Chapter 306: A Feral Bun in the Oven
A low groan vibrated in the back of Ren’s throat.
She wasn’t necessarily in any physical pain, but her head felt really weird. Her brain was doing dizzying cartwheels inside her skull, making her entire body feel floaty and spinny.
Her eyes were still glued shut, but her other senses were slowly, painfully booting back online. Her ears twitched as she picked up the loud, echoing symphony of night insects chirping, mixed with all sorts of weird croaks and clicks. Beneath the cacophony of the bugs, she could clearly hear the gentle, lazy lapping of water against stone. From sowhere deep in the darkness, a lone owl let out a haunting, echoing hoot.
But it was the sll that truly assaulted her. The scent invading her nostrils was horrible. It slled exactly like an old, sweaty leather boot that had gotten thoroughly soaked in a muddy puddle and was never allowed to properly dry out.
Slowly, Ren fluttered her heavy eyelids open.
It took a solid minute for her blurry vision to adjust to the dim, silvery low light filtering in from the moon outside. With a massive effort, she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
That was a mistake. Her head instantly spun even more, the world violently tilting on its axis. Ren tightly squeezed her eyes shut again, grabbing her knees as she desperately waited for wherever she was to stop rotating like a carnival ride.
The last thing she rembered was standing in the garden with Vex. He had swiftly pressed a leaf or sothing directly against her nose.
Ren’s eyes snapped wide open in alarm.
"Welco back, little rose," a smooth, deeply amused voice purred from the shadows.
Vex was casually seated on a smooth, flat stone a short distance away. A smug smile was plastered perfectly across his handso face.
"You drugged !" Ren accused loudly, pointing a shaky, accusatory finger at the fox. She rubbed her temples, trying to massage away the vertigo. "Where the hell did you take ?!"
She scrambled to her feet, swaying slightly as she frantically looked around. They were inside a small, damp cave space. Looking toward the opening where the moonlight was spilling in, Ren saw the dark, murky swamp waters lapping against the stone. Tied securely to a jagged rock with thick, sturdy marsh vines was the wooden boat Vex had stolen from Viper.
"Do not worry your pretty little head," Vex told her calmly. "We are still within the Snake King’s castle."
Finally, as her eyes fully adjusted to the shadows, Ren’s gaze landed on a large, bizarre lump resting on the cold stone ground near the back of the cave. The lump was completely covered by a thick fur blanket.
Seeing her staring, Vex raised a long, elegant finger and pressed it firmly against his own lips.
"Hush," Vex commanded softly, his tone shifting to sothing almost resembling caution. "She is sleeping."
Ren squinted through the gloom. Even hidden beneath the beast fur, she could vividly see the undeniable outline of Vara’s pregnant belly protruding upward.
"I want to see her," Ren demanded, taking a cautious step forward.
Vex gracefully stood up from his rock and obliged. He walked over and gently lifted the fur blanket, pulling it down to expose the white tiger female’s upper body.
The second the blanket was removed, Vara began to shiver terribly in the damp, freezing swamp air. Her teeth audibly chattered, but her eyes remained firmly shut. She didn’t even twitch toward consciousness.
Ren walked closer, her brows furrowing in confusion. Tied securely around the lower half of Vara’s face, completely covering her nose and mouth like a makeshift surgical mask, was a dark purple leaf.
Ding!
[System: Host, that is a Somnus-Weave Ivy leaf. It constantly emits a highly potent, natural narcotic gas that is actively keeping the subject in a deep, induced coma.]
As Ren looked down at the unconscious female who had once tried to have her tortured and killed, all of her lingering anger evaporated, replaced by shock.
Vara looked horrendous.
Ren was no dical doctor, but her professional chef background made her an expert in basic human nutrition, and she could easily spot at least five severe deficiencies just by looking at the tiger female.
Vara’s skin was terrifyingly pale and sallow, screaming of a brutal iron deficiency and anemia. Her white hair was thinning and falling out in clumps, signaling a complete lack of protein. Her lips were cracked and bleeding from extre dehydration, her collarbones protruded sharply from a severe calorie deficit, and the dark, bruised bags under her eyes indicated a total lack of essential vitamins.
"What in the world is happening to her?" Ren asked, her voice dropping to a horrified whisper.
Vex let out a sigh, his orange eyes serious as he looked down at the shivering tiger.
"The cub," Vex explained darkly, "has gone feral inside the womb."
Ren whipped her head around to look at him. She realized Vara was the female he ca to her about before.
She looked back down at the large, protruding bump of Vara’s stomach. A chill ran down Ren’s spine. "Damn," Ren muttered under her breath, shaking her head. "Karma really takes her revenge seriously in this world."
"It is the very first case I have ever personally co across," Vex confessed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Usually, the feral madness only infects fully grown adult beasts and beastn. It is highly possible though that the cub was actually conceived feral..."
Vex paused. His jaw tightened, and he opened his mouth, clearly about to say sothing else. But at the very last second, he snapped his mouth shut, trapping the words behind his teeth.
Instead, Vex plastered his infuriating smirk back onto his face. "Intriguing, isn’t it?"
Ren’s bullshit detector went off like a blaring siren.
Ren planted her hands firmly on her hips, glaring up at the towering Fox Shaman. "I thought we made an agreent, Vex. I thought we were working together to find a cure for the feral madness. Why are you keeping things from ?"
Vex stared at her for a long mont.
"Can you really save the cub?" Vex asked.
"I can," Ren stated firmly. "But only if you tell
everything. I can’t act, and I certainly can’t save anyone, without all the information."
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