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Cynthia cackles with glee. Her javelin is sailing, sailing, and pierces the risen sniper’s helmet.
“Fuck off.”
“I told you I could do it!”
“Fuck you! How?!” The shot was well over a hundred yards, downhill, in a stiff breeze.
Cynthia sticks out her tongue, “‘cause I’m the best, that’s why.”
Severa shouts, “No! There’s got to be some trick to it! Do it again!”
“There’s no more risen!” Cynthia twirls around as if there’s an innocent bone in her body.
“Huh, what a surprise! How convenient!” Severa turns to the rest of their party, “Laurent! Did she use any magic?”
Laurent blinks and looks them over, “Not that I can tell.”
“Gah! Useless!” Severa stomps down the hill, “Come on, maybe there’s some left in the trees.”
Laurent calls out, “I’m staying up here. Get back to camp once you’re done.”
“Yeah! Thanks for helping out!” Cynthia waves him on.
The fighting had gone from quite difficult, to challenging, to an absolute joke. Hunting down every last risen on two continents was a job for several armies, not a dozen young adults. The hardest part was just searching every copse, cave, cove, ruined town, bush, and twig that could possibly hide a risen. Severa is at her absolute limit, and Cynthia decided to pull this shit now? She growls to herself.
“So what do you wanna do after this, Severa? Wanna head into town?”
“There’s a town here?”
“Yeah! I think they’re holding a pumpkin festival or something. Sounds fun, right?”
“Huh. How did you hear about this? Wait, why are we camping in the woods if there’s a town nearby?” Severa gives her a pointed look.
Cynthia twirls around, on the extremely steep hill, “Lucina said something about conserving their resources, and how there aren’t any risen there for us to kill.”
Severa groans, “Yeah, that’s Lucina for you. I’ll convince her to let us attend the festival, at least. We need some morale boost.”
“Hmm but what about just you and I, tonight?”
“No, she’d never agree to that.” Severa spots the javelin, still lodged into the risen’s helmet, “There, we’re almost done. Just don’t trip over that hole.”
“Trip over what?” Cynthia instantly trips over the small puddle and faceplants into the cushy grass, “Agh! Well, you tried warning me.”
Severa lunges down and grabs Cynthia. There aren’t any glowing red eyes in the underbrush. She pulls her to her feet and checks her clothes. Severa breathes a sigh of relief, it’s just mud.
“Okay, you’re fine. And I’m still more than ninety percent sure we killed all the risen.” Her heart is still pounding, but it’s fine, Cynthia is right here. They’d never have to be parted again.
It takes Severa several seconds to let go of Cynthia. She frowned sort of weirdly, but it looked like she was back to her usual self. Albeit, a tiny bit redder. She sputtered,
“Sorry… I mean, yeah. Let’s just get this over with.”
Definitely not back to her usual self. Severa watches as Cynthia’s body language dramatically shifts, her shoulders slump and her head hangs comparatively low. Something’s bothering Cynthia that happened in the last couple of minutes. Fuck. Okay, so Cynthia fell, then Severa picked her up, kinda roughly. Severa barked,
“Uh, was I too rough? Did I hurt you?”
Cynthia turns around, and she’s not grinning from ear to ear. That meant ‘yes’, but she said, “No, of course not! Don’t worry.”
Maybe it was earlier? Did she say something earlier that was too caustic? Earlier they talked about the festival, and Severa definitely said no. Ah. Cynthia is already pulling her javelin out of the risen. She only has a short time to apologize.
After Cynthia removed the spear, Severa sidled up and bumped into her side. She stated, in a hushed tone,
“Hey.”
“Hey!” Cynthia’s much more sing-songy.
“What if we snuck to the festival, just us two?” Severa smirks, just a little.
“Like a date? A romantic date?”
“If you want it to be.” Severa just shakes her head. Cynthia always wore her heart on her sleeve, except when she’s being tough. Had she been holding back this whole time?
Cynthia gasps, “So do you like me?” Her eyes twinkle like tiny stars.
“Y-yes?”
“This’ll be the best date ever!” Cynthia grabs Severa’s hands and twirls her around. While twirling, something flies out of Cynthia’s jacket. Something book-shaped. Severa lets go of Cynthia, and dives for it. Her blood temperature rises instantly. It’s a green tome.
“Wait! You used wind magic!” Severa shouts, “Fuck! I was watching Laurent for a wind tome, but it was you the whole time! I’ve been played!” She bodyslams Cynthia into the dirt. Cynthia giggles up a storm.
“It took so much practice though! You should be proud!” Cynthia smiles from ear to ear. A sincere, beautiful smile, that Severa can’t deny she loves any longer. Instead she just groans. She decides to be angry for, like, an hour.