After the beetle incident and... me doing what I did, we went back in silence. I tried not to think of anything, consequently thinking of everything.

I wondered about a number of things, especially about Zanir. He could be a murderer, a kidnaper or just a crazy man living in a cave for some reason. Maybe we were close to the surface, maybe home was only a ride away, or maybe if I walked out on my own through those tunnels I might get eaten by one of those things before dying of thirst or hunger, lost and several kilometers away from the surface.

Among all those 'maybes', only two things were certain, I needed to get out, and Zanir could teach me how to survive the journey.

One of the many things I didn't understand about him was his reason for helping me, if that even was what he was trying to do. I hoped it was just human decency, to help one another when needed, but I wasn't so naive. Even if that was the case, why didn't he just escort me out of there? It would save us both time.

We reached his place and sleep came to me after I decided dwelling on any of it was useless, I had to accept what I could get if I wanted to leave alive and see Asha again.

When I woke up, Zanir was at the entrance, the children's book at hand, reading. When he noticed I was awake, he closed the book and turned to the wall with the bowl and jug, bringing both to me.

The food wasn't bad like you'd expect beetle goop to taste, if I really tried, I could almost feel a faint taste of fatty meat within the grainy and slimy yellow soup. I didn't know where he got the water but it was somehow delicious, it made me realize water indeed had flavour, not that I could explain it if I tried, aside that it tasted like water.

His voice was deep and low when reading the book while I ate, he stopped now and then to repeat himself and point to certain images, or parts of an image. Making gestures to indicate specific actions when the drawings lacked, managing to not look silly despite his size, build and age.

When I finished eating, he got up from beside me taking the bowl and jug, then picked the axe I had used last time, no longer wet and blue, I realized. He handed it to me and we went outside the crack in the wall that was his house, into the larger tunnel.

He pointed to his legs, to me then to the left path, Saying, "Zoran. Nollen". Run and follow, words he had just taught me.

When he didn't move, I took it was for me to run and he would follow, so I did. After the first ten or so steps, he hit me on the back, hard enough for me to almost fall.

When did he get that stick? I thought, looking at the weapon used to hit me.

"What?" I said.

He made the running pose he used to run towards and around the beetle, while gesturing with his hand going downwards.

"Sosow," he said.

I tried again, this time running lower to the ground, he hit me again, harder. I fell, and despite my strong desire to punch something, his imposing figure and overall situation made me accept in silence the punishments of an stranger. That happened over and over past the point I was too tired, before we headed back, and I blacked out from fatigue.

Eat, run, sleep. That cycle kept happening for one hundred and eight times, I counted, time was impossible to tell due to the lack of sunlight, so I used that as a way of measuring it. Of couse I tried leaving on my own a couple more times, I had to, but a different beast got in my way each time, so I eventually stopped.

In all that time I did notice improvement, It costed hundreds of falls but I could run in that overly low posture for longer, while holding the axe in the right position, parallel to the ground and to my side, elbow in a ninety degree angle in front of me. I also started to block his attacks, which apparently I was supposed to be doing from the beginning.

I didn't discover where he got the water from, but I now knew it didn't magically refill itself. From time to time he would grab a large pot in a smaller indent close to our place and wouldn't come back for what felt like hours, when he did, the pot was full. I tried asking but he didn't really answer, I'd try following him but I wasn't fast enough, even with the advantage of not carrying more than a few kilos on my back

In all those cycles my understanding of his language got better, too, I could understand most of what he was saying, which wasn't much. At some point, when I felt more confident with the language, I asked him about getting oustside, how far it was and how long it would take, but he didn't gave me any satisfying answers, talking only about a place named 'Arness' a few 'fades' away, which didn't help much, since distance was hard to translate and I didn't know anywhere called Arness, and it was hard even asking what country we were in. Despite the disappointment from the vague answers, it still gave me a little hope knowing he did seem to know how to get out, and it didn't feel like he was lying, it was just a problem of language barrier.

Another interesting thing was that I could now interpret the general story of the book too, and it made me doubt if it was really a children's book.

The story was about a boy named Sek, he lived with his two parents and four sisters, until their home was destroyed by a group of monsters, soldiers managed to make them retreat but the damage had already been done. The monsters promised the people that they would come back and destroy everything that was left, so Sek decided to look for them so they could talk, he wanted to make a deal, and the monsters listened. He asked what they wanted, and the answer was 'to eat people', Sek tried to negotiate, but they only got angrier, so he didn't see any other way but to make the deal. A number of people would be randomly selected to be offered as food to them, and the monsters would stay away. Sek put several rocks in a pot and told the people that the ones who got the red painted ones would be offered to the monsters, and the people accepted. His mother, father and four sisters all got red rocks. The monsters stayed away.

From my limited reading capability, the story simply left at that, it almost felt like it was being sarcastic with its ending. Still, I had a lot more to learn, and probably an awful lot of time to do it.

On the cycle one hundred and nine we didn't run. After the usual reading we went to the tunnels and I just couldn't bring myself to do it again, it wasn't because I was tired—though I was tired—I just couldn't shake the thought that maybe he didn't intend to let me leave at all.

The rot now covered my whole hand, I could barely move it anymore, the medicine helped to reduce the pain and the rate at which spread, but it didn't stop it.

How long has it been since we did the same thing over and over? How many days were all those cycles? How many months?

Asha can't wait forever, I thought.

"Zoran," said Zanir.

"Nam," I said, his language's word for 'no'.

"How long are we going to do this? I already know how to run and swing the axe, when are you going to show me the way? I have to go back, my sister needs me," I said, mixing the words he taught me with my own.

"Zoran" he repeated, this time more imperative.

"No!" I repeated a little too loud, knowing full well he could snap my neck like a twig if he wanted to.

"How long, Zanir?! At least tell me!"

He ignored me, looking away.

Are you serious?!

No, I had to calm down. I took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. There was no point in getting angry, as irritating as this all was, he was still my only safe bet of getting out.

He unsheathed his sword, changed to his fighting stance and closed his eyes.

I could hear something coming our way, Some things.

A couple of minutes had passed when his sword started to change, scales the color of bronze started to grow from the hilt, and the blade now had a orange tint to it. It barely took a second after the change stopped when the blade caught on fire, it simply literally ignited.

The source of the noise was now visible, innumerable bugs of about a meter in size came our way, long oval greenish bodies, eyes big as softballs and a pair of claws that were basically scythes, one long pair of legs directly bellow them and another one in the back of its body, the latter being even more longer and thicker, bent in a way that explained how it could jump so fast and so far.

They jumped a lot faster than Zanir had ever run, more than I could hope to achieve, which disheartened me a little.

Even though I trained for so long, I was frozen, I couldn't fight those things, I couldn't even get away from them. Had the beetle really been that weak?

The sword burst in bigger flames when Zanir leaped, I couldn't see him, he went from A to B in the blink of an eye, slashing one of them midair in half. He landed on one hand, barely touching the ground before propelling his body upwards with such strength that he reached the ceiling, unsheathing his other sword and jumping down, cutting two more bugs.

He seemed to get faster and faster, leaving burning bodies in his wake. It was all one sided. The bugs were powerless against him, soon they were all dead, dozens of them. Roots now on fire, he stood in the middle of the burning inferno.

I felt something wet drop on my head, followed by several more all around me. The white tendrils were secreting water from the roof, making it rain inside the cave, extinguishing the flames, all except Zanir's.

"Zoran" he said, burning swords in hand.

My heart was beating so fast I could almost hear the thumping in my chest, it was a mix of fear, nervouness, disbelief and awe.

"Mir," I said, his language's word for 'yes'.