Toby swam after Sans and they went back onto the mainland. "You'll be sorting cheese," Sans explained as they headed toward another cave. Toby laughed. "Why would you sort cheese? Aren't they all the same?" Sans corrected himself. "I meant that you ration the cheese to the injured mice. Give them two slices each, and another if they need it," he said. Toby nodded and ducked into the cave. Huge blocks of cheese were stored at the back. And hundreds of injured mice were lying on the ground, snoring. Loudly. And Toby could not stand snoring at all. He flattened his ears against his head and waded through the sea of mice to the back. Toby was tempted to take a block of cheese with him. Or two. Or three. But he pushed the urge away and began to split each cheese into pieces. He carefully layed them all out, and the delicious smell wafted around him. Toby took a deep breath of the scent of cheese. Beautiful wonderful cheese that he could not eat. Toby sighed and passed out two slices of cheese to the nearest mouse. His nose was burned off, and there was a leafy bandage covering it, oozing with blood and pus. Toby shuddered and grabbed two more to give to the mouse next to the burned one. She looked fine, except there was a light layer of ice on her tail. Frostbite. Toby shuddered again. This would be a long day. Suddenly Sans appeared again in the opening of the cave. There was another mouse next to him. The mouse had a black hood covering his eyes, but Toby could see a strange white glow coming from his right eye. "This is Crystal," Sans said brightly, "he's a slave like you, and will be helping you today." Sans slipped out of the cave and Toby and Crystal stood there, staring at each other. Toby noticed a sparkling, pale crystal hanging from his tail. Crystal also had a weird red patch covering his eye, but Toby couldn't tell what it was because of the dark hood. "So... um... did Sans tell you what to do?" Toby asked quietly. Crystal stared blankly at him. He shivered, and backed away from Toby. "Yes," he whispered, his voice barely audible. Toby looked at him strangely. "Okay..." he murmured. He gave Crystal two slices of cheese and watched him tentatively place it In front of the next injured mouse. Crystal stepped away and silently reached for another slice of cheese. Toby wondered what had happened to this mouse to make him so scared of everything.

Toby sighed as he swam back to his cave on the island. Crystal followed him, but he was so silent that Toby forgot he was there and splashed him with water. Of course, when Toby apologized hastily, Crystal didn't say a word. Toby scrambled out of the water and ducked into the cave. Crystal stayed out, shaking water from his pelt. Toby saw Marcus was back, eating a fresh slice of cheese. The last one. "Are there more?" Toby asked, bristling. Marcus looked up, a smirk on his face. "Yeah, in my stomach." He rolled over lazily, exposing a plump belly. "That's not fair!" Toby hissed. Crystal padded into the cave. "What's wrong?" he whispered, his right eye starting to glow white. "Marcus ate all of the cheese that he was supposed to share." Toby glared furiously at Marcus "We've had a long day of working, and we deserve much more cheese than you." Anger flared in Toby's eyes but Crystal laid his tail on Toby's back, calming him. "It's okay," Crystal said quietly, "we'll get him back tomorrow." Toby stared at the shy, fearful mouse. He could not imagine, after he'd spent a day with this scared mouse, that Crystal would be able to get revenge. But Toby shrugged irritably and curled up in a tight ball to sleep on the cold stone floor. Marcus had also torn apart his nest and added the fluffy grass to his own. Crystal settled next to him and started sleeping. But it was a long time before Toby closed his eyes and gave in to the peaceful darkness and dreams.He wondered if he would ever get out of this place and see Arabella again.