88 The silver maiden (1/2)
Part 1
While the war of the south kingdom progressed, a couple of bystanders were still watching over the battle waiting for their moment to act to arrive.
Lilith, still stuck in her red harpy form which made her look like a grown woman with covered in feathers all over her body with wings merged with her arms, was observing the situation carefully on the balcony of the castle.
Next to her was Daren, who was also stuck looking like a monster right now thanks to his curse becoming too strong for him to control. He was looking like a black mass of muscle covered in hair with a lion face above his shoulders.
Lilith's mind was a little fuzzy every time she looked at him. Not too long ago he asked her out of nowhere if she would marry him if he ever found out a way to get rid of his curse and become human again.
At the time, she didn't know how to answer his feelings so Daren was now basically waiting for her response. Daren always had that kind of ”wasting no time” attitude. He always seemed bothered by the fact Auren kept dancing around the idea of confessing his feelings towards Ria. He probably didn't want to risk missing his chance like Auren and just blurted out that proposal on a whim.
It's true that Lilith had already realized she felt attracted to Daren in a romantic way. At first, she looked at him only as a little brother, someone that was part of her family and that she wanted to take care of. Daren always was very kind towards her and did all he could to never make her upset. He basically treated her like a princess.
Because of that, she would often feel very comfortable relying on him. Even though he looked so skinny in his human form, he always had the look of a man that would never go back on his word. Daren was a man that Lilith could trust.
It was only after the night where she tried to talk to Ashley that she realized her feelings for him. She wanted to ask the smartest person on her group what it meant to be in love.
Ashley looked at her and pondered on how to answer in the simplest way possible.
”It's when you want to kiss your best friend.”
”... Eh...?”
Lilith wasn't sure what Ashley meant but the red-haired girl went on with her explanation.
”Love is basically the combination of two factors, physical attraction, and friendship. Sometimes you will feel attracted to someone's body but you won't have any interest on that person's personality. That's called lust.”
”Lust...”
”Other times you will feel an extreme sense of comfort just by being close and talking to someone, but you feel no desire to touch that person whatsoever, that's friendship.”
”Friendship...”
”Once these two factors combine, once lust meets with friendship, that's when love is born.”
”Love...”
”Many people tend to confuse love with lust and start saying that they're in love when in reality, it's nothing but physical attraction.”
”Physical attraction...”
”...?”
Ashley was confused as to why Lilith kept repeating her words but then she stared at her hands and realized that the young woman was actually writing down everything she was saying in a notebook.
”What are you doing???”
”I'm taking notes so I can remember all of this later in case I don't know how I feel...”
”...”
Ashley stole her notebook and hid it behind her back.
”Hey! What are you-”
”You don't need to write that down dummy!! Just use your head!!”
”Huh!! But!! What if I make a mistake??”
”Then make a mistake! Do you think Evlin discovered half of her abilities on her first try? Just go ahead and test your luck...”
”But...”
”Look, let's take an example... Do you have a friend you're really close with?”
”Huh...”
Her mind immediately started to think about Daren and she began to blush.
”Yes...”
”Do you want to kiss him?”
”...”
Her mind once again started to imagine the scenario. She thought about the idea of her and Daren kissing each other.
”... ... ... Maybe...”
Ashley continued to watch as steam started to come out of Lilith's head. She could pretty much guess what she was thinking about.
”Then... Just go to Daren and ask him if he wants to try to find out if you two can work.”
”Eh!!?? H- How did you know it was Daren??”
”Eh... You two always looked like a good match for me...”
”Me and him!!?? A good match?? ... ... ... Really...?”
Lilith started to hold her checks which were about to burst into flames as she continued to think about her and Daren together.
He was her closest friend and she could feel physically attracted to him. Could this be love? Ashley was just observing with a tired expression as Lilith continued to lose herself in her imagination while suddenly she noticed Lilith's expression changing.
Lilith began to imagine herself in Daren's arms, but before she noticed, his arms were the arms of his beast form, that terrifying monster form that Lilith was secretly always afraid of.
She always did her best to hide her true feelings, she was used to the concept of enduring pain in silence, but the moment she imagined herself on that thing's arms she felt like she was going to throw up at any moment.
Ashley observed as her friend's face completely changed from red to green and she fell on her knees.
”Lilith?? Lilith, what's wrong?”
”... I can't...”
”...?”
”I can't... Love him...”
”Lilith...”
If love was the combination of friendship with physical attraction, Lilith could never love Daren since his monster side physically terrified her.
”I see him as a friend... But I can't imagine myself even touching that lion form... It just sends shivers all over my body simply thinking about it...”
”...”
”I could never fall in love with a monster!! The mere idea of touching him when he looks like that disgusts me immensely... I'm so sorry...”
Lilith began to cry while Ashley hugged her trying to make her feel better.
”It's... It's ok Lilith... You don't need to force yourself...”
”I'm so sorry!! I'm so sorry!!”
Lilith continued to apologize, not to Ashley, but to Daren despite him not even being in the room. She wanted to beg for forgiveness for not being able to properly fully love him because of her aversion to demons and monsters.
But despite that, something happened that started to reawaken her feelings.
During their mission to reach the demon kingdom, the two were assigned to enter a maze together due to her being able to use her future sight to keep him safe.