Seeing as how he hadn’t really done anything in the fight except provide a brief if important distraction, Terry let the other adventurers handle the boar corpse. Of course, that came after what passed for field medicine. Jaban was banged up, but Ekori was still bleeding a lot. It was enough that Terry worried that she wouldn’t live long enough to get real help from a doctor or healer. That concern was almost immediately proven meaningless when Haresh gave the young woman a stern look.

“Drink a healing potion,” he commanded.

The young woman vehemently shook her head, not that Terry really noticed. He was still stuck back on the phrase healing potion. Why the fuck didn’t anyone tell me about healing potions? If he had known that such a useful thing existed in this world, he’d have moved heaven and earth to find a few for himself. He mentally raged about that for a little while before sanity crept in to ruin his self-pity party. Of course, no one told me about them because why would they? It only followed that everyone would already know about something like that in a world that possessed them.

That doesn’t explain why you never mentioned it, Terry directed at the spot in his head where he was pretty sure other-Terry was living. You never asked, said other-Terry in a sanctimonious tone. If Terry could have throat-punched other-Terry right that second, he would have. Before he could get too far down that particular rabbit hole, the outside world caught his attention again. Ekori was still trying to say no to the healing potion. That struck Terry as odd. If he was injured and had a way to heal up quick, he’d take it. So, why was she so hellbent on bleeding to death? It seemed that Haresh had lost all patience.

“Enough!” he snapped. “You’re going to drink it even if I have to make you swallow it. Now, get on with it.”

With gestures that screamed reluctance, Ekori summoned a vial from her storage ring. Haresh took it from her hand and jerked out whatever was keeping the liquid sealed inside the vial. He pressed it to her lip and, with one final glare at him, she opened her mouth. He poured the liquid between her parted lips and watched until she swallowed it. Terry was getting more confused by the second. He’d never seen anyone work so hard to avoid doing something that was going to help them. That was when the screaming started. Ekori’s entire body arched and the veins in her neck stuck out like she was trying to lift something impossibly heavy. Terry knew that the screaming didn’t go on for an hour. It just seemed like it. He did see the deep wound in her stomach swiftly close up. A shudder seemed to pass through the woman and she dropped back to the ground, unconscious. What the holy fuck was that?!

Terry was of two, very different minds about what he’d just witnessed. There were healing potions in this world, which was a good thing. Rapid healing was a boon. Unfortunately, they did not work like the healing potions in video games and most novels. Those healing potions washed over a person and swept away injury, fatigue, or whatever other problem you had. These potions seemed specifically designed to kick you in the nervous system for having the gall to take one. Ekori had just endured something hideously painful, which was not a good thing. He understood now why she had been so very intent on not taking it. If that was the result, people would reserve them as life-saving measures only.

He didn’t know if healing potions would knock out everyone who took them, but it seemed likely for anyone who wasn’t blessed with an absurd pain threshold or a certain masochistic streak. It was also damned hard to protect yourself when you were unconscious. You’d have to trust that the people around you had your best interests in mind, or at least that they weren’t actively hostile toward you. That kind of trust was in short supply for Terry. Although, he supposed that these Ekori, Jaban, and Haresh probably did have those kinds of relationships. Haresh checked Ekori’s eyes and shook his head before standing up.

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“She’ll be out for a while,” said the older adventurer. “Come here, Jaban. Let me take a look at your injuries.”

The young man trudged over to Haresh. Who can blame him? I’d be trudging too if I thought that bullshit that just happened to Ekori was about to happen to me. Haresh gave the younger man’s injuries a pretty thorough examination before deciding that a healing potion wasn’t necessary. Jaban let out a long breath and sagged in relief. Terry just felt a stab of bitter disappointment about the whole thing. For a few seconds, he thought he’d finally found something good in this experience. It just turned out to be another lousy, painful thing that he’d have to endure if he ever talked himself into downing one of those potions.

He knew some people from his world might think it was a small tradeoff for superhuman abilities. But he also knew that some of the people from his world ate roasted crickets and did it on purpose. That was a strong argument that people’s judgment should not be trusted. He looked at Ekori and realized that she was still just sprawled on the ground where she’d been. He almost said something before it hit him that there really wasn’t a better place to put her. They could keep an eye on her if she stayed where she was and come to her defense if it came down to it. Still, it looked uncomfortable. Terry dug around in his pack and pulled his blanket free. He folded it up and put it beneath the young woman’s head.

He suspected it wouldn't make a difference. She was out cold. Even so, she’d wake up at some point. He doubted she’d thank them if she had been sleeping with a rock under her head the entire time. Somehow, I just know it would end up being my fault. With Ekori as settled as she was going to get for the moment, Terry wandered over and watched with a little amusement as they added the boar’s head to head sack. He half expected it to tear because it was such a tight fit, but head sack held up remarkably well. After that, they cut the beast open, retrieved its core, and took one or two other parts that Terry assumed must be valuable. Once they were done, he quirked an eyebrow at them.

“Is that all you mean to take?” he asked.

“I expect so,” said Haresh. “Why? Is there something else we should take?”

“Oh, no. Nothing like that,” said Terry, gesturing at the prancing form of Drumstick. “If you’re done, I was going to let that one eat the rest.”

Haresh and Jaban both gave Drumstick sidelong glances but didn’t raise any objections. After they all put a little distance between themselves and the remains, Terry gestured at it. Drumstick lunged forward, and Terry didn’t see anything after that because he wisely averted his eyes. Unfortunately, his ears still worked, and listening to the boar being eaten was only marginally better. Can’t win them all, I guess. Haresh and Jaban were making noises like they thought they should make camp where they were, but Terry put the nix on that.

“No way. Every beast within smelling distance will know something died here. You can bet that some kind of awful scavenger will come crawling or slithering out of the forest once it gets dark. We should be elsewhere when that happens.”

“What about Ekori?” asked Jaban.

“What about her?”

“How will we move her? We can’t carry her the entire way, or we won’t get more than a handful of miles before we have to stop.”

Terry waited for the punchline. He waited some more. It never came, which told him that Jaban meant it. He looked over at the young woman. She wouldn’t be light. In fact, she’d be nothing but dead weight. Given the relative feats of strength he’d pulled off since he arrived, he suspected that carrying her would prove insignificant to him. He sighed and spoke.

“Fine. I’ll carry her. But I kid you not, so help me, I will kill the first person who makes a joke about suitors or heroes or anything even remotely like that.”