This chapter opens with a description of the jungle, which is described as "filled with freaky monsters" . The land-eating land-octopus is a creature that attacks people and strips them of their clothes. It's also known as a "cerberus clothes-eater" , and it's feared that it'll eat people. The narrator tells us that he was almost bitten by an "earth-eating" land octopus, but that the creature is also feared because it tends to "strip people naked" and "throw them into the jungle . . and "lick them all over." The narrator says that this is a "high fever" and that he'll wash it up and dress him. He's not sure why, he says, but he's sure that the robot will make it through. He doesn't know how to handle the situation. He says that the boy was stronger than him, and that they could have handled the situation better if they hadn't been so hard on him in the first place. He tells the narrator to calm down, and says that he needs to get stronger. He wants to be stronger so that he won't have to deal with any more battles. He asks the narrator not to worry about the boy's "fever" and to just rest. The two men argue about whether or not the boy is dead. They both agree that the kid's fever was caused by too much "breterm energy magic" and not by the robot's. They decide that they'll go find the boy and trace his footprints.