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 suggested. – The leader said that the spirits of Zavrini ask him for something… to find out what kind of radiance it is or… I don’t remember exactly. Hord found traces of ancestors. Maybe the last Zavrini died somewhere?
«Didn’t the Zavrini leave this world tens of thousands of moons ago?»
«I don’t know… Maybe they didn’t leave, or maybe the soul isn’t Zavrini at all. Roshan will return – he will tell.
– Yes… Don’t you think that he has been gone for too long? There are underground creatures living in the tunnels. Maybe go check? Bard suggested.
– Check? I wouldn’t do it, brother. Valan taught that unity must not be interrupted. He said that once someone, being a child, interrupted the unity of one of the shamans. Having made his way into the tent, the kid, without realizing it, touched the vital threads of Pangea with his hands. Azis – that was how that shaman was called – went crazy from unconsciousness, and after a few moons he died altogether. What if we interfere with an alarming sound or our appearance? And the creatures… Barriers have been standing in the Temple for more than a dozen days. Strongly stand, and to this day have been motionless.
«Then you just have to wait. I wonder who this kid who broke the unity? Did he live to see our moons?
– No one knows. Some elders did, but no one ever talked about it… Better show your symbol, brother. Are you done with the engraving? Welles asked.
«Oh right, how did I forget?! – exclaimed Barda, in two jumps he reached the leather bag that lay near the smoldering fire, and instantly returned back. From the bag he took out the tip of the Verge.
Stone of the Edge – this is how the first people called a very rare and resistant to Her flame stone. The forms of the stone, whatever it was and wherever the hunters found it, were always composed of many regular measured faces, as if the stones were created and carved intentionally by Pangea herself and scattered in all corners of Her abode. It even happened that when butchering herbivorous giants in the hunt, the rangers found the Edge in their stomachs. How they got there, at first no one knew. But Viksha, the old shaman of the tribe, when the hunters found the Facets several times in the stomachs of reptiles, in unity he knew that the lizards had swallowed them on purpose, and suggested that they needed it so that it was easier to digest the tree bark!
For thousands of moons of nomadism, on the way to the Great Volcano, hunters encountered stones of the Verge
