My eyes caught the old man's as he stroked his facial hair. His point was valid, I suppose, if it were the fact that the cure was in such a small amount that the poison itself would just cancel out-- possibly become weaker but not destroyed. Since the beginning, I had not been drinking my tea, but the old man just continued forward. My mind raced with hypothesis. Perhaps no matter how much you drank, it didn't change the effects. Once ingested, there was no getting worse or better based on how much one took into their system. It was during these thought that my own chest felt like it was being constricted. Like a large invisible snake was wrapping ever so slowing around my torso. Naturally, I squirmed uncomfortably and pressed my hands up against my adolescent chest to make sure there wasn't some malleable force I could stop.
His words were cryptic and confusing, and I only smirked in thought. Shinobi-- being both alive and dead was impossible. How this test could test for both was beyond my reasoning. I could only assume his age was a factor in these wise words of which I understood little. My breathing grew haggard, the burn making itself apparent. There was one obvious route. I could take the bottles, and destroy them, and take this old man along with me to death. But then I would be dead, and that just wouldn't do. Mixing the drinks was my best option, but who knows how it would turn out. It would be possible that it was futile to do so and then we all die anyway... "Come on Zaku, there must be a solution..." I thought, making a fist, slightly hunching in pain.
..."This oaf will find me harder to kill than a simple poison."...
"W-what?" I said aloud with a cough. But there was no response. The burning in my chest began throbbing dramatically, my right hand coming to clutch at my skin underneath the shirt. "GAH!" I gasped in pain, the burn growing to nearly unbearable intensity. My left hand braced the floor before me as I hunched over in pain. Last I looked none of the others had such acute symptoms.
As I hunched in pain, my mind only took me to my training of pain management. I had found the mediation method to work best; to will away the pain usually made it easier. With slow, unsteady movements, I sat straight up and began forcing deep breath into my system as the pain course through my veins. It wasn't just my chest now...it was everywhere. My hands came together, finger tip to finger tip as I began focusing on the one tactic I had the most success with. "Focus on your pulse...feel it with each finger..." I chanted in my mind.
Sweat beaded and fell to the cushions below as my eyes squinted painfully together. My breathing was faster now, and less ragged-- more controlled and focused. And, in a moments notice, I could feel my racing heart in my finger tips. And in time, the burning pain, the congestion, it all left my body. I had been closed off to the others the entire time, so I wasn't sure how they were fairing. As soon as I felt like myself again, I opened my eyes took look at the state of the others.
His words were cryptic and confusing, and I only smirked in thought. Shinobi-- being both alive and dead was impossible. How this test could test for both was beyond my reasoning. I could only assume his age was a factor in these wise words of which I understood little. My breathing grew haggard, the burn making itself apparent. There was one obvious route. I could take the bottles, and destroy them, and take this old man along with me to death. But then I would be dead, and that just wouldn't do. Mixing the drinks was my best option, but who knows how it would turn out. It would be possible that it was futile to do so and then we all die anyway... "Come on Zaku, there must be a solution..." I thought, making a fist, slightly hunching in pain.
..."This oaf will find me harder to kill than a simple poison."...
"W-what?" I said aloud with a cough. But there was no response. The burning in my chest began throbbing dramatically, my right hand coming to clutch at my skin underneath the shirt. "GAH!" I gasped in pain, the burn growing to nearly unbearable intensity. My left hand braced the floor before me as I hunched over in pain. Last I looked none of the others had such acute symptoms.
As I hunched in pain, my mind only took me to my training of pain management. I had found the mediation method to work best; to will away the pain usually made it easier. With slow, unsteady movements, I sat straight up and began forcing deep breath into my system as the pain course through my veins. It wasn't just my chest now...it was everywhere. My hands came together, finger tip to finger tip as I began focusing on the one tactic I had the most success with. "Focus on your pulse...feel it with each finger..." I chanted in my mind.
Sweat beaded and fell to the cushions below as my eyes squinted painfully together. My breathing was faster now, and less ragged-- more controlled and focused. And, in a moments notice, I could feel my racing heart in my finger tips. And in time, the burning pain, the congestion, it all left my body. I had been closed off to the others the entire time, so I wasn't sure how they were fairing. As soon as I felt like myself again, I opened my eyes took look at the state of the others.