---

Pepper watched as the faeborg expertly flew around the auroch and caused it to fall! The wound is now exposed for everyone to fire their flaming arrows into it! Before she could think of anything else, she heard someone call out to her.

"You there! The one who said to cauterise the wound! Now's your chance!"

Pepper looks to the direction of the voice to see an elven man and she calls back to him in response, "Right! On it!" She quickly takes out the handkerchief to cover her nose and mouth again, and she runs over to the auroch. As soon as she is close enough for the flames to reach the wound, she takes out her wand and begins the incantation!

Pink sparks change hues into orange and red for the fire spell, but...only smaller sparks flare out almost pitifully...

"No...! No...! Don't do this to me now...!" Pepper speaks to herself, almost pleading. As she flicks her wand a couple of times, trying to get the spell to work, she catches movement in the corner of her eye. She turns her head to look and see...Capriccio!

Her eyes widen as her thoughts run wild again,

"Unless I'm hallucinating again...That's Capriccio! He really is here!"

Her face then begins blushing, the butterflies in her stomach start fluttering, and her heart beats faster as the final thought enters her mind, causing pure hope and elation, "He really did come to help!"

At that thought, the flames flare out wildly from her wand causing her to scream in surprise, but she manages to aim the wand and the flames at the wound!

Right...This wasn't the time to get distracted! She needed to get rid of that parasitic plant, fast!

@Guardian Angel Haruki @Vertigo @rush99999 @Randomguy

Dimple succeeds in shooing away the flies around him so they returned to the much tastier option: the auroch, which was now lying on the ground, unable to do much besides aimlessly thrash around. As such, there is nothing hindering Pepper as she approaches the fallen beast, allowing her to cauterise the wounds with her flames. The auroch gets a final spike of panic, causing it to thrash around a little more... before it seems to weaken. Anyone paying attention to its eyes will notice that they clear up for a brief moment, suddenly becoming fully aware of its situation before its eyelids calmly flutter close and it becomes still.

After the creature remained still for some time, a few villagers join Pepper on the ground, Gokuanni among them, and they tend to the beast's body, making certain that whatever was infecting the auroch is well and truly dealt with. They also make certain to take care of the remaining flies, just in case their consumption of the auroch's blood caused them to become infected as well. While this whole situation was pretty horrifying for everyone, Arnannel, Dimple, Pepper and Capriccio will all notice that, now that the dust has settled, the villagers approach the aftermath with a kind of grim acceptance. It's clear that while some aspects of this incident are unusual, this isn't the first withered creature they've had to deal with.

Once the auroch went still, Dimple moved closer to inspect the corpse. A series of soft, mechanical clicks emanated from behind his emerald and ruby eyes as the clank augmentations encased therein scanned what was left of the affliction that had hounded the beast in its final moments. With any luck, the scan would turn up some kind of information that would help the healers tending to Prino.

---

Arnannel sighed in relief as it seemed that the danger had passed.

The Auroch had been pacified. It seemed that the cauterisation attempted by the girl was successful.

Still, it was rather curious that, apparently, a parasitic plant was the cause of the Auroch's rampage.

At first, Arnannel had thought that the Auroch was simply a beast that was affected by the witherwild. But given that it seemed to calm down after the wound where the parasite was had been cauterised, it seemed it was more than the plant was the one that was causing it to rampage.

As far as he remember, a parasitic plant of that nature was not something that he remember from Fanewick. Did that mean that the plant itself was the one that was affected by witherwild and had somehow develop the ability to control its host's body? If so, that was concerning.

It was one thing if it were able to control the animals around here, but the real question was if it would also be able to infect the sapient races.

Arnannel jumped down, following the rest of the villagers who had been approaching Pepper and the Auroch.

Noticing the somewhat resigned look on the villagers, he asked, "So...is that sort of thing common here? Not the animals affected by the witherwild, but the parasitic plant," then turning to Pepper, he added, "Is there enough of the plant left? Maybe someone can look into it and see if we have a potential biohazard in our hand."