Elemental Cats

"Maybe we should patch you up a bit before asking how you feel?"

Hugh didn't even answer the first question about how he felt before Toz realized that the gaping wounds on Hugh's back were pretty telling. So he moved on without letting Hugh react.

He looked over the remains of Hugh's jacket and his fingers, where he found a spatial ring.

"Hope you don't mind if we use your potions?"

"...Oh! No, not at all. I can hardly move right now, so just help splash it on my back, please."

Hugh realized that even if the young man and the cats didn't exactly hold a lot of goodwill toward him, they weren't going to kill him immediately, at least. If he could get more time to recover his strength by acting polite and thus increase his chances of surviving, Hugh didn't mind at all, even though he often had a pretty rude and brusque attitude when dealing with others.

Toz slipped the spatial ring off Hugh's finger and retrieved a couple of medium grade potions, pretty extravagant ones for Toz, but not unexpected considering Hugh was the leader of a medium level squad.

Toz splashed most of the contents of one of the potions on Hugh's back and body and let him drink the rest of that bottle. He held the other potion in his hand as he looked at Hugh's skin tremble as it began to regrow tissues and stop all the remaining blood from leaving Hugh's body. The regeneration wasn't as effective as the Rat King's, and while the potion helped patch up Hugh, he was still far from recovered.

Hugh looked expectantly at the potion in Toz's hand as he waited for Toz to give him that one as well. While not even the second potion would heal Hugh completely, it would help him recover enough strength to give Hugh some confidence in surviving if the young man turns hostile.

Hugh didn't want to say anything to Toz since he was still trying to act polite, but he looked pointedly at the bottle in Toz's hand. It was obvious he wanted Toz to pour it on him, or at least give it to him, so Hugh could use it himself.

Toz only smiled as he looked calmly at Hugh, half-sitting on the ground.

Eventually, Hugh couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Ehm... What about the second potion?"

"This one?" Toz said as he held it up and shook it. "What about it?"

"...Can you give it to me?" Hugh was gradually getting irritated and was about to drop the polite act completely. Obviously, the young man in front of Hugh wanted something from him. Hugh had an idea about what that could be, but he wasn't dumb enough to tell Toz about it just because it might be that.

"Why should I?" Toz crouched down and locked gazes with the frowning Hugh.

"Because it's mine, and I need it."

"Really? Does it have your name on it?"

Hugh sighed.

"No. Just tell me what you want already."

The conversation wasn't progressing, and Hugh was the one at an obvious disadvantage, so he had to give up first. Although the first potion had begun healing his wounds, without another, his injuries could worsen and open up again. If Toz continued delaying, the effects of the first potion could wear off entirely and put Hugh back on the deathbed.

"Then... Will you answer a few of my questions? Truthfully, of course." Toz had kept his slight smile on the entire conversation, but it grew, just a bit, after Hugh caved.

"Depends," was the only thing Hugh could say in response.

"Sounds like a resounding yes to me.

"First off. What are you doing here on First Ignition?" Although Toz already knew Hugh was chasing after Mindle's egg, it was a good opportunity to find out how truthful Hugh would be.

"Did you miss that whole rat extermination gig?" Hugh had completely discarded any feigned politeness as he glared at Toz. Although he refrained from swearing, it was only barely that he managed to hold it in.

However, his answer revealed to Toz that Hugh had no idea who he was. It wasn't too surprising that he didn't recognize Toz's face after the few seconds in Amber's office. But Toz was still a central figure in the whole situation with the Scorched Earth Rats, and if Hugh had been diligent, he would have recognized the facial features of the person responsible for first reporting and warning about the situation of the wasteland.

Since Toz knew about Hugh, but Hugh didn't know a thing about Toz, it was clear who had the advantage in the questioning. The injuries and possession of potions aside.

Although Hugh had answered with the technical truth, it wasn't enough to satisfy Toz.

"Is that all? You aren't looking for anything special, are you? Something round and orange, perhaps?"

Thanks to his years of experience in the world, Hugh barely flinched. Unfortunately for him, that was still enough for Toz to notice.

"Seems I am on the right track. Why don't you tell me about that orange orb?"

Hugh still wanted to pretend he didn't know since he held a few remnant shreds of hope that he could get out of the situation he was in without giving up the treasure.

"What orb?"

The smile disappeared from Toz's face as he pocketed the potion and the spatial ring and stood up. He didn't exactly need to keep Hugh alive. He just wanted to find out who else knew about Mindle's egg and who might come for them in the future. But as long as they kept moving around and didn't advertise their presence, it would take quite a while for even a more experienced tracker to find them. And by that point, it wouldn't be unexpected if they had grown stronger than the ones chasing after them. Toz held the utmost confidence in both his and his cats' talent.

It would also help if Hugh was alive to take credit for the defeated Rat King since the consequences of that would definitely not be as easy to deal with. A calamity about to annihilate an entire plane had been beaten just like that? The guild and everyone else who was forced to flee with their tails tucked between their legs would want to find out who did it.

Toz wondered what he should do to dispose of Hugh's corpse properly, so he wouldn't be found out as the killer.