After an hour or two of laying in the hammock, and thinking about what she wanted to do in the future, Clara decided to go and take her place as the rightful ruler of the Whiteowl region. That was her father's legacy and she did not want to throw that away.
There was a chance that she could come to regret this decision, but she decided to take it anyway. She would rather regret taking it now than regret not taking it later.
So, she told Ning what she wanted to do.
"I want to go back!" she said with a ferocious attitude.
"Great!" Ning said. "We should leave then. But… before we go, I think you might want to see something. Or rather… sense something."
"Hm?" Clara looked at him weirdly. "Sense what?"
"Have you noticed that ever since you came here, you couldn't sense any Essence at all?" he asked.
"Huh?" Clara looked around, trying to sense what she could. "Wait, you're right. I can't sense anything."
"That's because I stopped your senses from working," Ning said. "I thought you needed to work on your emotions and didn't want to give you any outside influence more than I already had."
"Papa, what are you talking about?" Emma asked.
"You won't be able to tell. You don't have Essence sense yet," Ning explained. "But she will be able to tell very soon."
"You stopped by senses? Give it back," Clara said. "…please."
Ning smiled. "I will," he said. "But… try not to get scared."
"Scared? Of what?" Clara asked.
Ning continued smiling and snapped his finger to note the moment of change.
Clara suddenly felt pure Essence and Water Essence all around her. The Pure Essence was thick and strong, and the Water Essence… scary.
Her legs shivered at the overwhelming senses she had as she tried to understand what was happening. She looked around at the sea, at the forest, and yet she could not tell where this strong Essence was coming from.
"What's going on?" she asked. "Where is this coming from?"
Her voice had a level of stutter to it that Emma immediately picked up on. "Is it scary?" she asked.
"Of course it is scary," Clara said, looking around frantically, hoping to find something that could answer what was happening. "Please, tell me. I'm scared."
Ning looked at her directly and said, "I think you have guessed already."
Clara's eyes widened in fear as she came to understand just what was going on. She looked around, worried as she slowly said the next few words.
"Is… is there… a Divine beast nearby?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper at this point.
"Oh," Emma noted and looked at her father. "She doesn't know?"
Ning shook his head and looked at Clara. "There is indeed a Divine Beast nearby, but that is not very accurate. What is accurate is that there is a Divine Beast right under our feet."
"Wh-what?" Clara was simply too shocked to even have any inflections in her voice at the moment.
Ning turned around. "Can you show yourself, please? This girl wants to see you" he said.
The ground shuddered at Ning's words as it elevated a bit above the sea. Clara grabbed hold of Ning to remain standing, and Emma simply chuckled looking around at the ocean that was so much further now.
Then, from their left, they all saw something that raised its head high in the air, a turtle that Ning had only seen once before.
Clara looked up to see the turtle and finally realized just how massive the thing was. She had not expected the Divine Beast to be so massive.
She stumbled backward out of fear as the Essence of a Divine beast was too overwhelming for her, even though she was already in the Stellar Harmony realm.
Ning snapped once again, and Clara lost all sense of Essence once again. She still felt the fear in her heart, but the feeling of oppression had gone and what replaced was an emotional numbness that she couldn't explain at all.
Ning looked toward the turtle and flew up toward its head. He landed on top of the head and spoke, "Nice to finally meet you. Do you have a name?"
"I am Gorofus," the turtle spoke in a beast language that only Ning and Emma understood. "You are strong, aren't you?"
"Very," Ning said. "I am stronger than your old friend if you care about knowing that sort of information."
"Senior was strong back then," the turtle said.
"I am stronger," Ning said. "But of course, I'm not really looking for opponents to compare myself with. I just wanted to thank you. Even if you didn't mean to be involved, I acquired quite a bit of help from you early on when I came here.
"Is that so," the turtle said. "I had no hand in anything I did so I don't really need your thinking, but I will accept it."
"Do you want anything in return?" Ning asked.
"I don't think there is anything I want," the beast said. "I am an old beast, looking to die of old age in the future. What need do I have for wishes?"
"Are you sure? I can do something if you want me to," Ning said.
"I have no need for anything," the turtle said.
"Not even friends?" Ning asked.
"I have had friends, and they have all died. I no longer want one anymore. I do not want anyone else to die," the turtle said.
"What if this one was a friend that couldn't die?" Ning asked.
"A friend that can't die?" the turtle didn't believe Ning. "How could such a thing exist."
"Do you want one?" Ning asked. "I can get you one in a short time. About a century or so."
The turtle looked up at Ning with doubt clear in its large blue eyes. "How will you—"
"You don't need to know how. You just need to say yes, and I will do it," Ning said. "Do you want a friend?"
The turtle hesitated no longer. "If you truly think I can have a friend that will live for a few millennia like me, then yes. I do want one."
