"Wake up! Wake up, Alex!"
Alexander abruptly woke from a heavy, dreamless sleep, mumbling his first words still groggy, "Huh!? Did you call me Al—what?! Why are we in the rain?! A—and where's the old man's house?!"
The wind howled directly over them, the rain was thick and getting stronger, accompanied by muffled sounds of thunder.
Alexander ran ahead into the forest where he had come from, shouting, "Let's get to that giant tree; I think we can take shelter under the span of one of the roots!"
Evandro could only run after him; he had no time to respond, as Alexander had already jumped off the rock and fallen onto the dirty, muddy grass.
Evandro hung onto the rock and calmly started walking, looking up, trying to see where the tree leaves covered him better.
After a few minutes, he arrived wet — but without getting soaked and dirty like Alexander in his euphoria — and approached one side of the tree.
There he saw that Alexander had simply given up looking for shelter and just accepted the rain.
They leaned — well apart from each other — against the tree, near where the bags had been left, falling into a deep reflection.
Everything happened quickly for Evandro, especially because of the dream that scared him and would hardly be forgotten.
And little by little, as the rain lessened.
When the rain had finally stopped, Alexander cursed under his breath. Without realizing it, Evandro approached and touched his shoulder, making his hairs stand on end.
"Are you crazy?!" Alexander frowned, his fists slightly clenched.
Evandro didn't answer, and Alexander only shrugged. "Whatever... What are you going to do now, 'Great Hero'?"
He rolled his eyes and turned his back to pick up his backpack from the ground. Alexander showed imperceptible spasms of anxiety — what intrigued Evandro was that he noticed this, realizing that his senses were slightly heightened.
His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed a strange shape on Alexander's back, under his shirt.
"Wait! First, there's something on your back, and it's under your shirt!"
Alexander thought it was just some insect and lightly shook his shirt. Slowly, a piece of paper slipped out from his shirt and fell onto the wet grass.
Alexander turned around, his expression sour. "Why is everything through letters?! Such laziness from Destiny..."
Evandro quickly picked up the letter and immediately saw that at the top of the letter, there was a black-painted symbol of a house similar to the old man's.
Alexander's fists clenched again, and he visibly grew irritated. "What now!? The old man magically disappears and leaves a letter? Is that it?"
Evandro quickly read — ignoring Alexander's grumbling — and saw that it was the recipe for making the alchemical mixture that ignites. It didn't just ignite — it was instant.
He fell into deep, doubtful thoughts.
'How would the old man know about this?
I don't think there's anything in the prophecy that tells us about this...
I think old Kápoios hides more than he lets on...'
Alexander was still euphoric, letting out increasingly exasperated sighs as he paced back and forth, sometimes stroking his chin, sometimes flailing his arms.
"READ IT! Please! Read it already!!"
Evandro just shrugged and nodded.
In a loud voice, he recited everything that was written.