Although Sian’s voice was the merest whisper, Losai had still heard him.

“What?” He asked, frightened.

Then it happened. As if something had taken control of Sian and he no longer was able to act of his own volition, it was as if he was a spectator to his own life that he saw himself rise up straight, grab Losai by the arm and run as if their lives depended on it. “We have to leave this place at once!” shouted someone who sounded remarkably like him. It was at this point that his coherent memories ceased and chaos took over.

Everything that happened after this split second of duality was a mixture of wild pictures and cascading impressions in his mind, and it was impossible for him to put them into any sense of order. Here, he was pulling Losai with him through the fog; there, he remembered the fog getting thinner but clearly a poisonous violet in colour. In another fragment he felt that his companion had managed to break free of his grip, or maybe had even fallen, yet he had carried on regardless. He couldn’t grasp it all, just as he was unable to tell how he had managed to leave the Goo and reach this place. All his certainties were focused on one fact, he was alive!

He had been in the middle of the Goo infected region, far beyond any place any Homin had gone before and he had survived. Now, though, he was lying on the ground, helpless, waiting for the next Torbak to choose him as breakfast? No, he would fight for life.

Using the power of this thought he tried to stand up again, and finally he managed with great pain, to struggle into an upright position. Paralyzed with shock, he remained rigid in this pose as he saw his legs for the first time.

What was that?

The skin of his legs, once clean blue in colour, was mottled with dark spots from the feet to the thighs, here and there crossed by a violet vein.

“What is that?” he mumbled to himself.

“A souvenir...” Came the unexpected reply in Miu’s voice...

He looked around surprised, but couldn’t see anyone.

“Miu” he asked aloud. “Is it really you?”

“Oh yes, I am here” The familiar voice was almost shocking.

“But…where are you?”

“Here and here and here……Beside you.....around you.....within you....”

“We are all here.” It was Losai this time.

“All of us - with you for ever…” added Kia.

“But how?” asked Sian, searching the area around him with frantic eyes in the hope of finding his fellows. This time the response was clear, and sounded within his own head.

“You bought us with you. Together in the goo...“

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