Chapter 61 Strangers, Part Two

We all waited anxiously for Suda's following words. Though I had no idea what could've been worse than Nakamura's death, I wasn't about to underestimate the cruelty this world was capable of.

I said all of us, but Mizuno and Shrug weren't at all phased by the mention of bad news. They must've been too used to it to be bothered.

"What?" Mizuno asked impatiently, visibly folding her arms underneath her cloak.

"The one that died, Nakamura; well, he had some kinda disease or infection in his leg. I'm worried the bear might be..." she laughed nervously. "Well, it might be contaminated if it bit 'im."

'What? Why does that matter?' I was utterly confused. I mean, who cared if the bear was infected by whatever Nakamura had? It was dead. HE...was dead. 'What we SHOULD be worried about is burying him!'

I found myself irritated at their strange and almost offensive priorities.

Unlike me, the beast being "contaminated" must've mattered quite a bit to Mizuno. She groaned in a frustrated tone and arced her head back in irritation. "Can we tell?" she asked, looking back at Suda with a tired expression.

"I'm not sure..." Suda cautiously replied. Then, turning toward Kamida, she asked, "hey, I'm sorry tah have to do this, but do y'all know how long it took for those veins to show up on yer friend?"

For a moment, Kamida only replied with a stare. Getting questioned about a recently departed friend was a difficult thing, after all. Once a few brief moments passed, he managed to will up a response.

"I believe it was instant," Kamida replied awkwardly. "Immediately after being bitten, the veins around his wound...they became black."

"You're sure 'bout this?" Suda leaned in wide-eyed, pressing a hand to her mouth in contemplation.

"He's right," I affirmed. I thought back and remembered when Nakamura received his first wound.

It wasn't a memory I enjoyed thinking about, back when he'd had his first brush with death, so I tried my best to forget it as quickly as I reminisced on it.

Upon hearing Kamida and my assertions, Suda glared at the two of us, her eyes penetrating deeply into ours.

The whole incident was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Despite my usually outgoing nature and experience with staring contests, her gaze put me on edge. It wasn't playful but fierce and imposing. The intensity of her stare made me feel like she was picking apart my thoughts.

As I felt my eyes and lips twitching and a thin sheen of sweat breaking out on my skin, I couldn't help but wonder if I was coming across as a liar. Even though I wasn't lying, her penetrating gaze was enough to fill me with self-doubt.

Surprisingly, she managed to see past my nervousness to the truth, given how she nodded to herself in satisfaction. Either that or she was just too easily trusting.

Suda smiled at Kamida and me warmly before casting her gaze back toward Mizuno. "Looks like I do have a way tah tell, after all!" She speedily spun around toward the bear and hummed a sweet tune.

Then, she began an almost pleasant skip over to the corpse of the beheaded quillbeast. Mizuno followed, but not before nodding to Shrug, likely telling him to keep an eye on us.

'Maybe I can talk with the others. We can plan an escape.' But, frustratingly, that idea wouldn't work. Not with Shrug's unblinking eye analyzing our every move.

'I'll wait for now.' If even a minuscule opportunity presented itself to talk with my allies privately, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat.

I looked over to Suda and Mizuno as they arrived at the beast's corpse. It was difficult to discern what they'd been saying, given the distance.

Though my hearing was impaired by distance, my vision was still unhindered, allowing me to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Suda slung her bow over her shoulder, unbuttoned a holster at her waist, and retrieved a hunting knife.

It was curved with a finely-grained light brown wooden handle. Jutting out from the grip was a flawlessly sharpened and well-maintained steel blade. The most notable detail was its size. If given a chance, it was big enough to slice an arm clean off.

"Alright! Let's see what we've got here," Suda knelt down and, in one smooth motion, shaved off a large patch of the beast's fur. She exposed a large area of skin near its bloodied belly.

With the grizzly's skin revealed, Suda brushed her fingertips along its bare hide. She then moved to appraise the fleshy area near its open neck and inside its severed head's mouth.

I couldn't be sure what Suda was looking for, but it was safe to say she saw what she didn't want to see. She threw up her hands in frustration before falling backward and sighing out of weariness.

She supported herself with her arms and laughed in slight irritation. "I was tracking that bear fer weeks!" she shouted, gritting her teeth. A few moments later, after she'd finished her fit of frustration, Suda stood up, and the two walked back over.

She had a sulky pout on her face with slightly flushed cheeks, while Mizuno wore the same expression we'd seen her in so far. Well, as much as we could see, given the cloak.

"Looks like it's squirrel again, Shrug!" Suda exclaimed with a sarcastic cheer.

Hearing her assertion, he shrugged in response with a blank expression.

"Huuuuhhh," Suda griped and ran a hand through her hair, "what'll we do about cam-" But she was stopped when Mizuno shot her an irritated glare. It was like Mizuno wanted to silence her from speaking.

After such a blatant display of shadiness, any hesitation vanished about talking to the others. 'We're going to escape; tonight at the latest.'

Mizuno spoke up, distracting me from my plotting. "We'll figure it out; we always do," she replied to Suda.

Suda looked at Mizuno with an expression of worry and gave a twitchy smile. "Are you sure?"

"No," Mizuno replied flatly, "but we need to prioritize." She cast her gaze up toward the receding Sun and sighed. "We need to make camp; nightfall's coming."