“Well that was clever,” Xoris said. “You used the well’s ability to transport people to anywhere very wisely. If the well thinks that nobody can harm you in the cave, then it is probably so. Also, congratulations on getting married… again.”

“Thank you,” I said, though Xoris’s last word had almost come sarcastically.

“Your wives add to your powers,” Xoris said, “being inside your mind it is inevitable for me to observe your behaviour. When you are behaving like a weak man, being near your wives elevates your mental strength. You have married nice women. My own wife had left me two days after the birth of my son. Oh, well… that’s a story for a different time, I guess.”

And Xoris stared into the distance, as though reliving why his wife had left me.

“You know… you can share with me,” I said.

“You mean the painful memory of my wife leaving me? Really?” Xoris said, his eyes were very expectant.

“Um, yes,” I said. “You must be getting pretty lonely staying in my mind. And since you are probably going to be here a long time if not forever, then you can speak it to me if it makes you feel better.”

Xoris had helped me. I would very gladly repay him even if it should be through a small action like listening to why his wife left him. I just wished if the sorcerer was not his son. Every time I recalled the connection between Xoris and Mintuk, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of anger towards Xoris for fathering the sorcerer. I couldn’t help it.

“She was the sweetheart of my childhood,” Xoris said. “During my younger years I loved her more than anything. Even more than sorcery. But as the years passed my love for sorcery began to outgrow my love for her, because she was so unlike me. The two of us did not share the same interests. My wife was more interested in the ordinary pleasures of life, while I was all into extraordinary things. Then she got pregnant and the day my son was born I declared I would teach him everything I knew about the various rituals that were involved in sorcery. She lost her head and said that she would leave me, and then on the second day she actually left me. She did not take my son with her, which was somewhat un-motherly of her. She left me a note saying that I could keep the son and that she was off to starting a new life, perhaps with some good man who wasn’t interested in weird things. I had a hard time raising my son. You cannot believe how hard it is to turn cow milk into the milk of a woman. The ritual required to do that is extraordinarily complicated. So I think you can understand why I want to teach my son a lesson, and a hard one at that. He shouldn’t have done to me what he did. Anyway… enough of my ramblings. It’s still night and you can dream the regular dreams of your sleep instead of having to hear me talk nonsense.”

Xoris disappeared and I had a weird dream that involved me flying on the back of an ugly unicorn while monkeys chased me on flying spears that had wings.

When I opened my eyes I saw that Slia was sitting just next to me, looking at the wall of the cave opposite to her with wide eyes as though she was not sure if she had made a good decision recently.

“What happened?” I asked. She almost had a start seeing that I was awake.

“Nothing,” she said. And then she added with some hesitation, “I was feeling hungry.”

“Ah… I see,” I said. “Unfortunately there is nothing to eat so you must do with a hungry stomach. Sorry, but that’s how it is.”

I was only joking. I just wanted to see her reaction. The way she looked when she was worried I thought she was cute. Yes, I was selfish this time and I was enjoying it.

Slia nodded, accepting my words.

“They told me it would be hard,” she said glancing at Dani and Lia with some sort of myriad admiration.

“So that's what they told you yesterday?” I asked, getting up to a sitting position. “When they took you away from all of us into your room?”

“Yes,” said Slia, “they asked me if I was absolutely sure of what I was asking for by wanting to marry you. They told me that it will be very hard and that bad things can happen and that I should take responsibility for my decision and never blame others for it.”

That was within expectations of what my wives would have said to her, especially Lia.

“Well,” I said, “they were right. But it doesn’t have to be that hard. Take this.” I took off the carrot hanging on my chest and offered it to her. She took it but was very unsure of what to do with it.

“It’s a carrot, you can eat it, you know,” I said.

“But—”

“Just eat it,” I said. Slia took an uncertain bite and then gasped as the portion of the carrot she had bitten regenerated. I laughed.

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“It’s a magical carrot,” I said. “You can eat it as much as you want and it will never get over.”

Slia began to eat the carrot with more confidence and I simply watched her. Dani and Lia were still asleep and I allowed myself to look at her without having to feel embarrassed for the first time. She suddenly noticed.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said and then I smiled and added, “You are one crazy woman, you know.”

“Because I came with you?” Slia said and I noticed a twinkle in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before.

“It would have been better if you went with someone who already wasn’t married multiple times,” I said.

“I do not know,” Slia said in a somewhat serious tone, “my heart asked me to come with you if you allowed—”

“Having a conversation with your new wife?” Lia asked. I hadn’t realised when she had woken up. She looked at Slia and me with a rather severe expression.

So that was how my private conversation with Slia ended before it could actually begin. The rest of the morning the four of us discussed possible courses of action to achieve the end goal of rescuing Rozy. We decided that we could take the risk of thinking that the cave we were in was safe from the Lazaki and anything else as long as we stayed in the inner part of the cave and did not spend too much time near the entrance. But of course, we could not stay in the cave forever. Also, we needed to find out in which direction the temple was from here. If any of our excursions to the forest ever went wrong we would flee back to the cave. The cave would be like our home in the wilderness of the forest and the dangers lurking in the mountain above our heads, at least till Rozy was with us again.

It was late morning that I ventured to the entrance of the cave and took a peek at the outside world. I saw a bunch of monkeys moving in the distance, going away from the mountain carrying cages. Were they going to capture people?

After they had disappeared into the forest, I ventured out of the cave, hoping that no unwanted eyes would see me. I did not allow any of my wives to come with me as there would be a greater chance of being exposed. My main goal for today was to find where the temple with the artefact was located. I covered the distance from the mountain to the forest as quickly as possible and then squatted down behind a giant bush and caught my breadth. Way up in the mountain I could see tiny houses and people. I doubted that they could see me from that height, and even if they did I hoped that they would mistake me for some animal.

I reckoned that the best way to be able to find the temple would be to get to a position of height. The mountain provided this nicely, however, there were fewer trees in the mountain than in the forest below because of which I was afraid that I might be sighted. So I went with the second best option, which was to climb a tall tree.

I painfully made my way up the tallest tree that I could find. It was no easy job and there was a time when I slipped on a branch and barely survived falling and breaking my bones. But eventually I reached the top-most branch that could support my weight and looked down at the forest canopy. About a kilometre from where I was I could see the top part of a pyramidal structure. While I couldn’t be sure if it was the temple, but I could see no other temple and I had to reckon that this was the one.

I climbed down the tree, gathered some fruits and nuts from the forest that I could find since eating carrot all the time was a bit boring and then I made my way back to the cave. I told about the location of the temple to my wives and we decided it was best to go there tomorrow as it was already past noon and we didn’t know how long it might take us to retrieve the artefact.

I stayed at the entrance of the cave for most of the remaining part of the day. I stayed in a sitting position, making myself as small as I could. It was towards the evening when I saw the monkeys that I had earlier seen return. Except this time their cages weren’t quite empty. They were filled with other monkeys, all of which seemed to be under the effect of some drug as they were all sluggish and they didn’t seem to be bothered that they were inside a cage.

***

“My wives and I decided we would go to the temple tomorrow,” I said to Xoris, “but today I saw the monkey slaves bring more monkeys. I do not know why but I want to investigate this.”

Xoris pulled his rabbit whiskers in thought.

“I do know that the Lazaki enslave monkeys,” he said, “but I had never heard that new monkeys can be enslaved by old slaves. Usually humans were required. Also, it was a very slow process and not many monkeys can be enslaved at once. How many monkeys did you see in the cages?”

“At least fifty all total,” I said.

“That's a considerable number,” Xoris said.

“Well, your son is now the one who the Lazaki follow,” I said. “Maybe he gave them some way to make more monkey slaves in less time and that too without the involvement of a human?”

“I would expect my son to do that,” Xoris said and there was the faint ring of pride in his tone. “You see, ever since my son turned me into a rabbit, I have kept away from the Lazaki mountain. I am too afraid to go near it. I am afraid that my son would change his mind and then he would decide that killing me would be a good thing to do.” There wasn’t as much pride in those words though.

“I feel I must find out how they are turning the monkeys into slaves before going for the artefact,” I said.

“Then do it,” Xoris said. “Sometimes it is a good idea to follow a hunch. Also, it will be a good idea to find out how they are turning the monkeys into slaves. If it’s possible then destroy whatever they are using to achieve this. It would be a loss for my son if you do that. And it will be a better idea to weaken my son as much as possible, before going for the final attack to rescue your wife. But, be careful.”

“Why is it that I always need to sleep to talk to you?” I asked. “Sometimes I need to talk with you when I am awake. Sometimes you making me feel the urge to do something doesn’t convince me if I should actually do it.”

“Well,” said Xoris, “maybe as more time passes with me inside your mind, you might eventually get a notification asking you if you would like me to have full access to you when you are awake. But, if you get such a notification, then decline it.”

“What? Why?” It didn’t make any sense.

Xoris laughed.

“Oh, that might have some undesirable consequences,” he said. “Say you are making love to your wives, you wouldn’t want me to chatter inside your mind during such times, would you? Just imagine!”

Those words felt like a blow to the face. I wouldn’t want that.

“Okay, I get you now.”

Xoris laughed again.

“See? So think things through before deciding whether you really want them!”

***