Lily kept her eyes closed, waiting for the curved blade to cut her flesh. She knew that any moment, she would become the hag's dinner.
However the knife never came. The hag was looking at another direction.
The princess's eyes snapped open when the sound of hooves reverberated through the woods.
What happened next was a blur for the girl. Something white flashed before her and her shackles loosened their grip.
The hag was thrown a few meters away and was knocked out for good.
Lily looked at her savior. A unicorn, which was a bit bigger than the one she had helped, came to her rescue.
The unicorn raised its front legs and neighed. Its horn glowed silver and several things happened at once.
The green flames died down and the Stalwart bind disappeared.
Lily was still in shock at the turn of events, but snapped out of it when the unicorn spoke.
"Are you alright, young lady?" a feminine voice said.
"Yes, madam." The girl answered while fixing herself. "why did you help me?"
"This is just a small payback for helping my son." The female unicorn said as the small version came trotting near them.
"You didn't have to this." The girl muttered.
"I had to. I don't want to owe a debt of gratitude." The female replied. "You didn't have to help my son but you still did. We are even now."
Lily was quiet after that.
"Young caster." The female called out. "I have heard that you were looking for materials for your besom."
Lily nodded.
"As a symbol of gratitude, please accept these." The unicorn neighed and out of nowhere a fresh set of thyme appeared.
Lily's eyes widened. "The herb of sacrifice... Thyme. I should..."
"Refusing a gift is an insult." The unicorn remarked as if reading her mind. "Take it. It is yours."
Clearing her throat, Lily smiled at the mother and son. "Thank you very much for these! I will make sure that I will put it to use."
The creatures bade goodbye and disappeared.
"It will take time if I will return to Nightshade. Guess, I have to make my besom now. After all, I have all the materials."
Laying the handle, she placed the bristles alongside it and lined them up.
"The measurement was about four inches from the bottom." She muttered as she took note of the length.
Flicking her wrist, she made the bottom of the bristles to point towards the top of the broom. Lily used the willow branches to wrap the bristles around the broom.
Taking the bristles, she folded them down over the willow binding and made them point towards the bottom of the broom.
She tied the bristles down again at the base of the broomstick and secured them.
She then decorated the broomstick with sigils, before consecrating the finished besom.
~~~
Sitting side-saddle on the besom, Lily had flown a bit wobbly high above the trees.
Although she had made her very own broomstick, still she was a having a hard time getting the hang of it.
Unlike with borrowed broomstick, the number of crash landings had been greatly reduced when she is using her besom.
That alone can be considered as her greatest achievement in the arts of flying.
Holding the besom with one hand, Lily made it hover steadily just a few meters below ground.
The girl took the list and read the ingredients that she needed. Her brows scrunched as her eyes fell on one of the items.
"Five petals of a Silver rose? Arggh! Why does it have to be a silver rose? Aren't love potions made up of red roses? Anyway, where in the world am I going to find that?" she asked. Lily knew that silver roses are extremely rare.
"I couldn't even buy these in Hemlock." She grumbled.
The silver rose is even scanter than the elusive blue rose. One cannot find a single bloom even if they search every cranny in the Forest of Silence.
Taking out her map, she checked if she were in the right track.
"Where can I find the silver rose for my potion?" she asked the map.
The ink formed into an image of the forest where she was currently at. Then, several images emerged on the map.
"Show me the way." Lily ordered.
As response to her request, a thin red line shot out from the forest and went through several places before it stopped before a mountainous terrain labelled, Mt. Thorns. It is where she can find the first ingredient for her love potion.
Smiling, Lily urged her broomstick to fly towards her destination.
Zooming through tall herbs and gigantic mushroom, the princess had been flying for a couple of hours.
Despite her speed, she noticed that the sun had already sunk low on the horizon.
"I have to get there before night." She muttered as she released a huge burst of mana to make her besom fly faster.
As she was nearing her destination, she could already make out the thorny landscape.
Great big thorns twist and tangled around each other. They seemed to form a labyrinth of sharp barbs.
She would have asked her broomstick to swiftly take her on the top of the mountain, when a strong gust of wind almost blew her off course.
Lily tried to steady her flight. However, every time she would attempt to get close to the mountain of thorns, the more the wind would blow her away.
"Drats!" she exclaimed.
Her heart almost jumped out of her ribcage when she was almost thrown off to an area filled with foot long needle-like spines.
Fortunately, she was able to stop getting skewered as she gripped her besom's handle tightly.
Hanging on the besom, she noticed that she had stopped just a few centimetres from the sharp tips of the thorns.
Calming herself, she ordered her besom to remain floating on air. Then with great difficulty, she hoisted herself up on the handle and took a seat properly on her besom.
After considering for a few moments, Lily finally decided that she could not risk flying to the mountain with the wind getting on her way.
Looking around, the girl found a trail just a few meters towards the thorny slope. Lily maneuvered her besom towards the trail.
"Looks like I can hike towards the mountain through here." She muttered as she began following the path.
It was already getting dark and she had been walking for hours. The thorny labyrinth was getting thicker as she journeyed inside.
"I think I am lost." She muttered as she took her map.
Unfortunately, the map did not show her any more land marks.
Left with no choice, Lily kept walking until a silvery glow caught her attention. Drawing near, Lily could see what brought about the luminescence.
It turned out that at the summit of Mt. Thorns, a lone silver blossom stood enticing the girl to take it.
With her goal just in sight Lily made haste in order to get to the top. A flurry of wind blew and whispered to her ears.
At first they were just gibberish but Lily managed to catch a few words.
"Don't...go... thorns... laced... with poison?" Lily muttered as the wind stopped caressing her face.
"Does that mean that I shouldn't go to the top because the thorns are poisonous?"
The wind gave a gently blow which seemed to mean yes.
Thinking things through, Lily took note the thick thorns that were intertwining with one another.
They served as a barricade that protects the lone flower at the top. Even if they weren't poisonous, Lily was a bit scared to get prick with such long sharp barbs.
Though she was apprehensive, Lily was determined to get what she needed.
"I have to get that rose." she said to herself and looked for a path to take.
Lily spotted a narrow opening just a few meters away. Inspecting the opening, she knew that she could ease her way in.
She may be able to get herself to the top, but she could not guarantee that she would reach her destination unscathed.
"The minimizing spell would come in handy in this situation." She huffed as she concentrated her mana on her satchel and besom in order to make them into portable sizes.
"Unfortunately, I haven't learned to make myself small yet."
Getting down on her knees, Lily crawled into the opening. She carefully crawled her way inside and made sure that she wouldn't get pricked by the thorns in the process.
Sweat began dripping from her forehead as she inched her way to the top. When she reached the middle part, she noticed that the thorns had grown a bit higher.
From crawling, Lily managed to walk while making sure to bend her head as not to touch the poisonous thorns.
Taking a break, she tried to make out her target and her current location. "It seemed that I am still a bit far away. Goodness! I am tired!"
Noticing the position of the moon, Lily knew that it was just a few hours before midnight.
Although she wanted to rest, she needed to finish the task before the silver rose will wither come day time.
After nibbling on her ginger bread, she resumed her journey. Just then a malicious wind hit her in full force.
"Quite a determined young lass! You're risking your life just for one rose. I know what I'll do with you."
Just then, the earth shook making Lily stumble slightly to the ground. The girl's eyes widened when the area she had landed on gave way.
Lily screamed as she felt that there was nothing underneath her.
Since she could not take her besom out just in time, Lily found herself falling down into the darkness.