John's heavy body fell with a loud thud. As his body lay on the ground, Lila and Crystal both couldn't grasp what just happened.

A couple of seconds ago, Lila's hands were trembling with fear and she prepared for the worst but now there was a grown man of wide proportions on the ground, piss leaking from his legs.

Lila, with a surprised look on her face, "Ummm... Crystal, what just happened?"

"Remember the time I told you how I'm not all-knowing, sweet cookie? This is one of those times. Beats me too". Said Crystal, with the same surprised tone as Lila.

It took a while for the duo to process the situation but it was Lila who broke the silence,

"So, what should we do with him, Crystal?"

"Check what he's carrying lass. Maybe he has something better than the thing you're holding in your hand."

Cringing at its suggestion, Lila hesitated,

"No way, what if he's bluffing? What if he's waiting for me to come near him?"

"Don't worry he's out for good. He's definitely out cold." Crystal assured Lila.

After hesitating for a little while longer, Lila gathered her strength and slowly approached the man on the ground. After coming close, she poked the man with the tip of her foot as a good measure.

No response. He's knocked out cold for real.

Once she made sure he was unconscious, Lila inspected the man on the ground. The first thing that caught her eye was a scabbard on the man's hip. The scabbard was attached to a leather belt, which obviously had a much better quality than the strip of leather she tied around her hip.

After turning the man on his back, admittedly taking a lot of effort out of the malnourished young woman, she managed to unbuckle his belt.

There was also a small pouch attached to the belt along with the scabbard. Curious, she opened its mouth and noticed that there were small, circular metal pieces, though there weren't a lot.

She unloaded the contents of the pouch on her palm and began counting them. 9 brown pieces, 1 grey one.

Having no idea what those were, she turned to Crystal for answers. She was genuinely curious about the objects she found.

"What are these Crystal? Are they good luck charms?"

At first, Crystal thought she was joking. There was no way that she had no idea what money is. She must be joking, right?

"You're being sarcastic, right girl? Please tell me you're being sarcastic..."

Still confused, Lila tilted her head. She had no idea why she should know what those were. Crystal had to read Lila's mind to determine whether she was joking or not, she wasn't...

"Okay, you genuinely don't know what those are. That's called money and those particular ones are called coins. The brown-looking ones are made out of bronze and the grey one is made out of silver. In towns or cities or anywhere else, they use those instead of bartering. You give money to the other person for their stuff. Then they can buy what they need from someone else by using the money you gave them," explained Crystal.

"But in Gladeside we didn't need that. If you wanted bread, you went to the baker and gave what you had to him, and then he gave you the bread. We had sheep so we gave wool or meat to others and they gave us what we needed," replied Lila.

"That's because your village was small, lass. When you have hundreds or thousands of people living close to each other, you need money to make things easier," added Crystal.

"Oooh okay, I get it. It doesn't sound that complicated at all."

Lila placed the coins back into the pouch. She then unsheathed the knife from its scabbard. It's an iron knife, much sharper than her bone knife too.

After putting the iron knife back on its scabbard, she then untied the leather strip from her hip and placed the bone knife back on its scabbard. She placed them in her backpack and buckled the leather belt around her hip. Unfortunately, it was a bit too big for her so she took the iron knife out again and nicked a hole in the belt, successfully making it fit her smaller frame.

Turning her attention back to the man on the ground, she nonchalantly asked Crystal,

"So, what should we do with the man?"

With a voice as cold as a stone and no trace of emotion,

"Kill him, kid," Crystal proposed, shocking Lila.

"WHAT?! NO WAY!" Exclaimed Lila, almost shouting.

"Keep it down! Do you want the rest of them to hear you? We should kill him so he doesn't come after us lass," continued Crystal, still unnervingly calm about its proposition.

Lowering her voice, Lila continued her protest, "I'm not killing him. How could you even consider such a thing Crystal?!"

"Okay then leave him alone. I have another idea. You have to trust me though,"

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This change of approach immediately lightened Lila's expression.

"What is it then? If it involves hurting this man, I'm not doing it," Lila stood her ground.

"We'll leave him alone and go wait outside. We'll just have to hide for a while," Crystal explained.

After hearing its more reasonable suggestion, Lila agreed,

"Okay, I can do that. Let's go,"

"Hold it, lassie. First, I will have to do something before we leave,"

Without waiting for an answer, Crystal floated outside of Lila's room.

"Come. I want to show you something,"

Lila followed suit and stood beside the Crystal. As soon as she reached her destination, the Crystal let out a small glow.

"Okay but why..." But before Lila could continue, Crystal interrupted her.

"Just look up and see for yourself. You'll be surprised kiddo."

Intrigued, Lila lifted her head. She didn't see anything at first but then she noticed an unusual spot on the ceiling of the room.

It was a faint grey spot with a tiny glow, almost unnoticeable.

This was magic, actual magic and it was cast right in front of her!

Having read Lila's thoughts, "Yes, that was magic. Normally, you would need incantations but I'm not like the rest kiddo." It continued,

"This one will make me hear everything that's spoken in this room," answered the Crystal.

For the first time in days, her face lit up with the same enthusiasm she had when she first met the Crystal in that cave even though she was starving. After Crystal finished what it was saying, Lila saw an opportunity and took it.

With a sly tone and a smirk, Lila turned her head to Crystal,

"Well now, you DO know magic. And I thought all you did was glow and float around. Count me impressed."

This struck a nerve. Despite being annoyed by the girl's impudence, Crystal decided to keep quiet against its better judgment.

With excitement and enthusiasm, Lila asked, "Can I do it too?" Her eyes still smiling.

"Only if you wish to turn into a withered husk," answered Crystal, still greatly annoyed by her previous remark.

This made Lila wipe the smirk on her face,

"How come? If we are connected, doesn't that mean I can do it too?"

"You need to start from the beginning. This is highly advanced for a starter. You need to refine your potential and learn the basics first."

After evaluating what it said, Lila's enthusiasm rose back. This meant she could indeed become a real mage, in due time of course.

However, her questions would have to be asked later as they heard the rest of the men calling out their friend. Realizing that they'd be here any second now, they quickly made their exit through Lila's bedroom window. After sneaking away for a while, they hid in the wheat farm on the outskirts of the village.

Then, Lila began to hear the voices of the men echo in her mind. She realized that Crystal must be sharing what its hearing inside the room.

The other two men were clearly unnerved, judging by their loud breathing. They probably saw the heads on the table with their friend laying on the ground, seemingly dead.

From the sounds Lila and Crystal heard, Dick gave him a couple of hard slaps to wake him up while Mich told him to slow down as he could be injured. They were clearly panicking.

By slapping him around for a little while, he managed to wake John up, although the guy screamed as he got back up from the spot he fell.

Confused by his reaction, both of them tried calming down John but he just kept begging them over and over to check the room and the house to see if the thing he saw was still inside.

After the two thoroughly checked the small house and made sure it was safe, John told them how he came eye to eye with an ungodly creature and how the creature had terrible blood-red eyes and pale skin. The poor guy thought what he saw was something beyond a monster and was an evil sorceress of the foulest kind.

Now, it was Lila's turn to be annoyed as she took offense to the way John described the way she looked. Sensing this, Crystal let out a glow as if it was laughing at Lila's plight, which greatly added to Lila's annoyance.

She wasn't that terrible looking right now, was she? To be sure, she checked herself on the reflective surface of the Crystal, which Crystal thought was amusing since it was never used as a mirror, she noticed that she did indeed look like the way he described her, making her realize certain things.

What she saw in that reflection was not the Lila she knew herself to be but a terrible creature, bereft of beauty and life. A coward who was too scared to admit the truth to herself. What would her parents think of her if they saw her like this? They'd want their precious daughter to move on that's for sure...

What would Elias think of her if he saw her like this as well? He would probably be scared to death as he was never the brave type, kind of like the guy who almost got scared to death. Still, he'd want her to keep the promise she gave to him before she left.

It did not take her long to come to the conclusion that she must accept the way things are from that point forward.

With John finishing his story, the men concluded that this village wasn't destroyed by a monster but rather by a vile and disastrous person, an evil sorceress. Right after John got up, all three decided to get away from the defiled village as quickly as possible, lest they meet the same fate as the poor village folk.

The last thing the duo heard from inside of the house was the men freaking out and running away, which was soon after followed by a scene of them getting farther away from the village, John struggling to keep up with his friends since he no longer had a belt to keep his pants from falling down.

After watching them fade into the horizon, Lila asked Crystal with a serious tone,

"Things will never be the same, will they Crystal?"

"No kid, they won't be. The people you loved will forever keep on living in your memories but you need to move forward."

As tears flowed down her gaunt cheek, Lila finally came to terms with the harsh reality. She must keep moving on as that is the only option left for her.

The people she loved would have wanted the same for her too.

With a heavy heart, Lila looked at the once-peaceful village. She clenched her bony fists and said with a resolute voice,

"I must give them their peace. They deserve that..."

Sensing her resolution, Crystal was proud of the naive girl she met days ago. Giving a bright blue hue once again,

"Do you need help?" It asked.

Lila looked at Crystal and nodded, gratefully accepting its kind aid.

It took until sunset to give each of the deceased village folk a proper burial.

Crystal dug up the graves and prepared their gravestones with magic whereas Lila gave them their final rites after closing the graves one by one, her heart getting lighter with each closed grave.

As burying the dead exhausted the last ounce of energy left inside of Lila, she fell to the ground, fast asleep with a bitter yet soft smile on her face.

The village of Gladeside was finally at peace.