What if someone falls?
– Come on, Elna! See how much space. Let’s crawl carefully. If so, let’s help each other. Let’s go, – Ronin answered confidently and took Elna by the hand.
Suddenly there was a rustle behind the children. The teenagers jumped in surprise! Terribly frightened, they slowly turned around.
The Watchmen was the first thing that flashed through Ronin’s mind. And Unga even thought it was a reptile. But from the thickets of ferns, shaking off the clinging twigs and leaves, a little girl looked out.
Elna, take me with you! I want with you! – the leader’s daughter looked plaintively at her older relatives.
– Omi? In the name of Pangea, how did you end up here? The young girl ran up to the child and hugged him.
Ronin and Unga looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.
«In the name of Pangea, I was so scared!» Unga breathed, and his eyes nearly filled with tears.
«Omi, why aren’t you in the hut?» How did you get here? Ronin asked.
«I had a terrible dream, and then I started thinking about Pa. And then I heard someone walking downstairs, and I saw you. I was scared to call you in the dark, and I just followed you,» Omi rattled, almost crying.
– What a news! Ronin was delighted. – You came from the most araucaria? Omi, you are a real hunter!
«It’s good that it happened and we didn’t reach the caves,» Elna said, looking at the youths. – It is not known how it would all end. Need to come back!
«Hey, what about the Temple of the Maker?» How is the leader? Ronin was outraged.
– I want to go to Pa, let’s go to the leader! the girl exclaimed.
«Hush, hush, Omi, don’t scream!» Ronin, don’t tell me we’ll take her with us.» Elna stared at the teenager, waiting for a clear answer.
– Why not? She is already an adult. She followed us from the very araucaria, bypassed the sentinels. Nobody heard her, not even us! Let her go, especially since her leader, her father, is there. We’ll take a look at the leader and we’ll be right back!
«Yes, yes, I want to go with you,» Omi rejoiced.
«Yes, yes, Omi will come with us!» Unga picked it up.
Elna frowned and reluctantly agreed:
– Well, okay… But only there and back. Promise, Ronin? She looked humbly at the teenager.
– I promise! Roundtrip!
***
A refectory fire was burning in a niche near the entrance to the cave. The fading tongues of flame sometimes shuddered from sharp gusts of wind, and the crunch of charred wood after sudden breaths dragged out the crackling melody of the fiery element. Either igniting the fire, or suppressing it altogether, the eastern monsoon caught in the haze of smoldering logs the aromas of recently eaten meat and carried them along the paths of the Great Volcano. Not far from the fire, along the sharp-angled walls, the elders slept on the bedding. Their snores echoed across the cliffs of the mighty mountain. From time to time, the echoes of deep dreams of elderly tribesmen merged into a monotonous thundering rumble, as if somewhere among the rocks an ancient Gigantosaurus had taken refuge for the night.
On the instructions of Radon, young hunters – Barda and Veles – guarded the passage to the Temple of the Creator that night. When the elders, after dinner and informative conversations, fell into a dream, the sentinels left the grotto and settled down in the open air on a ledge at the very edge.
– Amazing, right? Veles pointed to the pillar of fire. And how did he come up with this? I can’t imagine…
The stream of incandescent particles of the Flame Totem swayed from the gusts of wind and at the same time held back its integrity, as if an unknown force forced the flames to cling to each other. A strange phenomenon – an original element, not similar to any other element – stretched out from the chimney of the tent, barely visible from the height of the caves. The dim glow of the fiery column barely illuminated the way of the settlement and the sloping slopes of the Great Volcano, as if the hot particles held back the streams of light in themselves, not releasing them beyond the whirlwind. But in the center, the glow was bright and blinding. From the hill, it seemed that the whirlwind, shrouded on all sides by the darkness of the night, arose from the void – from the blackness of the night. Only the lights of the camp in places illuminated the omnipresent darkness.
Well done Varn! exclaimed Barda. «Now hunting parties can easily find their way home.
– That’s for sure! – picked up a relative.
«Veles, did you happen to hear the bugle while we were having dinner?» I thought it was a signal that the rangers had returned from the Great Hunt.
«No, brother, I haven’t heard,» Veles answered puzzled. – Yes, it was hardly a horn. Sixth night in total. So quickly no one could return. There is such a wind here – anything can seem.
«Hmm… it must have seemed…» Barda hesitated and flattened himself on the ledge.
The cliffs of the Great Volcano revealed a marvelous view of the southeastern lands. In the daytime, one could see hills and lowlands from here, on which there was a coniferous forest, edges and conditional paths. Rocky boulders covered with moss and fern thickets could be seen in places among the trees, dilapidated dead wood flashed among the thick of araucaria, and even stunted ginkgo trees were visible. But at night the view from the caves of the elders was especially attractive. Here, as if two worlds merged together – the world of Pangea and the abode of the stars.
Below, from the pedestal of the mountain and to the infinity of the grove, the silhouettes of Her expanse were buried in darkness. Even the glow of the moon made it impossible to see the details of the distance. Only a black haze, diluted with the lights of the camp, stretched from the foot of the volcano to the horizon. And where the horizon merged with the skies, the star harmony began. An infinity of luminaries hung right over the forest, and it seemed that if you get to the limits of the araucaria, you can find yourself at the edge of the earth – step into the starry sky. And once every ten moons, when under the cover of night more stars lit up than usual, an indescribable sight took place in the firmament: night luminaries descended from heaven!
Once every ten moons – between two full moons – every night the tribe gathered on the ledges of the Great Volcano to watch the starfall. The elders and sages-shamans believed that the souls of hunters who left this world not by their repose, but from the paws of reptiles or by chance, at night these returned back to Her abode and took on new guises in their descendants or those that Pangea would accomplish, live a new life until real death. And it was gracious and wise on such nights for men to decide to continue their kind!
Do you see this, Veles? Don’t you think it has grown?
Veles, dangling his legs over the abyss, was sitting next to him. Kindred raised his head and looked up:
«I don’t know, brother. That’s what she was…
– Strange… What do you think this sign is?
– When the soul leaves the abode of Pangea, a new star lights up in the sky – so the elders and shamans say, – answered Veles.
«Yes, I remember… But last night there was too much light for one soul,» Barda doubted the sign of the sages. «First multicolored aurora… flash… now this red star. Maybe the soul of some extraordinary reptile left our world? Maybe we haven’t seen any lizards yet?
«Maybe it’s Zavrini’s soul?» Welles