At first, there is nothing. It's a pretty neat nothing, he doesn't even feel the pain of the chomp. That lasts a couple of hours. He reports this to Addy.

Then there is heat.

As his nerves start returning, he pokes at them from the inside, using his power's awareness. It's quite a curious feeling, and he can actually notice the venom working its way along his body. The way stuff changes, he suspects there's some genetic rewriting going on, which is absolutely fascinating.

As more nerves return, the heat starts becoming really uncomfortable, so he kills the nerves again. Yet they keep returning. He keeps killing them.

They return faster. And faster. He reports this with some alarm, and he reports that he's not quite able to keep up with them anymore. That's disappointing, but so far-



FIRE

He has no idea what has just happened, why there was a sudden return of all his nerves at the same time, but he was not prepared for it. He was not prepared to be seared from the inside, to be blindsided by such pain that he completely loses control of his body. When he opens his eyes again, he's lying on the ground, and he's sure they're lying to him, because they tell him the woods are not on fire, but they are, that's the only possible explanation.

He tries to kill his nerves again, but he can't. Or rather, he can, but they return as soon as he does that anyway.

He reports this to Addy between clenched teeth.

It has been three hours and twenty-seven minutes.