Maple High School Academy Year 1
Journey to Nightshade - Blackcave’s Myth

Blackcave’s Myth

Never trust an Elf who says they know nature.

ADNIEL AND ELLE walked while regulating their breathing. The night wind that hit did not make both of them feel cold. The two gasped while looking at each other. Their minds voice one voice.

Don't let the Elves lead the way at night.

“Come, kids! You guys should hurry up. We don't want to lose the right moment, do we?“

Elle snorted without needing to hold back. Adniel who saw him just chuckled.

“How can you survive with a teacher like that?” whispered Elle.

“What's it like?” Adniel asked back, pretending not to understand.

Elle rolled her eyeballs. “You know what I mean. He seems excited but—“

“Yes. I get your point. Although it seems that he is direction blind, but he is the perfect teacher for pharmacy.” Adniel laughed amusedly looking at the teacher before him who seemed speechless while looking left and right in turn.

“Kutebak he has turned his head to the left and right ten times.”

“Twelve,” Adniel correction.

Elle looked at Adniel in disbelief, while the one who was stared at only raised next to her eyebrows as if saying, what?

“Miss Grewyinn is an expert on pharmaceuticals. He can make medicine quickly. Know how to measure each composition in one drug. And most of all, he actually allowed his students to practice directly.”

“You concocted medicine yourself?” Elle turned around in disbelief.

“Why? Can't believe?”

“Murid level one –“

Elle's speech was interrupted because Adniel stopped suddenly. The girl automatically looks ahead and only realizes they have lost their guide teacher. The two students looked at each other. Adniel can see the panic implied on the face of his traveling companion.

By suppressing fear, he said, “Stay calm. Maybe Miss Grewyinn is on a nature call.”

Elle tilted her head as she gawked, in disbelief at the most unreasonable reason her male friend was.

The two students rushed towards the place where their teacher had been last seen, at an intersection. Both of them looked around. Nothing but dead trees.

 Trees still standing with strong roots raining down the ground, but there is absolutely no life on the trunk. Not even a leaf.

“Wait a minute,” says Elle.

Adniel silently looked at how Elle was chanting sentences that could not be understood by him. Before long, the few fireflies that accompanied their steps dispersed. Darkness enveloped both.

“You asked them to go?” ask Adniel irritatedly.

“Not,” said Elle, “I just asked them to split for a while. The fireflies I called earlier numbered seven. There are five tails left. Means the rest are with Miss Grewyinn.”

“But now no light.”

Elle was upset. “It's night. It should be dark. Or are you afraid of the dark?”

The absence of objection from the man further corroborates Elle's allegations. The girl pulled the tip of her lips. Trying not to underestimate his companion.

“Take it easy. It won't be long. After all the moon is already enough to illuminate us.” Adniel clasped his waist bag strap firmly. It's not Elle's fault that she hates the dark. “Darkness is not at all soothing. No one can be made a hope in the dark,” the young man said without being asked. Elle just shrugged her shoulders no more.

Before long, it began to be seen a speck of light in the distance. Over time the light changed a lot and began to form a silhouette of one's body that seemed to sway unsteadily.

“Miss Grewyinn?” call Adniel slowly. He still stays in place. Common sense told him to make sure first the figure before approaching.

The figure appeared to wave at the two teenagers of responsibility who were silent in the middle of the darkness. Elle looked at Adniel. The same thing was done by the teenager from the angel race. Both of them hesitated to interpret the movements of the figure. Until Adniel felt a gust of wind at his nape accompanied by a gripping creaking sound.

“What is it?!”

Elle squinted her eyes. He ignored Adniel's tight grip on his wrist. The girl began to focus her hearing. In silence, his hearing could double.

Wh who?

Adniel looked at Elle in horror. The voice emitted by Elle was not a human voice, but rather the same wrinkle that had given her goosebumps.

You guys from Maple school?

Yes, answered Elle straightforwardly, who are you?

Adniel who was already frightened grew even more horrified when the look on Elle's face grew pale.

“Kids!”

A familiar voice instantly calmed Adniel down. He looked around for the origin of the voice. The voice just now came from the opposite direction to the silhouette that was now disappearing.

“Miss Grewyinn?” call Adniel again. His face seemed to be in a state of confusion with that new fact.

“Do not ask,” said the beautiful Elf when seeing Adniel about to open his mouth, ”We must be fast. I found another shortcut.”

  Adniel had no choice but to immediately follow in his teacher's footsteps. He pulled out Elle's hand that was still glued to the spot. The three of them finally left the path and walked through the path of the dead trees.

“Are you okay?” whiskey Adniel. He was surprised to see Elle who kept quiet. That girl doesn't talk much. However, after the incident with the shrill voice earlier, Elle's silence was clearly quite strange.

“Eh. Yep. I’m okay.” Elle let go of Adniel's grasp smoothly. “Miss Grewyinn, wait for us.” Leaving Adniel in the rear row, Elle soon caught up with Miss Grewyinn who was moving agilely between the tree trunks.

 “We are up,” said Miss Grewyinn suddenly.

Both Elle and Adniel stopped the movement of his legs in the air. Their right foot has not yet come down. Both are still worried because this is the fifth time their pharmacy teacher said ’we until’.

“You sure, Miss?” ask Adniel to make sure.

The beautiful elf opened her hood, then squinted her eyes. Instantly her retina glowed greenish. “Of course! It's just I need to find the right bush.”

The two students who stopped seven steps behind Miss Grewyinn finally exhaled a sigh of relief. They immediately lowered their hanging legs. The two looked at each other and spoke to each other with the gaze of your teacher's eyes.

“Miss Thompson, come here.”

Elle stepped closer to her beautiful teacher.

“Remember me about that plant! Nightshades. Beasty nightshade's.”

Elle closed her eyes. He tried to remember everything he had read.

“Beasty nightshade is a plant belonging to the Solanaceae family. Natural herbaceous plants are unfortunately deadly. Special beasties have white flowers that bloom in the afternoon until midnight. It has red and purple fruits. The fruit belongs to the berry family. Beasty bushes only exist in moist areas. The leaves are three-fingered with a very small size.”

Miss Grewynn smiled at the explanation from the glasses girl. “You really learned.”

Adniel approached Elle, he whispered, “You're sure it's the plant in question?”

Elle jumped in shock, then placed her index finger in front of her lips. “No need for many comments. Just watch it. Anyway there are things I forgot.”

Adniel looked at Elle. The girl seemed to be trying to remember things that seemed important.

“Elle, not my intention to disturb,” said Adniel, “However, is our current location safe? I feel a different atmosphere around here.”

Elle who was closing her eyes because she was remembering, exhaled. He turned to look at the agitated Adniel. "So far there's nothing to worry about. Right now we have to be quick. It's almost night time now. Otherwise—“

Adniel felt her wrists gripped firmly. The teenage boy who initially circulated his gaze around, finally looked at his traveling companion. “What's up? Ferocious beast? Giant wild plants?” tanyanya's worried.

“I just remembered, the reason this plant grows in moist areas is because its protector lives in the area around the swamp.”

Adniel scrunched his forehead. “Protectors?”

“A tail crocodile albino.”

Both of them were instantly aghast and screeched together, “Miss Grewyinn!”

Without waiting any longer, Adniel and Elle rushed towards the direction of their Elf teacher's footsteps. Their feet moved quickly when they realized Miss Grewyinn was not around in the swamp.

“How can Miss Grewyinn disappear that fast?”

“She's elf, remember?” Adniel defends his pharmaceutical teacher.

“But that does not mean free to roam in a gripping place like this!”

“Hey, we focus on finding him only,” advises Adniel.

“OK, but without sound. We don't want to invite any creatures around here, do we?” said Elle.

They both split up. Elle decides to search around the edge of the swamp, while Adniel searches near the trees.

The rustling sound of bushes rang out loud in the silence of the night. Adniel and Elle both looked in the same direction. They ran closer. Adniel threw a questioning glance at Elle who was answered with a headband. The girl held her breath, then approached the bushes that seemed to be twitching.

“Kids!”

Adniel and Elle jump together. Both are stroking the chest.

Miss Grewyinn seemed to be worried about them. “You should have stayed where you were. Come on, follow me! I found that plant. We just have to wait for the moon to shine right on it.”

Without waiting for her two students, Miss Grewyin stepped in. Elle walked behind him, followed by Adniel. The two students simply shrugged at the eccentric behavior of their teacher.

“So, where exactly does the plant grow?” Elle asked curiously.

“You may not believe it. Turns out he grew up not around the swamp as we all believed. This plant actually grows on the cave door. I've seen it. Exactly according to your description, Miss Thompson.”

They then stopped right in a fairly large cave. At first glance, the cave looks like a home for large animals. Inside are stalagtics and stalagmites that look terrible.

“See!” Miss Grewyinn pointed towards the cave door. Just as he was pictured, not far from the door of the cave, was a shrub with three-fingered leaves. The bushes had five-petalled white flowers.

“Connect we've found the plant we're looking for. Let's pick!” take Miss Grewyinn.

The teacher stepped closer to that. The tang had already almost touched the purple plant when Elle shouted, “Miss Grewyinn, hold your hand!”