Stanley and Sheila finally stopped by a dense forest next to a small stream of water. They found a highland that while still wet, was the driest patch of land they could find.

"Find out some dry woods if you can," Sheila said as she leaned next to the large tree. "We’ll need to make some fire."

Stanley nodded and started looking around. He went no further than this dry patch of land that was covered with heavy foliage at the top from overgrown trees with a lot of leaves.

After searching for a while, Stanley found a few somewhat dry pieces of wood and some more wood that he cut from the low-hanging branches around him.

He placed the sword back into his sheath on the back and went back to Sheila who was staying by the tree, slowly breathing in and out.

"I got the woods," he said as he walked back.

"Uh, thanks," she said. "I’m sorry I can’t be of much help right now. My arm is hurting unbearably."

Stanley looked toward her with a bit of a squint as the darkening sky didn’t leave much light for him to see anything properly.

"Wait, let me make some fire," he said and placed the wood on the ground. Then, he took two branches and started rubbing them together.

His hands moved quickly to rub the two sticks together. At one point, he even slowed down time to do it as quickly as he could and ended up creating the fire relatively easily.

He started placing the dry branches for now and soon enough he had a small campfire going.

He finally stood up and looked at where Sheila was. She sat there with her eyes closed, so he quickly went up to her.

"Are you alright?" Stanley asked her.

"Yeah, yeah..." she said softly. "I’m fine. Argh..."

Even as she said that, she grunted in pain, so Stanley knew she wasn’t fine. "Here, let me wrap that properly for you," Stanley said as he took the bandage from her other hand, which was surprisingly loose. She had no strength in her body at all.

"No," she still managed to say, however. "It’s... it’s too much. You... you need to... get rid of it."

Stanley paused for a second. "What?" he asked with a confused look on his face. "You want me to get rid of the bandage?"

"No..." Sheila said. "I... want you to... get rid... of my arm."

"What?" Stanley gave a weird expression. "Are you really sick or something? Why are you spouting nonsense?"

"It’s not... nonsense," Sheila said as she got herself a bit up. "Cut off my arm. It’s the best thing for me to do right now."

"Listen to what you’re saying," Stanley said. "You’re telling me to cut your arm. Are you okay with losing an arm?"

"Dammit, I can get it back later," Sheila shouted at him finally and grunted once again as even shouting was hurtful to her arm.

"You... you can get it back?" Stanley asked.

"Yes, I can heal it. We have someone that can even heal body parts. Now, just do it," she shouted.

Stanley thought for a bit and finally complied. "Alright, come to the fire. Let me look at it properly."

He took her to the fire where he finally saw the extent of the wound under the arm.

Sheila’s arm had been bent the wrong way, and she had forcefully put it back the normal way, with the broken bones sticking into her flesh. The fact that she wasn’t unconscious right now with the amount of pain she must have been going through was a testament to her skills and experience.

After looking at it all for a while, he finally decided to do it. "Do you want me to rip it off, or chop it off?" he asked.

Sheila thought for a bit. "Chop it off,"

Stanley was a little surprised at the apparent lack of hesitation, but he realized that she must have thought about it for a long time to be able to make the call so easily.

"Alright," he said and pulled out his sword. He took her hand and straightened just far enough that he had a clean cut above the elbows.

"Ready?" he asked. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Just as Sheila started to nod, Stanley slowed down time to a crawl and swung his sword a bit above her elbow where there was no wound.

He wanted to make a clean cut.

Before Sheila even finished nodding, her arm was already on the ground and Stanley was halfway through finishing bandaging her arm.

She looked to the side, horrified as it had been so fast that she hadn’t even felt anything happen. The pain came afterward, but it was not the pain of her cut-off arm, but rather the pain in her elbows where the arm had broken off.

Her brain had still not registered that her arm had been cut away and was still giving her phantom pains. She started breathing immediately, somewhat meditating as she did her best to ignore the pain that she still felt.

Stanley finally sat by the fire and took in his heat as he let his body rest finally. The fatigue was slowly catching up to him, but it would still take some time.

"Are you hungry or thirsty?" Stanley asked.

Sheila slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. "I’ve drank what water I can from the stream already. And I doubt you have any food. So there is no point in asking," she said.

"Well... that’s true," Stanley said as he looked at the fire. "You should dry your clothes. You can get sick if you don’t."

"I know," Sheila said. "But I can’t just take it off and dry. It’s hard to get in and out of with only one arm. Not to mention, I don’t want to undress in front of you."

"Oh, okay," Stanley said. "By the way, where are we exactly? Where are we going?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Sheila was annoyed a bit. "Let me rest."

"I’m sorry," Stanley said quickly. "It’s just... I don’t want to think about what happened today at all."