673 Every Elf is a Tree (1/2)

\”Dear guests, are you looking for me?\” Seeing that Heidi and Katrina were walking towards her, she pointed at herself in confusion.

With a warm smile, Heidi said, \”Nodanielle, your speech on the balance of nature is fantastic and intriguing!\”

She had sensed that Nodanielle was relatively sunny, so she simply greeted her as if she were her old friend instead of calling her lady or miss.

Hearing Heidi's sincere and straightforward compliment, Nodanielle was immediately more or less shy. She waved her hands awkwardly. \”I was merely talking about the doctrines that the elders taught us.\”

\”My name is Heidi. This is my partner, Katrina. We've only just arrived at the forest today. It's great to make your acquaintance.\” Heidi was even warmer.

She was not nearly as introverted as Annick, and she introduced the two of them to Nodanielle openly.

The anxiety in Nodanielle's heart was soon gone when she found that the guest was friendly and unimposing. Their conversation became natural.

\”Well, we are here to investigate the corruption of elves at the request of Her Majesty. We have some questions for you regarding Tracy.\” After the smalltalk, Heidi went directly to the topic.

After a brief silence, Nodanielle said gloomily, \”Heidi, Katrina, feel free to ask whatever you want to know. I do hope you can find the source of corruption and restore Tracy. Even if they cannot be recovered, they should at least be freed from such suffering.\”

\”Did Tracy show any anomaly before her corruption?\” Katrina asked the standard question that they had agreed upon.

As a Sun Elf, Nodanielle had fair skin and brilliant gold hair, which made her look gorgeous under the sun, but there was not the slightest smile on her face. She said, \”At least for me, nothing too strange happened before that. My friends and I hunted, picked fruits, fixed the places in the forest where balance could be broken, perceived nature, and read the classics that were composed after the age of myth…\”

\”Everything was so calm and peaceful, as if the beautiful life would last forever. However, that day in the morning, I suddenly noticed that the tattoos on Tracy's skin were full of the sense of hate and slaughter… But everything was fine the day earlier. We danced the special dance she learnt and bid each other goodnight.\”

\”A special dance?\” Heidi wrote Nodanielle's reply on the notebook, her interest piqued by the dance which was described as 'special'.

Nodanielle nodded. \”She said that Ms. Marsha taught her. Should I show it to you?\”

Heidi and Katrina replied at the same time, half for their investigation and half for their curiosity, \”Okay!\”

Nodanielle stepped back and started dancing although there was no music.

The dance had many peculiar movements that were almost in violation of biophysics. Only elves who had soft and tensile bodies could manage it.

\”Although the movements are strange, the dance is truly beautiful…\” Heidi moved her left hand and her legs, feeling the urge to learn the dance, but she soon patted her cheeks regretfully and considered applying for drugs to stimulate her blood power, or it would've been impossible for her to learn the dance.

Katrina tapped the beat for Nodanielle and spoke in the telepathic bond. \”This dance gives me a weird feeling. Let's bring it up in the meeting at night.\”

In the dance, Nodanielle became grievous as if she recalled her friend. She wasn't back to herself until a long time later and asked in a low voice, \”Is this dance alright?\”

\”There are no magic waves, no scent of divine power, and no peeping from weird existences, but it doesn't mean that the dance is alright. You'd better not dance it until the investigation is done.\” Heidi reminded her new elf friend whom she liked.

After Nodanielle nodded, Katrina continued asking, \”Did Tracy have any emotional fluctuations or opinion changes before the corruption?\”

Recalling her memories, Nodanielle said, \”She was a bit down because she hadn't made any significant breakthroughs for a long time. So, she told me that she wanted to become a druid to better maintain the balance of nature.\”

To better maintain the balance of nature… Frowning, Heidi wrote down Nodanielle's narration and asked, \”Are you a druid?\”

\”Yes, I just became a Nature's Protector, or a middle-rank druid in your words.\” Nodanielle was obviously very proud of her identity as the Nature's Protector.

Elves did not classify their levels by middle, low, high, and level one, level two and level three like humans did, but the categories were similar. 'Nature's Guard' was the druid apprentice, 'Nature's Friend' was the low-rank druid, 'Nature's Protector' was the middle-rank druid, and 'Staff Bearer' was the senior-rank druid (including level nine).

Heidi was rather interested in druids and investigated them earlier.

\”…Every elf can perceive the grace of nature, so they can become Nature's Guards without any difficulty. Then, we need to turn our understanding about nature into our beliefs and practice the beliefs in our life. As our beliefs are melted with nature, we will form 'Nature's Heart' that is similar to your cognitive world. Named after the core of the elvish tree, it is the foundation to carry out our power…\” Nodanielle did not keep it a secret.

They were separated after chitchatting for a while longer.

In the evening, Heidi and Katrina returned with their notebook full and met with Jurisian, Felipe, Annick and Sprint.

\”Special dance… Ms. Martha…\” Jurisian recited. \”More than 70% of the corruptions are related to the special dance. 30% of them learnt it from Ms. Martha, and the others picked it up in places we do not know.\”

Felipe said in a low voice, \”It may be a custom of elves. They are all avid dancers.\”

\”In any case, we will meet this Ms. Martha tomorrow.\” Said Jurisian.

At this moment, Annick said shyly and solemnly, \”Is it possible that the dance is like 'Viken's Special Summoning Ritual', which has nothing strange on the surface but inculcates ideas into the learners when they learn it?\”

Having just cracked such a case, Heidi was very sensitive about it. She nodded carefully. \”It's possible. Nature's Abhorrence. I remember that one of the primeval devils is named 'Abhorrence'!\”

\”The problem is that 80% of the corrupted elves followed Nature's Balance, and the other 20% wavered between the two factions. Few of the elves of Nature's Abhorrence were corrupted, or the Elvish Court would've noticed something wrong…\” Jurisian looked at the data and rubbed his temples.