The echoes of the unicorns falling to the ground encompassed the forest around them. The crackling of the flames on the unicorns had spread over to some nearby vegetation. Despite the destruction and death, there was silence. An unbreakable ice came over the two of them; Allen's breath was rigid, he stared at the unicorns, their blood pooling under them. Lily's eyes scanned the whole area before she closed her eyes. Once she opened them, she scanned the area again, then pinched her own cheek.
She blinked twice in rapid succession, then slapped herself so hard that it made Allen jump out of his trance. Allen fell to the ground drenched in sweat, blood, and dirt. He turned toward the direction of the sound and saw Lily standing at the entrance of the clearing where the fight had taken place and two trees.
He saw her short purple hair droop in disarray. Her hand was still on her face as streaks of tears flowed past her fingertips. They were only coming out of the eye directly above her hand, but Allen's slight movement towards her. "Good morning Lily," he said as he attempted to get up and move toward her. He failed, leading to some of his wounds opening and more blood gush out of him.
Lily moved her hand from the side of her face to her mouth, shaking her head and backing away. Tears began to form from her other eye as she turned away from Allen. Once turned away she tried to hold in her sister's gift, but her resistance was futile. She vomited out all she ate and then some. As the contents of her stomach flowed out of her violently, her inner thoughts began to flow in and eat away at her.
"What happened here? Why did I do that? Where did these white horses come from? Death. Did my sister know this would happen? Did the coven? Did they plan this? Dead. They're dead. What happens now? Should we bury the dead? Should we- They're dead. We can turn them into the Guild. Am I murderer? I killed one. How many did Allen kill? Is Allen alright? I hope he's not dead. Calm down Lily. Calm down Lily."
She took a deep breath, inhaled, then exhaled. She turned around and rushed over to Allen. "Allen are you alright?"
Allen was face down to the ground, he barely managed to raise his head. "I'm perfectly fine," he said as he smirked.
"You're bleeding everywhere. Let me heal you," she looked around Allen, "where is the bag?"
"Somewhere."
Lily looked all over the clearing, it took her a few seconds to find the bag at the base of a tree. She ran over to it, jumping over dying and dead unicorns. Once she reached the bag, she opened it and noticed the contents being pressed and mushed against each other. She raised the spell book inside in disgust as cheese slid off the cover of it. She scrubbed the cheese off before running off with the book back to Allen.
She knelt next to him and opened the book. "What are you doing?"
"A magical spell," she flipped through the book until she reached a page titled, 'Regeneration'.
"Don't you have to chant something or whatever. Do you read out loud from that book?"
"I don't have to. Whoever made this spell book infused their writing with their already magically infused words. After that it is up to me, the caster, to read it and apply my own mana into the spell book or page while I read. I recreate the spell and I can modify it accordingly to accommodate me."
"That sounds complex!"
"Yes it is, hence why most spells in a spell book are complex long winded chants that no one feels like memorizing and reciting. Too much time chanting means too much time wasted in an actual battle."
"Isn't it the same with reading?"
"There are people out there who can read extremely fast. Which is honestly a feat because I can't really wrap my head around mana application on pre existing..."
Allen's blood began to spread to Lily's knees. "Ew." Her eyes glowed white with her hands following suit. She placed one hand from under the book to over Allen's body. After 15 seconds she finally yelled, "Regeneration!"
Almost instantly the blood that gushed out of Allen's body started returning back to him. However after the first second of it returning it slowed down. "I'm already feeling better. Thank you Lily."
"You'll be fine in half an hour. So... What are we going to do with the bodies?" Lily waited for an answer, but none came, so naturally her mind came to answer for her. "Increase our HEL, gain more fame as hunters."
"I want to bury them," Allen flipped himself over, he laid on his back as he looked at Lily with a stern look.
"Why bury them when we can turn back and raise our HEL? We're still rookie hunters. No one will take us seriously until we at least get to level 2."
"Is a stupid number really gonna make people respect us?"
"No, but"
"But nothing. At the end of the day, it's about the quality of the hunt. No amount of unicorns can amount to something like a Dragon."
"Statistically speaking you're wrong about that, but continue. Let me hear your point of view."
Allen forced himself up, he sat upright as he looked around at the mess near him. "My point is, this was not a natural hunt. I don't want an unnatural hunt, I want an honest hunt. I think someone may have teleported them or threw them at us. Even you disappeared off of my back. If that's the case I don't want to profit off of someone else. Who might that someone be I wonder? Your sister maybe? Her love for you seemed to make you be safe."
"Please, don't word it like that. Makes it feel cheesy."
"I don't get how that's cheesy at all. In my favorite book the main character lives through the power of love."
"You just wouldn't understand."
"Why wouldn't I? Because I'm an only child?"
"How old are you?"
"I'm 15."
"And you're that tall? I'm 17 years old, two years older, I'm the wiser one."
"Okay, maybe you're wiser than me," Allen got up and walked over to a unicorn and began dragging it to the previously buried unicorn. "But you clearly don't understand basic respect."
Lily rose to her feet, lightheaded from the amount of blood coming from the unicorn and from standing up too fast. "I know respect! I've lived as a princess for most of my life, remember. You shouldn't be up right now!"
Allen stopped dragging the carcass of the unicorn. "You've never seen death before have you?"
"Not like this. I've... read about it before."
"This is death," Allen went on to drag each individual unicorn over to the hole they dug for their first fallen brethren. As he dragged them Lily watched wondering how his wounds had healed so quickly. "I'm good, but no way I'm that good."
"Lily," Allen began as he threw in the last unicorn.
"What is it?"
"Do you have a purpose in life?"
Lily walked up to Allen who started grabbing dirt to fill the grave of unicorns. "A purpose?"
"Yes, a purpose. Just as the dragonborn was born to slay the last dragon. As a princess is your purpose to be a princess? Do you even want to be a princess?"
"Did you want to be a slave? Just because we're born as something doesn't mean that's suddenly our life's purpose. Like take me for example, I couldn't take the life of a princess anymore. I didn't want to live being known as Lily the Princess. I wanted to become my own person. I'm Lily the Protector now. I'm going to protect/help/save as many people as I can. Right now I want to help you out. So let's get this done and start going to the farm."
"Be honest with me Lily," Allen said as he slowly piled dirt onto the unicorns. "If I told you one of my failures would you still help me? How far would you go to help someone?"
"We fail all the time, that's how we progress." Allen stopped picking up dirt, he had filled the hole about halfway.
"I ate the dragonborn."