Chapter 24 Feeling Sick

Suzuka piled Goblins onto another and started to drag them where she saw Bill going to dispose of orc's bodies. It wasn't hard to find the place where he dumped them, there was already a path made to the pit where he drops the bodies. It was a 5-minute walk straight deep into the forest, along the way she saw bones left and right. At the end of the path, she found a big pile of all kinds of monsters' half-rotten bodies.

"Oh my... he killed a lot of monsters. Some are still fresh kills, and some are long-time dead. All these skeletons and bones... must be close to a hundred. Most of the bodies belong to Goblins and they haven't been here for long."

Suzuka dropped Goblin bodies on the pile and started to walk back towards the cave. It didn't take her long to get back into the cave. Before she entered the cave Suzuka pulled her shortswords out of the bloody wolf's head. Since apples didn't stop her belly from rumbling she decided to cut and cook some wolf meat.

"Sure they don't taste great, but they should keep my belly full. But before that, I should put a few buckets outside while still raining, I need water, and soon."

She runs down the stairs deep into the cave and grabs 2 buckets. Bill was still snoring without any sign of waking up soon. She put down buckets close by and went to cut meat from wolfs. After a good 20 minutes of butchering corps, she had a good amount of meat. From a nearby bush, she cut enough big leaves to put the meat down.

"Okay, all set. I only need to cook it."

She put all the meat on the leaves and left it outside so that rain would wash off the blood and went inside to look for wood to light the fire. After a few minutes, she had all it needed to start a fire and went to set it up. While her campfire took its time to light up, she sharpened a handful of sticks with her shortsword and impaled meat on them. When the fire was strong enough she started to cook meat. While the meat was cooked she squeezed apple juice onto it in hopes of a better taste. After a few hours of cooking, she had a nice stack of cooked meat. After tasting the meat it was clear that apple juice didn't make much of a difference in how the meat tasted.

"So, apple juice does little to no difference in taste. It looks like a wasted effort there. A little bit of salt would be nice instead."

It was getting really dark now. The sun hid behind trees a long time ago, and the sky was still filled with rain clouds. It wasn't much of a rain, more like a mist. A light wind was swinging trees making spooky sounds. Distant cries of creatures made her anxious and nervous. Glowing eyes in trees and bushes didn't help her feel any safer just made her more scared. 

A distant flashing of lightning added to her fears. Any splashing sounds running outside made her jump, reminding her that she was not alone in this forest and that whoever is outside is there to pray on her meat. But this was her only hope to survive at this moment and she knew she need to protect Bill till he woke up. If he recovers, she will have some hope of surviving, maybe even find a way to go back home, back to her parents.

"Okay, it's really scary now that its night time. Did he live here all this time in this dark cave all by himself? Well, sure he's a monster and all but still, it's kind of sad. I hope he wakes up soon. If more Goblins show up I don't know what I do. I should probably make myself a bed and try to rest till morning and keep an eye on the outside."

She took some of the hay from Bill's bed and went close to the exit. By picking loose rocks from the wall she made a small crevice big enough to fit herself and put hay down to sleep on. While looking in the distance her consciousness slipped away and she fell asleep. The girl had a pleasant dream about her family and her first love Antonio, how they all had a party at her house with tasty food and she finally got to taste Antonio's best Melwyn's gold apple juice wine. Her dreams got interrupted by pain in her throat and she woke up. 

While still half asleep she grabs her throat and after a few hard coughs say, "Oh gosh, did I have too much Antonio's wine and Mom's tasty food last night? My throat is sore and hurts... my stomach feels full... Oh, no... it was just a dream... I think I just got a cold sleeping in this wet cave. Well, it's a morning at least and I'm in one piece, that's a good start. I should probably go check on Bill."

She looked outside, checked the field for predators, and when she was sure there were none she stood up. As she stood some liquid started to run from her nose and started to drip onto the ground.

"Oh that proves it, I got a cold, and my nose is running. That's just great, just what I needed, to get sick. As if I didn't have enough problems already."

She wiped her nose and went down the stairs to see how is Bill doing. Minotaur was still sleeping but his wounds looked almost completely healed. After a couple of more rough coughs girl tried to wake up Minotaur by gently shaking his hand but it was in vain. Minotaur didn't show any signs of getting up. 

After several failed attempts to wake him up, she stepped outside the cave to check the weather. Sun was up just above the trees, with barely any clouds in the sky it was a nice, sunny morning. After coughing up some goo and spitting it on the ground she did a few stretches to loosen up her stiff body after uncomfortable sleep on the ground and went to check on apple trees. After grabbing a few apples for a morning snack she went to clean the rest of the mess on the field. After a few hours of cleaning, she finally finished moving bodies deeper into the forest further from the cave. Her coughs got a bit more frequent and her throat hurt more.

"Ouch... it's getting worse... shouldn't have moved around so much, and now I'm missing only a fever. If it gets even worse I'm really in trouble. At least I'm feeling great ignoring running nose cough and throat pain. I better go inside before someone shows up and sees me."

She went back inside and found Bill sitting and chugging apples she left for him. By the looks of it, he woke up just recently. The girl slowly comes up to him and while coughing sits down in front of him. 

Bill puts down the bucket on the ground and says to the girl, "Bill hurt! Shouted! Tried to kill Little Monster! Why little monster help Bill?"

After several painful coughs, Suzuka said, "Can you... cough... Stop calling me a little monster already?! Cough... You saw me use box power, you said yourself that you believe I'm human."

Minotaur wiped his mouth with one hand and started to laugh.

"BUAHAHA! The little one may be a human, but you are not one! We are similar, you and Bill. We are both part human part mighty beast!... Fine, I call this one a little monkey then."

While coughing and rubbing her hurting throat Suzuka said, "Cough... No... no... Cough... Why can't you just... Cough... call me Suzuka?"

After chugging a few more handfuls of apples Minotaur said, "That name sounds weird, the little monkey is better, HAHAHA!"

"Say, Bill, how would you like it if I called you a poop stick instead?"

Hearing the girl talking back and mocking his name Bill punched the ground with his fists while roaring and quickly stood up. After another mighty roar, he headbutted a wall a couple of times leaving a hole in it. After he was done with that wall he turned to the girl and said, "BILL NAME BILL! GIRL NAME LITTLE MONKEY! ROAR!"

With a painful cough, Suzuka answered him, "Cough... Okay, your Bill I'm a little monkey, Just... Cough... don't hurt me."

Heavily breathing Minotaur took a few deep breaths and then sit down on the ground.

"Sorry, little monkey... we Minotaurs can't really keep a cool head. Minotaurs tend to go into a rage really easily."

"It's okay Bill... cough... as long as you can calm down from it... cough... before you rip me into pieces."

While looking at the girl coughing Bill said, "Uhm! Girl? It's, not Bill's business to question girls' liking but that Slime will kill you."

Suzuka quickly jumped from the ground and started to look around to defend herself against the Slime. After having a good look around she couldn't see any Slimes anywhere. Thinking Bill was joking and trying to scare her said to him, "Oh, I can't believe you did this... cough... stop scaring me like that cough..."