Lunch had already been over and still, Faye found herself unable to crack a smile or make a witty jeer at Nathan. It wasn't that she didn't have a restful night. Even sleeping beside him in the small hut didn't bother her. The day had worn her out too much for her to even notice his presence as she gave in to sleep.

By the time she woke up, it was already almost noon by her watch and the rains had not let up. Beside her, Nathan was already up looking out the window, his back to her. She could see his well-defined figure covered only by the leaf loincloth and somehow, she found herself speechless. Her promise to laugh at him the night before had not been forgotten, but quickly took a seat in the corner of her mind. Since then, she had been trying to make a quick quip, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything about his state of undress.

What's even worse is that she couldn't help but be embarrassed for him even though he seemed to think nothing of his situation.

"Faye, Nathan," Chinook called their attention after lunch was over, "My mother is not feeling well today. I want to ask if you can help with the gathering of the food. I will help you."

"Of course," Faye answered almost immediately to take her mind off her concerns.

Nathan looked at his food, which consisted of mostly of vegetables, before looking up back at Chinook. "Don't you have meat?"

Chinook only smiled at him. "We have meat. But we only eat meat if we know we have enough or we are able to hunt and it is hard to hunt because of the rain. The animal we raise have babies. They are almost finished being babies so we can have their meat soon."

Faye nodded admiring the tribe's sense of control and respect for nature. City people like her and Nathan would devour what they wanted without a second thought to the consequences, but these people would restrain their appetites for the greater good. She knew she was guilty of greed and overconsumption like Nathan, but she could not pass up the opportunity of commenting on it. "You should learn a thing or two about that, you pig."

He retorted with a snort. "Says the mule who works so hard to get everything she wants."

"I don't work for things, pig."

"So you are fine being naked and fasting the rest of your life?" he cocked his eyebrows.

"Haha! Very funny." She rolled her eyes and stopped, surprised that Chinook laughed. It was possible that the native had misunderstood her. It was even more puzzling that his mother tittered along with him, considering that she didn't understand a word they said.

Even Nathan looked at him curiously before deciding to ask, "Is there something wrong?"

It took Chinook a while before he apologized for his and his mother's outburst. He cleared his throat and smiled at them. "Our elders said that the spirits guided you to us because you need help. The chief's wife said that she feels you need to find peace and be together and now I know she is right. You always fight and that is not good. The spirits will keep you here if you do not stop fighting."

Nathan shook his head. "Look, I appreciate you are trying to help us, but I don't believe in your spirits. This is nothing but a coincidence. I'm sure we'll be out of here before you know it."

Faye was about to open her mouth to agree but a thought crossed her mind stopping her. "What about those bears? They just seemed to chase us."

"Maybe they've grown with humans and just escaped or something," Nathan shrugged. "There's a logical explanation for everything." He broke into a smirk. "Don't tell me you believe in this mumbo-jumbo now."

She wrinkled her nose at him "And your circus bears theory is a very logical explanation? There aren't any circuses here."

Nathan shrugged. "I never said it was a circus."

"So where from?"

"Heck I'd know. But there is a logical explanation. Just you wait when we get back."

Chinook and his mother only smiled at their exchange as if it proved their point which sent Faye to talk about something else instead of answering back. "So are you coming to pick food out of the ground or has the big city gone into your head so much you've become so high and mighty that the soil is so below you?"

"You wish! I was just wondering if there was any meat to be had." He turned to Chinook. "I'm getting those things with you. This mule here might get us poisons."

Faye rolled her eyes. "You're such a loser."

"And you're so hot in that."

She looked at him and found him staring at her, his eyes glinting as if he were some kind of predator. Her face heated up and her jaw set before swinging at him with a slap. Nathan's head snapped to the side and it seemed as if he were blinking out the spots of color that constantly danced in front of his eyes.

"Damn..." he groaned. "That's two for two." He massaged his jaw and caressed his inflamed cheek. "You do know I'm going to get you back for that."

"I'm sure you're going to do something worse than slap me back, aren't you?"

Nathan smiled wickedly at her. "I would slap you but that would be considered animal abuse." He tittered receiving a glare from her. "Also I won't be me if I just got back at you equally, would I?"

Faye shoved the thought behind her and offered to help Chinook's mother in cleaning up instead. It was always wise to follow conventional wisdom to get away as far as you can from those who seek vengeance against you. And so that, she did.

Until Chinook called for her to go into the forest with them to pick out their food. By then, Faye had her full defenses up against any form of comeback Nathan could come up with. But she knew she couldn't be prepared for everything, so she resorted to putting Chinook between them at all times. And concentrated on thinking about the rain and how it was a kind of bath for her rather than being a nuisance.

Most of what Chinook taught them to pick were fruits that seemed to grow on the ground and orchids. She had never thought of eating flowers in all her life, but then again, there were no orchids in her hometown and whatever flowers were there, no one ate. Eating these new things would surely be an adventure.

"Nathan, Faye, please wait here. I see some birds. Maybe you can have the meat you want."

Before either Faye or Nathan could say anything, Chinook dashed off and disappeared in the thickets. She tried to peer through the leaves to see what bird Chinook saw but she could see neither bird nor man. Finally, she sighed, giving up.

"No more human shield, now," Nathan said as he gathered some yellow flowers on a shrub.

She looked at him warily, then at the flowers that he was picking. "Did Chinook say to get that too?"

"It's a flower." He shrugged. "He said just pick out the flowers in this general area. And this is a flower. No harm in this." He chewed on a petal. "Tastes like a flower." He shrugged and continued picking them.

She shrugged and continued picking the flowers that Chinook pointed to her. One thing that was bothering her, though was Nathan's constant scratching. "Would you stop that?"

"Stop what?" He continued to scratch his arm.

"Scratching your arm," she muttered. "It's annoying. You're making me want to scratch myself. And I'm not even feeling the slightest itch."

"Well, sorry for having itches."

"Let me see that!" She sighed and took his arm, unable to get rid of the annoyance she was feeling at his incessant scratching.

His arm was red and it looked like he was developing a rash. Worse, it looked like it was spreading over his arm. "You're allergic to something here."

"I've never been allergic to anything in my life." He snatched his arm away and made a face.

"That attitude of yours has really got to go."

"Alright, alright." He sighed. "It's just that, I'm not feeling well."

"What are you feeling?"

"Nauseous."

She blinked suddenly hearing her aunt's voice in her head. "Whenever you feel nauseous expect that you have been poisoned. It's always better to expect the worst," Lila's voice rang in her head, and she echoed, "You're poisoned."

"Poisoned?"

She looked at the plant he was picking the flowers from and observed a broken leaf. "Yeah. This must be poisonous. You picked through this and ate that flower and I didn't. You're sick and I'm not. I think that's logical enough."

"Is anything wrong?" Chinook asked, two birds dangling from his hands. But before either of the foreigners could say anything, he hissed something that sounded like a curse from the native. He took Nathan's hand and saw the flowers. He looked into his eyes, horrified. "We have to get back. Quickly. Vegals is very, very poisonous." He picked up the torn flower from his hand. "Did you eat this?"

He nodded and put a hand to his mouth, dropping the flowers. His face scrunched up as if he was in pain.

"We have to go back." Chinook led Nathan back to the village hurriedly with Faye following behind.

For the first time, she felt worried about the man she had never cared for in all her life. Something inside her gutted her and told her that she should have torn him away from the plant. Her guilt continued to gnaw at her even as they got back to the village.

She sat down and looked on as Chinook's mother worked on Nathan. An impossible thought crossed her mind as she watched him retch and writhe on the floor. The thought frightened her but it seemed just. She shuddered and turned the thought over in her mind. There was still the whole night to think it through and she knew she literally did have the whole night for as long as she knew he was in pain.

Damn her guilt!

Hello guys! How was the chapter? What do you think is going to happen to Nathan? Poor him.

My exams, my exams, are going to start from 5th. I'm feeling like shit. I can't study so much. Lol. I hate it. I totally hate it. But there's no way out.

Okay, so please don't forget to for this chapter and share it with your friends.

By the way, my other book '', got the 1st place in '' for the fantasy category which was conducted by . Thank you so much. ❤ And also, I wrote a bonus chapter for 'Wicked Love'. If you wanna read something hot head over to that book. (:

Bye! I won't be update now until late March. See you soon.