"J-joey? Ar u stil abl tu stan?" Inv asks me.
"Y-yeah, I'm good for a bit longer" I lie. I feel like I'm about to collapse. I don't tell Inv this however.
With the wounds now closed I move onto the next step. Wrapping my arm with the red cloth. I'm not sure if it will help at all but it's better than nothing.
Bending down I pick up the explosive spear. Getting a closer look, I see the red cloth is tightly attached to the spear. I won't be able to easily take this off…
Looking up at Inv I remember how sharp his claws are. Maybe he can cleanly slice the cloth off the spear? A good portion of it is hanging off the spear anyways.
"Inv, can you use your claws to cut this off?" I ask Inv while raising the spear up pointing at the red cloth.
"Y-ye?? Ju hol et stil… i don wan et tu go kaploey…" Inv says back to me. Raising one of his paws up a singular sharp long claw somehow comes out of his sticklike hand. Not having the energy, I don't question it.
Using one paw to hold the spear up and another to hold the red cloth in place, Inv cleanly slices through the cloth. Leaving none wasted besides the small bit that is attached to the spear.
"Thank you" I hum to Inv weakly.
Before I can raise the red cloth up to my arm to start wrapping however…
"Joey! Sto!" Inv grabs my paw that's holding the cloth.
"W-what's wrong Inv?" I ask Inv, looking up in confusion on why he stopped me.
"G-giv me fo a sec…" Inv reaches his paw out towards me.
Still very confused, I give the cloth to Inv regardless.
With the cloth now in his paw I see him use his other paw on the cloth and see him pull something out of the cloth…
'Cherry bombs?!' What I see is a string of tiny cherry bombs somehow hidden in the cloth. Now it suddenly makes sense on why explosive spears always have this red cloth! Inside the cloth is a bunch of hidden cherry bombs! How did I not notice this before?
I haven't had many chances to mess around with explosive spears since I was always more focused on surviving…
But the most interesting part is that Inv knew about this! I wish I could ask him how he knew about this but now's not the time.
Taking the string of cherry bombs out, Inv walks away and gently puts them on the ground away from us. Walking back to me Inv gives the red cloth back.
"Hera… no dangerus anymor…"
"Thank you Inv, didn't know those were in there" I say while grabbing the red cloth.
With a now nonexplosive cloth I start wrapping it around my injured arm trying my best to cover up most of the injuries. Using all the cloth most of my arm is now covered in red cloth, tucking a piece of the cloth under another part of it keeps it in place. Hopefully it doesn't come undone by itself for now.
'Alright… time to focus on more important things'
While the effects of the mushroom are still active, Inv needs to eat the dead lizards and dropwig. I don't know how much time we have left in the cycle and I already wasted enough time dealing with my wounds.
"Inv… Go get the lizards and dropwig… and eat…" I stammer out not trying to show weakness. But having close to no energy I fail.
I can see Inv debate to himself for a second on what to do. His paws clenching in frustration.
"O-ok, bu wen im don im caryin u bac! Unerstod??" Inv says back to me in a firm voice.
"Yeah…" I say back not refusing at all. Being carried on Inv's back right now sounds like heaven right about now.
'Well, he might have to either way. I don't know how much longer the mushroom's effects will last. And I can't eat another mushroom unless I want an even worser aftermath…' I remember back to when I was testing mushrooms.
To say I wasn't in the best head space would be an understatement. After taking 1 mushroom, I felt invincible. Of course, I died right afterwards but the feeling still made me feel a high I never felt before.
So, I had a dumb thought. If 1 made me feel so incredible, then what would taking 2 feel like?
The answer is absolutely nothing, only making the effect last longer. And when the effect finally wore off…
I could do nothing but keel over in nausea and pain for the rest of the cycle. I wasn't even lucky enough to get killed midway through the cycle. Lying in a pool of my own vomit for a whole cycle while not being able to move in pain. I had to wait for the rain to kill me off.
Even waking back up in the shelter I still felt the lingering aftereffect of the disaster that is eating 2 mushrooms back-to-back. Never again…
I don't know how long the negative aftereffects would last if I stayed alive but knowing I could still feel a faint trace of it even after dying, I'm not willing to take the chance.
------------------------------------------------
A/N: Buffed mushrooms in this fic while also nerfing them at the same time. also added my own reason why explosive spears go off. I love adding my own things that aren't explained in the game :)