It was the middle of the second day when Lilian finally found herself staring at the peak her home rested inside.

I am home Anna. I am home.

Lilian marched forward towards the peak with a determined steps.

I am ready for this. I will talk with Anna about the effects, then ask if she wants to do this.

While Lilian had been the one to asvocate this before she left. Her heart wasn’t really in it now that she knew what wad required other than having to trade her blade.

I think I would rather suffer my only limbs removed, than have to cause Anna anymore pain.

Lilian walked to and slid back the door.

“Anna…” Lilian breathed a breath of relief at the sight of her mate.

Anna had a large smile and was standing there at the center of the room waiting for her.

Anna lifted her left to reach towards her, beckoning Lilian towards her.

“Welcome home my Ashoo’raagé.” Anna greeted Lilian in her terrible Mokra’Torc.

But Lilian didn’t mind it. She loved it in fact. She didn’t even bother to strip down or unpack her gear. She simple walked up and hugged Anna to her chest.

Lilian held Anna in her arms. Just soaking in the warmth of her body as she held Anna close. She breathed in through her nostrils the scent of her mate.

Ah! How I have missed her.

She pulled back to look at Anna’s face.

Who was smiling at Lilian with wet eyes.

“I am home my Ashu’Rágé.” Lilian announced with a smile.

Anna returned it with a watery smile of her own.

“Welcome home my love.”

They came back together in a passionate kiss of long parted lovers.

“Mmm… Ah!… Anna! Oh how!… I have missed you!” Lilian whispered through their kisses.

“Me too Lilian… Me too!” Anna replied excited.

But Anna’s hands on Lilian’s chest pushed her back gently.

“But as glad as I am to see you and hold you in my arms again Lili. You stink.”

Lilian was shocked by what she was hearing.

“I stink?! I just came home after a long journey you tell me I stink?!” Lilian wasn’t hurt by her words, just incredulously doubting she heard her mate correctly.

“Yes you stink,” Anna tells her with a smile then points at the table. “I also made dinner for us tonight, so go clean up and hurry, it is your favorite~” Anna informed her.

Lilian double takes at the table then back to Anna. “And cake?!” She leans down to kiss Anna on the lips again, which Anna is powerless to do anything but accept.

“What in the world did I ever do right to deserve such a wonderful mate?” Lilian pondered aloud after their kiss ended.

Anna smiled

“You cared and loved me. That is what,” Anna made sure to pull away this time to turn Lilian towards the door.

“Now close that door and get changed. Then we’ll eat and you can tell me about your journey.” Anna instructed.

Lilian laughed as she was reminded by Anna’s way of treating her, that she now understood what the four brother group of trolls were talking about.

“Mates mon?! Am I right?!”

Yeah!… great and wonderful, but hard to handle: and I wouldn’t leave her for the world. Lilian thought with a smile on her lips as she was pushed to do her tasks.

“Yes my Ashu’Rágé.”

                

 ————————————————-

              

It was sometime after dinner. They had eaten and talked about Lilian’s journey to and from the troll’s village she had come across.

“You had to give up your sword?!” Anna asked as she was just now realizing Lilian didn’t have it with her as she walked inside. “But that was like your best and favorite weapon right?! Oh honey! I am so sorry!” Anna apologized sympathetically as she reached across the table to hold Lilian’s hand.

Lilian shrugged.

“For what I got from it,” Lilian said while looking into Anna’s eyes and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. “it was worth it.”

They stayed smiling and holding one another’s hand for a while.

But to Anna’s dismay, Lilian’s faces morphed into one that looked on the verge of tears.

“See! I knew it! That sword meant a lot to you!” Anna said as she jumped to conclusions.

“It is not that…” Lilian denied as she wiped her eyes of the unshed tears. “It is what I learned about the elixirs…… Anna…” Lilian took several deep breathes before she was ready to explain.

“We are…—“ But then Lilian shook her head. “I am going to have to hurt you again.”

“What?!” Anna was shocked to hear this, but was mostly curious by Lilian’s word choice.

Lilian explained what Xanacary had told her about how the potion worker on species other than trolls.

“Apparently it is instantaneous on trolls and only aides them in their natural regeneration properties. But for other races, it is just…”

“A long slow torturous session of healing and regrewing a limb that they naturally wouldn’t be able to do themselves?” Anna guessed.

Lilian nodded her head.

“Just so…” Lilian looked at Anna’s face pleadingly.

“Please tell me no Anna. Please tell me you don’t want this now. Please tell me that you are fine with your leg the way it is so that I selfishly do not have to hurt and cut off more of your leg!” Lilian was almost screaming hysterically at the end of her plea. Her tears flowing down her face.

But Anna shook her head.

“No. Let’s do it.” She told Lilian resolutely.

Lilian stood up suddenly, her chair falling to the floor, her hands slamming into the table.

“Anna! PLEASE!” She begged. “I-… *GULP* I do not think I can bring myself to do this now! Not at the cost of hurting you!” Lilian’s voice shook as her tears flowed.

She moved on shaky legs towards Anna’a chair and knelt in-front of her. Looking up at her Ashu’Rágé with a mournfully depressed expression,

One that puts a sad puppies to shame, Anna thought

“Please!” Lilian pleaded. “Please let me be selfish and not have to hurt you!” She begged with a strained voice.

Anna smiled down at her with a watery expression of her own.

“Lilian,” Anna called out with a voice  barely above a whisper. She raised a hand to cup Lilian tear stained cheek, causing Lilian to whimper while leaning into Anna’s hand.

“it wouldn’t be fair to you if I did. Not after you had asked me before and I relented then. Not with you trading your weapon away for it. And not for myself just because I am scared.” Anna told her. “You are the only one who can help me do this. And not just because we’re trapped on this mountain with no one else to do this for us. But because I wouldn’t trust anyone other than you.”

Lilian’s expression turns into pain as she leans forward to cry into Anna’s lap.

Anna ran her fingers through Lilian’s hair to comfort her as she wept. Anna to was also crying while looking at her Ashu’Rágé in a absolute miserable state that Anna knew she was forcing her to do.

This sucks…

Anna want to, really, REALLY wanted to give in and just call off the whole thing. But Anna also knew that it would have been all for not if they just gave up and forgot about this. If they just let this be let the potion rot away and not used them.

Then I would regret my leg more if I knew she gave up her weapon for nothing.

Anna knew if she let themselves be selfish about this out of fear of herself getting hurt. They would have nothing but regrets.

I can’t let that happen to us.

Anna’s only regret of making Lilian do this; was that act itself.

If I could find away to cut off my own leg that wasn’t going to kill me from blood loss if I did it myself, I would. Just so I could spare Lilian from having to do it.

Anna smiled down through her tears at her partner’s misery; but also her courage and determination at having the resolve to go through with this if Anna ask.

I love her.

I lover her so much.

More than anyone I have ever loved in my life.

“It is time love.” Anna told Lilian. “We should just… just do it! Get it over with.”

Lilian whimpered as she shook her head back and forth like a child on Anna’s lap.

“Yes love, we should.” Anna told Lilian resolutely before standing up.

Lilian held onto Anna’s waist even as she stood up. Keeping her head buried and not showing her face.

Anna sighed be for saying.

“Love, I am going to fall over.”

Which had Lilian backing up. Looking up at Anna in worry. Lilian looked up at Anna in surprise at how easily she was tricked, but also not hurt by it.

Anna smiled at her before moving over to the center of the room.

“I-… I don’t want to do this in our room if I can help it.” Anna told Lilian. “I don’t want to put the memories of this in a place where we make happy ones.” Anna explained.

Lilian just nodded in agreement. She was to afraid to speak, lest she bust into more tears.

Anna laid down onto the floor with her back resting there. She pulled up and lifted her skirt away. Revealing her stump.

It was oval bumpy and craggily. With sutures made on both sides of the stump from where Lilian had to cut back the bone to make it a better fit, so that it did not rub inside of her stub.

Anna, after undressing her leg, laid down supine on the floor.

“I am ready for you my Ashoo’raagé.”

Lilian looked fit to burst into tears at any moment. But she wiped away what had already spilt and set her face in a grim determination. She got up off of her knees to go to her weapons storage to grab a couple things she would need.

Her old two-handed axe and a whetstone. She also reached across to grab a couple leather throngs, then moved over to retrieve a vial of the rejuvenating elixir.

She set the elixir next to Anna’s head, along with the throngs.

“Be— *HIC*…” Lilian had to stop talking to compose herself. “Bite down… on this leather… so that you do not break your teeth or bite off your tongue… I will help you drink this once… once I have— *HIC*…”

Lilian couldn’t finished was she was about to say. But she didn’t need to. Anna laid a reassuring hand on Lilian’s. Smiling at her with an expression full of trust and love.

This helped bolster Lilian more than any other words Anna may have said. Just Anna’s absolute trust in Lilian made her heart soar.

She have her a watery smile in return before getting ready. She ran quickly to the bedroom to grab something and brought back a pillow.

She laid in behind Anna’s head before moving to be in-front of her leg.

Lilian was breathing heavily as she looked at Anna’s stump. She reached over to pick up her leg, laying a kiss on Anna’s skin before whispering to her.

“I am sorry for the pain I am about to cause you!”

Anna smiled with tear leaking out of the side of her eyes.

“And I am sorry I am making you do this.”

Lilian gave her a determined nod before. Lowering her leg.

She picked up her axe, then began to sharpen it.

After about ten minutes, Anna knew she was stalling a bit. But she decided not to rush Lilian.

Not that I am entirely in a hurry to have more of my leg chopped off…. He he he he…..

Anna darkly chuckled to herself mentally.

But after just another five minutes. Lilian looked down at the blade. She scrapped her thumb over it. It cut into it easily. The small amount of blood and pain she felt didn’t even register in her mind.

Lilian looked over at Anna once more with a grim set expression on her face. Probably the most dark Anna had ever seen Lilian’s expression get.

“Ready.”

Anna realized she wasn’t asking her if she was, just telling her she had found her resolve.

Anna gave her a determined nod of her own. Anna then reached over to grab the leather throng and placed it in her mouth to chomp down on it.

“RUADuied!” Anna mumbled with closed mouth.

Lilian nodded back.

Lilian stood up so that she could have her full power into the swing.

Her hands shook. They shook more now than she could ever remember them have. Not even that night during her first kill with the gawanta; or her first time killing an ogre with her father.

I am sorry!

Lilian prayed to Anna with her thought as she swung.

                         

*SWALCK*

                   

*AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

                    

Anna screamed as the burning hot agony seared through her leg as it was sliced off for a second time in her life.

FUCK! That hurt!

It had hurt so bad, the pain so over whelming, that it physically was making Anna start to blackout. The edges of her vision slowly fading.

But just as fast as it had come on to her, Lilian was at her side a moment into having successfully cut off and separated the section of Anna’s leg she had needed to.

“I am so sorry my Ashu’Rágé! I am so sorry!” Lilian said to Anna as she lifted her up, removing the throng from her lips while reaching over to pop the cork of the vial.

“Quickly my love! Quickly drink!” Lilian assisted Anna by holding the elixir to her lips.

Anna was breathing heavily and hissing in pain as the vial touched her lips. The think green liquid pour in and down her throat.

Anna couldn’t even appreciate or reproach the taste, as she was to in pain to determine what was currently happening.

Lilian watched as her love not only sweat from being in pain as her body heated up form the agony she was in. But she also was watching Anna’s leg with a worried glances to make sure the elixir was taking effect.

For almost a minute, nothing happened, and Lilian had feared that she had been had. That Xanacary had actually tricked her. Her hand on Anna’s shoulder that was wrapped around her back tightened as she contemplated killing him for this farce.

But then, slowly. Oh so very slowly. She noticed that the blood was no longer spilling, but congealing and bubbling up and forming shapes at the top of the wound.

It was as disturbing as it was fascinating to watch as Anna’s leg had simple started to, for lack of a better word, ooze and bubble its way back into existence.

Lilian watched as for the next almost hour, holding Anna by her shoulders while she hissed in a half fainted awakened state.

Once the leg had bubbled and formed the final toe. Lilian had finally turned to look back at Anna’s face in excitement.

“We did it Anna your leg!—“

But to Lilian’s disappointment and dismay, Anna had turned gaunt, her face ashen and almost hollow.

“OH GODS! ANNA!”

Lilian screamed as she looked at what the potions effects had on her.

“OH! Mother Rayala! Please! Oh please! oh please! Do anything! Do anything and everything to help my mate!” Lilian cried at a prayer. “Please help her make it through this! PLEASE!”

Lilian laid Anna back on the pillow as she moved about to clean up about the limb growth surgery scene. After cleaning the blood from Anna’s new leg, Lilian picked her up gently.

She is so light! Oh Anna!… this was a mistake… Lilian determined in her mind.

She then took Anna back to their room to lay her on their bed. She stayed by her side the entire time, waiting to see if there was any improvement to her condition.

After awhile, Lilian suspected hours later. Anna’s gauntness had faded, but only some of her flesh had started to return to its natural form and shape.

She needs to eat! Lilian realized. She needs more food to help sustain her body’s recovery.

Lilian went out to grab what ingredients she could to make a dish that was full of meat to help restore her body’s blood.

As she was doing this, on her way back she noticed it.

She looked down at the bloodied stump that Lilian had left there on the floor. Her breathing was heavy as she looked at it in anger. She moved to the bedroom to put things down before coming back for Anna’s cut off stump.

She took it to the door before sliding open the door with a slam.

She hefted the stump back in anger before throwing it off the mountain side.

Lilian could not answer anyone why she did what she did that day. But she knew she felt better not that the bleeding stump was out of sight and had been flung off of the mountain.

Lillian quickly closed the door and returned to taking care of her mate.