I sighed. "Fine. I can figure it out myself." I then sat down on a bigger rock farther away and started to think. 'What could possibly break a love spell? Maybe another type of food? Doesn't make sense. Some sort of chant? Too weird. Washing the mist out of her eyes? Too easy...' I thought for longer than I cared to admit, and just like Theodius said, the potion's effects got worse.
She started singing love songs to me loudly, and I had to cover my ears to block the sweetness. By the time it became afternoon, I had enough of trying to figure it out by myself. I uncovered my ears and waved all the animals that had come to listen to her away. "Get out of here!" The birds on all the branches flew away and all of the deer and squirrels and other vermin followed.
I groaned and walked over to May, angrily. "Can you shut up already and tell me the antidote?!" She stopped singing and struggled to get close to me. "I can't help myself! I have so much love inside for you!" I clenched my jaw. "No, you don't! It's a spell! Nothing you're feeling is real-!" I stopped myself as an idea came to me. "Wait a minute. Is that it? Is the cure to this, real love?"
May jumped with excitement. "Yay! That's it! You're so smart!" I then sat down again in defeat. 'Great. That doesn't help me in the slightest. How am I supposed to use real love to cure her? She's not in love with anyone. What am I supposed to do? Get her to actually fall in love with me?! Why is this so hard?!" I let my body fall back into the soil behind me as I continued to think until it hurt.
By the time it was sunset, I was still lying in the same spot, trying to figure out something to do. I had my eyes closed and after a moment I realized that I hadn't heard May sing for a while. I opened my eyes and sat up again to see why, but once I looked up I saw that she wasn't there. She had escaped the ropes and in the next second she surprise attacked me and pushed me to the ground again. "Gah! How did you escape?!"
She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me as close to her as possible. "With the power of love!" She kissed me again deeper than before, sending a wave of blush through my face. I managed to draw my sword and push her to the ground beside me. I then restrained her so now it was I who was on top of her, and put the sword to her throat. "Don't move or I'll kill you."
May giggled again despite the sharp metal being pressed against her neck. "I love how feisty you get. This is just like back at the secret garden! You were so sexy and dominant then too!" I shuddered from hearing her say that. "I really need to cure you..." I then raised an eyebrow as I had a thought. 'Wait, back at the secret garden we got the door to open with love. But it didn't have to be lovey-dovey romantic love, it worked with friendship love as well. I wonder if that'll work here too.'
I turned back to May, impatiently. "Hey, remember when I told you all the things I loved about you back then?" May nodded happily. "How could I forget? It was the best day of my life!" I held her down harder to stop her from vibrating with excitement. "Okay, now I want you to do the same to me. Tell me why you love me."
She gasped and she smiled brighter. "Okay! I love that you're so sweet and loving and adorable and the only one in the world for me!" I hesitated. "Okay. None of that was true. Focus, May! Even when you're not under a spell you tell me you love me. Think about the reasons why." She stopped to think for a second. "Oh, I know! I love how brave you are!" Suddenly, as she blinked some pink mist left her eyes and disappeared into the air. "It's working! Keep going!"
May thought again and came up with more ideas quickly. "I love that you never give up! I love how you always save me even though you hate me! I love how strong you are and how you can overcome any challenge! I love that I can be there to watch you grow and help you onto the right path!" As she continued, more mist fell off of her eyelashes and I couldn't help but blush again as I heard her speak.
"I love that you stop Theodius from touching me even though you only do it because it disgusts you! I love your beautiful eyes that light up every time you get excited about something! I love that you make me feel like I'm flying with no wings when you dance with me! And most of all I love that you let me call you my friend!" The last of the mist then disappeared from her eyes, and she suddenly became dizzy. She shook her head a little and I got off of her to return my sword to its sheath.
"Are you better now?" She slowly sat up and placed a hand on her head. "Ugh, I think so..." I sighed in relief. "Good. So glad that's over." She then turned to me while smiling. "Wow, you did it! I'm so proud that you were able to figure out how to cure me by yourself!" Her smile then faded and became embarrassment. Once I saw that she was blushing it only reinforced mine. She looked away from me as she spoke. "Um, uh, about what I said..." I stood up and turned away before she could force the rest of the words out of her mouth. "Already forgotten."
May exhaled in relief and flew up to follow me back to Saniel. I then hesitated on one of the things she said and spoke to her as she floated beside me. "Out of curiosity, why do you let Theodius touch you? With the kind of punches you throw I'd think you wouldn't need me to rip him off of you." May then held her other arm nervously as she answered. "Um, well, I would hate to be the one to get on Theodius's bad side and cost you the stone of Sudre."
I then immediately stopped walking and turned to her, causing May to stumble. "What?! Are you telling me... The reason you let him grope you is so you don't jeopardize the mission?!" She nodded hesitantly and I stood there while frozen for a moment. 'She is so much more involved in this than I previously thought.' I turned to continue walking and attempted to get what she said out of my mind. "Get on. We don't want to waste any more time."
I climbed onto Saniel's back again and May hopped on behind me. I tried not to think about what she said to me but I couldn't stop myself from repeating her words in my mind along with everything else she said about me. 'I can't believe she would do something like that for me. And, I didn't know there was anything about me that could be loved...' I thought. I managed to turn around and act like nothing was confusing the hell out of me. "What's the next test we have to head to?"