Something rumbled menacingly.

At first it sounded faint, but as time went by, the rumble grew more prominent. Anxiety stirred within Andrew's heart. His legs felt weak, but he pushed through, acting as though it didn't bother him. He'd rather not trouble his two new companions any further. Although, he suspected that Nyx that was resting around his neck had noticed it.

Indeed. Nyx had, surprisingly, shrunk when morning came. The 15 meters serpent was now no longer than 3 meters long. She mentioned something about the day being outside of her govern. It kind of made sense though, considering she was an iteration of a Goddess of the night.

Gods are weird beings. Duly noted.

With her smaller size, it would take more time and effort on her part for the group to reach their destination; the staircase towards the next floor. Unable to continue watching the Goddess struggle, Andrew offered to carry her on his person, to which Nyx readily agreed and jumped the wagon - or, person. What surfaced then was the fear of her strangling him with her body length, but of course, it too was bottled in the same fear bottle. Suppressing emotions like this obviously wouldn't be unhealthy in the long run. Yup.

Initially, Andrew wasn't sure if he wanted to come along with the two, but after recalling the short conversation he had with Nyx last night, he figured he would unveil the mystery of this world himself by taking an action. He just didn't think that the action in question would end up being a march under the seething hot sun for hours with an approximately 20 odd kg of weight around his neck the whole time. It surprised Andrew how far he had persisted compared to how he expected he was physically capable of, but in the end, he still inched closer to his mortal limits. He had already had Ghetto stop for a rest and shared his water too many times, so when Andrew noticed the rumbles, he couldn't dare to bring it up.

But the menace was incessant. As though to mock him in the face, the next rumble thundered loudly like a hungry beast ready to wolf down anything that moved and leave not a single bone unchewed. The three travelers couldn't help but look at the source of the sound - two of which snickered whilst the last, Andrew, could feel his face heating up. Yes, it had been his hunger. He hadn't eaten anything ever since he came to this world.

"You could've asked, you know," Ghetto spoke as he opened his bag and produced some kind of green stalk. "Though, to be fair, I'm not sure I've got much of anything you can eat. Here, chew on this."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Sorry, I didn't want to trouble you." Andrew received the green stalk. It was green and stalk-y like a piece of young soft wood. He was skeptical, but beggars can't be choosers.

Andrew put the stalk in his mouth and bit into it, and much to his surprise, it actually tasted sweet - save for the tough and chewy grains. This must be the jerky equivalent for beavers. To be honest, he didn't know what he expected. Of course, why would a beaver bring about human foodstuffs?

But what about Nyx? She didn't bring a jerky equivalent for snakes with her. Did she? With that question in mind, Andrew's eyes naturally fell on Ghetto. He began to wonder what a 45 kg walking meat would look like in the eyes of a 15 meter big python. ...yeah, she didn't.

The jerky, er, beaver opened his rectangle mouth again. "Look, I understand your sentiment. I wouldn't want to beg for food from a stranger I just met yesterday too. But try to bite my tree and imagine having you collapse on me. That would have been a bigger leak on the dam than just a couple maplecane." Ghetto huffed, hands on his waist, before he looked down and scratched the fur on his head. "Sorry if I sound high handed. I used to take care of the little ones back at our nest."

"No, no, you're right. I should have known better." The stalk, maplecane, didn't actually help his hunger much. Chewing on the sweet stick was akin to throwing a bone to a starving dog; not an actual solution, just temporary relief. Maybe Andrew could eat the grains too if he had beavers' teeth, and beavers' stomach, and basically if he was a beaver.

Nyx, who had been silent the whole time, raised her head to level her eyes with Andrew's. "For those of us who have broken through the first turning point and formed our core, we can replace the act of eating with meditation. We fuel our body not by digesting food but by filling ourselves with siso."

Meditation. Was that what she was doing last night when she stayed in one position for hours? "Was that why you have been silent? You've been meditating?" Andrew was sure she should have heard the rumbles of his stomach.

"No, I was merely sun napping." The snake shifted around on Andrew's shoulders, inviting a gulp from him. Fear bottle, fear bottle! "I can only absorb night-attuned siso. Which means I can only meditate at night, hence why I have to make my journey during the day." That answered one of his questions, though at the expense of raising an infinite more. Nyx opened her mouth again, her slurry voice was right next to his ear. "I can see something still troubling you."

"Yeah, basically everything," Andrew confessed. "What is siso?"

"Great, we start from there." Ghetto's raspy voice sounded tired, and honestly, Andrew couldn't blame him. He just wished he'd be patient enough to deal with his child-like ignorance.