"Stay out of this, Orion! She knows what she did!!!" Grandma Vivian screamed out in anger before they both resumed their catfight.
Although there seemed to be no reasonable way to talk to them, unless I decided to wait for them to tire themselves out, that didn't mean I didn't have another means of making them come to their senses. Running the strange energy through my body, I activated my gift, allowing bluish electrical tendrils to dance around my right palm as I raised it toward them.
"Cracckle!!! Crackklle!!!!"
"They aren't even taking any notice of it," I said to myself. Seeing that they were still furious at each other and oblivious to their surroundings, I immediately pointed a finger towards the gap between them where their feet were and flicked it forward.
In an instant, the tendrils of lightning stretched forward, hitting the ground below me. Several more tendrils emerged, striking the area around where the lightning had landed.
"Ahhhhh!" They both let out a sudden short shout of shock as the tendrils of lightning hit their legs, causing them to tremble and twitch for a moment. Soon, they calmed down and began breathing heavily, withdrawing their hands from each other's hair, as they tried to catch their breath and regain control of their bodies.
I deactivated my gift and retracted the lightning as Grandma Vivian stared at me in disbelief. "You..... You used your dangerous gift on us," she said, her eyes wide with astonishment as if she didn't know or recognize who I was.
Shaking my head, feeling defeated at how quickly and suddenly the atmosphere had changed, I looked at Grandma Vivian, who still seemed taken aback, and expressed, "If I had let you two continue, I have no doubt that one of you would have ended up seriously hurt. So, in truth, I saved both of your lives."
"Nonsense!" Grandma Derry suddenly shouted, her heavy breathing slightly overshadowing her words as she spoke, "Haaa... Just come out straight and tell me that the person you wanted to save was Vivian, and stop pretending it was either of us." She coughed for a while, her chest heaving, before she fell silent.
Observing Grandma Vivian as she sat up silently and looked at Grandma Derry with a scoff, she said. "Just tell me that you're jealous, and then I'll understand your unreasonable actions."
Shaking my head in defeat, I made my way towards Grandma Derry. As I did, I noticed that the weather had changed, suggesting that evening might be approaching soon, and that was not a good sign.
After all, we had left the farm with the promise to return early. No matter how confident I trusted Dariya's capabilities to deliver the message, I also knew it would be almost impossible for them not to be upset about the time I spent outside of the farm, considering my current condition.
So, to avoid wasting any more time, I immediately knelt in front of her line of sight and asked, "What is wrong with you?"
She raised her eyes slightly to look upwards before she suddenly snorted and then turned her body to the other side of the grassy land. With her back now facing me, she responded, "Take Vivian back to the farm with you. I am very sure that Meldra and Celia will try to blame what happened on me, no matter how hard you try to make them believe that you were the one who forced us to come along with you in the first place."
She then took a deep breath and continued, "I will return to the farm to give them my own explanation when I am ready."
Almost sighing at the weird atmosphere, featuring Grandma Vivian entering my line of sight and silently gesturing for me to come along and leave with her, while Grandma Derry remained on the ground, seemingly ignoring my presence. Meanwhile, I couldn't ignore the fact that I currently had nine more emotionally distraught women waiting for me to return to the farm.
Lowering my head and focusing my lips on Grandma Derry's ear, I was about to speak when, suddenly, out of nowhere, she vanished
"Huh!" I stretched my two hands downwards to touch the spot where she was lying, and my eyes widened in surprise as she had disappeared right in front of me, nowhere to be seen.
"Don't worry, that's just her gift," Grandma Vivian immediately said as she walked towards me and looked down at the spot where Grandma Derry was once lying before she withdrew her gaze and scanned her surroundings. "Derry has the gift to blend with and become a part of anything she touches. There are some limits to it, but considering her age, her stamina should probably be draining rapidly any time soon."
Once Grandma Vivian explained what Grandma Derry's gift was, my eyes widened in amazement at its amazing potential. It was no surprise that even though her gift had its limits like every other villager who wasn't a warrior, in the wrong hands, just like Aunt Greta's gift, it could cause quite a bit of trouble.
But considering the nature of the village and its inhabitants, I don't think anything like that would be happening soon. So, I made a mental note to learn more about the gifts of my other women as I heard Grandma Vivian's voice saying, "There she is."
Seeing the figure of Derry emerging from one of the trees around us, I was taken aback by the sight. One part of her body appeared like a humanoid sculptured tree bark extending out of it, while the other half looked normal but started to change and meld with the ground as though she was sinking into it. Reacting quickly, I activated my gift and flicked my finger towards her direction, preventing her from fully sinking into the ground.
Thankfully, my lightning was only powerful enough to stun her before she fell completely. Anticipating her fall, I had already started running towards her the moment the tendrils of my lightning touched her, catching her just in time before she weakly collapsed on the grassy soil.
