Jack attended to Mama. She had been gashed pretty hard from the surprise flush of creatures, and was more than a bit cross with him.
her thoughts kept revolving around "Should have run away" at him, every time he made contact. She DID acknowledge bewilderment at destroying the creatures though.
That old goat of a man was busy cutting the things up. Jack had more important things to do. He had no water to make potions with, so he hoped a substitution would work. Hunting among the trees and bushes, he found what he was looking for.
Wild grape vines are mostly useless for producing fruit, especially this early in the year.
What they were fantastic for though, was providing a potable water-like beverage; the plant's root systems were powerful, and could suck a significant amount of moisture from the soil, and pump it through its long sprawling vine network. Slicing one of the vines near the trunk of the system would produce a powerful flow of thin, watery sap. Enough to fill several water vessels before the plant's natural defenses would turn off the flow, and that is exactly what he did.
Using his knapped flint knife, he carefully cut through the tough vine until it began to drip, then placed the largest of his scavenged bottles under it, and collected a good liter of liquid after about an hour. The time between he spent scavenging for more medicinal plants.
Mama had found a good place to lay down and rest while the rest of the adventuring party bickered and argued over who's fault it was this had gone south so fast. He knew exactly who's fault it was, and frankly-- he was pissed about it. Mostly though, he was very torn up inside that mama had gotten hurt defending him-- Right in front of his very face. It wasn't supposed to be like that. Not at all. The best he could do now was try to attend to her injuries.
Using the "water" and the Shichetta leaves in his pack, he produces 2 small healing potions. He administered one to Mama, and placed the other in his sack.
After the old goat had finished examining the strange man-shaped wood creatures, Jack approached the now dissected corpse. What he saw disturbed him. This was not how nature had welcomed
HIM, and whatever was responsible for this, clearly had a greater distaste for humans than it did for the animals of the forest. That he could understand, but going this far was simply wrong. He wondered if the creatures still had human minds inside, or if whatever had twisted them in this way had robbed them of that too. It was one thing to choose to integrate with nature, as he had done years ago-- It was another entirely to forcibly convert a person. That was a violation, no matter who did it, or why.
The presence of this corpse made him very ill for another reason. It partially substantiated the silent fear that had been nagging at him, when he learned of the plant contagion that had been afflicting mama. He had worried that it could affect humans too. And this looked like proof of at least a similar contagion, affecting humans. This wood was very dangerous indeed.
He returned to Mama, as she was dozing under the shade of one of the nearby trees, the potion he had given her doing its work. She was less crabby now that her face did not sting from the wounds she had suffered. He nestled in beside her, and snuggled in for comfort. After seeing all this today, he needed it. She seemed to comprehend his state of mind even without being contacted, because she adjusted enough to let him get under her heavy fore-arm, where she gently wrapped him, and started licking the top of his head.
He wasnt sure he had the heart to tell her about what he had just observed with her "forces of nature." He was just glad that free humans were still dangerous enough to resist such a thing. To him, it was a perversion of everything that was right. Whatever was behind this, had a great many sins to atone for.
A great many.
For now though, They were alive, and safe, and he permitted himself to just enjoy this time, just being beside her, listening as the birds started to sing again, and to the sound of the breeze whooshing through the branches overhead.
He stayed there, until the group decided to move.
