Under the tall and heavy bookshelf, a girl in a light blue dress lowered her head to read a book, occasionally taking notes with a feather pen. The wind with the scent of the forest blew in from the wide open window, lifting her slightly curly brown hair.
Opposite the girl, sat a red-haired lady, also holding a book.
The two figures were bathed in the orange-yellow light of the setting sun; the hazy halo blurred their outlines, and the quiet study room seemed to be filled with a harmonious and peaceful atmosphere.
When Alex came over and saw this scene, he stood outside the door and didn't dare to make a sound to disturb them.
Mrs. Frith suddenly put down the book in her hand, and after a light click, she asked, "How is the writing going?"
Mei Li on the opposite side put down his feather pen with a look of deep resentment on his face and handed over what he had been writing for a long time.
Mrs. Frizzle took just one look and took a deep breath, as if she couldn't suppress her emotions.
She has been an elegant person since she was a child, but these days, she has seen what a real poor student is. Despite her careful teaching, Mary can't even master the simplest and most basic fairy language. She seems unable to understand this language and has a great difficulty in learning it.
After looking at the messy homework for a few days, Mrs. Frizzle began to doubt whether she was her brother's biological daughter or the descendant of the forest witch of the Noita family.
Although only those who inherited red hair and green eyes could be considered as possessing excellent witch talent, she shouldn't be so untalented in magic.
"What on earth are you writing? It's ok to just recite it, but you can't even do the most basic copying?" Fresne said sternly.
Mei Li had a stern face and looked a little annoyed. "I have never learned this kind of language before. It is too difficult. You didn't even teach me the most basic single words. You asked me to learn such difficult sentences right away. How can I learn it?"
Furis: "I've already said that the language of the goblins doesn't have individual words. It's a medium of magic, and every sentence has a unique meaning. Just write what's in the book and don't think about those things."
Mei Li: "Yes, I did. I wrote down every word in the book!"
Fris: "I told you to write after you understand it, not to trace it from the picture!"
Mei Li: "I wrote it myself last time and you said it was wrong again!"
Fres: "I'll ask you to add your understanding of magic!"
Mei Li: "But I don't understand magic!"
Seeing that they were about to quarrel, Alex silently closed the door and didn't intend to disturb them at this time.
He had been with Furis for ten years, but this was the first time he saw her unable to maintain her elegance. From this point of view, Mary was truly a warrior.
Mr. Pollock, the owl who had been forced to guard the door outside by the magic teaching inside, stood on the vase outside the door and said, "Mrs. Frizzle is very talented in magic. This is probably the first time she has encountered a student who is not smart enough. It is inevitable that she is driven to frustration. Haha~"
Alex: "Mr. Pollard, are you making fun of Floris?"
Owl: "I didn't. Madam Ferris is my respected contractor. How dare I laugh at her? Hehe~"
Mrs. Frizzle walked out expressionlessly, and Alex and Owl outside the door shut up instantly.
Alex walked over, showing a bright smile and said, "Fris, the sunset is so beautiful, how about we go for a picnic in the forest? Or maybe you want to go to the beach?"
Mrs. Frizzle was not in the mood to play, "No, I need to go to the lab."
Alex regretfully let go and watched as the owl followed Ferris to her magic lab.
Walking into the laboratory, Mrs. Frith suddenly said, "I suspect that girl is deliberately deceiving me, pretending that she can't learn, in order to delay time."
Owl: "Gee... Really? How dare she act so pretentiously in front of Madam Veris?"
Mrs. Frith laughed. "Then she deliberately didn't study hard, thinking that she could avoid death."
Either way, it's stupid.
She just wanted to see whether Mary's body, which had been transformed by her brother, had any affinity for magic. If Mary was unwilling to cooperate, she wouldn't mind trying another method.
"Since she is Peg's child, I will give her some more time." Mrs. Frizzle said, waving her hand, "Paul, go and watch her to see if she can't learn or is just deliberately not learning."
"Yes, Mrs. Frith." The owl flew out of the window again.
Mrs. Frizzle walked to the desk and waved her hand. A thick notebook on the bookshelf flew in front of her and opened automatically.
The paper was old and yellowed, obviously the notes were left many years ago.
Mrs. Frizzle's fingers ran across the different words one by one. This was passed down from the Noita family, and it recorded the methods of transforming witches.
The Noita family has given birth to many talented forest witches from ancient times to the present. They all have a strong affinity for magic and can draw on the power of almost all fairies.
However, the more powerful the witch, the shorter her lifespan, because the human body cannot bear too much magical power, and they will become weak or slowly collapse as they use magic.
Therefore, many forest witches are studying how to transform their bodies to be able to carry more magic power, or even make their bodies become like fairies, forever youthful and energetic.
In her hands, the research was finally completed.
And her good brother did not let her down with her years of training and guidance, and finally contributed the achievement of Mary.
Turning over the old papers that contained records of previous research, the papers at the back gradually became new, containing Mrs. Frizzle's research and records over the years.
More than ten years ago, when Mary was born, her name had been recorded in this notebook, which recorded Peg's experiments on Mary.
Peg trapped countless goblins and set up a magic laboratory in the basement, extracting the vitality of different types of goblins and transferring it to Mary, starting from her birth and lasting for more than ten years.
Furis had deliberately let her brother escape from her, secretly helped him trap fairies, watched him give birth to a child with a bloodline that matched his own, and used the information stolen from her to conduct experiments—
She has waited for so many years just for this precious test product, and now that it is only one step away, even she can't help but feel impatient.
She had been waiting for too long and didn't want any more accidents to happen.
If Mary's body was not as perfect as she had imagined, everything she had done would be meaningless.
Looking at the records in the notebook, Mrs. Frizzle felt as if every line of words was entangled, like a sutured wound, with bright blood dripping from it.
As the sun sank outside, the flower-shaped magic lamp in the house lit up automatically and slowly rotated on the lamp holder.
Fris felt the pain in her body revive as night fell, tearing at her heart.
This is the price she pays for delaying aging and the collapse of her magical power.
Mei Li stayed in the huge study, lighting the lamp and learning the language of the fairies.
The owl had been knocking on the window frame for a long time, and Mei Li had no intention of getting up to let him in.
She was holding a thick book on the fairy language, showing a painful expression from time to time, looking like a typical poor student.
The owl watched her for such a long time that it felt that Mrs. Frizzle must have been wrong in her suspicion. This little girl didn't seem to be lying at all. She just couldn't learn it.
Seeing her trying for a while, she seemed to give up, pushed the book in her hand away, and fell back on the chair. The owl outside the window made a noise to attract her attention.
"Hey! Mary, let me in!"
"Although I am Madam Furis's messenger, you must believe that I have no ill will towards you."
"We've been studying for so long, why don't we have a chat."
Mei Li stared at the ceiling motionlessly.
The owl said again, "Why don't we talk about the swamp monster? Do you want to know how he is doing?"
Mei Li stood up, opened the window and let him in.
The owl jumped onto the desk and took a look. Seeing that the fairy language she wrote was still a mess, without any magical fluctuations, he smacked his lips and said, "Mrs. Friss said that if you don't learn well, she will lock you up here and not allow you to rest. You have to study day and night..."
Mei Liyi reached out and grabbed his leg, "If you say that, I don't want to hear it."
The owl flapped its wings. "Wait wait, let's talk about swamp monsters!"
He moved a little further away from Meili, combed his messy feathers, and muttered, "You are going to pull my feathers off. These are very precious feathers with special uses."
Reminded by his words, Mei Li remembered that the owl had given her a feather last winter, saying it could convey her thoughts... Hmm? Convey thoughts
Mei Li suddenly looked at the owl with a strange expression and saw that it was still combing its feathers in pain, as if it didn't realize that it had reminded her of something.
Mei Li reached out and poked its bulging chest, then asked, "You just mentioned the swamp monster. Do you know how he is doing now?"
Owl: "I guess he must have recondensed, maybe he is looking for you everywhere, but unfortunately he can't find you, how pitiful hehehehe~"
Hearing its laughter, Mei Li grabbed it again and threw it out of the window.
Late at night, Mei Li got up from the bed and took out two small feathers from her small purse.
One was given to her by an owl last winter, and she kept it close to her body, along with a handkerchief and some small things. The other was taken from the owl when she caught it just now.
If the feathers of this "forest messenger" can really convey thoughts.
If possible, she really wanted to see the lovely swamp monster again and go back with him.
She sat holding the two feathers for a long time, but nothing unusual happened to them. When she was disappointed and depressed, she suddenly remembered the fairy language book she had read during the day.
It was indeed difficult, and she had a hard time learning, but she was not as clueless as she appeared to be. In fact, she had quietly figured out a little bit of the content.
Mei Li unconsciously uttered a short, oddly pronounced sentence, and suddenly felt his palms getting warm. Two feathers turned into two thumb-sized birds and flew out of the window.
Mei Li chased after them, lay on the windowsill and watched the two inconspicuous little birds quickly disappear into the night, and some hope suddenly arose in her heart.
The owl standing on the roof of her room opened one eye, looked in the direction where the two little birds flew away, then closed its eyes again, pretending not to see anything.
It is so old that it is inevitable that there will be some minor neglect.
“Crunch, crunch—”
The swamp monster that walked around lakes, swamps, markets and forests with a lantern aroused the goblins' discussion.
"Is it still looking for that strange little human girl?"
"Yeah, I've been looking for it for many days and I haven't given up yet."
"Ah, it's coming again, get out of the way!"
A moment later, a muddy swamp monster passed by and turned the good path into a quagmire.
The goblins who had been hiding gathered together and looked at the quagmire. They were all a little distressed. "Is there any way to stop it from being sad? This place is about to be turned into a quagmire!"
When a swamp monster is in pain, the speed at which the surrounding area turns into a swamp will be accelerated.
Recently, many swamps and mud pits have appeared on the edge of the forest. The goblins near the forest can't do anything about this swamp monster, so they can only move deeper into the forest while scolding him.
Two tiny birds flew over the burned house and over to the walking swamp monster, pecking at his hair.
The swamp monster who had been walking non-stop suddenly stopped and looked slowly at the two little birds. He smelled a familiar scent.
He was looking for someone he loved very much.