Food's an important aspect of the cycle of life. To eat is to live, yet most people don't actually go out and scavange their own food. Children's media likes to portray nature as animals running around wild and free, coexisting in peace. Well they've got the wild part right and if you consider a deer running for dear life then that's true too. Coexisting is the problem. Some animals will devour their young if there's no other food around, and some sharks begin canibalizing their siblings in the womb. We all want to live and to do so we need to eat, even if it sometimes curls the stomach.

"Well... Do you think we can eat it? I think my grandparents once mentioned some family members ate iguana and called it bamboo chicken." Eian asked finding the idea repulsive, but not as much as he would have a few hours ago.

"That's disgusting!" Jessica yelled, once more feeling ill at the thought.

"I think so. Your right, I think certain countries eat them as a delicacy and those goblins were probably going to eat it." Sarah observed, she didn't mention they would have probably eaten them too.

"Ugh" Alex sighed as his throat was still raw.

"Well it's either spider or iguana your choice." Eian taunted Jessica enjoying her discomfort.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Eian. How are you going to cook it?" Sarah asked.

"Umm... " Eian stuttered looking for any combustable material.

"Exactly. We don't have anything to burn except these weapons and I wager its impossible without thin strips of tinder." Sarah stated, helfting their five new spears.

"You want to just leave it here? This is perfectly good meat! Also we haven't eaten since we got here!" Eian exclaimed feeling hunger pangs.

"Of course not. Just cut it up into thin strips or something. We'll carry it till we find something to cook it with. If we can't find anything we'll have to try the sticks on hand." Sarah reasoned, but she didn't sound too enthusiastic.

"Carry it in what exactly? We only have two hands each and we need them to protect ourselves." Jessica inquired nervously, unwilling to touch raw bloody meat.

A brief silence ensued as they all debated the minor set-back. Alex grunted and pointed at Eian, which drew questioning looks at him. Sighing he pinched his shirt and pulled at it lightly a few times, then he pointed to Eian. The idea wasn't Eian's favorite.

"You want me to go around shirtless?" Eian questioned and suddenly felt self concious, to which Alex shrugged and pulled at his as well.

"Well I guess we can fashion something out of those." Sarah smirked noticing Eian's nervousness.

"Ughh... A few hours and we're already reverting back to cave people. Are we going to use their pants next, because I sure as hell am never going to strip." Jessica fussed irritably.

"Hey! What's your problem?! Your the most useless one here and bitch the most!" Eian demanded, but reigned in anything more aggressive he had to say.

Everyone stood stunned at his outburst. Eian calmed down and looked away in shame. Jessica huffed and looked away from him and felt both embarassed and angry. Alex patted her consolingly and stared at Eian frowning disapprovingly. Sarah attempting to evade more confrontations decided to move on.

"Eian, sorry but Alex is right, please take off your shirts." Sarah asked kindly.

"Alright. And....I'm sorry." Eian said redfaced, even as he struggled to get the words towards Jessica.

"Hmpft." Jessica grunted and resolved to ignore the bastard.

Both Alex and Eian took off their shirts and handed them over to Sarah. Eian as the sole uninjured male was incharge of butchering the lizard into large carriable chunks. He had a tough time carving it out with the little tip of the spear, not to mention the shaft was in the way. The last of Eian's Adrenaline rush died down by the end. Eventually they managed to load up what they could carry and Sarah noticed something odd in Eian's figure.

"Eian were....were you also so thin?" Sarah tiled her head as she inquired, hoping it wouldn't be taken as an advance.

"Huh?.... Wow! I'm not exactly atlethic back home!" Eian was inspecting his figure noticing both a distinct reduction of fat and outlines of what could only be muscle.

"That has to be an effect from the tattoo. There's no way you could have changed so fast normally." Sarah said excited at vivid proof of her theory.

"The adrenaline thing wore off though." Eian said as he inspected his tattoo, which read Body:3, Mind:3, Spirit:0, though the Mind was still glowing.

"What's it say?" Sarah inquired excitedly.

"Body changed to three and stopped glowing and Mind is still 3 but its glowing." Eian replied eliciting a smile from Sarah.

"That must be why you're so hungry. Your body had to take the mass from somewhere and the glowing must be an indication of an upgrade." Sarah thought aloud, musing possible benifits.

Though not as toned as Alex, Eian certainly had a more distinct figure now than at the start of their adventures. Sarah and Eian discussed how he was feeling and what each attribute could entail in total, but they lacked results to draw conclusive answers. Alex was extremely curious, but his throat wasn't going to get better if he spoke. Jessica was intrigued by the possibilities, but refused to participate in discourse with the bastard Eian. Eian's belly growled and he suggested they keep going in search of tinder. They packed the meat chucnks into the shirts and both Sarah and Eian carried them, but were ready to dump them incase of an emergency.

Everyone was walking when Alex noticed his tattoo had also stopped glowing. It now read Body: 3, Mind:3 and Spirit:1. It left him feeling odd and due to his current speaking disability he had time to contemplate his strange experience. He wondered what that vine door could have possibly done to him and why he hurt so much afterwards. He tried a few crazy ideas attempting to perform magic staring at mushrooms willing them to grow bigger. Soon he grew tired of failure and gave up, whatever spirit did he couldn't say. The group neared a crossroad's with five diffrent turns frigthening the group.

"We could get lost in here..." Jessica moaned sorrowfully.

"Hey its another geko.. I mean..um Iguana." Eian called out as he saw the it near the tunnel between the middle and utmost right.

"I don't think they can live in here. They have to be able to get out somehow." Sarah hoped, the group visibly perked at the idea of another exit.

"Let's just not get lost please." Jessica said on the off-hand.

"Don't worry I'll keep track of where we're going." Sarah replied to her with a smile.

They approached the overgrown Lizard and it visibly moved away from them a bit. As they near again it sped off and the team attempted to give chase. Alex could'nt keep up on one good leg unfortunately. They soon lost it on a curve which led to a split of two tunnels.

"Fuck!" Eian hollered upset at losing their possible ticket to the outside.

"Relax Eian. We might still find it." Sarah tried to remain confident despite the circumstances.

"Not if we keep running into splits. This whole place is a damn maze!" Eian replied vexxed.

"Let's just pick one and try to see if it leads to an exit." Jessica stated, with fading hope in her eyes.

Alexander stood silent with remorseful pain in his heart. He'd let them down, for all his effort they couldn't keep up because of him. He felt helpess on one good leg. He was the fittest and stongest, he should have been contributing the most, not dragging them down. He looked at his injury, a haunting reminder of carelessness. He clenched his injured calf in depsonence and the pain began.

"MRRGGH" Alex grit his teeth in agony.

"What!? Alex?! What did you do? What did you do!?" Jessica screamed as Alex fell to the ground moaning.

"Is he okay!?" Eian rushed over worried.

"Did he pick Spirit again?! How?!" Sarah questioned.

"I think it's his injury!" Jessica said watching Alex hold his leg in pain.

They quickly removed the rough bandage of spider silk and a strip of torn pants. Sarah, Eian and Jessica gaped at the injured calf. Alex looked down upon it and had his brows furrowed as if contemplating something profound. The injury had visibly healed far more than should have been physically possible in such a short amount of time.