It was sometime at dawn when Ivor woke the twins up.
"Get up. We need to get moving again." The large man poked his head into Lam's tent and said. He didn't do the same to Lily because she was a lady and he didn't want to dent her modesty by barging into her tent. So it was Lam who was given the task of waking her up.
"Got it," Lam answered when he found out they had to leave. He didn't sound like someone who had just woken up because he wasn't asleep. He grew up in a village, and sleeping till the sun was up was never a habit of villagers. He had already prepared himself and was just left with packing up his tent.
"Lily, it's time to leave," Lam called out to his sister once he was close enough to her tent. He knew she was awake because they received the same training. If he was awake, then she was also awake.
"I'd be right out," Lily responded after a short while. She exited her tent quickly, already dressed and ready to go.
"Let me get Mane," Lam stated and was moving towards Mane's tent when Lily held his arm and stopped him.
"What?" Lam asked with a strange expression on his face. It would be inappropriate to send a woman to the room of a man at this time. So he was a bit confused that his sister had stopped him.
"Let's go together," Lily suggested, and her brother's gaze towards her grew more peculiar.
"I'm not going to enter. I'd just wait outside for you," Lily waved her hands frantically seeing her brother's expression as she struggled to explain her intent.
"I just want to see him and apologize to him," she finally stated with a crestfallen expression. How hard it was for her to fall asleep after the events of last night. In fact, she hadn't fallen asleep the entire night after that. She kept tossing and turning in her sleeping bag because of the guilt she felt towards Mane. She wanted nothing more than to let him know that she was sorry and would never look at him with such eyes again.
"I understand Lily. But we need to move quickly. So why don't you prepare the Red Maned Horses for the day ahead whilst I get Mane? That would allow me to apologize on our behalf so that when you see him things would be less awkward." Lam suggested as he stopped close to the Red Maned Horses. He also felt guilty for how he reacted yesterday, and knew that their actions hurt their friend. But since he didn't know what Mane would be like when he saw them, Lam wanted to be the one to break the ice so that when Lily did speak to Mane, things would be far less awkward.
"Okay," Lily agreed reluctantly and walked to the Red Maned Horses. Lam sighed seeing her face which was full of guilt and pain.
*Neigh*
One of the Red Maned Horses lightly nudged the absentminded Lily as it neighed softly. It was almost as if it could feel her sorrow. It lightly rubbed its nose against her to express its concern, and comfort her. Lily smiled slightly feeling the care of the Red Maned Horse.
"Thank you Roxanne," she spoke sincerely, and rubbed the Red Maned Horse lovingly. It was indeed Roxanne, the Red Maned Horse that Mane had grown fond of, that was trying to console Lily. The other Red Maned Horses surrounded her swiftly and began to rub their heads against her shoulders and back. She giggled softly, momentarily forgetting about her problems and proceeded to give them some food. She didn't forget to give each of them a cube of sugar as well, but she gave Roxanne two instead of just one cube. And that caused the other horses to grunt in protest as they nudged her. She giggled merrily and handed each of them their second sugar cube as well before they were finally content. She stood next to Roxanne all this while, lightly stroking her mane as the Red Maned Horses munched on their breakfast of 'Shepard's Grass', a magical grass variation that was abundant in their village. This grass was highly abundant in energy and was suitable for serving as the meal of herbivory Magical Beasts like the Red Maned Horse that required a lot of energy.
"It is still amazing to see," Ivor appeared silently beside Lam and remarked as he watched Lily interacting with the Red Maned Horses. He found it fascinating that she was able to build such rapport with them, to the extent that they even comforted her when she was down. If it was Lam who had gone over, they would have ignored him and silently eaten their meal. And that in itself was a great accomplishment because they were usually violent towards those they weren't close to. This meant that Lam was exceptional for being able to approach them and not get hurt by them after knowing the horses for only a day. Yet Lily was far more exceptional, having earned their goodwill the first time she met them.
"It is," Lam didn't think the horses fawning over Lily was a marvelous thing when it happened before their journey, but he understood later how much these horses detested strangers. Even when he was riding on one with Ivor, he could feel the resistance of the horse towards him. If it wasn't for Ivor's presence, Lam would have been thrown off by the horse long ago. Luckily for him, he observed Mane and emulated his friend's tricks to try and win the horses over, and had succeeded somewhat, since they didn't resist him anymore.
"You should go and call Mane," Ivor patted Lam's back and walked back into his tent. Unlike the twins who couldn't sleep and had packed up during the night, he still had several items to pack.
Lam nodded and proceeded to walk to Mane's tent.
"Hello?" Lam called from outside the tent, but he didn't receive a reply. The lack of a reply had him sweating in nervousness even though the weather was very cool since it was still dark. He was aware that Mane was an early riser like him and his sister because Mane usually trained early in the morning, and had even hunted with Dan at dawn. So he thought that he wasn't receiving a reply because Mane was upset with him.
"Hello? Mane?" Lam gently lifted the flap of the tent and called again. Once again he didn't receive a reply. Calming down his rapidly galloping heart, he sucked in a large breath of air and gathered his courage. Then he entered the tent.
"Excuse my intrusion," he softly and politely announced as he entered the tent. He was able to spot Mane's figure immediately. His friend was sitting cross-legged in the center of the tent with his eyes closed. His breathing was slow and steady and every breath exhaled contained power that shook Lam to his very core. Seeing Mane's meditative pose, Lam sighed a huge breath of relief.
"Thank God," he smiled. He thought that Mane was intentionally ignoring him. But seeing Mane was actually meditating, he understood that his friend didn't reply because he didn't hear him. Suddenly the space around Mane cracked as Mane's golden hair was pushed upwards. Mane's clothes fluttered noisily as a powerful aura filled the tent. Lam swore that he could see sparks around Mane's figure throughout the strange phenomenon.
But soon Mane's hair fell back onto his shoulders and the violent energy that seeped out his body was restrained as everything became calm again. However, that calm didn't last long. In less than ten seconds, the same thing happened again. Lam watched Mane for a couple of minutes and noticed that the strange phenomenon happened every ten seconds and lasted only 2 seconds. Just as he was marveling at the wonderful scene, Mane's closed eyes snapped open.
*Boom*
Lam felt as though an explosion had gone off in his head when Mane's eyes opened. Within those blue eyes Lam couldn't see a reflection of himself. All he saw was majesty and power that belonged to his friend and his friend alone. The spirit of dominance rested within those eyes, yet there was some gentleness contained within those blue pearls ā subtle, yes ā but it was there.
Mane was slightly muddled when he opened his eyes. He could feel the changes that had occurred to his body. It was something that he had never imagined was possible.
"Inner and Outer Energy have merged?!"
Mane was extremely surprised by what he saw. Although Inner and Outer Energy were both components of Edict, they were different. Inner Energy was a docile, domesticated wolf, whereas Outer Energy was a powerful, arrogant and violent wolf king. And because of their difference in attributes, they never merged. Yet Mane could feel that his Inner Energy was merged with his Outer Energy right now! And both were in the Profound Realm!
"That isn't necessarily accurate. They are one now. So it is accurate to say that my Edict is now in the 3rd Stage of the Profound Realm."
Mane smiled slightly as he felt the changes that had happened to him. He didn't know what happened, but he had grown stronger. He had skipped the 2nd Stage of the Profound Realm and directly leapfrogged into the 3rd stage. And that was remarkable even for him.
"That was Enlightenment. It happens when one understands the intricacies of wielding, and it is highly beneficial. Only one in several hundred trillion people get to experience it." Hildegarde whom Mane had forgotten about landed on his shoulder and began to explain.
"Mmm" Mane nodded his head after listening to her explanation.
"Eh Mane?" Lam called. It was only then that Mane realised that Lam was standing in front of him.
"He has been waiting for quite a while," Hildegarde informed Mane. "There's no need to worry. I happened to peep on them as they conversed yester night. They are sorry for how they regarded you, and would have come to apologize that very same evening if not for the fact that they were reluctant to wake you up"
Lily explained when she saw the complicated expression on Mane's face. Her explanation helped a lot, since a small smile found its way onto Mane's face when he heard her words.
"I'm sorry Mane. You helped us, yet we treated you like you were the villain. Lily wanted to come and see you yesterday, but I stopped her. Please don't hold it against her" Bowing his head in shame, Lam stuttered an apology. His expression was filled with remorse, especially because he knew that his sister saw Mane as more than a friend. He didn't want her to be sidelined by Mane because he knew it would break her heart. So he immediately told Mane that she was more eager to see him than he, Lam, was.
"Its fine Lam," Mane smiled gently and stood up. "But you have to help me pack as a punishment," Mane added, and Lam's expression grew bright. This was Mane's intention. If he had just said that it was fine, Lam would have still felt uneasy. But by adding a 'punishment', Lam's guilt was wiped away. Soon the boys were packing stuff as they spoke, and their laughter rang outside the tent.
An absentminded Lily didn't even hear their laughter. Her tent had long since been packed up by Ivor, and he stood next to his Red Maned Horse. Suddenly she felt the cold wind brush against her shoulders and shivered distinctly. She was only wearing a shoulder strap blouse, so she felt the cold clearly.
"Here. This should keep you warm." A pair of strong arms wrapped a thick fur coat around Lily. She shivered slightly when she heard the voice, for she knew whom it belonged to.
She turned abruptly and saw the face of the boy she hurt only a few hours ago.
"Iā¦" she tried to form some words, but her tongue failed her miserably. She had practiced what she would say the entire night, yet when she saw his face and looked into his clear blue eyes, she couldn't remember any of what she had prepared.
"I know," Mane smiled and wrapped her in a hug. As her supple figure was embraced into his arms, she trembled slightly and began to sob softly as she mumbled "I'm sorry" over and over again. It took several minutes for her to calm down, with Ivor frowning deeply at the side.