Cici's POV
"Fine, fine, I'm up.." I groan as I shield my eyes from the relentless ray of sunshine that decided to wake me up.
Sitting up and stretching with a yawn, I felt more rested then I have in a pretty long time. Just thinking about last night had my face heating up. Yet I couldn't help but to smile. I've been pretty obvious and straightforward with my feelings for Alice but I still never thought she would reciprocate them in any way. I'm practically in heaven!!
Turning over to wake up the person in question, I realized she wasn't in bed. Looking around I could see that all of her stuff is still here though. After checking the bathroom i was really puzzled.
'Weird.... Maybe she decided to head down and grab something to eat..'
With that thought in mind I temporarily shrugged it off as I freshened up and got dressed. Once I was ready for the day I locked the door and headed for the stairs. I skipped every other step as I rushed down. But as I turned the corner into the dining area I froze.
'She's not down here either?.... She wouldn't just take off on me would she?..... Was it because of last night?....'
My mood now plummeting I slowly found my way over to the front desk. According to the desk lady, she hadn't seen Alice pass by at all this morning. Now I'm hella confused. Lost in thought I ended up sulking back upstairs and into our room. After pouting for a little bit I suddenly facepalmed.
'Duh!! I can just try to find her by her magical aura, man I'm stupid sometimes..'
After inwardly scolding myself for not using my head, I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. Using a sensory spell to get a sense of all the mana in the area, I started feeling around looking for Alice's particular aura. After not being able to sense her anywhere nearby, I poured more mana into the spell to widen my search range.
Just as I was about to give up I suddenly felt her aura nearby, but only for a split second. It was quickly drowned out by the most immense mana surge I have ever felt. Since I was still in the midst of using my sensory spell the new mana spike was practically blinding. Not even a moment later that mana spike seem to explode and I was sent flying back and landing on my ass as a huge shockwave swept through the building.
"What in the actual fuck was that?!?!"
As I scrambled to get to my feet and overwhelming pressure suddenly appeared in the room, threatening to crush me. At the same time I felt a hand grab my shoulder. Out of instinct I immediately turned with a clawed fist raised but found my vision going black and I got extremely dizzy. Once my vision cleared up I found myself yet again freezing as confusion tore through me.
I was no longer in our room at the inn but somehow standing in front of Alice's house in the Beast Kingdom. But I wasn't alone. Whatever released all that mana and pressure was still behind me, I could feel it's aura bearing down on me. Then just as suddenly as it appeared, the immense aura simply disappeared, replaced by a more familiar one.
"Alice??" I halfheartedly called out as I slowly turned around, afraid that I would be wrong.
Yet before I could even turn all the way around I was tackled into a hug so hard it sent us both hitting the ground. It honestly felt like I was hit by a rhino. But gazing down and seeing that beautiful face snuggling into my chest I couldn't help but gasp. It was indeed Alice but something was definitely different. She had a dominating air about her and her strong aura felt surreal. Her skin gave off a dim crimson glow that seemed to fluctuate.
But what threw me off the most was when she looked up at me. She now had a blood red crescent moon shape in each of her pupils. They were both mesmerizing and terrifying.
"A-alice.... What the hell happened?!?!...."