Once out to sea Eptih and the man began to talk, the man telling Eptih much of his own experiences concerning the Velidians in the time Eptih had been away and this discourse went on for some time as they sailed along the transport routes. Once they had spotted land the old man veered off course in order to avoid the crowded harbor and when close to land Eptih jumped overboard. He thanked the old man for his courage and generosity and swam away.
The old man sailed back to the harbor and when he arrived was confronted by some Mortals who had seen him veer off course and therefore they wanted to know what he had been doing. The old man made up a story but it wasn’t believed and so the old man was taken to the Queid who tortured him for information before killing him. What information the old man gave to the Queid is not known but once they had finished him they sent out a scouting party to the place the old man had sailed to. There they searched for evidence and found large footprints and they followed these.
Eptih, after reaching the shore, made his way to a nearby mountain that overlooked the harbor. There he saw many ships brining in the Narcirogen and from there they were taken away by large trucks pulled by differing types of beasts of burden. Eptih noticed that, as had been indicated by the people of the island, the coastline was in complete control of the Velidians. Eptih stayed in this spot for the rest of the day and stayed the night.
Early in the morning, before the sun had come up, Eptih heard a group approaching and therefore descended the mountain and when he arrived at the bottom came across a group of around five Narcirogen. He asked them if they were familiar with “withheld” and if so could they give him directions. To this simple request the Narcirogen became belligerent and violent attempting to strike Eptih as they circled around him. Eptih, however, tried to communicate with them and make his lack of hostile intentions known but when they became even more hostile and attempted to alert the search party following him he was forced into conflict with them.
Eptih did not suffer their insolence long and destroyed them quickly, hiding their bodies in the wooded areas close by wondering if he had accidentally alerted the search party to his presence. Eptih noticed when he dispatched the little creatures that no spiritform had been released and it reminded him of the Three Beauties and so he wondered if these would resurrect as the three beauties had done. Eptih waited a short time and the little creatures remained dead and so he went on his way.
Eptih was surprised at these little people’s lack of fighting skill and obvious lack of intelligence, but overwhelmingly belligerent nature. For what purpose could they have been (created) bred if not to excel at some aspect of life and if the did excel at something their aptitude eluded Eptih. To Eptih it seemed as though this deficient soulless race served no purpose and so the mystery as to why they were created continued.
Eptih continued inland from the shore hoping to find someone who could direct him to his homeland. When he came upon a group of Mortals, they fled as soon as they saw him. Eptih continued on avoiding the Queid that seemed to be an occupation force as best as he could. Eventually Eptih managed to come upon another group of Mortals that did not flee from him, although they did seem very uncomfortable around him. When asked if they knew of his homeland they reported they did not. As Eptih was talking to them one of them went and informed a Queid that there was a large unknown Mortal asking questions. While Eptih tried to get information about his location a small band of Queid soldiers came up and attacked him. Eptih destroyed their bodies releasing their Spiritforms and then ran off to hide from the inevitable search that was sure to begin now that he had killed Queid.
Eptih felt like he was right where he had left off before his long journey had begun, once again hiding out fleeing from the Queid. The difference this time however was the amount of Queid and their absolute control of the land and the people. Every Mortal person Eptih encountered seemed like some mind numb herd animal, incapable of individual thought. It seemed as though the Mortals had been broken and were many were now slaves and yet some Mortals seemed to enjoy relative freedom of movement. Eptih needed to find out what the situation was but first he had to find out where his home was. His primary objective was to see if his mother was still alive, he missed her very much and wanted her to know he was still alive.
