The night sky was deep black above the jungle, dotted with myriads of small stars, which sent their bright light towards Atys. The picture that Sian Gai-Lua was presented with when he opened his eyes was simply incredible. For some minutes he enjoyed the sight Ma-Duk gave him, and remained lying on his back listening silently to the sounds around him.

 

Everything meshed together in a harmonious vision of peace.

When he tore himself away from the sight it felt like waking up from a pleasant dream to the harsh demands of reality. Every attempt to move his body was punished by immediate and relentless pain, so he abandoned the attempt for the moment to look around a bit. Where was he? The jungle looked the same wherever he looked.

He tried to remember how he had come here but it was a waste of time. Except for a few single pictures which emerged incoherently from his mind there was nothing. He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to concentrate.

For a long time his thoughts circled around one burning question: "How did I get here?" But no matter how hard he tried to concentrate, he didn’t find the answer.

"Ok then" He tried to calm himself down. "Slowly but surely and one after the other."

In his thoughts he returned to the moment when he had left Hoi-Cho with his companions to hunt. He was still able to remember how they had roamed the dense jungle, always being on guard against wild animals and always searching for some worthwhile prey. It was after that his recollection faltered and became incomplete. The more he tried to sum up what had happened, the more the incoherent pictures in his head found their place in the shattered mosaic of his memory.

They had been on their way for some hours when it stated to drizzle. Then the  rain had fallen in torrents, as if Ma-Duk had decided to drown the world. And with the rain the fog had come. First it didn’t really surprise them, sudden changes in weather like this was nothing new after all, so they had continued their hunt. Gradually, however, the fog got thicker and thicker. In the end it had been so thick, that they were unable to see more than a few steps ahead and they had decided to stop hunting for now and return to the village.

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