Mamba remembered some of her dreams when she awoke, of her sister pulling her on board and towards one of the crowded life-boats, scales of crushed wood entering her back. She clearly remembered the pain now she had when her sister pulled her into the crowd of people, pushing away every resistance against them entering the boat, while it was already lowered down into the ocean. Once Reiki was sure, Mamba was safely on board, she hugged her, whispered "Good luck, sister!' and jumped back to the doomed ship. Mamba tried to hold her, but this is how Reiki had always been ... helping others without even thinking about what that could bring onto herself. The dream faded and reality broke into the flow of memory with the voice of of a strange woman, welcoming her back to the living. "We're so happy you are recovering. When we found you outside two days ago, we were not sure if you were in fact already dead.... but I shouldn't let you wake up into worries, sorry. I'm Amelia, I'm running Hope Outpost and this is Billy Bob, the local wound-tender. "

Mamba tried to lift herself up, somehow surprised that the pain seemed to have gone. She recalled the pain in her shoulder from he wolf teeth ... and she remembered the scales in her back ... she moved her hand towards the shoulder and touched it, still no pain. There was a thin bandage, she turned her head to look at it, it was white, no traces of blood. She looked at the man that was introduced as Billy Bob. "You certainly are a miraculous wound-tender, sir! ... thank you! ... and thank you, Amelia, for giving me shelter.... my name is Mamba." "Well, " Billy Bob explained, "it wasn't really my work, I just did little. It was actually .... part of you!" Mamba looked up surprised and then followed Bill's look towards a bucket that contained something dark red that from the distance of her cot resembled yeast. She didn't understand what he was trying to say, and by looking at it again, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to understand it.

Billy Bob explained to her how he found her at a tree nearby that was famous for emitting a special pure ore, the only tree of that kind known by the people of Hope Island; they called it the Kamari tree. He explained that he supposed that the roots hit a Corasine vein deep down below and the process of rapid growth of the tree brought pieces of it upwards. Mamba had never heard of anything like that, but kept her doubts and listened to Billy Bob continuing his tale. He had found Mamba bleeding heavily, her back leaning against this miraculous tree. When he found out, she was still alive, he called for Amelia to help him bring the unconscious woman to the outpost. When they dragged her away, he noticed a king of red fungus that was covering Mamba's back and shoulders spreading over the part of the tree that she leaned on. Strangely, the red fungus seemed to keep growing on the woman's back. Billy Bob removed what he could so he could try to wash her wounds and apply bandages to her shoulder and her back, and collected what he removed into a bucket.

To their great surprise, at the next morning Mamba's wounds had made an incredible progress healing, the huge holes in her flesh had almost closed and the bleeding had stopped completely, and there seemed to be no infection in the flesh. She was still unconscious, but she was no longer as pale as when he found her and from looking at her, he was certain that she would quickly recover. He examined the wounds on her back and shoulder again to discover, that she had a few small pieces of metal under her skin now, and they appeared to be a source of a warm energy flow. He had carefully cut the skin above one of these pieces and had tried to remove it, but it appeared to be ingrown. With the wounds closed, the strange red fungus had also stopped spreading. He had researched the fungus culture he had put into the bucket earlier and was surprised to find out, that it was still growing and had somehow changed the consistency of the metal of the bucket. It felt warm and energized now, similar to the pieces of metal he had found in Mamba's back. He had then isolated some of it in a glass bowl and discovered that it quickly dried out and probably died, leading him to the assumption that the fungus fed on a combination of blood and metal. He had experimented further, putting some of the fungus into another bucket and soon found out that neither his nor Amelia's blood was sufficient to keep the fungus alive, and there was also no effect on the metal.

"As strange as it may sound to you, Mamba, it seems that we accidently have discovered something very interesting and useful. This fungus feeds from your blood and has the power to strengthen and energize metal while doing it. I'm wondering if I can convince you to stay a little longer and help me continue my studies on it." By this, he finished his story and looked at Mamba, obviously waiting for a reply.

Mamba had followed the story with confusion and would not have believed a word of it, if she hadn't seen the incredible result of the healing progress and felt the warm energetic stream from the metal pieces in her back shoulder. She slowly shook her head. "I can't stay any longer, I'm sorry. I'm worried about the fate of my sister and I must continue my search to find her." She noticed the disappointment in Billy Bob's eyes and continued "Elizabeth told me of someone named the Avatar that should be living in a cave nearby. I need to find him and talk to him to find out more." Amelia fell in and told her that she knew the path. Mamba had the impression, Amelia would be rather happy, if the strange female guest would leave their house. The way she looked at Billy Bob, it could be motivated by a growing feeling of jealousy; or maybe she didn't like guests - the house appeared to be small - especially guests that interact with fungus and metal.