Chapter 6 Bandaging The human race is a very fragile race.
"You're hurt!" Catherine exclaimed, her voice tinged with concern and panic.
She admitted that most of the emotion in her words was feigned, but there was also some sincerity. After all, she only had this one "guardian" now, and if Tarasco died from his injuries, she wouldn't survive more than a day in this Devil's Forest.
Catherine looked around, and finally picked up the torn nun's robe and tore off another piece from the hem.
She lifted Tarasco's arm. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that the wound was frighteningly deep, with even the bone deep inside faintly visible.
Although the flesh deep inside was visibly growing back slowly, the wound was so deep that the new flesh hadn't completely covered the bone yet. Dark red blood was slowly seeping from the wound and then dripping down his arm.
Catherine couldn't help but take a soft breath.
She was actually quite afraid of pain. However, her past circumstances hadn't allowed her to express such feelings, so Catherine had hidden them very well. But now, seeing such a large and severe wound, her fingers couldn't help but tremble slightly.
There were no medicines in the cave, so the wound could only be rinsed with water first, and then bandaged.
Catherine gently wrapped the strip of cloth she had torn from her hand around Tarasco's wound. Blood seeped out almost immediately, but because it had just been rinsed, it barely soaked through the cloth.
The alien spider had been staring at Catherine without blinking from the moment she moved. He looked puzzled, seemingly completely baffled as to what Catherine was doing.
As Catherine tightened the bandage, she looked up and met Tarasco's eyes. His red eyes followed her movements, filled with intense curiosity.
Catherine smiled gently: "Humans are very fragile. When we are injured, we always treat and bandage our wounds, otherwise we can easily die from infection."
Tarasco remained still for a while.
She had just spoken at a rather long time. It took him a while to barely understand the meaning of human language.
Catherine stared at the alien spider for several minutes before turning her head. She looked at herself, her eyes still showing confusion.
She opened her mouth, ready to briefly explain what she had just said, but saw Tarasco suddenly raise his unbandaged left hand.
Catherine paused, thinking he understood her meaning and wanted her help bandaging the wound. But before she could tear another strip of cloth from her nun's robe, Tarasco suddenly raised his claws and slashed down hard at his left arm.
The claws slashed several thin cuts on his arm. A few seconds later, the wounds turned light red, and blood gushed out rapidly from underneath, but before it could seep to the surface of his skin, the wounds were covered by rapidly growing new flesh.
He looked up and gazed into the depths of Catherine's eyes, signifying the end of the presentation.
Catherine was taken aback, but the skilled performer quickly regained her composure. Her face slowly and subtly shifted through a multitude of emotions, finally settling on a slightly sorrowful one.
"You mean you don't need it?" Catherine seemed a little disappointed. She lowered her eyes and spoke softly, "But I still want to do something for you..."
Catherine's words were short and simple enough that Tarasco understood them almost instantly.
As soon as she finished speaking, Catherine felt the air around her begin to churn violently. The temperature rose rapidly, the heat arriving even faster than yesterday.
She looked up and found that Tarasco's eyes were now almost slits. Seeing that she was looking at him, he breathed heavily and lowered his head to kiss her cheek.
Catherine could sense his emotions, which were high and filled with barely suppressed excitement.
The size of the alien spider was incomparable to that of humans. Although the sensation it gave her yesterday wasn't bad, it was simply too short. She felt she hadn't fully recovered today; the friction against her skin felt slightly prickly and uncomfortable.
When he entered again, Catherine frowned... The hand on Tarasco's back unconsciously tightened, leaving scratches on his back with her nails.
However, for Tarasco, the pain from this wound was less than that from a mosquito bite; instead, it brought a slight itch as new flesh grew.
He excitedly left many marks on Catherine, like an animal leaving its mark on its territory, leaving his scent on her to signify his ownership of her.
Catherine tried to relax her body to avoid suffering any more unnecessary pain.
As she sensed Tarasco's emotions, she was surprised to find that he seemed much easier to please than her usual lovers; a casual remark could stir up his emotions.
However, on second thought, even if the magical beasts that have lived in the Devil's Forest for a long time and rely on absolute strength to solve problems on a daily basis are not as complex as the human race's emotions, even if they are not ordinary wild beasts without intelligence.
Compared to the schemers among human species, the minds of these beasts can be described as simple.
The surrounding heat hit Catherine's face, making her feel slightly dizzy. She deliberately stopped trying to stay rational and let herself completely indulge in the heatwave.
...
This process took much longer than yesterday's, and Catherine eventually collapsed from exhaustion and lost consciousness first. When she woke up again, she was lying on the bed that Tarasco had made for her.
Catherine glanced down and, unsurprisingly, saw Tarasco dealing with the porcupine carcass—if that creature, so different in size from the average porcupine, was indeed a porcupine.
The prey he brought back this time was enormous; based on the amount of food he had eaten before, he wouldn't need to go hunting for the next few days.
Indeed, that is the case.
For the next two or three days, Tarasco stayed with her in the cave and never left her side.
Every day at noon, Catherine would change Tarasco's bandages. Her nun's robe wore out quickly, but fortunately, Tarasco's wounds successfully scabbed over before it became completely too short to use.
Catherine couldn't help but marvel at the beast's incredible recovery speed. In less than three days, the deep, bone-revealing wound had transformed into a dark red scab, and it looked like it would fall off smoothly in another day or two.
So today, she didn't bother searching for usable nun's robe fabric.
“It looks like your wound has completely healed,” Catherine said, looking up at Tarasco. Unsurprisingly, she met his gaze.
Tarasco liked to quietly watch Catherine as she bandaged him. Over the past few days, this had become a habit.
Although Catherine found the act extremely tedious, bandaging was such a repetitive and boring task, what was there to observe?
But Tarasco didn't seem to find it tiresome at all. In fact, one could say he thoroughly enjoyed observing her.
Catherine felt it was similar to how humans enjoy watching small animals that depend on them for survival. Whether they're running, playing, or arguing and yelling at each other, it's all very entertaining to humans.
Fragile lives that need our help and protection always evoke an involuntary feeling of pity in humans.
Although she hadn't thought before that such emotions would appear in a predator like Tarasco.
He looked at it and it had absolutely nothing to do with the word "compassion".
A sudden, cool, wet touch brought her back to reality. Catherine looked up at the alien spider, and after their eyes met, it licked her face again.
He was responding to what she had just said.
Catherine was momentarily stunned. In the eyes of animals, the act of licking often carries a connotation of intimacy. Did Tarasco's actions mean that his attitude towards her had changed slightly?
Just then, she felt a slight stinging pain in her stomach—the frequency of eating only once a day for the past few days, as well as raw meat and other energy sources that are not suitable for humans, had made her stomach somewhat sensitive and prone to pain.
Catherine knew that all the food had been digested and she needed to replenish her energy.
She propped herself up on her carapace, preparing to slide down to eat. Before doing so, Catherine cautiously peeked out to check the ground, estimating it to be about two or three meters below the surface, not particularly high, and that she should be able to land safely.
But just as she braced herself with her hands and was about to jump, someone suddenly grabbed her under her armpits and lifted her up.
—It's Tarlasco.
He gently placed himself on the ground, then climbed back up to the top of the cave to retrieve today's food.
Tarasco raised his hand, his sharp nails slicing through the cocoon with ease. Then he lifted his feet and began cutting the raw meat lying flat on the ground. His movements were unhurried, his steps carrying a chilling sharpness.
Watching from the side, Catherine inexplicably felt that Tarasco exuded a cool and elegant demeanor at this moment.
As the meat was sliced open, blood seeped out from the fine lines of the raw flesh, overflowing onto the ground and gradually forming a small stream that flowed slowly. Catherine carefully moved aside, not wanting to get her hands on the blood, which had a strong, fishy smell.
After confirming she had reached a "safe spot," she looked up at Tarasco. The raw meat was now ready, and he nudged it toward her, indicating she could begin eating.
Catherine looked down at the pile of raw meat, and a thought suddenly came to mind.
After spending these past few days together, Catherine realized that gaining the favor of monsters was actually no different from gaining the favor of humans. And now, Tarasco's attitude towards her had changed somewhat compared to before.
Perhaps this is a fairly good opportunity for her.
One is tentatively exploring further opportunities.
A note from the author:
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