Chapter 8: The farm After the sparring session was decred to be over, the room was filled with an oppressive sileno one dared speak or move until Miriam open her mouth.“You ok Mark?”“Yeah, I think so” He slumped to the floor.“ you take care of the rest?” She addressed Kai and poi Marco.“Yeah, I’ll beat some sea him ‘till he calms down” He walked over to them and threw Marco over his shoulder “I’ll be back ter, luv” With those words, he left the warehouse.“Alright” She cpped her hands “This will be it for today’s training”Hearing these words the group watg from the sidelines, finally stood up.“Man, that got really heated in the end” Henry ented halfheartedly.“Dude, ime e up with a better pun” Christiaed.“un?”“Tch, you stop the edy routine?” Nina interjected them in irritatiowo boys looked at each other in fusion. She had been in a good mood so far, hehey didn’t expect this rea.She was surprised by this herself. It was during the fight they spectated, that her feelings soured real quick.Among the members of the secluded sector, Nina, Miriam and Kai were aware of Marco’s affe. They simply pretended not to know. Both adults decided not to intervene iers betweeeens until now, si hadn’t been problematid they wahe kids to gain some experienina oher hand, chose to ignore his feelings for her, not wanting to deal with something she sidered troublesome. But now that he had put on such a show, she felt like he hadpersonally embarrassed her and she didn’t like that at all. Not to mention, Kai had taken the culprit for her frustrations with him and straight up left the building. Thus she had no otherchoice than to sh out at the boys. After all they were boys livings in the secluded sector, just like Mard as such they were guilty by association.“Hey Nina, e here” Miriam called out to her from across the room.She walked over with her arms crossed and asked in annoyance “What do you want?”“Hmm? What’s got your panties in a bunch?” She asked, w why she was getting the attitude for some reason.“Nothing” Nina looked away with a scowl on her faothing? Really?” Miriam examihe teenager’s face closely “If you say so, but just know that Kai and I will take care of the situation with Marco”Seeing the scowl on Nina’s fatensify was all the firmation she o know what the issue was really about.“Anyway, I need you to do something. You use this as a ce to cool off”“Hmpf, you should’ve just let me take care of this, instead off sending me on an errand. I would’ve made sure, that he never pulls this kind of shit again” She didn’t bother hiding anythinganymore and expressed her hohoughts, since Miriam already knew everything.“No, you won’t. Instead I want you to go pick up Lily. She was supposed to e back this m, but it seems she fot the time”“Why me? ’t you just yell from here? You’re so loud, she’s sure to hear it”“Hey, don’t get sassy with me young dy” Miriam lightly smacked Nina’s forehead “With your [World traveler] you go get her and be back lickety split”“Lickety split? No one says that anymrandma” At this point, she khat Miriam was going to insist and make her do what she wahus she was simply being bratty as pay back.“I’m gonna smack you for real”“Fine, fine, I’m going, ok? Don’t get so worked up. It’s not good at ye” Leaving behind those words, Nina quickly vanished into thin air, before aaliation could occur.A sed ter, she appeared oher side of the settlement.Ahead of her was a wire fence. Wooden beams were pced in regur intervals to support it and the middle parts iween were covered with cloth, preventing people from looking inside.Nina observed her surroundings and sighed. She had used [World traveler] to e here before, but still she had missed her destination by a few dozeers. The training at thesecluded sector certainly helped her gain more accurad precision when using her ability, however this showed her once more that she had plenty of room for improvement.She walked along the feil she reach a rundown looking gate, which was barely holding on for dear life. A lock was keeping the gate closed but Nina had to question the point of it,si made the impression that it would colpse from a small of breeze.“Hello” She called out.“ing” a voice responded from the inside.An old ehe gate “What I do for y - … Oh, hi. You’re one of Miriam’s kids, right?”“The name is Nina. I’m here to pick up Lily”“e in, my dear. Lily is inside helping out” The old dy invited her in and closed the door behind her. She had been here with Miriam before, which is why the old woman reized her.Unbeknownst to Nina, the old woman wasn’t simply an assistant w there. She was also dug a head t of everybody who entered or left the pd theed back tothe mayor.Just like the secluded sector this was one of the settlement’s valued locations, the farm.Nina walked oraight path leading from the gate towards a massive greenhouse, ign the patches of farmnd to either side of the walkway. Onside the greenhouse she tooknotice of the many pots taining different pnts, ranging from normal looking to the strange barely resembling a pnt anymore. Some were as small as a house pnt, while others wereseveral sizes bigger.“Hmm, there are more than st time”She looked at one of the stras in one of the rger pots and got creeped out.It had a form simir form to a tipede standing upright, it’s branches protruding on both sides likes like the tipede’s feet. However instead of feet, the branches were closer to hands withweirdly elongated fingers.She shuddered as she walked past and tinued on deeper into the greenhouse.Further iwo girls were w on tennis ball-sized fruit. O the fruit in half and out the seeds, the other one was filling pots with fresh soil to pnt them. Beside them were a fewbuckets filled with the strange fruit.The younger of the two girls picked up another fruit from the bucket and spoke in an amused tone“Sis, look at this” She held up the fruit, so the irl could take a closer look.“What is it? … Pfffffft” Seeing the fruit that was being held up, made her crack up. It had a stratern on the side that made the fruit appear like a winky face emoji “Hahahahahha, why isit trying to flirt with me?”Both girls ughed heartily for nearly a minute.“You’re having a lot of fun, aren’t you?”“Kyaaaaa” Both girls jumped and screamed in fright. Not having expected any visitors today, they turned around to see Nina standing there.“Why are you here?” The younger girl screamed in a fluster.“I came to pick YOU up” She answered in obvious annoyahis is apparently necessary since you didn’t e back, Lily”“But I told Miriam that I would stay the night and help sis” Lily protested against the accusation.“Girl, that was two days ago”“Oh” Nina’s retort left her speechless.“Hahaha, we did lose track of time” The irl ughed of the issue, as if nothing had happened.“e on, Hilda. You ’t support this behavior just because she’s your little sister”The irl was in fact Hilda Rosenkranz, Lilys older sister and the Head of botanical research. The two had been w in the greenhouse together, pnting the berries Hilda brought back from her mission with Mark.“Well, I won’t pin about the extra help. Besides look how cute she is, how could anyone refuse?” Hilda hugged her little sister, burying her fa between her boobs.“Sis, you’re not helping the situation” Lily said in a muffled voice.“Anyway” Nina decided to stop them before their sister bonding mome any further, making it even harder for her t Lily bae “It’s time to go back”“’t I, like, stay a little longer?” The young girl freed herself from her sisters ample bosom and tried making cutesy eyes towards Nina.“Bitch please, that’s not going to work on me. I’m better at pying this game than you are. Besides if you want to stay longer, you’ll have to vince Miriam, not me”“Tch, fine.” Lily resigned herself to her fate. Despite being vehemently against it, she knew further resistance would be pointless. She liked to e here and help her sister, not only because Hilda was her beloved sister but it also gave her a ve excuse to skip the training she hated.“o look so gloomy. It’s not like this is your st visit, but, yeah, you might not be able to e here for a while” Nina blurted out nontly, only realizing her mistake a sed ter.“What’s that supposed to mean?” The young girl jumped up and demanded an ahe greenhouse was her safe space, where she felt fortable and she wasn’t going to accept not being able to e back, even if it was only temporary.“Well, we got a new member and things got a little heated” Nina didn’t bother to expiuation in the secluded sector iail “So we might not get to leave until Kai and Miriam have made sure that things calmed down for sure”“I don’t get it but it doesn’t sound like it’s my problem” Lily said, still unwilling to accept any reason for not being able to visit the greenhouse anymore.“I would agree with you there but sadly I don’t make the rules”“As if you’d make better rules than those two knuckleheads”“So, who’s this new member you were talking about?” Hilda asked out of nowhere, stopping the bickering of the two girls.“Oh yeah, his name is Mark. He’s a pretty det guy, I guess”Hildas eyes opened wide in surprise after hearing a name she never expected to e up in this versation.“Ah, umm, I see … so what’s he like?” She tried her hardest to pretend, as if she wasn’t fumbling her words.“Well, I’d say he’s pretty good” Nina said, while crossing her arms and pushing up her boobs, uionally makiatement more seem suggestive than it really was.The 18 year old Hilda didn’t have experience as far as retionships were ed. She had never had a boyfriend before the awakening and what she was now witnessing made her absolutely misuand the entire versation.“He’s good? Like, in bed?” She asked without thinking, her mind currently lost in a byrinth of theories, all of which were wrong.“What?” Nina was taken aback by the question “No, I didn’t sleep with him. Besides if I had to choose, I’d go for Henry. He’s more handsome and just as talented”She quickly crified in a fluster. That made a wave of relief wash over Hildas face, whi return triggered something within Nina. She grinned, feeling a malicious i rising, like a cat who had just found a mouse.“Although, Mark has a lot of future potential” She pced a hand on Lilys shoulder, while she kept talking “And sidering how dense Henry be, it might be more pertio go for someone else. I mean Mark gives of the impression of a sweet boyfriend”By now Hilda was staring at her mouth agape. Meanwhile Nina was relishing the chaos she was causing.“You know, I kind of hope we get house arrest, since I now have a good idea how to pass the time” She spoke, lig her lips. Immediately telep afterward along with Lily, leaving Hilda alone in the greenhouse.“THAT SLUT! HOW DARE SHE!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, however there was no oo hear her never ending string of pints.