Onaki was a little embarrassed because of the cuddling and looked petulantly like a little girl on the cave's sandy floor. We could hear the terrible howling of the winds of the sandstorm, and the sandstorm was rapidly increasing. We were lucky to find a cave like this on the first go.

''Look, there is something strange written here on the cave wall. ''They, these creatures, they are real devils.'' ''Someone must have been here, too,'' Onaki said, tapping me on the shoulder. The way it was written reminded me of the older man who saved my life a few days ago. I wonder if this was his doing. Was he trying to tell us something with it?

I looked at Onaki with a nod and turned my face wakefully toward the cave entrance.

By now, the day had turned into night and the cold of the sandstorm combined with the cold that formed in the desert at night. Fortunately for us, there were many branches and stones in the cave, and I gathered them and rubbed as hard as I could with two branches to make embers. Done, after 30 minutes of struggling, I started a fire for us, and we were able to warm up with it.

We had to spend the night in the cave. Completely exhausted, we lay down to sleep. Onaki fell asleep immediately, but I could not fall asleep. I was thinking about what happened in Altravessa. About the poor woman and the merchant who was so full of vitality and gave me the healing potion. Also, that my brother could die and that a human being is murdered today made me mentally upset.

These beings who considered themselves the rulers of this world were nothing but monsters and murderers. ''No, please don't. Don't kill me,'' I heard a desperate voice calling out to me. I suddenly found myself no longer in the cave but in a dark room with a window. I approached the window hesitantly, not knowing exactly what was going on.

Looking out the window, I recognized the place that was on the monitor. Ten poles were visible, and around the poles was an audience of people and this being from the high council. ''Please forgive me, I will also serve them forever!'' shouted one of the people attached to one of the stakes. Fear and terror could be clearly seen from his face. This man was scared to death and was about to be executed.

I rammed the darkroom window with the only desire to save this person, but the window did not break. Suddenly a fire started around the audience and the ten people attached to the poles. None of the people had a head left. All of them were decapitated and suddenly turned to me and pointed their fingers at me.

''Why didn't you do anything Aramoto? Why did you let us die miserably?" these headless corpses accused me. I held my head with my hand and cringed together, looking for escape I screamed, ''No! I have not given you up! I am not a murderer!'' I shouted psychically broken into the dark room.

The window disappeared, and the floor beneath me dissolved so that I began to fall. I screamed in fear so loudly that it dragged me out of the nightmare, and I was back in the cave. I looked around briefly and realized that Onaki was still asleep. I couldn't sleep a wink since my nightmare and stayed awake for the rest of the night, watching over the fire I was lying on and over Onaki.

I heard Onaki talking in his sleep. ''Father... Mother...'' She must have had a nightmare too because she was crying. What was she going through? I felt sorry for her, so I snuggled up to her after all, even if I couldn't sleep any longer.

''Please forgive me, I just ran away,'' she mumbled to herself. You could hear a sob. She was crying from sadness and pain. I wonder what the facts of the case were. Why did such a confident woman like Onaki run away? There must have been more to it than that. My thoughts were circling around her more and more the longer we had something to do with each other. I wanted to understand her better, but I didn't want to sound her out.

That's why I took my hands and covered my ears. She would tell me on her own what happened to her. I shouldn't listen so shamelessly, I thought, and I turned over and closed my eyes to try again to fall asleep.