# XII: The March explained — The World Below > Chapter companion for The World Below by S. Fowler Wright. ## What happens The narrator continues the arduous march through a moonlit, mountainous landscape, crossing an invisible bridge and climbing through a narrow gulley to a high forest. The expedition halts at the tunnel where the narrator left a body, but it is gone, likely taken by the Dwellers. The narrator learns from his amphibian companion about the Dwellers' fear of recurrent self-destructive civilizations and their uncertain intentions toward him. Exhausted, he finally rests in a bed of soft, fragrant moss. ## Themes in this chapter ### Alienation and Otherness The narrator feels like a strange, inferior animal among the amphibians, and his ignorance and insignificance might be his only protection from the Dwellers. ### Knowledge and Curiosity The narrator asks about the gorge's vulnerability and learns about the Dwellers' historical battle and their understanding of recurrent self-destructive civilizations. ### Freedom vs. Control The Dwellers' energy is directed at overcoming the recurrent danger of civilizations destroying themselves, suggesting a struggle between natural law and controlled progress. ## Character check-ins ### Unknown The narrator struggles with exhaustion and fear during the march, receives energy from his amphibian companion, and contemplates his precarious situation with the Dwellers. ### The Amphibians The amphibian expedition continues its march; the narrator's guide rejoins the Leaders, and a small webbed hand passes energy to the narrator. They discuss the Dwellers' history and the narrator's fate. ### The Dwellers The Dwellers are mentioned as likely having taken the body from the tunnel, and are described as a powerful, dreaded enemy with knowledge of past civilizations and a goal to prevent self-destruction. ## Key lines > Here we halted for the recovery of the body that I had left within it. But after some space of silence, a sense of grief and oppression invaded me, which I knew was felt by all those around me, as the news spread from mind to mind. The body was not there. The group stops at the tunnel to retrieve the body the narrator left behind, but it is missing, causing a shared feeling of grief and worry. _The missing body suggests the Dwellers have taken it, complicating the expedition's mission._ > She explained that it was known to the Dwellers that the earth had been the scene of countless civilisations, through aeons of forgotten times, all of which had successively destroyed themselves by the misuse of their own discoveries, and that their whole energy was directed to overcoming this recurrent danger. The amphibian companion tells the narrator that the Dwellers believe civilizations repeatedly self-destruct through misuse of knowledge, and they aim to prevent this cycle. _This reveals the Dwellers' worldview and explains their potential hostility toward the narrator as a possible threat._ > I sank into the soft moss very willingly, and had I known that it would close over and suffocate me while I slept, I think that I should scarcely have had the strength of mind to reject its embraces. The narrator rests in the moss, so exhausted that even if he knew it could suffocate him, he would not have the will to resist. _Highlights the narrator's extreme fatigue and resignation to his fate._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_world_below_se/chapters/xii-the-march - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_world_below_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_world_below_se/chapters