Heartwarming / Hope for the Heartless

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• Avalina begs the Horned King to spare Creeper even though the goblin hit her face during her time in the dungeon.
• The Invisibles are right from the beginning supporting Avalina however they can in their limitations.
  • When Avalina is allowed to visit her family to say farewells, the Invisibles set in her belongings bronze and brass coins to support her family.
• The Horned King saves Avalina from being killed by the Mad Pack, even if he does that only because she's his only chance to remain free from the Black Cauldron.
  • Avalina decides to take the injured and unconscious Horned King back to the castle even though she wants to return home.
  • Two weeks after the incident, the Horned King has the Invisibles to provide a library for Avalina. She's so happy for the gift, and the Horned King says it's his thanks for saving his life. He all but forces the sentence out, but Avalina can tell it's sincere.
• After the initial scare, the Horned King instructs Avalina to approach the gwythaint safely. It quickly takes a liking to the girl.
  • The gwythaint (Addie) and Mitternacht quickly become friends through their races.
• The slow and subtle changes of the Horned King's treatment of Avalina.
• After the Horned King explains Avalina how his evil deeds started reflecting his appearance and that he can never regain his lost heart, Avalina watches him and senses his loneliness, desperation, weariness and the beginnings of remorse. For the first time she comes next to him willingly and takes his hand, saying that she sees hope in him. After the initial shock, he responds to the gesture and together they watch out of the window.
• When Avalina and the Horned King ride to her secret place, Creeper decides to take his chance and leave his master's servitude. Addie is against it, and he ends up striking her jaw. He doesn't know how to apologize and attempts to leave again. When he's at the drawbridge, he hears her sorrowful cry that reminds him of the one she made after realizing her mate was dead. He goes back and manages to apologize. She accepts it.
• After the Horned King tells Avalina that his heart has come back to life, she's overjoyed for him. His heartbeat becomes one of her favorite sounds in the world.
• When Avalina is about to fall into a chasm created by a sudden earthquake, Taran pulls her up despite having got seriously injured by the Horned King's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • The Horned King saves Princess Eilonwy from the same fate, even if only because he realizes how important she is to Avalina.
  • Avalina's Go Through Me moment gets the Horned King to grudgingly realize that he owes Taran for saving Avalina and he leaves with her.
• After the Horned King's argument with Avalina about her interference in his revenge leaves her sad, Creeper tries to make her feel better.
  • In a similar way, after Arawn's actions cause Avalina's spirit to go down again, she ends up in a snowball fight with Creeper and Mitternacht. They all enjoy it.
• Avalina saves Creeper from the cracking surface of the frozen lake. She's then saved from drowning by the Horned King. After she uses the pain-transference prayer to relieve his pain and recovers from the ordeal, the lich apologizes for his lately treatment of her and tells that he values her life over Taran's death. She forgives him. As she contently falls asleep against his chest, he internally vows to protect her, making his Papa Wolf status toward her final.
  • Creeper apologizes to Avalina for nearly getting her to drown. He's also forgiven.
• When Avalina breaks down due to her physical weakness after she's allowed to leave her sickbed and calls herself weak, the Horned King comforts her with a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech about her unique kind of strength.
  The Horned King: You have the strength to show compassion and kindness to anyone you meet. Even…something like me. And child, that is…The greatest kind of strength. One I am sure many see as nothing more than a myth. I…believed it to be nothing but complete nonsense myself, all those pathetic stories of young maidens so pure even the most savage of beasts would eat from their hands like pets and I believed them so kind it was nearly sickening. I never even pondered the possibility of such a creature existing, so fanciful was the notion. But…here you are, right in front of me, something I believed to be nothing more than a foolish tale spun by feebleminded tramps. And…You are anything but weak. Or nauseating.
• The Horned King and Creeper remove the remainders of the former Cauldron-Born from the lich's lands in order to make Avalina feel safer there.
• Avalina's happiness for the forest that has grown in the Horned King's lands.
• The Horned King and Avalina's day out in her garden after his Walking Wasteland trait seems to have vanished. The day ends with them having fallen asleep against each other.

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