Mikah considered his situation in silence for a long time. Everything that had happened to him until now was very bizarre from any point of view. Unique was a very vague way to describe it. It seemed to him that only yesterday he was on the ledge of the bridge without wanting to continue with his existence and now, however, he did not want it to end.

While it was all scary and weird, this new beginning seemed like an adventure he didn't want to miss. He remembered exactly and clearly every word and every moment of his life since Deom had given him a new one.

-That dog changed something in my brain… and for the better, he told himself.-

He wouldn't know how long it was before he snapped out of his trance and remembered every word exactly. He felt a bit of warmth around him and realized that over time, the "aura" Deom had given him became weaker... and he felt fear.

He walked over to the rocks and stood in front of them watching them carefully, as if he knew the answer was coming from them.

-Become the rock- he told himself…- Be one with the environment and become the rock, he repeated to himself, thinking carefully about what Deom had told him.

He stared at the rocks at his feet in fascination until an idea popped into his mind.

-“No! What Deom said is not that I must become the rock. What he said is that my first lesson is to create my own “aura”, and that the other option is to become one of these rocks, and what are these rocks? Why are they here?-

He couldn't tell how long he spent looking at the rocks until he thought he saw something faint. He concentrated even more and plunged into his trance even deeper until he realized what was happening.

-"That dog!"- he said to himself. He had noticed that the rocks had a slight "aura" and that the aura of each one was different and some were fainter than others. "Those rocks were other beings like him"!!!. Other beings who had decided out of desperation to become rocks, but what could be so desperate?

As an answer to his internal questions, the heat invaded his body with more force. How long had he been thinking? Days? Years? He didn't know for sure. Everything seemed so strange. He only knew that every time he concentrated hard the landscape stopped being the same and the lava consumed much more and other parts solidified. Changes that would have taken years came in what seemed like the blink of an eye, but he realized that was because his concentration was so great it absorbed him.

“I no longer need to eat or drink to live. But I still feel the heat getting more and more scorching and it has started to hurt, but it doesn't really hurt. The pain, if it doesn't hurt me, is only inside me, in the form of fear."

The next time he looked at the rocks, they seemed so fragile, full of fear, hidden from pain but intact.

Deom had seemed bitter to him, yes, even somewhat malicious, but not evil per se.

-“There must be a reason why he brought me to these beings to see them… the answer is not to become one of these rocks so as not to feel pain, but to know that the fear of pain itself is what makes you a rock."-

He turned and walked until he was at the edge of a river of lava. He sat on the edge and let the pain sink in. An unspeakable pain was getting into his skin and the pain was getting stronger. His face twisted, but at the thought of the rocks, the fear left him. Better to die a man than to be one of those rocks in the safety of stillness.

Deom looked at him silently with a smile on his lips. He hadn't walked away from the boy for a second, he had just erased every trace of his visible existence.

-good-

Mikah opened his eyes after an infinity and was met with a brightness that he could not describe. Moving was difficult for him, and he realized that he was surrounded by lava. He had sunk into it long ago and his human body felt like it was burning without burning. The pain was real, but after a long time, he had found a way to overcome it.

He closed his eyes again, knowing the answer was not in his sight. Deom had told him that the 'aura' was made of thought, so he delved into himself to find the answer he needed.