Wincing at the rashes on his hands, Matteo sawed at the hem of his sleeve with his knife and wadded the torn fabric into the neck of the bottle to stopper it. It wasn’t pretty, but poison didn’t have to be. He stowed it away carefully and looked around. Ettamri and Gwyn were near the injured Muu while she was being healed. It looked like Ash was working on getting a fire started to cook the butchered toad meat. [i]Better than rabbit,[/i] Matteo thought, and then wondered how he’d gotten to the point where he considered frog meat to be a luxury. Maybe somewhere around the point where he’d started asking for spare change on the streets.

As Ash built herself a fire, Matteo went around the other side of the toad for some privacy to change out of his rash-inducing, blood-and-toxic-body-fluid-covered robes. The air was still cool with the threat of rain and he shivered as he pulled on his older, neutral-colored clothes. They stunk like alcohol and unwashed beggar, but at least they were harmless. He bundled up the tight blue fabric under his arm, then came around the toad to check on Ash.

He’d been hoping (really hoping) she’d be done by now and he wouldn't have to do anything to help, but it looked like there was still a lot of work to be done. [i]Or more like a lot of toad to be cooked,[/i] he thought, eyeing the mountain of frogflesh and Ash’s lone machete. He audibly sighed, then took out his two knives to offer to Ash. [b]"You can use these too, if you want. I'm willing to taste it first if you’re worried about poison.”[/b] Honestly he was just hungry, but maybe he had some kind of resistance to lingering toad venom after inhaling toxic fumes back at the Guild, who knew? He'd take the risk.