Policeman and the cat

34 - Knox

"Okay, what do I do?" Ian asked, putting away his phone.

First Purple had them sniff up the most delicious scenting spot. "Should be easy if you found yuads delicious," he said and Nelly soon found it, right by the roots of one Pine tree. Then Ian and Nelly had to dig till they got to a huge seeming suitcase. It scented incredibly-- delicious and disgusting like a corpse at the same time, Ian could not tell if he should throw up or feel like eating--

Ian could sense that Nelly wasn't pleased with this one bit, but there was a kind of resignation in it as well. 'It can't be helped' sort of feeling. They would regrow, Ian didn't doubt that.

"Now, I'll have you collect the maggots, they are a special breed - very valuable, but also dangerous, that will be the payment for my help," Purple said and had a black jar appear, then passed a circular piercing tool to Ian. "You can't let a single one escape, they are the thing that lets out that delicious smell as they excrete, if they find another human and infest them, then yuads will start popping up there, but--" Purple added that they are like a plague, they find sleeping people, infect them, infest them, then eat them. Having them run wild once wiped out a group of seven villages, till they had a mage burn down the whole region to cinders.

"My hands will be infected, huh?" Ian asked.

"Yes," Purple said. "But this ought to be safe otherwise - you have just the right type of flesh those critters love - endlessly regenerating. A bit of your blood will lure most of them out."

And Ian made the hole, wounded his finger, some blood poured in, and then a black fat maggot started crawling out, as soon as it was half-out, Ian had to grab it and throw it in the jar.

"Why do I need to grab them with my hands?" He asked and got a reply that they do not let out a distress signal if they have just managed to infect something, so the maggots will keep coming. And for half an hour they did - one after another.

And then Ian almost threw up, opening the chest - there was an almost completely eaten up corpse in there - even its eyes and most of the brain was eaten up, reddish bones tried to break out from the shackles that bound it.

"They are still alive, right?" Ian asked, mystified by his own ability to refrain from throwing up this time.

"If Mandy counts as alive, then yes," Purple replied.

"Pour a bit of your blood all around the body, a maggot is hiding," Purple said and they did find two more - one crawled out of an eye socket, another one near the feet. As the last maggot was gone, the skeleton eased.

Purple had the jar disappear.

"Will you give him some aether to restore his body?" Purple asked.

Ian nodded. "Of course."

"Knox, don't get greedy, Ian can drain aether better than you, if you rush, you know about the rebound effect," Purple said and the skeleton nodded.

"Break the shackles and take his hands," Purple said and Ian did, feeling his excess aether slowly draining as a young male's body rebuilt itself - he was shorter than Ian, black hair, green eyes.

"Thank you," the male said and Ian let go, there was about a fifth of his excess aether remaining. The male felt about-- kind of similar to Mandy presence wise if Ian had to guess, so - something Ian was used to and wasn't phased by. But he had the perfected kind of beauty August's familiars and Purple had. Likely a hero class person, if that worked with undead as it did with humans, but he wasn't a fighter type. Yet - everything about him felt beautiful to Ian.

"He needs clothes," Ian said.

"I can exchange those for the now ruined suitcase and shackles," Purple said.