Melissa was sitting on a grass patch at a riverbank staring at the river. The water was flowing along slowly. Through the clear water she could see the fishes swimming in it. The sun was setting and the rays of the sunlight dyed the land and the surface of the water with a beautiful orange.

Along with the incoming cold night wind, the rays of the sun, as though it was actively still trying to do its task to the best of its ability for the last few minutes, gave the woman sitting on the riverbank a sense of warmth. The day was ending, and she thought she would come out to enjoy the sunset. And at night, when the stars came out, she could also stare at the infinite deep space and wondered at the beauty of the countless stars.

But a human in a beautiful and peaceful place like that, would somehow tend to also be thinking about other things at the same time, most likely recalling certain memories.

Zeth came along and sat beside her, and started to prepare for his fishing activity. This man loved to fish. Melissa had wondered what was so nice about grabbing a pole and sitting down doing nothing while waiting for a fish to be hooked.

Zeth had taught her the art of fishing, but she ended up telling him she would sooner learn the science of flying than to appreciate the art of fishing. Nevertheless, she would sometimes accompany him out to the river when he felt like fishing.

And there was one thing weird about him, according to Melissa. Every time Zeth caught a fish and successfully held it in his hand, he would throw the fish back into the water.

‘Aren’t you going to eat it?’ Melissa asked when she saw for the first time Zeth throwing the fish back into the river.

‘No.’

‘Then why are you fishing?’

‘For fun.’

‘What?’

‘For fun.’

‘Are you trying to be funny?’

‘No.’

She had not believed him at first. For fun? There could be no such thing as ‘for fun’. Everything a human did had to be for some practical purpose. But after knowing him more, she had no choice but to believe her own eyes as well as what she was told.

Fixing the bait on the hook, Zeth cast the line far out into the water. Then he sat down and watched the sun set together with the woman, enjoying the light breeze on his face. It was a peaceful evening. A trail of blood started to flow from Melissa’s lower arm and connected itself to Zeth’s lower arm. They began to talk ‘telepathically’, without saying a word physically.

Zeth asked, ‘What are you doing sitting under the sun and staring at the water?’

‘It is peaceful and for some reason I thought back to the time I first met you.’

‘It happened so long ago. 2 years.’

‘You know, sometimes you just get sentimental all of a sudden. And then you think back about the past. Well I know I won’t forget the day I met you, and am glad that day you were the one who helped me.’

Melissa was walking along the empty street at night, and was very weak. She was leaning on the wall for support as she slowly walked. Her vision became hazy, and she kept blinking her eyes to focus. She forced herself to continue walking.

She could not stop. Or rather, she did not dare to stop. No matter what she had to walk. To move forwards. To put more distance between her and whatever she was escaping from.

But she was just a human, there was a limit to how much her body could take. Even though her mind told her body to carry on moving, to go further, her body could not take it anymore. Her body had already tried its best to meet the expectations of the mind, to move and to work way beyond its usual operating capacity. But now, it had to stop. If it did not stop, the body would be damaged and most of its functions would be damaged. It was the body's own way to tell her, if she did not rest, she was going to regret.

Her knees gave way and she fell to her knees. She breathed hard for a while, and then looked back once. Then she looked to the front again and pushed herself up from the ground. Hands on the wall again, she pushed herself forwards. She had to find a place to rest.

The mind had said, 'Just a bit more. Just a bit more.'

Ignoring the screams of pain from her body, she continued to force herself to go on. She had travelled a lot without food and water. But it seemed her mind would not listen to the body unless some drastic action was taken.

The mind had forced it. The body had no choice. She collapsed.

Her body was exhausted and covered with injuries. And then she blacked out. Her body could no longer care what happened. All it needed now was to rest. That was the top priority. It was the top priority because it concerned her life.

Zeth was going home late after work when he tripped on something and fell. Wondering what it was, he looked at what he tripped. He saw a body lying there, and on checking found the person was alive, in serious and almost life-threatening condition.

Ideally he should take the person to the doctor, but at that time all the doctors were sleeping. They had no hospital, only a single doctor working in the day, in that small village where the total population was not even the size of a school. He took her home and let her rest on the bed, while he slept on the floor.

At dawn Zeth woke up just before Melissa. The moment she opened her eyes and saw him she attacked him, but was too weak and had no strength and fell to the ground face-down. Again, her body told her to just be quiet and stop moving.

Melissa was awake, but could not move properly. All this time Zeth had not said a single word, but just looked at her. He tried to help her up but her body gave a reflexive jerk as he touched her.

'Don't...touch...me,' she said, in that voice so small she could almost not hear it herself.

He watched as the woman tried to get up slowly and walked towards the door.

He thought to himself: What is going on? Even though it is apparent I had saved her, she is still acting like that? She had acted reflexively when I touched her, and from the injuries on her body… what is going on?

It did not occur to her, that if he had wanted to do anything, he would have done it long ago. It did not occur to her, that if he wanted to kill her, he would not have waited. Because in her experiences, everything was done when she was wide-awake, when she knew what was going on and when she could not defend herself no matter how she tried.

That was what he did not know. He thought he it did not matter since she would go her own way once she recovered. But anyway, since he had brought her home and saved her, he had to do it all the way. There was no such thing as saving a person halfway and sending her out to die again, making her go through everything once more. That would be cruel, saving her so that she could experience another round of pain. So, what he did was to knock her out again, and forced her to rest.