Safely on the surface, Marius turned his blind face up to the sun and smiled. "I can feel the warmth. Thank you, Aled, I was beginning to fear I would never get out of those tunnels. Where are we? Can you tell me?"

"I'm sorry but this area is unfamiliar to me," said Aled, truthfully enough. He only just stopped himself from blurting out that this entire world was alien to him. It was probably more sensible to keep that to himself for the moment. He didn't want Marius to think he was crazy.

"Would you describe it for me? Are there any landmarks?" Marius turned around slowly, searching, even though he couldn't see anything except light and shade.

"We're in the middle of a large plain as far as I can tell. Lots of shrubs and low trees. There was a large granite outcrop, to the south of us now, and a huge mountain range to the north, with snow on the peaks, if that helps."

Marius pursed his lips. "How far away are the mountains, can you guess?"

Aled didn't know whether the people here used miles or kilometres, so he answered as best he could. "I'd say at least four days brisk march. Maybe more, depending how rough the ground is. I can't see any roads, or tracks."

"Sounds like as if I've wandered a long way south."

Aled couldn't hold back any longer.

"Your eyes... What happened to you?" he asked, for the second time. He stared at Marius in horrified fascination.

"I had a disagreement with... someone. He wanted me out of his way."

"'Out of his way'? What if I hadn't seen your signal? What if I hadn't been here in the first place? How long would you have wandered around in those caves?"

Marius was silent.

"Until you died of thirst or fell down a crevice, I suppose," Aled answered his own question.

Marius shrugged uncomfortably.

"He meant you to die, didn't he?" guessed Aled, suddenly sure he was right. "Whoever it was, didn't want to take the step of actually killing you himself, but he wanted you to die. Didn't he?"

"I don't want to talk about it," said Marius his face closing up. He was thrown back to those first few hours where he had sat, shocked motionless, with the blood running down his face, but still believing, he doesn't mean it. He's going to come back for me. But he hadn't. No-one had come looking for him, and so Marius had started walking, trying to escape from the horror.

"Can you help me?" asked Marius in a rush. "Do you think you can you take out the stitches?"

"Let me have a look," offered Aled, trying to ignore the queasiness curling in his stomach. "You're taller than me. Can you squat down?"

Marius dropped to his knees and looked upward. Very gently, Aled took Marius' face between his hands, feeling his stubble rough against his palms. The sudden rush of lust caught him by surprise. Hardly the time or place, Aled, he scolded himself, silently.

He took a deep breath and tilted Marius' face toward the sun, forcing himself to look closely at those eyes. The stitches were pulling his eyelids down tightly onto his cheeks and Aled didn't know if he dared to try and cut them out. What if his blade slipped? What if they became infected? What if Marius was blind?

Marius was waiting patiently for his answer, seemingly unaware of the effect he was having on the other man.

"I'm sorry," said Aled unevenly, dropping his hands, "but I think you need to see a doctor."

(Word Count 8220 to this point)