John checks on Nasha every day for any signs of improvement even talking to her while she sleeps. He leaves the ooze with Kenta and Papi when he checks on Nasha. He and Kenta agreed that she would not fit in the house and Papi would be in the way.

John also checks out the ooze when he is resting at the stables. He tries feeding it various things to see what it eats. But it ignores every piece of food. But he finds it does drink water from a bowl almost daily. It grows a bit in size while drinking and then it sweats the water out afterward to return to its original size. John holds it up to the light and sees it is getting clearer to see through and figures that’s the way it gets rid of liquid waste.

John is walking one day through the market with the ooze. He notices people looking at it and says to it “We best find a way to carry you.” He finds some glass bottles and holds the opening up to the ooze one at a time. The ooze doesn’t move towards any of them. John soon passes a hunter shop and finds what looks like an old-time powder horn. He decides to try it. The ooze almost imminently goes in. John pays for the horn and puts it on.

John goes to do his daily check on Nasha a few days later. But there is a disturbance when he approaches her room. Soon some of the healers come running out as John hears a crashing sound inside. He runs in to find Nasha is up and whipping her tail around keeping the healers at bay. John says to her “Nasha are you okay?”

Nasha snaps back “I’m HOT!”

John says to a healer “get the cool bath ready”. He then says to Nasha “Nasha you were sick and we had to raise the room temperature to help.”

The healer comes back and says to John “The bath is ready!”

John says to the healer “good, you can open this room up and get it back to normal” then he says to Nasha “Come with me.”

They lead Nasha to a large bath. John looks away when Nasha starts to strip to enter the bath. She enters and lays on her belly with mostly her upper body in the water. John walks up and puts his hand on her bare shoulder. Nasha snaps “What are you doing?”

John says “checking your temperature. I have a feeling you will be better once you cool down a little.”

Nasha snaps “I know that!” She takes a breath and says “But it is nice to know that you know that as well.”

John and the healers take advantage of Nasha’s bath to clean and check her wound.

The head healer approaches John after he steps away from Nasha saying “Where can I find their nest?”

John says “When she can leave.”

The head healer says “You said you would tell me when she is feeling better. She is better now.”

John says “When she can leave is when I will feel she is better. She is most likely hungry and still weak from the ordeal.”

Nasha gets out of the bath soon after and returns to her room. John can see that he was right, for Nasha needs help getting back to her room and in bed. She eats a little before going back to sleep.

A few days later Nasha has regained her strength and is fit for traveling again. The wound has nearly healed. John brings Kenta and Papi along to see Nasha leave the healers’ house.

Papi runs up and hugs Nasha and Kenta joins in later saying “You look better now.”

John stands a little bit away when he feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns to find the head healer standing there with an impatient look on her face. She says to him “Well!”

John nods and says “We found a nest about a day and a half from here. I don’t think it is too far off the path.”

The Healer snaps “That it! That all I have to go on!”

John says “My friend was slick!  So pardon me for not being able to draw a map to something you prize.”

The healer huffs, then walks away.

John turns back to his traveling companions to find Nasha and Kenta giving him death glares. John says “What?”

Kenta says “You just told her where to find those creatures nest!”

Nasha says “I could hear her talking before you were out of range. She is going to kill them for their juices.”

John says “first off, if she thinks that I was slowed down by pulling you, she is going to come up short not realizing Kenta did a lot of the pulling and started us early. If she uses Kenta's strength, she going to overshoot the nest because Kenta was keeping pace with me.” Nasha and Kenta both start to relax a little. John continues “Secondly, how many were there when they were feeding off of Nasha’s dead skin?”

Both Nasha and Kenta look at each other, then Kenta says “I can’t count very high.”

Nasha says “Nether can I.”

John says “would you say there was more than your villages?” Both nod. John says “She told me they are rare, meaning they know they are being hunted.” John tips the horn over to pour out the ooze saying “and if you look at this one” as he holds it up to them “It still has flakes of skin floating in it and hasn’t eaten anything. So I have a feeling that Nasha’s dead skin was a feast for them and they gorge themselves on a rare large meal. I bet they are hiding safely right now stuffed and not needing to find food.” Nasha and Kenta smile. John looks back over his shoulder then says to the others “But let’s leave as soon as we can.” They leave town within the hour.

A few days later the oozes are moving about near their nest with dozens of new smaller oozes among them, many still full of flakes of skin. There are some high in the trees acting as lookouts for the nest. One of the lookouts picks up a scent in the air and releases a spritz into the air and goes into a hole in the tree. The oozes on the ground spritz in the air soon after and start rounding up the smaller oozes and pushing them towards rocks and logs that they slip under and into a network of underground tunnels and gather in chambers.

Soon the head healer along with some trappers enter the area. One of the trappers says to her “are you sure about that guy’s information?”

The head healer says “do you really think he would cross us after we help his friend? Let’s keep looking.” They continue through the area.

One of the lookouts comes down from its tree after the group has passed and flatted itself to feel the vibrations in the group. It then heads to one of the hidden openings and releases a spritz into it. The lookout returns to its tree as the oozes start returning to the surface.