This chapter opens with a flashback to the beginning of the novel, when the narrator is a young boy, dreaming of his parents, who live on the streets. The narrator tells us that when he was a child, he was always alone and hungry, and that his master was called a garm, or a fish, because he liked it. Since then, the narrator says, he has never been hungry, because his master always provided him with his favorite fish, even though the narrator doesn't like fish. He says that because of his master, he came to hate the fish, and even though he hates water, he still loves the fish. Because of him, he learned how to swim, and since he loves his master so much, he wants to dedicate his life to him. This is why he is so annoyed when his master took him as his disciple, because war would soon invade the country again, and he would have to die in order to save his master's life.