Part 1
Altar Coal
© Altar Coal, 2024
ISBN 978-5-0064-2809-6 (т. 1)
ISBN 978-5-0064-2808-9
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Prologue
The branches lashed him mercilessly across the face, if one could call his hairy, toothy muzzle a face. Yet now he didn’t care what he looked like. Most importantly, and he tried his best to keep this thought in his furry head, he had to reach the place where the long-awaited reincarnation could happen. «The main thing, the task is completed. To get rid of this heavy burden as soon as possible,» – that’s what he thought, as far as it was possible to think in this state. And so he again and again strained all the muscles of his body, trying to speed up his already fast run.
Although it was easy to run. Though he hated this body, it was as if specially made for running. His lungs pumped air like bellows, and he could literally feel the oxygenated blood coursing freely through his mutated veins. Strange, but in his other state, he always wanted to be like he is now, and he experienced some strange longing for the Spell, that’s what he called for himself the feeling of reincarnation that enveloped him. It was like a dark cloud surrounded him immediately after the spell was uttered. However, he still hated it with all his heart, especially when he experienced the terrible pain of the transformation. Yet, probably, the main reason for his hatred was not the pain, but the understanding that he was not acting in his own will, but doing the oppressive and humiliating will of the Spell. Kanny did not remember when all this happened to him, and in the whirlwind of life he did not have enough time, and did not particularly want to stop and seriously think about it, especially now, when his human thoughts were mixed with bestial instincts. Precisely at such moments, for some reason, he felt a special desire to regain his human appearance and the ability to think clearly and calmly.
He saw a dim light ahead.
«Getting close!» a human thought flashed somewhere in the depths of his dual consciousness. He still had them, these human thoughts. A few moments later Kanny ran out into the clearing. The thick thicket was gone. Further it will be even easier to run. Soon he will reach another clearing at the end of which is his destination. Suddenly, his sharp wolf senses alerted him to people.
Chapter 1
Peter was a strong, though not tall, fair-haired and gray-eyed young man, who worked as a head of a special department whose functions were to investigate some paranormal phenomena and cases. He was reading a new report that was placed on his table by his secretary this morning. «There were several people in the area of the Maslovka village who saw UFOs and after that some strange creatures which were, according to the descriptions, similar to either a ghost, or either to a gray alien with traditionally huge eyes. Some photos and videos, made on some kind of smartphone, were added.
As usual, someone lost something, someone disappeared somewhere, and someone was kidnapped somewhere and after that began to tell all sorts of incredible stories about his kidnapping.
Peter winced and rubbed his forehead. Unpleasant pain in the temples disturbed him for several days. The superior chief from the very morning began «to take out his brains.» The wife sent him a message five minutes ago that their little Xenia was ill and had a fever.
«Work…!? How… in the world?»
It was stuffy in the room which made him feel sick. He got up and went to the window. The sky was so blue and clear today. He opened the window and waited until the morning coolness touched his face, and inhaled it filling his entire chest.
«Eh!» he thought. «If people could fly, I would now spread my wings, or something with which I flew in my dreams as a child, and fly somewhere to the top of the mountain away from all this vain mortal existence.»
* * *
«Look which one I’ve found!» A graceful girl in the age of about fourteen triumphantly picked up a huge porcini mushroom, showing it to a guy of average height and strong athletic build, who looked like he was twenty. An attentive observer would immediately understand that these two are brother and sister. Both have gray eyes and straight features. Both have light brown thick hair, which in guy’s case were a little curly. Both are of average height.
«Yes, the good one,» he replied without much enthusiasm and looked around anxiously.
«What’s happened?» She asked, noticing his concern.
Without answering, he looked up, trying to see where there’s a sun, but because of the clouds, the direction of the sun’s rays could not be determined.
«Andrey?»
She knew her brother too well. He never worried without a reason.
«I don’t like it,» he replied.
«What exactly?»
Both had special plastic containers already full of mushrooms.
«Do you happen to remember where you and I turned into this clearing?»
She thought for a moment.
«No, I do not remember. When I’m with you, I don’t follow the terrain at all.»
He shook his head.
«It’s not good, Lerochka, not so good. It would be very helpful. When did we put the last mark?»
She thought again and sadly answered.
«A long time ago.»
Without saying anything, he went, as it seemed to him, to where they had come from. His sister silently followed him.
After a while he stopped near a large tree.
«Look here.»
«Oh, a mark!» she exclaimed joyfully, seeing the peeled bark on the tree trunk.
«It’s not,» he sighed. «This is not our mark. You see?»
Now she saw. These were obviously traces of claws of some kind of a beast.
«Bear?!» she exclaimed with fear.
«Yes, it looks like. But this is not scary actually. In that season they are satisfied, and it’s unlikely that they would desire to meet a human. But the fact that this is not our label is bad. It looks like we got too far away.»
«What are we going to do?»
«Trying to find a way home, what else can we do?» he replied with a shrug. At that moment just before the sunset the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, and Andrey, following the direction of the rays, turned east.
«It looks like we have to go there.»
Valeria sighed heavily and silently followed him.
* * *
«People! Why are there people here?»
The question sounded so deep, as if his consciousness spoke somewhere from the bottom of the ocean. However, even from there his brain somehow managed to match distances with mathematical precision and calculate the location of people in relation to the destination.
Kanny stopped and turned his nose toward the wind. The hair on his thick black scruff and wide gray back stood on end, his mouth slightly opened in an evil grin, showing a row of sharp white teeth, his ears stood straight up and instinctively turned towards the scanned object.
«They are two. Very young. He and she. Relatives. They gather mushrooms. Very close to the place…» signals came one after another from the Mariana Trench of his animal-human brain, as if somewhere there was an unknown translator of his subconsciousness, stubbornly reminding of himself. In this state, his brain worked like some kind of super-computer, giving out the data he needed in a split second… and so… not everything was so hated in this bestial nature. Its dominating essence was very unpleasant, but some of its things he really liked. For example, strength, speed, flexibility, reaction, or that special ability to literally «see» with