Know The Earth, Know Thyself - Chapter 11

Ingrid tries to tap into her latent power, if it is there.

Although her parents never insisted on it, Ingrid felt a pang of guilt, however minor, for not being entirely truthful concerning her whereabouts after work. Except for Fridays, whether she had worked in the office or from home, when she clocked out, she’d invariably find herself sequestered in her bedroom, doing whatever tickled her fancy.

Today though, after texting her parents that she would be out later than usual, Ingrid drove the thirty minutes to the trails, and walked into the forest until the compass started glowing, meaning that no one would see her summoning the tunnel leading to the bagworm house.

Once there, she was greeted by a foyer that was just as busy as it was last evening, leading Ingrid to deduce that this coven was nocturnal, or at least crepuscular. There was no sign of Camellia or Esmeralda around, so she wondered if she was just going to have to wing it.

“Oh hey!” Said a perky voice behind her. Ingrid turned around to see before her a person with long, curly hair, bright blue eyes...

And a thick, scaly green tail extending at least four feet behind them.

“I’m Prishna! I’m a naga! You’re Ingrid, right?”

“That’s me!” Ingrid replied, trying not to stare at Prishna’s tail—she was gonna need to make a habit of that. “I assume you know how this coven works? I’ve only ever been here for a tour...”

“Oh, there’s a schedule near the portal if you’re looking for stuff to do.”

“You’re a lifesaver. Honestly, I was kinda twisting in the wind for a second.”

“I get that. Hope you find something that fits you! See you around!”

With that, Prishna skipped—slithered? --away to meet up with a group of friends, leaving Ingrid to approach the portal area and peruse the schedule.

As big as the house was, there was plenty to do even this late in the day. Ingrid pointedly paid little attention to the more “active” classes and decided on something somewhat familiar to her: Chess Club.

She’d never really had the time or energy to learn chess in depth, but today had been quiet enough that she figured she could spare some for at least one game.

She found, upon disembarking from the portal and stepping into the designated room, that the majority of the club’s members were dwarves and elves. None of them stopped chatting to each other to look at Ingrid as she entered, but she felt nonetheless out of place and busied herself with finding an empty seat, folding her hands in her lap at staring at the game board on the desk before her. She was entirely prepared to do chess puzzles by herself, but someone slid into the chair right in front of her.

“Hello, again! Fancy seeing you here!”

Ingrid looked up to find the elven head librarian at her table.

“Oh, hello! Ah...Aaverie, right?”

“Indeed! I take it this is your first time here?”

“Yeah. Looks like I’m the only human...”

“You needn’t worry. As with everything else, this club is open to all druids, active and latent. It’s most popular with elves and dwarves because these siblings have chosen this way to settle their differences, rather than...well. I’m sure you’ve read the books.”

Ingrid looked back on when she read Lord of the Rings in high school. She had a point.

“I usually play with Esmeralda, but she’s otherwise occupied, so...” The elf opened a long box full of chess pieces and turned it on its side to let them roll onto the board. “...Shall we?”

…

Ingrid remembered a few things about how chess pieces worked but was nonetheless thankful for the chart detailing what pieces went where. She learned very quickly not to give away the inner workings of her mind during the game, whether that meant reaching out for a certain piece or letting her eyes rove too much over the board.

It didn’t save her from a near complete rout by Aaverie, though. In the end, the elf still even had most of her own pawns, including one that had become a queen, while Ingrid was left with a hopelessly in-check king and a useless bishop that had barely moved away from its hapless de facto charge the entire game. She watched glumly as the other members finished their games and lined up in front of a west-facing window and released the energy they had built up into the world.

When Aaverie came back, she patted the girl on the shoulder. “No luck?”

Ingrid shook her head. “What’s worse is that even the losers got to put something out there! I don’t get it!”

“I’m sure you’ll find something. It might just take some doing.”

“Well...how much ‘doing’ it’ll actually take remains to be seen.”

…

On Tuesday, Ingrid decided to broaden her horizons and try out a beginner's rock climbing class, which was meeting on the second level. The walls there were about 20 feet high, bending at a slight acute angle halfway up, marked at regular intervals by sturdy multicolored handholds screwed into the front. At the bottom, several curly-haired individuals with curved horns bounced amongst themselves with excitement.

Ingrid approached this group, noting that, like Xenia, they had the legs of goats, but were nowhere near as tall. They were young satyrs, most likely here at the behest of their mothers to learn to climb so they could more nimbly scale the mountains in their native lands.

They looked in wonder at this new human girl in their midst. She felt a giant among these literal kids, and briefly wondered if she should’ve gone to one of the more advanced classes, where the other students would be closer to her age. Then again, there was no point in risking greater injury just to save face.

Though this class was not tailored to satyrs, Ingrid’s classmates took to it a lot faster than she did. As she looked desperately for hand and foot holds that, with her lacking upper body strength, would surely scrape her hands into oblivion, the others hopped from stone to stone, no matter how smooth or irregular, with ease. Some even made it to the top and were sitting on the angled surface, waiting for their friends. Ingrid guessed that they had picked at least a few things up from observing their fellows back home, as she caught glimpses of a few of them barely resisting the urge to lick the wall out of habit.

I guess “craving that mineral” isn’t limited to regular goats.

Ultimately, as mean as she felt thinking this way, the best part of the class was that the satyrs were in the same boat as Ingrid; either they couldn’t produce plant life at all, or it was sparse, and a tad wilted.

…

Wednesday was a yoga class full of monkeyfolk druids doing hands stands and backflips before the class even started.

The yogi reminded everyone that yoga wasn’t about competition, but rather building personal strength and harmony within oneself.

That didn’t stop the cheekier students from tickling each others’ noses with their tails or having intense tree pose/staring contests.

Ingrid nevertheless felt a great sense of peace afterwards. Maybe even the vestiges of power...

….

She had the most fun the day after, in the veritable melting pot that was the 8th floor still life class. For all her muscles and insanely sharp, huge tusks, the orc instructor was as gentle as she was talented, walkng the class through producing a portrait of a collection of fruits and vegetables, some local, some Mirror-born. It was all utterly fulfilling to Ingrid, and it made her that much more aware of the new energy building inside her...

But when the class was over, and the students were instructed to direct their amassed power towards the plot of soil waiting in the back of the room, there was a definite, barren square of dirt right where Ingrid was standing.

Are you serious? After all that???

Holding back tears, the human girl gathered her materials and hurried out the door and into the seat of one of the acorn fliers, which she piloted straight up to the top floor.

Once inside the library, she found a comfy looking couch in the reading area, knelt in front of it, grabbed one of the thickest pillows she could find, and...

“Ugggggggggggggghhhhhhhh.”

All the stress from stumbling through those clubs and classes and the frustration of being so close, yet so infuriatingly far, had wasted no time in pressing its weight on her and she had to deal with it somehow.

Thus, she did not notice Xenia emerging from the horticulture section and bearing witness to this scene of depair.

Once she was done, the human lifted her head from the pillow, and, upon seeing the faun approaching, frantically sat on the couch normally, with the pillow in her lap,

“Hey, Xenia! I’m fine, just...letting off a little steam...” she said, averting her eyes,

Xenia smiled sympathetically. “Hard day?”

“Try hard week. I’m trying to get the hang of this magic thing and I came really close with the drawing class but,,,”Ingrid sighed and shook her head, “Maybe I’m just not cut out for this...”

"You said it yourself: You came really close. You just need to find the thing to really make it happen.”

“I guess. I won’t be here tomorrow in any case.”

“Oh?”

“Bible Study. My...friends?...get together on Friday nights for it. If I’m not there they’ll start getting weird ideas. God forbid I miss a day of circle reading, right?