"If not, Alia, can you finish healing me? Because your bandages didn't hold."
"What? How did you do that, they were super tight." She replied in surprise.
"That's the problem, they were too tight and they prevented me from moving, so I tried to loosen them a little, but they fell off.
"But you're worse than a child. I tightened them like that so that you wouldn't move. I want to put them back on, but this will be the last time, if they come off you'll have to manage on your own.
"Yes, yes, I got it.
She put a new bandage on me, even tighter than the old ones, and went off to look around to see if there was anything interesting in the area.
Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to fall asleep and try to get my wounds healed.
When Alia woke me up, the sun had already gone down for a long time.
The only source of warmth and light I could see was a campfire she had built five metres in front of my feet.
"How long was I asleep?"
"I can't tell you the exact time, but I'd say five or six hours. Besides, I need to change your bandages and disinfect your wounds again if you want them to heal properly."
"Go ahead, I'll let you do it."
So I took off my T-shirt, my trousers and my old bandages.
Surprised, we noticed that my wounds were almost completely healed.
"Wait, that's impossible, that such scars have already healed without leaving any trace on your skin, even with the best doctors in the world, it would be almost impossible, so in these conditions it's simply a supernatural feat. Are you sure you're human?"
"I'm just as surprised as you are, though I haven't done anything special except sleep so I don't understand how it's possible."
"You really are a weird guy." She said, starting to laugh.
"Here, I found this in their camps, I hope it's enough. She continued cheerfully.
She got up, went to get a bag a few steps away from us and came back.
When she put the bag down, sounds of metal, plastic and wood could be heard.
I concluded that there would certainly be weapons and other objects.
She spilled the contents of the bag on the ground and indeed there were weapons, clothes, food, medicine and some other items.
I could tell 5 swords, 2 axes, 10 knives and 1 gun, 2 t-shirts, 1 pair of shorts, 3 jumpers and a quilt. Then there were all kinds of food, meat, canned vegetables and bottled water. Enough for a few weeks' treatment and two plates, two glasses and cutlery, sheets and pens.
I was amazed at the amount of stuff she had found and brought back, and stood for several dozen seconds staring at her finds.
Then when I looked up, I saw her smiling at me.
"Were these all in the camp? I asked in surprise.
"Yes, I took everything I could find. Why, isn't that enough?
"Yes, it's much more than I expected.
Indeed, I expected to leave with a few weapons, but 2 or 3 not more than that, whereas here I have almost 20 and all for free.
"I hope so, because I don't want to tell you what a pain it was to carry this bag while you were sleeping.
"You should have woken me up and I would have helped you."
"You should have seen the state you were in? I was going to carry you, you should have seen the state you were in, you were white as a ghost and you couldn't even stand up."
"Yeah, that's right, I wasn't in the best shape."
And we both laughed for a few seconds.
"And your nose, does it still hurt? she asked.
It's true, I had completely forgotten that Haku had also hit my nose.
So to check if I was still in pain, I touched my nose and noticed that the swelling had gone and that I was no longer in pain. Just like the rest of my body.
"Nah, I can't feel anything. It must have healed along with the rest of my body." I replied.
"Ah, well, that's great so you can see your family without looking like a zombie.
"You really like making fun of me."
"Yeah, it's funny, you always respond.
So, what are we going to do tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow we have to get out of the forest and then we'll go to Dorta to meet my family on July 7th at 5pm.
"Oh well, we might be a bit early."
"Yes, but we have to leave early tomorrow or the horses will die of thirst."
"The horses?" She asked surprised?
"Yes, the horses that will be used to move the stagecoach. If we leave them too long without food and water, they will die.
"Oh yes, I had completely forgotten about them. But it's all right, we only left this morning, they won't die if we forget to feed them for a day.
"I'm not so sure about that. Especially since it might take us more than an hour to get back, so we'll have to get up early."
"An hour? But we'll go faster as we have a map, we won't get lost.
"Yes, we won't get lost, but this time we have an extra bag to carry.
"Oh yes, that's true."
"So that we can get up early tomorrow, I suggest we go to sleep now.
"Now? But you've only just got up and you haven't eaten anything.
"Yes, but it will take too long to prepare everything."
"Don't worry, in ten minutes I'll have everything ready." She said confidently.
"Okay, you have 10 minutes, not one more."
She took two cans of food and poured them onto plates and placed them over the fire.
And indeed it took her no more than 10 minutes for our meal to be ready.
"It's okay Yù, it's ready."
"Wait, don't move, I'll take it as it's hot."
"Oh how nice, you take care of me."
"Nah, I'm not doing this to take care of you, I'm doing this so our food doesn't end up on the floor like it did this morning."
"It's okay, it was just a careless mistake."
"Ah, you see, you react every time too."
Not answering, she began to eat.
As I looked at her, I also took my plate and ate as well.
I hadn't seen what was on my plate, but I could clearly make out beef, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms and a sauce that was far too runny.
Foods that are normally edible, but here, the taste, the texture, everything was foul.
This is the first time in my life that I've eaten such an awful dish.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that every single food on my plate was out of date.
But I couldn't ask my question, because I was already spitting it all back onto my plate.
I looked back at Alia and to no one's surprise, she too had just spit it out.
We looked at each other and without a word, we started laughing.
"It was inedible, wasn't it? she asked me, still holding back her laughter.
"Yeah, it was the worst dish of my life."
"Me too, it's really disgusting. The food may have been out of date, but I didn't think it was going to be this horrible."
"What? Did you know that everything was expired? Did you want to poison us?" I asked in shock.
"Nah, I didn't mean to poison you, I didn't mean to be wasteful, I promise you I didn't do it on purpose."
"Don't worry, I believe you.
So, do you want to eat something else?"
"No, it's okay, this dish has spoiled my appetite. She replied disgusted.
"By the way, the 10 minutes are over, we have to go to sleep.
"Yes, yes, it's okay, I hadn't forgotten."
So we got ready, we had no tent, only a duvet for two.
"So we got ready, we didn't have any tents, only a duvet for two, so I guess we'll have to sleep together. She said confused.
"Yes, I admit I didn't think we'd be spending a whole day in the forest.
"You don't mind if we sleep together?"
"It's not like I have a choice, but I'm warning you, don't try anything weird and you'll be sleeping on the floor."
"Yeah, yeah, I know that too. You've already told me that many times."
At his words, we fell asleep until the next morning.