Grandfather and Sula left the cave, heading toward the palace. On the way, Grandfather was worried about Sula's health, wondering to himself: "Will she remain in her natural state, or will she turn into a savage or a machine?"
He walked, watching her movements and those around her, thinking of a way to prepare her for the problems and challenges she would face with the monsters. If they discovered that she had returned to her natural state, they would take revenge on her and burn her.
Grandfather asked Sula:
Grandfather: "Do you know what time it is?"
Sula: "Ever since the investor, the owner of the palace, Bartagawa, hung that monstrous clock in my room, I have been counting the time of the monsters. Look at the time the new monster appeared, and when it became a monster."
Grandfather: "But I saw another clock placed in the middle of the city; perhaps it's the opposite. I have an idea, my dear. Let's go see the clock hanging in your room."
Sula: "The palace is full of monsters. Please don't take me there. Let me enjoy a little of my natural life, breathing the fresh, clean air."
Grandfather: "If the hands of the clock are stopped, it means the monsters haven't appeared. Perhaps since you left the palace, they froze, and now the palace is empty with no one in it."
Sula: "And if you stand in front of it and its hands move, then…?"
Grandfather: "Then you will return to your savage state. But I don't know what time it will place you in. Will it be the time of the Denzulat savageness, the time of the Zeuli machine monster, or the time when you are half-human—half of you normal and the other half savage—the time of your tribe?"
Sula: "But how did you know all this?"
Grandfather: "I learned it from the savage robot dwarf."
Sula: "What are you thinking about?"
Grandfather: "I'm thinking about the dwarf. If he were with us, he would have helped."