About half an hour after he had left, Farn returned with a bundle of firewood, which he had put into a large cauldron, and a flaming torch. Smiling, Aurelie sat up and waved at him. He promptly dropped everything that he was carrying, the lit torch beginning a small fire in the grass. Aurelie immediately lunged forward and picked up the torch before stomping out the flames on the ground. Gasping from a mixture of pain, anger, and shock, Aurelie glared at Farn and yelled, "What were you thinking! Were you trying to start a forest fire!?"

But then she looked at his face. Farn was staring at her, his eyes wide and mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Finally he shouted a word in his language, one that she, of course, did not understand. But what she did understand were the emotions that flew across his face. Shock, fear, and intimidation, as well as a sort of hero worship. Her glare changing into frown, Aurelie gave a jerk of her shoulders and spread her hands in a what? motion. Shaking his head, Farn looked at her carefully, a thoughtful frown on his face.

Finally he seemed to have come to a conclusion about something and relaxed, his expression returning to his previous amicable one. He smiled and shook his head at Aurelie's confusion as if to say, It's nothing, then quickly cleared a small area of the clearing of grass, gathered the firewood he had dropped previously and moved it to the circle of dirt he had recently made. Afterwards he laid a circle of small stones from the river bank around the area he had cleared, took the torch back from the still frowning Aurelie, and set the wood on fire, forming a small bonfire above which he hung the cauldron after taking a few spices that he had put into it at his house out and filling it with water.

He then took out a knife. Aurelie tensed slightly, but Farn was moving towards the animals. He went to the snake she had killed and began to hack at it. Aurelie was about to tell him that it was pointless, her mind replaying the sound of metal hitting metal when she had slashed at the snake with her knives during her battle with the beast. But, under her astonished gaze, a spurt of blood came out of the snake from where Farn had cut it, though there was still a loud sound from it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While it was true that the monster snake's defense had dropped by a lot after it's death, there was no way Aurelie could have cut it the same way Farn did. Combined with the way he could easily carry the two creatures while she couldn't even budge their body parts told her that he was strong. As in, Superman level strong. No way could an ordinary person lift those creatures. Then a thought struck her. He easily revealed his strength to her, and looked as though it was natural to have this strength. She was in another world. Maybe it was natural to have this strength. Maybe she was the weakest person here. This boded very badly for her. She would immediately stand out if that were the case, and it would also become incredibly hard to survive long enough to find a way back to her own world and to Zane's side. She would have to find a way to subtly bring up the topic without alerting him to the fact that she wasn't as strong as he was.

Quietly, she watched as Farn skinned the snake, discarded the entrails, washed off the blood, and cut the meat into slabs before putting them into the cauldron. He was obviously making a snake stew. While waiting for the food to finish cooking, Farn and Aurelie sat beside the fire, and he began to teach her his language, while occasionally throwing in some of the spices and herbs that he had brought with him into the stew and stirring it from time to time. She learned quite a few basic words by the time the broth was ready to be eaten. The sun had already set during the course of their conversation/lesson, and this made it rather hard to ignore the growling of Farn's stomach, as well as that of Aurelie's.

Afterall, the last thing that she had eaten was a breakfast, albeit a rather sumptuous one, in the hotel she was staying at during her 'business' trip to Seattle. Afterwards, she had gone out to do her job, and then got kidnapped while she was walking to a quaint cafe to have lunch, and, as one may expect, was not exactly in the best position to ask for a lunch break afterwards. Reflecting on her day, Aurelie's lips kicked up in a sardonic smile. In such a short time, everything had changed so suddenly and so drastically.

After eating the strange but good broth, Aurelie bid farewell to Farn, who promised that he would come the next day, and lay down. She thought about what she should do now, many different scenarios playing out in her head. Eventually, unknowingly, she fell into a worried sleep.