Nyx stood in the center of the massive branch. Dark red blood dripped from her blade. It pooled on the green moss. The headless bodies of the panther and the python lay perfectly still.
She ignored the carcasses. She cleaned her blade and walked back to Jin.
He was still pressed flat against the rough bark. His face was pale. His breathing was shallow and uneven. The pain in his lower back was clearly exhausting his physical reserves. He needed treatment immediately before shock set in.
Nyx reached into the hard-shell compartment on her black utility belt. She pulled out the Iron-Blood Root.
It was covered in wet dirt, but it still pulsed with a faint, dull red light. It looked like a thick, glowing human vein.
"Open your mouth, My Prince," Nyx said in his mind.
Jin turned his head slightly. He looked at the strange, glowing plant in her hand. "What is that?"
"Medicine," Nyx replied. Her telepathic voice was flat and clinical. "It is an Iron-Blood Root. It will aggressively force your torn muscle fibers to knit back together. It will reduce your recovery time from three weeks down to one or two days."
Jin did not ask any more questions. He trusted her. He opened his mouth.
Nyx did not have a mortar and pestle. She did not need tools. She held the glowing red tuber between her two palms. Her black graphene gloves gripped the tough outer skin of the root.
She applied pressure. Her physical strength was massive.
The tough skin of the root cracked loudly. She ground the plant between her hands. She twisted her palms back and forth in a tight, grinding motion. The thick plant fibers shredded under the intense pressure.
A dark red sap started to ooze from the crushed tuber. It looked exactly like thick, heavy blood. It smelled sharp. It smelled like cold iron and crushed mint leaves.
She knelt next to Jin's head. She cupped her hands together to catch the dripping sap.
"Drink the essence," Nyx instructed. "Do not spit it out. It will taste highly astringent."
She held her hands directly over his mouth. She squeezed the crushed plant fibers one last time. A steady stream of the dark red sap dripped down past his lips and onto his tongue.
Jin swallowed. Nyx was right. It tasted horrible. It was incredibly bitter. It coated the inside of his mouth and burned the back of his throat like cheap alcohol. He forced himself to swallow all of it. He gagged once, but he kept his jaw shut and pushed it down.
Nyx threw the dry, crushed remains of the plant over the edge of the branch. She wiped her stained gloves on her dark cloak.
Jin waited. At first, he only felt the terrible taste lingering on his tongue.
Then, his stomach grew warm.
It was a strange, heavy sensation. It did not feel like drinking hot tea. It felt like he had just swallowed a small, glowing ember. The heat sat in his stomach for a few seconds. Then, it started to move.
The warm current traveled outward. It entered his bloodstream. It moved down his abdomen and curled around his hips. It headed straight for the epicenter of his injury. It rushed toward the massive, black bruise on his lower lumbar vertebrae.
When the medicine finally hit the crushed muscle tissue, Jin gasped aloud.
The sharp, blinding fire in his spine changed instantly. The hot, stabbing agony melted away. It was replaced by a deep, comforting warmth. It felt like a thick, heated blanket wrapping tightly around his torn tendons and bruised flesh.
He could actually feel the cellular regeneration happening inside his body. The pooled blood under his skin started to break down. The swelling receded. The shredded muscle fibers actively pulled themselves back together.
The pain dropped rapidly. It went from a blinding ten down to a very manageable four. It was no longer a crippling agony. It was just a mild, dull ache. It felt like he had simply worked out too hard at a gym.
Jin let out a long, heavy sigh.
His entire body finally relaxed. The rigid tension left his shoulders and his neck. He rested his forehead flat against the cool moss. He felt incredibly tired, but it was a good tired. The structural crisis was over. He was healing.
Nyx watched his breathing stabilize. She saw the tight lines of pain leave his face. The medicine was working perfectly.
She turned her attention back to the dead animals on the branch. She walked over to the bundle of meat she had carried from the forest floor. She looked at the rodent meat, and then she looked at the massive, headless black python lying a few feet away.
She kicked the bundle of rodent meat off the branch. It tumbled into the dark canopy and disappeared.
"The snake is better," Nyx stated in his mind. "It is a higher-level predator. The meat is much denser. It contains a higher concentration of ambient Aether in the muscle tissue. It will taste better, and it will fuel your cellular recovery much faster."
Jin just grunted in agreement. He did not care what species it was. He was starving. His stomach growled loudly. The rapid healing process was burning massive amounts of his stored calories. He needed fuel.
Nyx pulled her small blade from her belt again. She walked to the dead python. She made a long, precise cut down the center of its thick black underbelly. She peeled the heavy scales back. She carved out several large, thick steaks of pale white meat from the snake's muscular core.
She carried the heavy slabs of meat back near Jin. She set them down on a clean patch of green moss.
"We need fire," Jin said quietly. His voice was much stronger now.
"Yes," Nyx agreed.
She did not use her Aether to start a fire. She needed to conserve her energy to maintain the scent-seal around them and to stand guard. She used the environment instead.
She walked around the massive branch. She gathered dry twigs, dead leaves, and clumps of brittle, brown moss. She piled them together in a small mound a few feet away from Jin's head. She carefully cleared the living, green moss away from the area to expose the bare, hard wood underneath. She did not want to accidentally set the entire tree on fire.
She picked up a straight, dry stick. She found a small, natural depression in a piece of dead bark.
She placed the end of the stick into the depression. She placed her flat palms on either side of the stick.
She started to rub her hands together rapidly.
Even without using Aether, her physical speed was terrifying. Her hands blurred into a dark shadow. The dry stick spun incredibly fast against the bark. Friction generated intense heat almost instantly. A thin wisp of white smoke curled up from the wood dust in less than five seconds.
A tiny orange ember glowed in the center of the depression.
Nyx dropped the stick. She gently blew on the glowing ember. She placed a handful of dry, brown moss directly over it. She blew again, providing a steady stream of oxygen.
The dry moss caught the heat. A small, bright orange flame flickered to life.
She carefully added the dry twigs. The fire grew steadily. It crackled softly in the quiet night air. The light pushed the heavy shadows back. It cast a warm, flickering glow over Jin's pale face and Nyx's cracked obsidian visor.
Nyx found two long, thin branches. She stripped the bark off them with her blade. She used them like massive cooking skewers. She pierced the thick slabs of white python meat.
She propped the sticks over the small campfire using a few loose rocks she found lodged in the tree bark.
The meat began to cook.
The fat dripped down into the orange flames. It hissed loudly. A plume of white smoke rose up into the dark canopy.
The smell was incredible. It did not smell like gamey wild animal. It smelled rich, savory, and heavy with protein. It smelled like high-quality roasting pork, but much cleaner.
Jin lay on his stomach and watched the fire. The mild ache in his back was entirely forgotten now. The warmth of the flames felt good against his cold skin. His torn, muddy silk clothes were still damp from the crash, but they were slowly drying out in the heat.
He looked at Nyx. She sat cross-legged near the fire. She slowly turned the wooden skewers to cook the thick meat evenly. She did not take her mask off. She remained completely alert. Her head still tracked every distant snap of a branch in the jungle below.
"Will the smoke attract anything?" Jin asked.
"The Aether-seal hides our biological scent," Nyx replied calmly. "The smoke smells only like burning wood and burning fat. It is a natural occurrence in a wild jungle. Lightning strikes cause minor fires frequently. Predators generally avoid smoke. It signifies danger to them. We are safe."
Jin nodded. He trusted her judgment. She had kept him alive through a planetary crash and an apex predator attack.
He watched the fat bubble on the surface of the cooking meat. His mouth watered. The corporate manager from Earth had never been so hungry in his entire life. On Earth, he ordered expensive takeout to his desk and barely tasted it while staring at endless logistics reports.
Now, he was lying on a tree branch in an alien jungle, waiting for a piece of grilled snake. And it felt like the most important meal he would ever eat.
The silence stretched between them. It was not a tense silence. It was a comfortable, necessary quiet. The absolute chaos of the crash, the hanging vines, and the brutal fight with the panther were over. They finally had a small perimeter of safety.
They had medicine. They had fire. They had food.
It was a very small start, but it was a foundation to build on.