Chapter 14: Yellowing

“I’ll do it…”

In the evening, Nagu tried to take the raw meat and fruit from Hamoyin’s hands. Since his scales were removed in the morning, sweat hadn’t stopped dripping from his forehead, indicating he was enduring pain. “You go lie down and rest. I can at least cook.”

“By the way, do you need me to change your dressing later?”

Hamoyin looked at Nagu standing in front of him, hesitated for a moment, and then handed her the ingredients. “No need to change it. The water and stone pot are…”

“Over by the stone platform, I know!” Although her leg wasn’t fully healed, she could still manage the basic task of cooking meat while sitting.

Speaking of which, should these fruits be crushed and served in a separate bowl?

After Hamoyin went to lie down and rest, Nagu stood alone in front of the stone platform, thinking. She had ‘watched’ Hamoyin cook many times. It was roughly about taking some small, black, nut-like things from a clay jar, crushing them, and rubbing them on the meat, then cutting the fruit into pieces or mashing them into a pulp…

“Uh, but which clay jar should I take the stuff to rub on the meat from?”

“Hamoyin, how do you use the things in these jars?” Nagu turned to seek help, but after asking several times, Hamoyin just lay in bed without responding. It seemed he had fallen asleep… which was good, as it meant he could rest.

Anyway, let’s cook the meat first. Nagu put the snake meat and several large chunks of meat with bones into a big pot, poured in two jars of water, and set it on the fire to cook. Hamoyin seemed to prefer stewed meat over roasted meat, except for the fish they caught earlier, which was roasted once but mostly eaten by her.

After setting the meat to cook, Nagu began preparing the colorful fruits. She moved the fruits and the large leaves used for serving to the fire, peeling the fruits while keeping an eye on the pot.

After peeling the sixth fruit, Nagu hurriedly moved the bubbling pot off the fire. “…”

The meat with bones was cooked, but most of the snake meat had disintegrated at the bottom of the pot. Embarrassed, Nagu used a bone fragment to separate the meat from the bones and placed it on the leaves. Hamoyin said the snake meat was for her, so maybe she could salvage it…

While Nagu was considering how to salvage the situation, Hamoyin slowly opened his eyes. Smelling the strong scent of meat, he looked at Nagu with a puzzled expression. “What did you cook?”

“You’re awake! You could have slept a bit longer…” Nagu nervously blocked the sight of the disintegrated snake meat. “The food is almost ready.”

“Oh.” Hamoyin got up and walked to the stone platform where the jars were kept, roughly crushing something from the jars. “Put this in, add some water, and cook it a bit more.”

Nagu hurriedly took the powder Hamoyin handed her. “Should I cook the snake meat again?”

“Yes.”

After waking up, Hamoyin seemed much better. He sat down next to Nagu, picked up the cooked meat with bones from the leaves, and started eating, occasionally taking a bite of the peeled fruit beside him.

“Um… I didn’t add anything to the meat, just cooked it.” Nagu watched Hamoyin eat piece after piece, feeling an inexplicable urge to find a hole to crawl into and never come out. “Do you want to add something before eating?”

Hamoyin shook his head.

“Does your back still hurt? Do you really not need to change the dressing?” Nagu recalled the woman’s rough actions when pulling out the scales, which had torn off a lot of skin and flesh. “Let me check again. What if it gets infected?”

Hamoyin was silent for a moment, then swallowed the tasteless meat in his mouth. “What was the condition of the scales on my back when you looked earlier?”

“What condition… it was terrible. Many scales around the wounds were yellowing and turning white.”

“Help me pull them all out.”

“Okay… wait, what did you say??”

“Help me pull out all the yellowing and white scales.” Thinking Nagu hadn’t heard clearly, Hamoyin repeated himself. “After pulling them out, apply the medicine.”

Nagu looked at Hamoyin in horror. “How can you pull them all out? It will be excruciating!”

“Are there many white scales?” Since he couldn’t check his back himself, Hamoyin was unaware of the extent of his injuries. He only knew his back occasionally itched and hurt.

“That’s not what I meant…” Seeing Hamoyin’s serious expression, Nagu felt conflicted. “But can your scales grow back? The ones that grew before were white, and some were deformed.”

“…I’ll find a way.”

Can they really grow back just by finding a way??

Moreover, remembering how the people in the tribe demanded Hamoyin to quickly ‘heal’ his scales for their next collection, Nagu was reluctant to help him pull out the diseased scales. “Do we have to pull them out? You’ll bleed a lot. Maybe applying medicine can heal them?”

“Applying medicine is too slow.”

“…” Nagu looked at Hamoyin with a complex expression. It seemed there were two ways to heal his scales. The first was simply applying medicine, but that would take a long time. The second was pulling them out and letting Hamoyin ‘find a way,’ which seemed to be much faster.

Choosing the second method was definitely for the tribe’s rituals. Nagu remembered the woman saying they needed ten scales for the next ritual.

Without waiting for Nagu to understand, Hamoyin cleaned up the bones and stood up. “I’m going out for a while.”

“Huh?” Nagu watched as Hamoyin put on his clothes and weapons. “It’s dark outside. Where are you going?” And weren’t they just talking about pulling out scales? Why did he suddenly decide to go out?

“To the tribe.”

“Why suddenly go to the tribe at night? It’s dangerous… and so dark, you can’t see the road.” Nagu tried to dissuade Hamoyin from going out. “Your wounds still hurt, right? Just rest now.”

“I can see the road, and the wounds don’t hurt anymore.”

“Uh, but why go at night? Isn’t it better to go in the morning?”

“Because I need to steal something, so I can’t go in the morning.”

“…”

Nagu felt she couldn’t argue anymore. But Hamoyin was really amazing. Somehow, when he talked about stealing, it sounded so justified.