Even though the apes headed to the south first; after creating some distance between themselves and the capital, they changed course to the west. It was not an obvious decision, but no one asked the leader about his choice. Then again, it's not like they could just go through the walls. The border was guarded vigilantly; at least that's what Ashwin had heard. The boy kept asking himself countless questions. Man-eating apes don't live inside the walls, so how will they get out if they plan so? How long are they going to walk? Where is their final destination? Do they even have a place to return to or just trying to get away from humans? And how did they end up in the pit in the first place?

The boy didn't dare to ask all these questions aloud. His position in the group didn't change. Some animals were annoyed by their secret being revealed, but most continued to treat Ashwin the same as before - ignoring or pushing him around. Fortunately, the beasts were distracted by their own unstable situation to cause any real trouble for Ashwin. To add to their problems three of the injured apes fell ill. Despite treatment, their wounds began to fill with pus and flies circled around them. Ashwin shuddered every time he remembered old Batsa's stories about how insects laid eggs in the flesh of living creatures. The boy did not have warm feelings for apes, but it was still hard to look at the animal's suffering.

The troop moved along the border for the next night as well. They were so close that Ashwin could see the wall itself, the lookout towers, and the road alongside it. They also saw the patrols and security posts. Scarface watched each group of people carefully, but every time he commanded them to move on. Ashwin's tiny hope of sneaking away and seeking help from humans crumbled each time the leader of the apes glanced at him before giving the order to continue their journey.

In the afternoon, the animals finally stopped. A few of them searched for food nearby. There was no proper hunting game around, so the apes picked fruits and caught lizards. After taking a short pause to rest, Ashwin approached Scarface. The two beasts acting as guards only glanced at the boy. Stopped by no one, the boy approached a magnolia tree trunk, which served as a stool for the ape. Scarface enjoyed figs offered by a lower-ranking animal. It was already late in the season for them, so Ashwin immediately felt the sour smell of overripe fruit.

The boy looked at the ape's head, avoiding direct eye contact, and said in a firm voice, "Please share the fabric you got from the city with me. I need clothes."

Scarface didn't even look up from the fig, continuing to bite and chew the fruit.

"Why? It's not cold."

"To maintain my dignity," Ashwin replied. "People dress not only due to the harsh weather."

Ashwin remained standing, even though any lower-ranked animal should have retreated by then. 'But I'm not an animal.'

"I don't ask for much," the boy continued insisting.

"You ask more than anyone else could get." Scarface finished eating and was now licking fig crumbles and juice off his fingers. "And what can you give the troop in return?"

The question was expected. In Ashwin's eyes, these beasts were hardly aware of compassion or altruism.

"I can try to treat the injured."

Finally, Scarface turned his muzzle towards the boy. He grinned, as if the human had said the stupidest thing ever: "You can treat them better than we do?"

"I can try."

"Then do so," with a curt command, Scarface once again turned away from the boy.

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Getting permission from the leader of the troop, Ashwin walked around their improvised camp. Most of the animals were asleep, and a few who had returned from food scavenging stared at the boy with a mix of hostility and curiosity.

The banyan grew even here, far from the cultivated lands. Some leant against rocky trees and seemed perfectly content with this coexistence. Ashwin plucked its leaves and, with the help of a sharp stone, chopped a piece of aerial root. He then used a flat rock to grind his find into a mushy substance. Upon Scarface's approval, the boy obtained pieces of cloth and some water, which he carried in folded leaves. He would have preferred to boil the water but had no container. After a long search, Ashwin found a pair of earrings among the looted goods. Using his fingers and a rock, he stretched the thin metal until it resembled a crude version of tweezers. The preparations were finally complete, so the boy approached the injured monkeys.

Ashwin confidently said he would treat the injured, but it was an exaggeration to call what he knew a proper medical training. Still, he needed an opportunity to prove his worth. The boy was sick and tired of being pushed around and had no intention of becoming a monkey slave when they reached wherever they were headed. He wasn't sure if apes even had the concept of slavery. They were considered rather clever and highly aggressive species, but their cleverness was never seen as comparable to human intellect, aside from a few oddities. In the pit, apes behaved as expected, but right after their escape, they acted differently from mindless beasts. Their speech wasn't just a bunch of copied phrases, and Ashwin, astonished at first, decided to accept their intelligence as a fact. Denial wouldn't help him survive or return to civilization.

The first part of the treatment was the most difficult. The boy cleaned the pus with water and used improvised tweezers to remove as many fly's eggs as he could find. He saw animals doing the same with larvae, but the eggs were too small for them to pick up with their fingers. It must have been incredibly painful. Ashwin was prepared to ask for help holding injured animals or being hit by his patients in rage. Apes screamed and growled yet didn't move. After cleaning was finished Ashwin applied the mushed banyan leaves and aerial root and bandaged wounds. When Ashwin stood up, he noticed that the sleeping beasts were awake and watching him. But he wasn't sure if this was a good sign or if they were just annoyed by their rough awakening.

Soon, the break was over, and the animals started to move again. Ashwin, being too busy with his medical performance, missed the chance to look for food. For the last year, he had grown accustomed to feeling hungry. Something he only heard about during his childhood. Ashwin had never considered it carefree, because he studied hard and learned how to fulfill the duties of a future head of Cheda House. Yet, he never had to worry about thirst, hunger or lack of anything in general. The young boy closed his brown eyes, trying desperately to put aside thoughts about his family. The secret is to concentrate on the present - it was filled with problems. Otherwise, despair and grief would take over him.

For the next two days, Ashwin continued to treat the injured apes. To his relief, the wounds of two of them began to heal. Unfortunately, the third one became feverish, and its wounded eyes looked worse than before. The infection spread like a forest fire. The boy knew only a few things about medicinal herbs from his teacher, Batsa. At this point, the ape needed more advanced treatment, and even then, Ashwin was not sure if it would help.

That night, Scarface brought some plants to his injured subject. Ashwin thought that the leader had found and fed them some kind of medicine. But when the short break came to an end and the group began to move, they left a corpse behind. Scarface did not heal, but only alleviated the beast's suffering. Ashwin looked at the corpse as it was dragged to a tree and buried among the intertwining branches with feelings of sadness and emptiness. Was anyone mourning her? What happened to his father? Did he really follow his wife? And what kind of death was he sentenced to by the man he had served for years with such diligence? And what became of the teacher whose knowledge he had used over the past few days?

The next break they took after the funeral, Scarface approached the boy. Without any praise for curing the two apes or berating him for failing to heal the third one, the leader of the troop threw a piece of fabric at him. To Ashwin's surprise, it was even good, a thin and pleasant to touch yellow muslin. His joy was interrupted by Scarface's grin.

"Can you even sew?"

The question took Ashwin aback. He asked for a cloth and received one. But he forgot completely that it would be just a piece of fabric. Without servants or tailors, it would remain that way. The boy took the cloth and tried to wear it like a mantle but ended up wearing it as a shawl. He ignored the snickering from the apes. Even though he couldn't create proper clothes, this made him feel much better. The effort he put into getting the cloth was worth it.