Neve didn’t panic and he didn’t let something similar to it appear on his face.
He looked at the man on the ground, then at the two women, their expressions ready to frame him. He saw the field of uncertain faces and made a quick decision.
He walked to the man on the ground and crouched beside him. He checked his breathing first. It was steady. The pulse at his neck was present, slightly fast but not alarming. His colour was off but he wasn’t in danger.
"He’s not dying," Neve said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "He fainted. There’s a difference."
"Because of the poison you put in the meat," the tall girl said.
Neve stood up slowly and looked at her.
"Everyone here ate the same meat," he said. "Everyone used the same salt. Same fire, same preparation, same amount." He looked around the clearing. "Is anyone else feeling sick?"
Silence.
People looked at each other. They even checked themselves and shook their heads slowly.
"No one," Neve said. "Just him." He looked at the unconscious man. "And he’s not holding his meat."
The clearing looked at the man’s hands.
It was empty as he said.
His skewer was on the ground beside him, dropped when he fell. The meat was still on it, mostly uneaten.
Neve turned and looked at the two girls properly. "Everyone else has their own meat. Everyone else cooked it themselves, salted it themselves, ate it themselves." He kept his voice even. "He’s the only one who didn’t."
The shorter girl’s expression shifted slightly.
Which was enough for Neve to notice.
"Who gave him their meat?" Neve asked the crowd generally.
Nobody answered immediately.
Then a man near the back raised his hand slowly. "I saw Mira hand him something before the cooking was done."
The tall girl who was Mira turned on him immediately. "I was just sharing—"
"Sharing? You ate yours," Neve said.
She stopped.
"I can see it," Neve said. "Your skewer is empty. You finished your piece." He looked at the shorter girl beside her. "Hers is also empty." He looked at the unconscious man on the ground. "His skewer still has meat on it. He barely ate anything. But he still went down."
He let that sit in the air for a moment.
"You shared with him," Neve said to Mira. "You gave him a piece of yours before he finished cooking his own. And he ate it because you offered it and he didn’t think twice about it." He tilted his head. "The salt isn’t poisonous in normal amounts. We all proved that. But too much of it very quickly in a small piece of meat... given specifically to one person—"
"You can’t prove that," Mira said. Her voice had lost some of its steadiness.
"I don’t have to," Neve said. "You just proved it yourself."
The clearing was completely quiet.
Mira opened her mouth to argue but she closed it. Since the salt here hasn’t been properly refined, it was different from the normal salt in his world. A small amount is poisonous just as they feared.
The chief, who had been standing at the edge of the clearing this entire time, stepped forward.
He looked at Mira. Then at the shorter girl beside her. Then at the unconscious man on the ground. His face was flushed, showing how angry and disappointed he was. He was also deeply tired in a specific way.
"Is this true?" he asked.
Neither of them answered.
Which was, Neve reflected, an answer.
{System Notification: Bonus Mission Complete — Proved Yourself.}
{Reward: Sewing Kit — stored in inventory.}
Neve read the notification and filed it away for later. He would look at the inventory properly tonight. Right now he had more immediate things to deal with.
He crouched back down beside the unconscious man and looked up at Gideon who had appeared at some point in the last few minutes and was already crouching on the other side.
"The salt amount she gave him was higher than what we used," Neve said quietly. "His body rejected it. He needs something to help clear it out."
Gideon looked at him. Then looked at the plants around the clearing. Then looked back at Neve. "What do you suggest?"
Neve scanned the area. His new knowledge moved through what was available the way water found the quickest path downhill, fast and automatic.
There. Near the base of the large tree at the clearing edge. A low-growing plant with wide pale leaves that he knew on sight now without having to think about it.
He got up, crossed to it and pulled several leaves free. Brought them back to Gideon. "Crush these. Let him chew them when he wakes up, or press the juice out if he can’t manage it. It’ll move the excess salt through faster."
Gideon took the leaves and looked at them. "I know this plant."
"Most people use it for stomach complaints," Neve said. "It works for this too."
Gideon started crushing the leaves between two flat stones without further questions, which Neve appreciated. Around them the clearing had started murmuring again, a different energy now. Not uncertain. More like people recalibrating.
The chief had already made his decision.
"Six days," he said to Mira and the shorter girl. "Both of you will be confined."
"Six—" Mira started.
"Winter begins in a week," the shorter girl said, voice dropping all its sharpness immediately. "We have no mates. We have no one to prepare for us. If we’re confined for six days we’ll have nothing—"
"You should have thought about that before you made this mess," the chief said.
"Please. Have mercy on us, chief. You shouldn’t trust the words of that red fruit," Mira said, glaring at Neve.
"Yes, chief. Please..."
"Six days." He looked at two of the warriors nearby. "Take them."
They went. Mira looked back at Neve once as she was led away, the angry expression on her face now would probably become a problem later.