"I don't understand," Olivia admitted.
Her face proved such a sentence, she almost stared blankly at the boy. Indefinitely, she had it difficult to accept this situation.
However, with an aim to explore the odds and ends of this dilemma, she eventually reached out for one of these bugs and grabbed it.
Although she was a tad nervous at first, the lady could still think straight. It was inevitable to accept that these creatures truly became harmless.
After she released a stressful sigh, the lady asked. "You really think that this pointy gem is supposed to bring peace? Maybe the ratbugs were just cranky earlier."
In that ongoing calm matter, the young man assured. "Trust me, all I can sense from the diamond is peace and happiness. Besides, what else could it be used for?"
He made a firm point for sure, but there was one piece of the puzzle that did not fit in. Conclusions made the lady back away a tad bit, all for comfort's sake.
Without much hesitancy, she pressured. "I think you're wrong, why am I not calm like you? Everything here is creeping me out, you as well..."
"You're not happy?" William asked, he was a tad shocked.
"I'm scared," The healer answered, her face carried clear worry.
A layer of shock struck the boy, so he instantly asked. "What? You're so close to this gracious source of peace, and you don't feel its aura?"
Such a realisation made him a tad angry and uncomfortable. Yet those same emotions helped him break out of this trance-like state, at least for a little while.
The boy had a small pocket of time, and he used his bitter judgement through every second of it. Almost instantly, he figured out that more than a few things weren't right.
"Huh..." He mumbled, and tried to process a wave of thoughts.
A few moments later, he theorized. "Me and the bugs are calm, you're not.... so this means that you're stronger than us... or I'm dumber than you."
Such a statement hit him like a truck, and he swiftly became pissed thanks to it. At the same time, he felt how an incredible amount of peace crept in.
In a last attempt to reason, he softly spoke. "Please, get me out of here."
And a blink later, the boy felt how his senses went completely numb. In response, he just got closer to the transparent pyramid and admired its beauty.
Such a request spooked the lady quite a bit, as a peaceful disaster felt like too much for her to handle.
Unsurprisingly, she decided to complain for once. "How did my day become this bad? We were only supposed to heal a few soldiers... this is too much."
Regardless of that rant, her entire soul urged to help the unfortunate other.
That was why she sighed and expressed, "I can do this, shouldn't be worse than fighting a bear."
Olivia needed a moment until she could process this entire dilemma. Severity seemed non-existent in this case, but she was still nervous.
This unheard of item, seemingly forced creatures to be peaceful. Thanks to that cruel fact, this threat felt too advanced to handle, it was nothing like a physical battle.
The situation was delicate and complicated, so it was difficult to figure out a solution which shared an equal attitude.
Likewise, it meant that the dilemma had to be handled in another manner, Olivia has to rough-handle her way out of here. Sure this idea sounded primitive, but her options were limited.
Under these conditions, William would never agree to leave this place, he wouldn't want to cooperate. So the best option was to force the boy out of here.
She came up with an idea to aid such a crude decision, but hesitancy tagged along with her intents.
After a loud sigh, she mumbled. "Guh... I don't want to fix it like this, he's a loudmouth but he's innocent."
The healer's conscience fought with itself, especially since she was the one who accidentally activated this weird diamond. It felt unfair for someone else to suffer the consequences.
Regardless, that feeling of guilt had to be pushed away. If she didn't fight it, then they would be stuck here for a long while.
That was why she sighed and mumbled, "Desperate times call for desperate measures, he asked me for help anyway so..."
In response to such a plan, the lady transformed her hands into their snake-like version. However, this time she didn't shift them into large spikes.
No, her albino hands were mostly normal. They had five fingers each, and were covered with scales on every side.
Once she felt ready, the lady excused. "This shouldn't hurt too much, it's not so bad."
And then recalled, "No one has died this way so far, it shouldn't kill him either."
This time around, the good brunette altered the very tip of her fingers. Specifically, her index and middle finger grew tiny needles out.
They almost looked like claws, but were more refined instead. However, with these couple of fingers as an aid, the lady felt a tad more comfortable about her success rate.
The healer stalked her friend from behind, and eventually got close enough to inflict the plotted idea.
After a light sigh, she thought. "I'm sorry that this is the only way, Willy."
As swiftness became her last name, the lady wiped one palm across the other's neck. Such a move was certainly unexpected, as she struck from behind.
The brunette's two needles sunk an inch deep through flesh, and the results afterwards turned out as expected.
William collapsed on the floor as if he was a limp noodle. This attack seemed almost painless, but the naked eye could lie. If the boy hadn't been forced to sleep, he would have made a comment or two about the matter.
"I hope he can handle it," Olivia spoke to herself, afterwards she put in effort to lift the boy.
Although she didn't want to check, the lady was aware of the exterior effects. A pale patch had expanded on the boy's neck after that swipe, and it will stay there until this injection's effects wore off.
Such an overly white patch, was the least dangerous part out of this attack, even though the average eye would think otherwise.
...
"Uh... god why do I always get knocked out around here?" William mumbled.
Quite characteristically, his first few words were strong complaints. He didn't even fully observe the world around here yet.
After a couple of eye-rubs, he noticed that a small campfire burned close by, it was just a few feet away.
"Oh that smells tasty," The boy commented.
Unsurprisingly, he didn't refer to the fire. Instead, his focus darted towards a meaty scent, something good sizzled over the embers.
"You haven't eaten anything in two days, at this point you're stronger than me." A soft, familiar tone sounded out.
Undoubtedly, this was Olivia. She carried a comfortable smile and approached the kid with clear, genuine care.
"Here, try this." The lady encouraged.
William wasn't sceptical for once, he munched that chunk of meat right off the other's hand, and chucked it down swiftly.
After a blink, he requested. "I need more, please? I'm so hungry."
"I know," The healer cooperated.
And then she pressured, "But let's not rush okay? If you eat too fast now, you'll puke."
Eventually, the boy got a belly full of meat, even though it took half an hour to do so. The lady insisted to be slow about it.
Through the process she specified what kind of meat this was. Apparently, it had been scrapped off from dragon sapling carcasses.
These bugs were mostly inedible for the snake kind, specifically since their genetics lean more towards the insect side. But the very weapons of these fiends, solely included clean and boneless meat.
One would need to crack this spike open, since it was surrounded by a hard, bug-oriented shell. But once the shell of this weapon was broken, what hid inbetween it was delicious meat.
"So you've fed me bug noses, ha? That's something that'll give me nightmares." William complained.
All the protein helped him regain focus, not to mention, energy. So he was in a favourable position to be both sceptical and argumentative.
After a sigh, Olivia answered. "Oh please, it's not like you didn't enjoy it. You just hate the bugs."
"Point taken," The other casually gave in.
Afterwards he moved on towards the most important topic, "What happened? I remember some expensive pyramid and shit."
"Oh you're recovering fast, I had to put you to sleep. You've been out for over twenty hours again." The healer softly specified.
Afterwards she agreed, "We saw something like that, yes. It brainwashed you or something."
"Oh... I remember." William sighed, his memories confirmed the other's words.
As her face grew serious for once, the fine brunette specified. "Yes... and I have something to tell you about that light, the big one that the pyramid made."
"What is it?" He followed along.
Slowly and punctually, Olivia explained. "I've been here three years ago, for a healing lesson and stuff. Anyways... I remember this light, it has been here before."