7 Aftermath

".... Sarah..."

Sarah's heart raced as she heard a faint voice calling out her name from the shelter. With a sense of urgency, she stumbled towards the shelter, her mind racing with worry. As she entered, she saw Lucas stirring from his slumber, his mouth parched and his voice weak.

"Yes! Lucas, I am here." She crouched down and lifted Lucas's head and kept it on her thighs for some comfort.

"Did... Huff... Did you bring the plant?" Lucas forced himself to say, he couldn't look at the big carnivorous plant that Sarah had already brought and kept outside.

Sarah was taken aback by Lucas's question, but she trusted him completely. "It's outside the shelter near the camp," she said with determination. She knew that their situation was dire, and they needed to rely on each other to survive. With a sense of purpose, she asked, "What do I need to do?"

"You need to listen carefully, I can't say again," Lucas said and stopped. Sarah made her face come closer to listen more intently. He continued, "Cut the blue stem of the plant with the spear... Huff... a jelly-like blue liquid will come out. It can be used as temporary water for us, bring it quickly..."

With this, Lucas closed his eyes again leaving Sarah confused by this information. With a small tongue click, she went outside to prepare a pointy stick for the procedure. Her trust in Lucas was immense, if it was said by anyone else, she wouldn't have gone along with this demand.

The forest provided a distinct benefit in the form of wood, which was readily available in abundance. If she required a particular size or thickness of branch, it was effortless to locate one. A suitable stick could be easily procured from a branch.

Sarah quickly plucked it and tied it to test its durability. It was thick enough to not break with force in her hands. She went to the shelter quickly and scratched the tip of the stick with the stone outline around the shelter.

After 15 seconds of rigorous movement, she got up and moved quickly toward the big rapacious plant's corpse. With precision and a deep breath, she moved her hand and slashed.

"Hm?" She frowned in response, apparently, the stem was abnormally hard.

But it didn't deter her determination. She kept slashing and cutting until finally, a blue liquid began to ooze out of the plant's stem. Sarah quickly took the small part of the stem in her hand that had a small amount of blue thick liquid stuck to it. She didn't dare to actually drink it as the very smell was repulsing.

As she entered the shelter, she saw Lucas still lying with his eyes closed. She carefully lifted his head up which made him open his eyes. A hoarse groan came out of his throat, his thirst had made the whole throat dry which could be heard from his voice.

"...Hm yeah, this is the thing. Good job." Lucas said and forcefully moved his hand up and took the part of the stem from her hand. Sarah could see the pain he was in, she was feeling guilty as Lucas was only hurt because of her clumsiness.

'If only I was stronger and level-headed at the time, maybe brother was right... I am weak-hearted.'

Sluuurp!

"Khuhhhaa!!" Lucas exclaimed with a laugh. He already drank the liquid or more accurately, sucked the liquid from the small stem part.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked with curiosity, seeing his face. Lucas looked to be fully healed.

"No, my back is paining a lot. But! This liquid has an abundance of water and some properties of healing. It is not processed right now and can cause some side effects but still better than nothing." he said while licking the small stem.

"Side effects?"

"This is embarrassing but... it may cause some diarrhea for a few days. But drink it as it's a necessity."

Sarah went in a daze, she was fighting with her heart and steeling it in drinking something that she knew will make her have diarrhea.

"Wait, how do you know about this?"

"Oh! That part is very interesting, it was when I took the skill 'herbalism'. A lot of information came into my mind on its own. I felt that my brain was going to blow up but now I know useful things about plants. Oh... and on the point of plants, can I get some more... diariner?"

"..." Sarah looked at him with a skeptical gaze, she was going to comment on that horrible made-up name but the guilt was making her hold back. With a twitching eyebrow, she went to the plant to get more blue liquid leaving Lucas who had a smug expression.

"Heh, That is one good name." He said and laid back on the jacket. He didn't want to show it but his back was in immense pain.

'I will have to be more careful, that was dangerous. The hit was directly at the backbone.' He thought, the situation was worse than Sarah thought.

Leaving all that aside, he closed his eyes and went through the information he got from the skill 'herbalism'. He couldn't believe that he even had the knowledge of how good the soil was and the properties of the plants and trees. They didn't have a name in his mind but just by looking at the plant, he knew what the use of its parts were.

'The information feels lacking, I only know a single use of the rapacious plant and I know there are more. What is it lacking..?' He pondered intensely. In the end, he could only make himself happy with what he had.

Just like that, under Lucas's guidance, Sarah brought the big blue plant inside the shelter after shooking the dirt off the roots. Sarah also drank the liquid. She had a disgusted look before drinking but after was a different thing. Her face showed actual bliss when a cold and refreshing feeling went down her throat.