NOVEL NEXT Ch 2.35: Antidote
Carline was somehow managing to ignore the things going on around her in the cart. Didn’t Flora know that she still had to deal with the venom inside Tira’s system? It wasn’t like Tira was in any immediate danger, and Flora probably knew that Carline would’ve mentioned if that were the case, but still, there were times for levity and times for seriousness. But Flora was distracting Elaina at least. Maybe that was Carline’s real frustration, that she couldn’t partake in the distraction, but it may very well have been good for everyone else involved. No, it was good for the rest of them to have some relief. Flora was right: Carline could do this, and then she’d get to rest like the others.
At least it seemed like such a sure thing when the reassurance came out of Flora’s mouth, but the reality was much more complicated. There was something inside of Tira, something unlike anything Carline had learned about in her handful of months studying medicine, but it had already spread throughout her body, into her musculature. It was strangely unaggressive, like the only purpose of the venom was to cause pain. If Tira had still been awake, Carline couldn’t imagine she’d be able to feel anything else
There was only one thing Carline could think to do in the situation. She opened her eyes, sneaking a quick glance at Flora as she reached into her bag for her knife. Flora was too distracting to look at that, wearing a buttonless tunic over her chest and only covering her lower half by using her torn dress as a blanket, so Carline snapped her head back towards Tira, noting that Elaina had apparently already gotten dressed again out the corner of her eye.
“I’m going to need to make a wound to bleed out the venom.”
“Is that safe?” the man up front said, looking back over his shoulder at the girls.
“She knows what she’s doing,” Flora said. Carline could tell the words were directed at her more than anyone else, and she appreciated them, weight lifting off of her ever so slightly as she pressed the flat of the blade against Tira’s arm.
Closing her eyes again, Carline peered through [Health], into the systems of Tira’s body that she was becoming ever so slightly familiar with. She wished her aspect gave her all the knowledge she needed about the body, but it wasn’t quite that simple. Still, she’d learned a lot in a short time, and a good portion of that was due to something that had otherwise been terrible.
Starhounds, creatures born from the night sky when people made ill wishes to the stars. That’s what Carline had been taught of them anyway, though she was learning that some things she’d learned over her life weren’t always accurate. Her encounters with them had taught her a lot about the world at large, her ignorance in the face of the true horrors of the universe, but also about the human body.
She focused on Tira’s body, her natural being, separating everything foreign to the body in her mind. She’d first done it when removing the starhounds’ acid-like venom from Elaina in their first fight together, and while the venom in Tira wasn’t quite so aggressive, so foreign, the same concept would apply. She hoped so, anyway.
Squeezing on the invasion inside Tira’s bloodstream, Carline started reversing its course, pooling the venom back into the arm it had first entered from. Carline had already sealed that wound of course, but it was still where the largest concentration of the venom was, so it also made sense as the place to try and remove it.
She could feel the pain receptors in Tira’s body letting out sighs of relief, the body itself relaxing as it was slowly being freed from the grasps of agony it was under. In the blood, the venom was actually harmless, causing no pain at all, no destruction, so Carline kept it there, working it back to the place it had forced its entry, and where she would force its exit.
She sliced Tira’s arm as gently as she could, along the same line she’d been cut originally, pushing the blood out of it with [Health], as little as possible while still forcing out the toxin.
“Here,” Flora said, ripping off a piece of her dress and handing it over.
“Thanks,” Carline said as she placed it under Tira’s arm. Doctor Thims would probably scream if he learned Carline was using such an unsanitary cloth near an open wound, but it wasn’t like Tira was going to get an infection when Carline was around anyway. She focused her attention where it mattered, pooling the the venom out of Tira’s body, clearing her system of any danger.
It wasn’t even hard, really, not compared to the starhound manes that fought back as you tried to expel them. In almost no time at all Carline was closing the wound she’d cut, tossing her makeshift bandage to the side as she placed her hands on Tira’s head.
And in an instant Tira woke up, gasping. Carline jumped back, not expecting it to happen that fast, but she supposed Tira had probably been trying to wake the entire time anyway. “Whoa,” Tira said, sitting up and looking at her left arm, “my hand is tingly.”
“Sorry,” Carline said, bowing her head. “I tried to get it all, but it’s kind of hard to get a hold of.”
“Tira!” Elaina shouted as she threw her arms around the girl. Tira patted Elaina on the back, looking around her, at the cart and the people they were with.
“Good to see you too, but what the hell happened? Where are we?”
“This nice couple gave us a ride,” Flora said, gesturing to the front. “We’re safe now now though.”
“Wait,” Tira said, pushing Elaina away and looking around again. “Where is she?”
“She…” Elaina trailed off, looked ashamed as she broke eye contact.
“She got away; nothing we could have done about it. We’ll talk about it later,” Flora said, again gesturing to the man and woman at the head of the cart.
Tira bit her lip, obviously wanting to know more, but nodding her head. “We’re all safe at least… Oh, and thanks to you two, by the way. I wish we could repay you somehow.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” the woman said with a giggle. “We’ve enjoyed your company, and the view.”
Tira looked confused for a moment before landing her gaze on Flora’s alleged “outfit” and rolling her eyes. “Well, glad that worked out at least.” Carline wasn’t sure, but she actually thought Elaina got away with hiding her blushing face from Tira. “This sucks though. Are the monsters dead, or are they still out there?”
“Still alive,” Elaina said, recomposing her face. “We’ll need to tell the town guard.”
“And then get some rest,” Tira said, collapsing back to the floor of the cart with a thud. “We’re staying in town tonight, no matter what.”
“That’s uncharacteristically relaxed of you,” Flora said as she gently nudged Tira with her foot, her open top shifting, not quite giving a show of everything.
“I still feel weird,” Tira said, lifting her arm again. “Besides, we’re technically still on mission. We need to stay nearby, especially with monsters near town.”
“Good point,” Flora said. “We have budget for two rooms, right?”
Two rooms? That was perfect, a way to get alone time with Elaina before they got back to school, enough time to talk about—
“Yep, and dibs on rooming with Elaina,” Tira said with a lustful grin. “You two like rooming together anyway, right?”
“Of course!” Flora said, beaming at Carline. Carline herself just sighed. She knew why Tira wanted to room with Elaina of course, and she sympathized with the desire. Tira probably also falsely assumed the same thing would work out for Flora and Carline herself, but Carline knew that Flora had little interest in sex unless it was outdoors, so that probably didn’t even matter.
“That’s fine with me,” Elaina said, a light flush on her face. Carline could feel it through her aspect, arousal burning in both Tira and Elaina. She could let them have the night together she supposed, as long as she got a chance to speak to Elaina before they got back to school in the morning.