He crawled to his knees, but fell back helpless. Two weeks passed, and nature seemed to have helped him recover his strength. He could stagger around on his feet, though his body was as stiff as wood.
Soon afterwards he stumbled blindly against the glittering object again. He pushed himself away from it, and, when he touched it, a gasp of surprise escaped him. In his hands was an old woman. She was so old that her body was shrivelled and her face one mass of wrinkles. The hair on her head was white as a bleached cloth, and she was weak with the burden of her years.
"My son," she quavered, "What is it that you are prepared to sacrifice so much for? What do you want in this enchanted Forest of death?'
Miquel mumbled his story all over again and the old woman told him how very sorry she was to hear it.
"I am going to give you this sap, not because you have been deprived of your rightful wife and want vengeance, but out of pity for your sufferings. She went to a tree and made three marks on it. Have you got a container for the sap?"
Miquel produced the gourd he had kept for so long, and she filled it for him.
Run! Run out of this forest before I harm you!
Quick As the old woman spoke her face changed.
Hair grew out around her eyes and her body took on the form of a leopard. She uttered a wild growl and chased the terrified Miquel out of Kurmin Rukiki. He found his way back to the hunter's lair.
The hairy hunter was very surprised to see him back.
You're the first man ever to go into that wood and come back alive, he declared.
Miquel wasted no time there. As soon as it was dawn he made his way back to the home of Derrick's father.
He travelled for several months before he reached it, and, when he at last knocked at the old man's door and it was opened to him, all the people stared at him as if he were some monstrous stranger.
"Who are you?' came the old man's voice from within.
"I am the man whom your son sent to get some gum from a deadly tree in Kurmin Rukiki."
"How can that be? The man who came here was young and handsome; he had two ears and two eyes.
Miquel felt ashamed of himself. "Can you remember how long ago that was? Do you think you yourself are still as young as you were then? Sit down, man, and don't waste any more of my time. I am the man to whom you gave five pounds and a horse. Also a gourd. Now, all those things except only the gourd, were taken from me. This is not the time to ask me what happened. What you should ask is, "Did you get what you went for?"
The old man was surprised, but still unconvinced.
Then Miquel put his hand into his clothes, and from his undergarments produced the charm that Derrick had given him.
"Do you remember this?"
"Ah!" exclaimed the old man.
At once he ordered the servants to attend Miquel and feed him as best they could. Miquel remained there for four days, and then he said to Derrick's father: I am ready to go. But first I have a duty to your son. Where is that brother of his whom he wanted to see?
The man was called forth and that night due preparations were made for the departure the next day. Miquel and Derrick's brother left in the early hours of the morning each man riding a horse, with a plentiful supply of money and provisions.
Derrick Sauki did not recognize either his own brother or Miquel. Who are you? he asked.
"I am Miquel Bakir whom you sent to Kurmin Rukiki.
This is your brother. You remember my promise?"
At that Derrick's hard face softened with joy. He asked: "Is this how you have suffered?"
"What does that matter when I 've got what I wanted?"
'You have got it?"
Miquel produced the gourd and Derrick looked at it with great happiness. Derrick asked his brother about the family, and learnt that his mother was long since dead but that his father was still living. He gave the two travellers beds to rest upon. In the morning he prepared a parcel of clothes and food for his old father and bade farewell to his brother.
"I have not the courage to come back home," he said. "Give the old man my blessings. I have indeed wronged the community and cannot show my face before them. This town is the place for people of my kind who have fled from the evil they have done."
The brother thanked him, and he went on: "Whenever you can find the time, come and see me. Some day, perhaps, I may be able to come home."
His brother left, and he set to work preparing Miquel's medicine. He mixed the sap from the poisonous tree with a little antimony that women use for their eyes, and a few other ingredients known only to him. He was careful not to touch the pure sap with his bare hands, but when the mixture was made, he said it was safe if quickly washed off.
"This is how you should use the mixture, " he said, when he had finished. Do your best to rub it on the skin of Bryan Adrian's son. You can easily do that when the boy is asleep. At the same time, cut some hair from his head and bury it in a newly dug grave.
That is all you need to do.
"But how am I to do all this without being seen?"
"I have thought of that. I have here," said Derrick, holding up a black talisman which we call layan zand with this on your person, you can go where you will and no one will see you. You will be invisible.
"Is that all I have to do?"
"Yes."
"And what is your fee?"
My only fee is the punishment which will be upon your own head; just as we agreed from the first.
"Goodbye."
Miquel went back to his native Galma.