Dak waited for hours for the air to clear enough for him to safely approach the ograppa corpse. Nothing would approach the area, so he was reluctant to as well. Finally, he broke down, and pulled his bandana over his face in low hopes of giving as much of a barrier between his respiratory system and the contaminated air as possible. Clambering down the tree, Dak did his best to hold his breath.
A good wind was blowing, so there was a decent chance the miasma had been swept away at this point. He also took into consideration with the odd airflows if he was going to be poisoned, he would've been. That didn't change his hesitancy, however.
He knew well enough that if the poison was still in anyway concentrated in the location, he was good as dead regardless of his completely inadequate efforts to protect himself. Nevertheless, he didn't have any other real options. The nearest town was a goblin village, and there was no chance they'd have what he needed. In order to get a working purifier mask, he'd have to travel back into his home nation of Andromadus, and not only would that take days, he made a point of avoiding traveling through it.
"Are you finally ready to get this over with ?" Daffy perked, noticing his movement. She had been zipping around aimlessly, occasionally picking at bark or leaves while making a point to complain loudly how board she was.
He declined to respond for fear of drawing in air. Instead, he focused on harvesting the corpse. As one of the conditions for the job, the client had requested different organs and muscle tissue for examination. The client worried about the possibility that the ograppa's affliction could be contagious and wanted to see about possible preventative measures.
"Dak, what is that?" Daffy wrinkled her nose as a pussy fluid erupted from the spot Dak's knife had pierced the hide.
Dak immediately jumped back with a shout, narrowly avoiding contact with the putrid fluid. Unfortunately, this meant he inhaled. After waiting a few moments for some sort of symptoms to emerge, Dak let out a breath. He would be in complete agony, if not dead, by now if he'd been poisoned.
"There only be one sort o' creature that oozes like that," Dak groaned. It seemed the rumors of it eating an undead was truer than he would've cared to believe.
"What creature?" Daffy cocked her head.
"Ye don' know?" Dak questioned with an incredulous look. He knew Daffy wasn't the brightest, but even this much should have been obvious.
"Do I look like a doctor to you, Dak?" She demanded. There were so many things wrong with her question, he didn't even know where to begin.
"What are ye talkin' 'bout?" Dak finally asked.
"I just told you!" Daffy snapped. "I am not a doctor!"
"Thank the gods for that," Dak grumbled.
"What?" Daffy glared
"I said, what is so important about that?" Dak replied. It always drove Daffy nuts when he told her obvious lies, so he made a point of doing so often, just to enjoy her frustration. He doubted the true words would've hurt her feelings anyway.
"That's not what you said!" Daffy exclaimed. "But even if it wasn't I will tell you!"
"Oh the joy," Dak snorted with a roll of his eyes.
"Only doctors know about stuff like that," Daffy stated as though she were trying to explain a difficult concept to a young child. "Like I said, I am not a doctor, so of course I don't know!"
"Daffy..." Dak pinched the bridge of his nose, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. "Do I look like a bloody doctor to ye?"
"You? A doctor?" She burst out in mockingly hysterical laughter. "You couldn't tell a Tumor from a Turmeric!"
Dak rolled his eyes. Based on her phrasing, he doubted the sprite actually knew what turmeric was. Frankly, Dak was surprised she knew the word. He was half convinced she'd put random syllables together trying to sound smart and the fact she produced a word was sheer dumb luck.
"The point, dear Daffy, is that I know and I am not a doctor," Dak explained with a sigh.
"Sure you do," Daffy scoffed.
"Daffy, you're enough ta make a grown man cry, ye know that?" Dak shook his head and turned his attention back to the corpse. The oozing puss was broiling, disturbed by the movement of tiny but disgusting maggot-like parasites around the opening of the cut.
"Alright Mr. smart-ass, what is this oh-so-obvious piece of knowledge about oozing creatures?" Daffy demanded. "I bet you don't actually know, do you? Do you?"
Dak ignored her and retrieved his gloves, flint and steel, a safe box, and a new vial. After he set the safe box and the Flint and steel to the side, he slipped the gloves on. Carefully, he scraped the ooze, parasites, and as much of the tissue around the wound as he could without risking skin contact into the vial. He quickly capped the bottle and handed it to Daffy.
"Daffy, I should'na have to say it, but please, I beg lady chaos, don't drink that," Dak growled.
"Ew," Daffy made a face. "Dak, I don't really have a taste for worms. Why the fuck would you think I would drink that junk?"
"You've drank worse," Dak pointed out as he carefully peeled his gloves off his hands and tossed them onto the body. He lamented having to discard them, but there was no helping it.
"One little mistake," Daffy huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Little?" Dak barked a depreciating laughed. "Daffy, ye drank cockatrice venom! COCKATRICE VENOM! An ta make matters worse, I told ye as much! That's no little mistake!"
"Ok, so I made a BIG mistake, whatever!" Daffy rolled her eyes again. "It was just one mistake Dak!"
"Ye've done it more than once!" Dak exclaimed. "Ye do it all the time Daffy! ALL THE TIME! Anything in a glass bottle ye take it upon yerself ta drink!"
"Whatever," Daffy rolled her eyes yet again. Dak wondered if all that eye rolling ever made her dizzy.
Shaking his head, Dak retrieved the Flint and steel, then sent to work igniting the corpse. The best way to dispose of undead and the contagions they spread was fire. Once the body was burning, Dak grabbed the safe box, then had Daffy place the vial within it.
"You're so paranoid!" Daffy complained.
Dak had a few choice words in response, but kept them to himself. It wasn't worth it. Besides, the ograppa wasn't the only thing he'd have to see to, there was a burrow and two decimated villages he now needed to purge. Dak could only hope he wasn't too late.