Chapter 53: So planting this is a bad idea, right?

With Nala’s ability, it was easy to return to the village and reach Yala’s hut in time to see the warrior take his last breaths. He was convulsing violently, foam forming in his mouth, while four people had to hold down his limbs.

Yala tried to administer herbs to stabilize him while healing the warrior simultaneously, but nothing worked, and soon after, he died.

Then, as the warrior drew his last breaths, a plant sprouted from his abdomen, with the remnants of blood spraying all over his body.

"Dammit. We’re too late." Nala cursed as she rushed to the warrior’s side.

"Elder Nala, what in the world has happened? I’ve never seen anything like this before."

Kanan approached Yala and rested his hand on her shoulder. "Can you tell us what you’ve expierenced?"

She hesitated, looking at the patient, then sighed, recounting everything to Kanan.

"He looked as if he was sick at first, like he was poisoned. So I administered a basic poison cure just in case. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. I then quickly switched to healing him, but there was no progress at all."

"What was the sensation like?"

"The sensation?"

"Yeah." Kanan nodded. "The feeling you got when trying to heal him?"

"It was...It was as if my powers were being absorbed into his body, but not in the way it would be used to heal."

"Like it was stealing your spirit energy?" Kanan asked

"Yes, yes! It was exactly like that. I assumed it was because he was extra sick, so I got more healers to help, but then the patient became sporadic, injuring some of my healers. We then tried the Vipetal Plant to knock him out, but he began foaming at the mouth and died soon after."

"That’s when you two came in, and then that plant tore through the patient’s stomach." A healer spoke.

Kanan examined the sprouted plant and realized something. "The plant is alive. Can you feel it? The spirit energy coming off its petals?"

"It’s faint, but yes, I can feel it." Nala nodded

"C-Could it be that it was absorbing our spirit energy as we tried to heal the warrior?"

Kanan nodded. "It would explain why it felt as if your power was being absorbed instead of healing the body. And if this functions anything like a plant, then my guess is that it’s absorbing the nutrients of its host; therefore, anything you put in the body would just feed the plant."

Everyone turned to him with a look of surprise. It wasn’t every day that someone could understand how the body or plants worked on the level of a healer or herbalist. Yet here Kanan was, shocking them all with his insight.

’Ah. I guess basic information from the modern era is like super knowledge in the Stone Age.’

"We should burn the body." After seeing how easily this had killed such a strong warrior, Nala had no interest in discovering what it might do to the entire village.

"No." Kanan pushed back. "We should study it."

"Study it? Kanan, you saw what it did to a warrior. He was healthy, only suffered scratches, yet that plant sucked the life out of him and left him as a husk. We need to destroy it before anything else happens to the tribe!"

"I know, and I agree with you, but what happens if someone is infected again? Are we just going to let them die? And what if we don’t realize that someone was infected, huh? What then? We’ll be picked off one by one, and by the time we realize it, it will be too late. We need to study it!"

"I agree with Kanan," Yala spoke up. "I’ve never seen anything like this before. Everything we did to save this man ended up helping the plant instead. If this happens again, only Nemean knows what will happen to us."

"Hmmmm. Fine. However! We speak with the council. This isn’t something I can authorize alone. However, if we do come across something like this again, do not take that person inside the village." ℯℯ𝘭.

That was something Kanan could agree with.

Placing a warrior in a bubble of space, Nala took Kanan to the council room and gathered the others for an important meeting.

---

"Normally, I’d be inclined to destroy such a creature, but I think Kanan has a point." Elder Trena said while thinking intently.

"But the dangers! This could be even worse than the Angler Poison." Elder Lars was always one to look at the Village’s best interests, but something like this was too dangerous in his eyes.

"I’ll have to agree with Elder Lars on this one." Elder Nala spoke up. "In truth, I’m frightened to know what could become if studying it fails. I’d say we kill it now and get it over with."

"And anyone who’s been infected?" Kanan asked

"We kill them too."

"Are you mad?"

Elder Hal raised his hand. "Kanan, you should know what’s at stake if everything fails."

"Yeah, we die either way. Don’t let your fears cloud your judgement. We were hit by the Angler Poison twice, and after the second time, you finally decided to prepare in case it happened again. Why is this any different?"

"Exactly." Elder Trena nodded. "Are we supposed to wait until we’re infected again? We’re lucky we already knew the cure for Angler Poison; the only thing we lacked was enough antidotes. But we have no protection against this plant infection. If it happens again, the consequences could be far worse. We need to think about our future."

"That’s exactly what I’m thinking about. We just got a Shaman back, and Kanan has only bred three women. We need more time for him to breed more of our population. We need to be strong." Elder Hal argued.

Elder Trena countered. "And what will happen to all of the children if they are infected? Kanan’s children, blessed by Lord Nemean. Are we to kill them?"

"I...I didn’t say—" Elder Hal’s voice got stuck in his throat, the words not being able to form.

It was then that Chief Solan finally spoke up.