"Achoo!"

Clest was rested against a tree, her eyelids swollen so much you'd think she got stung by a bee. Discolored tears were dripping out of her eyes, and snot was oozing out nonstop from her nose. She was breathing audibly from her mouth too, because her nasal passages were completely blocked.

"Guh... Hey," she panted. "Am I bleeding from my eyes?"

Pine just finished washing a piece of cloth, which he was gonna use to wipe away Clest's facial discharges. Kneeling down beside her, he carefully wiped away her discolored tears.

She raised her hand to her eyes, planning to rub them, but Pine gently stopped her. "Oi, no rubbing your eyes. It's just gonna make it worse.

"Also, no, you aren't bleeding anywhere."

"Ogey."

After Pine tended to her, he washed the cloth once again and gave it to her so she could wipe her face whenever she wanted to.

"I'm gonna get us breakfast. You stay put there, alright?" said Pine.

"You're jus' gonna leave me here?" Clest wheezed.

"No, no, I won't go far, okay? I'll just set up some bird traps and hope I can give you something to eat by lunch."

Clest didn't immediately say anything in response, and her face felt too swollen for her to make an expression. The only word she managed to croak out was a weak, "Thabks."

"Mhm, so stay put, alright?"

Clest nodded weakly, and Pine went off, taking Clest's knife with him.

Making a bird trap was something Pine was very familiar with. The lure he was gonna use were wild berries. To humans, these were borderline inedible. They were non-toxic if you ate one or two, but eat more and you'll start to feel nauseated.

Birds liked to snack on these wild berries, but they couldn't just peck at them while still attached to the plant. After all, wild berry bushes had small, prickly thorns on their branches, discouraging any birds from prematurely picking off the berries. When they mature and fall off, that's when the birds get to enjoy a tasty snack.

In no time, Pine found a wild berry bush, and he picked off just a few wild berries. He then looked for spots in the forest floor that was visible from the sky, and those are where he'd set up his traps.

After taking an hour or so to set up three snare traps, he returned to where Clest was.

As soon as she heard his footsteps, Clest tried to open her eyes as much ad possible to see if it was Pine. After realizing that it really was him, she let out a sigh of relief.

"How are you feeling?" Pine asked her.

"Bad."

Pine smiled wryly. "How long is this gonna last?"

Clest let out a gargly sigh. It appeared that her lung secretions were also affected too. Clearing her throat, she said, "Hopefully, the symptoms are gone before nightfall."

Pine took in a deep breath and said, "Yeah, hopefully." Pausing to look at Clest and the cloth in her left hand, he also said, "Here, let me wash that cloth again."

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

-----

While Pine was waiting for any yield from his traps, he kept himself busy. After tending to Clest, he went to the corpse of the Rafflesia and retrieved his shortsword.

And since the body was no longer firm, he noticed that the spore sac was now visible. He didn't even need to hold down the mouth, because it had alread collapsed.

Being extra, extra, careful, he used Clest's knife to cut the remaining tissue that still attached the sac to the withering digestive wall.

With his sword in his left, and the spore sac in his right, he started making his way back to Clest.

On his way, he gently squeezed the spore sac, while making sure his face wasn't anywhere close. The protruding tubules twitched, and a small amount of spores flew out, dispersing quickly in the air.

'Oh, so if I squeeze it, the poison spores come out.'

Yeah, that was pretty obvious.

Pine carefully store the spore sac into one of the pouches hanging from his belt, and then continued on his way.

"Pine?" Clest called out immediately when she heard his footsteps.

"Hey, what's up?" Pine immediately responded, picking up the pace towards her.

Again, Clest let out a sigh of relief. She then said, "I think one of your traps caught something."

And as if on cue, frantic chirps erupted, accompanied by the sound of desperately flapping wings.

"Okay, okay. I'll check it out." Pine excitedly said, rushing towards the direction of the trap.

When he came back, he was holding a lifeless bird in his hand by its feet. He was quite happy, not expecting to catch a bird while it was still pretty early. Now he didn't have to worry about what to feed Clest while she was incapacitated by the poison.

Pine quickly and carefully prepared the bird meat, setting up a fire too, so he could begin roasting the meat as soon as possible. All the while, Clest's inflammation still showed no sign of going away, but at the very least, it seemed like it wasn't getting worse.

To speed up the cooking, Pine decided to further cut the carcass into pieces. This way, it'd cook much faster than if he did it rotisserie-style.

A few minutes after Pine put the processed parts close beside the fire, the aroma of cooking meat started to spread, which inevitably made Clest's tummy groan audibly.

"...This is gonna take a while." Pine smiled awkwardly at her.

Clest was embarrassed, her face blushing. Wait, no, her face is just red because of the toxin reaction. "Please, take your time," she said.

Around an hour later, the bird meat was well-roasted, and Clest's tummy had been rumbling way too often at this point. Naturally, Pine was also very hungry.

Pine got two parts for himself, giving the rest to Clest. It was a pretty small meal, after all. Clest argued about wanting to share equally for a while, but she eventually gave up. Pine wanted her to focus on recovering, telling her to hunt for better food once she's better in return.

After they stripped down the meat all way to the bone, Pine didn't really have anything else to do. He checked to make sure his traps were still up, and then returned to Clest's side.

"You wanna lie down?" he asked her.

"Can't. I have to keep my head elevated or else I'll drown in my own mucus."

Pine raised his eyebrows, noticing something.

"Hey, you sound slightly better now."

"Yeah," Clest sniffled, "I can kind of breathe through my nose again now."

Pine smiled. "That's great, you're getting better."

"Mhm."

...

After a short moment of silence, Pine brought up the topic of lying down again.

"If you rest your head on my lap, will it feel any better?"

"Hmmm." Clest forced her swollen eyes open, looking at Pine sitting beside her, his laps ready for her to lay her head on.

She shrugged, as if to say, 'Why not try?' before slowly laying down her head on his lap.

When Pine felt her relax, he asked her, "Can you breathe?"

Clest inhaled deeply and replied, "Yeah."

Eventually, Clest managed to fall into a deep sleep, unlike the sleep she'd usually have when she was travelling alone. She couldn't get proper rest when she had to stay alert after all.

Last night's rest was okay at best. While she didn't have to stay alert, the sleeping conditions were pretty awful.

But this, with a lap pillow for her head and the assurance of someone watching over her, she rested very well.

-----

Around an hour and a half later, Clest was woken up by the thwip of a twig-- one of Pine's traps were triggered. The sound of bird cries and wings flapping followed.

Clest woke up not only feeling energized, but also better. She quickly raised her head up from Pine's lap, realizing that she was drenched in sweat.

As for Pine, he was just sleeping lightly with his arms crossed. When he heard one of his traps get triggered, he opened his eyes too.

"Hey, you're awake," said Pine.

"Mhm..." Clest mumbled, rubbing her neck.

"Your eyes are starting to deflate," Pine chuckled.

Clest also smiled. "Yeah, I can see a bit better now."

Pine grunted as he stood up, stretching his body, before saying, "I'll check out our traps."

"Mhm, go do that." Clest fondly smiled at him. "Thanks for letting me rest."

"Of course."