After wandering in the woods for several hours, Soleiman was slowly being overpowered by hunger and exhaustion. Although his stamina was remarkable for a man of his age, his sporting days were way behind him. He kept track of the direction of the river by frequently visiting it. The biscuits in his satchel did not last for more than two hours on the road. Just as the day approached Zuhr prayer and the sun was on its highest, he stumbled upon a group of berry shrubs. He was glad that he spent this much time with his mentor who had travelled the entire globe for his preaching and had an abundance of knowledge regarding survival in the state of lack of food. His mentor had educated him about the harmful and harmless fruits found in the places that are scarcely visited by humans such as hills, mountains and forests. Fortunately for Soleiman, the berries in front of him fell in the latter category. By its distinct cluster shape, he could identify it as Num-Num berry. He consumed a few and stored as much as he could. The supplies were now enough to pull him through the rest of the day. Only some fragment of scattered knowledge saved him from plucking the black nightshade that stared him in his face, daring him to taste them with their unripe bright color.
He was concerned about how he would pass the night in this hostile territory. He had walked and rested in turns for several hours now and darkness was approaching. The preacher started looking for a place to set up camp. He knew that he needed to be further careful in deciding a place to spend the night because the giant size centipedes and other bugs roamed around shamelessly. He just had to walk a short distance further into the woods. The forest was pitch black in the night and a person would be invisible in it unless he is found directly under a torch. He soon found a suitable spot to stay the night. He knew that he had to compromise on the light because a bonfire would serve as a beacon for his adversaries and he had little use for a fire as he did not need to cook anything nor did he need any warmth. Preacher had kept track of the sun and had ascertained the direction of Makkah as well as the prayer times. He offered the Isha prayer. Preacher spread his sheet on the ground and laid on it. He stayed awake for a while staring into the sky wondering what was going to happen next. He wanted to curse himself for ever coming to this wretched place but he couldn't. He was well aware of the hazards and ironically that were the hazards and dangers of the job that had further motivated him to work in this field. Soleiman pushed all his negative feelings and thoughts aside and reminded himself that the mission was way more important than any individual. Nobody had forced him to him to go there. He loved doing what he did. He started to think of things that would comfort him, as a defense mechanism. Even the prophets had endured all sorts of ill treatment but at least he had managed to escape and was still alive which could not be said about the prophets when they were ambushed. This thought cleared Soleiman's mind as crystal as anything possibly could. Besides, he had always been a man of his word. He had promised his teacher that he would be back. The task seemed impossible but his mother always told him that one should make impossible to keep promises and swear not to break them, since they were already impossible to keep, they will eventually die down and that's where he should make another impossible promise and swear to keep it as well. The trick had pulled him through so many hard times than he could have imagined. The day had some vague, melancholic tint to it which kept dragging him back to the negative thoughts he was escaping from. He wondered how he had ended up there when just a day ago he was surrounded by his colleagues in his warm and comfortable hut. There was no worry or threat. It had all collapsed on him like a sinister turn of a nightmare where anything that one thinks might go wrong, does go wrong.
He tried to think over his plans for tomorrow. The preacher's mind was clueless. Nothing was coming forward. Even the "today" looked as dark as the bottom of the sea. He was sure that he had arrived at a dead end. He kept telling himself that his friends were safe but there was no way to make sure of that. He decided to lie to himself to keep the guilt at bay. Deep down he regretted arriving at the village. Trying to live off in this terrain, surviving like a dollar store Bear Grylls would not help him survive and escape the dangers for long. He knew that his mentor would never have sent him to the wretched place if he had known the level of the threats. Shiekh had loved Soleiman a bit too much. The thought of his mentor triggered a flood of memories. His mind was stormed with the images of Sheikh worried sick. "Occupational hazard", he kept telling himself but for some reason, his mind wasn't buying it anymore. Even though the terrible thoughts clung onto his mind like a gum to a shoe, he decided pull his head back to the present. He understood that the escape was not dependent of any man-made plan. A miracle was needed. At least, as far as the direction of his escape, he was relieved. He was almost certain that he would find the exit from this circle of hell in that direction but in the worst case, the exit might turn out to be an entrance to the next circle.