when Hannah poked her head out of Petals' forest. "Okay, she said she's over by her stream," Hannah said, startling Emily and Ruthie.
"How…?" Ruthie asked.
"I see," Emily said chuckling. "That's how well the entrance is hidden."
"Ready to enter?" Charlie said, cutting off any other questions, already starting to feel worn out from just dealing with those two.
"Sure," Emily said cheerfully.
"I guess," Ruthie said, sounding rather uncertain.
"Let's go then!" Beth said, hopping up and almost ran through the entrance to Petals' forest.
While her friends entered the forest, Charlie, despite feeling fatigued about being around them, helped Emily and Ruthie in finding the entrance. Then after they were in the forest, she entered behind them.
However, since she was used to following after her friends, she accidentally bumped into her cousin as her cousin stopped right where she entered, staring at the ethereal forest around her.
"It's like it's out of a movie," Ruthie breathed.
"Almost like we're in another dimension," Emily said. "Rather than another world, or kind of in between worlds, I guess."
Once the wonder dissipated for them, they were able to get them walking towards where they knew Petals was. Occasionally Emily or Ruthie would ask a question and someone would answer. Charlie let herself withdraw from the conversation, wanting a break from dealing with her cousin and Emily.
She noticed that the scar left from when the intruder had come through here was almost fully healed, which surprised Charlie a little, given how quickly she had expected it to take. Not that she was complaining. The trees were blooming and even the crystals were shining like they had just been polished.
Then there was a path that it was clear Petals was working on installing. It was made with the same crystals that grew throughout the forest and Charlie wondered if it was so they'd have something to make their journey to the center of Petals' forest, or maybe to other entrances that opened into other worlds.
Eventually they made it to the sequoia and Charlie let the other go on ahead of her as she gazed at the tree. If she climbed it, would she be able to see above the rest of the forest? Charlie wondered, even though she had no plans of climbing the tree. Mostly because eventually she'd have to climb down at some point and she didn't want to deal with that. Maybe at some point she might, but certainly not now.
When she looked away from the sequoia, she was surprised to see that everyone else had disappeared from her sight. She might have panicked if she didn't know where they were going.
Charlie began jogging along the crystal path until she had to leave it in order to head towards Petals' stream.
–What do they mean about me having given permission for them to be here?– Charlie heard Petals say in her mind.
–I told them that to meet you they needed to get permission from me and my friends and then you.– Charlie answered with her magic. –That way if they tell anyone about this, then they'll have it in their mind that they would need to get your permission before they could enter.–
–Yet that intruder was able to enter without having asked me.– Petals replied.
–And at the time you weren't looking for intruders.– Charlie pointed out. –Now that you know someone knows about your forest, then others might consider that you're keeping a close eye on who's coming in, then those who would be up to mischief might let it go without trying.–
–Alright, I'll accept that, but at the same time you didn't ask me.– Petals replied, sounding a little confused.
–Would you like us to ask you?– Charlie asked. –We figured you'd be fine with us not asking you about it.–
–I guess that's alright.– Petals said, sounding pretty tired.
–Do you need time to rest?– Charlie asked. –You sound rather tired.–
–It's just from some changes I'm making. I'll be okay when I'm done.– Petals answered.
A moment later Charlie was able to see her friends, though it was up a hill that Charlie was quite sure wasn't there before. Then as she climbed the hill, she saw that while the hill wasn't very high, it was rather broad. Then on the top of the hill was where the stream used to be. It had been extended into a small pool. Charlie estimated that it was probably around three feet deep.
As she got closer to her friends, she saw Emily and Ruthie fawning over Petals and the unicorn was taking the affection in a rather stoic manner.
Charlie walked up to Beth, still looking at the pool. "Any idea when Petals started this change?" she asked Beth.
"Not sure," Beth said. "But I would hazard a guess that she started when we introduced Stacie to her."
Charlie nodded absently. "If she started back then, I guess any change she makes here takes a while to occur," Charlie remarked.
"Yeah, but with the pool here, we could at least go wading sometime. Maybe even if we get a blizzard over the summer," Beth said, sounding like she'd be interested in taking a dip right then.
"Want to come back later?" Charlie asked. "I might be able to slip out tonight after everyone's gone to bed."
Beth laughed. "Tempting as that is, I can't. I have a few things going on that will keep me from doing that," Beth replied. "But are you saying you'd like to go skinny dipping or that you'd wear your swimming suit for that?"
Charlie merely rolled her eyes. "You know I'd wear my swimming suit. If I was interested in skinny dipping, I'd have asked if you wanted to wait back with me to swim when we're all done here," Charlie said dryly.
Beth merely shrugged. "Maybe, but I thought I'd check first. Besides, wouldn't you worry that the others would be curious about why you were waiting back?" Beth asked.
"Not really concerned about that, since I didn't plan on skinny dipping anyway," Charlie said shortly, already getting annoyed about the topic and how Beth had somehow co-opted it. "Just wondered if you'd be interested."
Beth shrugged. "Maybe you should see if Emily and Ruthie would want to accompany you," Beth suggested.
Charlie sighed. "If they did, I can't say for sure they wouldn't spend the time making out or maybe even going farther than that," she said, wanting to drop the subject completely at this point.
"Well, maybe all of us can come here on Black Friday and swim around a bit," Beth suggested. "That way it won't just be just a few people, and if your cousin and her girlfriend want to make out, you'll have others you can talk with so it won't feel so awkward."
Charlie nodded. That could work. She just had to figure out how they'd be able to return here, bring their swimsuits, and not have the rest of her family learn about it. Although, as she thought about it, did her cousin and Emily even bring their swimsuits? After all, this wasn't really the season most people thought about swimming. Or at least not outdoor swimming.
"So, what'd you think?" Charlie asked Emily as they returned to their world outside of Petals' forest.
"That was awesome," she said.
"That was like walking through a virtual reality fantasy world," Ruthie gushed. "Wish I could have taken pictures to show everyone."
"Come on, Ruthie," Emily complained. "You know we can't do things like that."
"But what if the thing with the centaur reveals about unicorns and all that?" Ruthie pouted.
"Even if they learned about unicorns, I don't think we should tell just anyone about Petals' forest being here," Charlie remarked. "If they knew about it, how quickly do you think she'd get shipped off to a lab for the government to study?"
Ruthie sighed. "Yeah, I get that," she murmured, sounding a little deflated. "I just wish I could show others what it looked like."
"I understand the feeling," Amelia commented. "That place would make an awesome movie set. Especially if you were going for a 'mysterious meeting in the woords' vibe."
Charlie had to chuckle at that. The image that Amelia brought to her mind helped her relax a little more than she'd been able to since her aunt came.
However, at the same time, it somehow brought to mind her misgivings about bringing her friends along on her expedition. Even though she'd talked it out with Beth and everything, she still couldn't let go of the fact that there was the possibility that doing this was going to end with Beth being killed.
Sighing, Chalrie decided that she was going to need to talk about this with Heathcliff. Sooner rather than later. Arachii might be a better source of information, but he was a bicorn. She had a feeling he might not understand the emotional problems this was causing her. Then there was the fact at how much she and her friends had learned from their tutors.
While they had been able to learn a lot from the crystal, much of which their tutors didn't even seem to be aware of, there was a lot that they had learned, even of the basics. Which meant that the crystal probably didn't understand some points of their magic that their human tutors did. As such, Heathcliff might be able to understand some points of her magic that Arachii wouldn't be able to. No matter how much more she trusted Arachii than she did Heathcliff.