[center][h3][color=green]Lewa[/color][/h3][/center]

Bit by bit, the boar's condition improved, its flesh slowly knitted together and the toxins gradually expunged from its flesh. As the pain subsided, its body language became more relaxed, and Lewa could sense its relief. It wasn't long before he no longer felt the need to continue his elemental breathing exercise, as the condition of Remilia's patient had stabilized, and the unfortunate beast seemed to be on the road to recovery at last. At the same time, however, the toa got the distinct impression that this wasn't over just yet. Despite his lack of familiarity with organic biology, something struck him as oddly anomalous about its afflicted wounds. Still, he couldn't be sure, and resolved to ask Remilia about it once her treatment concluded.

After only a few more moments, the vampire finished. There was nothing else she could do for the boar, and its couldn't claim to be in perfect health, but the fruit borne of the otherworlders' efforts made a world of difference. "The rest is up to you," Lewa told his new friend in a soft voice as he offered a final, reassuring pat. "Eat and drink well, and get plenty of rest. Go now, sister boar." Reinvigorated and as high-spirited as Lewa himself, the creature could head off into the underbrush at a peaceable trot. Even after it disappeared from sight and the sound of heavy footfalls faded, the toa's smile remained. The forest around him seemed that much more full of life, the wind and birdsong a cheerful harmony that permeated leaf and bough. After a moment Remilia interrupted the peace and quiet with her response. While Lewa didn't understand everything she said, the two could share in an unspoken feeling of a job well done, at least for a moment. She mentioned not being able to work her magic on him, which puzzled him somewhat. "I am no less alive than our new beast-friend. Should I suffer injury, I hope you will try to mend-treat me."

She proceeded to confirm his earlier suspicions, and he nodded his assent with her hypothesis. Venom, at least, was something he knew about. Some rahi, like the Nui Jaga scorpions of Po-wahi, wielded it with lethal finesse. One of those highly aggressive arachnids could have easily perpetrated an attack like the one that injured the boar, but given the circumstances Lewa dismissed that possibility outright. Whatever the boar's assailant was, it represented the root cause of the new threat facing the village. "As long as the one responsible remains at large, more rahi like our sister boar may be maddened into rampage by the pain," he pointed out. "If we want to solve this problem for good, we must cut off the head of the Bog Snake." For now though, that could wait until they checked on the others, and brought everyone up to speed on what they found.

Lewa followed Remilia back toward their group's temporary base of operations, still in a good mood. Once there, the vampire took care of all the talking. The others filled him in on what they'd been up to as well, and when Youmu mentioned that she dealt with an aggressive boar, his face fell somewhat. No living thing was inherently evil, just affected by circumstances. The beast she described sounded no different from the one he found, and he'd known from the outset that if he took the wrong tact, his encounter could have gone very differently. None of the others had entertained the possibility of a peaceful outcome, and if they went in to eliminate threats, chances were that their targets responded in kind. Maybe he and Remilia could have saved others; the thought lanced him with regret.

The otherworlders' rendezvous took a sudden turn when another little girl showed up. She quickly made it clear that she knew several of the others present, which quickly deepened Lewa's bewilderment. What was with so many individuals all seized from the same world? At this point, it couldn't be coincidence. From the very beginning the toa had utterly felt out of place, but now he felt more estranged than ever. Was the girls' world the one this whole ordeal revolved around, and he was just along for the ride? Caught in the crossfire of some divine accident? With nothing else to work with, and no anchor of any kind to hold fast to, Lewa maintained his silence.