My stomach has growled when I've been hungry several times, Mari's too, my parents'... I've never heard it, but I don't doubt it's happened before.
But it's never been this loud, not even when I woke up two days ago and was practically devouring myself, my stomach growled this loud.
Mari looked at me for about three seconds before laughing.
"Puuuffff, hahahahah"
I just stared at her. Seriously, what's the fun in hearing someone's stomach growling?!!!
And it's worth remembering that it's the stomach of the almost-dead brother who risked everything to get an important component to help his parents trapped by a horde of monsters, what's the fun in being hungry???!!!!!
"Hhhhhh, calm down, calm down, there's nothing wrong with it," some laughs, and it also makes sense that you're hungry. Oh, that reminds me, here for you."
She pulled out a plastic bottle containing a crimson liquid that, to me, seemed to have a golden halo around it, even though it was only half full.
"Most of it is Impeto's blood. The other chickens also wanted to give a little blood, but Impeto wouldn't let them. It seems he realized his blood would be more effective, and mixing it with theirs might weaken it."
"Great consideration. Now you can help."
"Why can't you—"
She stopped mid-sentence and looked at my body.
"Oh yeah, I guess not. Okay, let me help you."
She opened the cap and approached. The smell of Impeto's blood, strong even though it had probably been some time since it was collected, stimulated my fangs to come out, rearranging my lower lip.
I opened my mouth as wide as I could, not enough to stop the fangs from bothering me, but enough for the blood to enter. Carefully, my sister placed the claw on the opening of my lips and turned the claw slightly; the taste of Impeto's blood hit hard again.
Hot, spicy, stimulating, and comforting.
Last time I felt like my blood was a fire radiating from within, but this time that sensation was just the initial impact, and soon after, a refreshing, cold sensation followed. It was almost like those compresses you use after exercise.
But instead of starting cold and then warming up, it started hot and then cooled down (which, given my body's history, I don't know if it was the best thing).
However, even with this secondary sensation, the initial hot impact continued like an echo, both in my mouth and all the way to my stomach, where it spread throughout my body. I could even feel the heat of the Impetus's vital blood going to the coldest and stiffest parts of my body.
Just before the sensation continued, there was an unnerving tingling sensation that was muffled by the refreshing sensation afterward. I can't guarantee it, but I'm sure I wanted my healing abilities activated, starting to repair the damage to my body.
Looking at my arm, I even saw in real time a new layer of skin beginning to emerge.
'If it weren't for this 'refreshing' sensation, the feeling of new layers of skin forming would be more excruciating, in the sense of actual pain, or excruciating in the sense of endless itching like when you have a broken arm?'
A morbid and irrelevant thought at the same time, meaning my head remains normal.
"So, how are you?"
Mari asked after giving me half the liquid from the bottle. I ran my tongue between my lips, a movement that wasn't difficult anymore, and I could feel that even my lips, bruised by my fangs, had already recovered.
"Better."
I managed to say without difficulty, without a hoarse or wet voice. My vocal cords must have been one of the first things to regenerate; they had already been in contact with blood before (technically speaking).
With an effort, I managed to lift my upper body and lean against the back wall, half sitting, half lying down, but it was the best I could do in this situation.
"So, what happened after I fainted in Drake's mouth?"
"I don't really know, I fainted a little while after creating the root wall after using the Medium Pommel."
She said lightly, as if it weren't a particularly important detail.
"You fainted just because of that?"
I asked, slightly incredulous. In response, she glared at me for the comment and explained.
"You might not believe it, but using magic beyond a specific area is very exhausting, even more so to cover such a large area. I have to remind you that I had to send a massive amount of mana through an intricate network of roots without getting lost for almost 3 kilometers, and I had to leave a sufficient reserve of mana for it to remain active even when I wasn't feeding it!!. And I only acquired this ability a mere 3 days ago!!!!!!!!!!"
She moved closer and closer while listing the reasons why she would have fainted after using a single spell, despite being a type of fairy.
Okay, maybe I was a bit too insensitive about this, buuuut, in my defense, from what I remember she had quite a lot of mana for someone who was only level 5.
And yes, it was a pretty big and thick wall, covering a good area, but I thought it would consume at most 80 or even 90 of her mana, not all of it. Besides, she has that [mana-loved] ability or something like that, shouldn't it help her recover mana faster?
"You better not think abilities solve everything or I swear I'll make you vomit all the blood you've drunk and leave you in a worse state than when you arrived."
"No, none of that, no way."
I didn't doubt for a millisecond that she would do exactly that. She looked for a few more seconds before returning to where she was sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Okay, considering you almost died, I'll let this one slide, but if you ever think about it again..."
"No, not at all, no way. Think about what? I can barely think of anything."
I said it reflexively, but I definitely wasn't lying. Even with the tingling sensation and the "refreshing" feeling afterward, both still throbbing inside my body. The pain was still constant and present; if I thought about it, it would return.
"Aaahhhhh~, like I said, I don't know, I only know what Nawa, Impeto, Lumi, and Pomo said when I woke up."
"Oh, which was it, by the way?..."
"About two hours ago."
She said, looking at her wristwatch.
'I'd even forgotten that wristwatches still worked.'
"In case you want to know, it's 11:20 AM now."
Aaahhhhh, it's still early, I could have put you to sleep—wait, 11:20???
From what I remember, Lumi, Impeto, and I left around 3 or 4 PM. Considering all the hassle on the way to the park and at the park itself, it must have been around 6 or 7 PM at the latest when Nawa brought me back.
So I slept for 16 hours, or more, straight??
'Well, putting everything that happened together, that wasn't a long time... right?'
'Okay, that doesn't matter now. Let's get back to the topic. What happened after we got back?'
"According to Pomo, nothing out of the ordinary. Some groups went into the park when you left and partially cleared it. Some groups appeared around the perimeter of the house, but the chickens took care of most of them, even though there were only two on guard. The rest stayed to look after Impeto."
'Makes sense.'
"Besides that, the only things really out of the ordinary were a bit of energy that Pomo sensed coming from the park and the fact that several birds are starting to appear around here."
'Hmm, at least nothing that will directly complicate our lives for now—'
'WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STONE I WENT TO GET???!!!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO MOM AND DAD????!!!!'
I almost jumped out of bed, even with the delicate state I was still in, from the sheer shock and fear of what might have happened. Yes, I only remembered that now. With everything that happened, you can give me a break, right?
"You can relax, Nawa retrieved the stone, and Beth watched over it for most of the night."
That calmed me down slightly, and I leaned back again, obviously in pain from the abrupt movement. Before I could ask,
"As for Mom and Dad, I managed to get some news from them on the walkie-talkie a few minutes ago."
That made me raise an eyebrow. Hadn't she said the walkie-talkies were malfunctioning or something?
"They have an annoying inference, but they're still mostly working. The problem is that ours isn't working properly, the part that allows us to talk, but we can still receive from the other one, and even that isn't great, so most of the time it just makes a hissing sound and tries to understand something if someone speaks."
"But did it work this time?"
"By some miracle, yes."
She answered immediately, shrugging.
"And how are they?"
"Weeeeelllll~"