Читать книгу Trilogy of Dhana and the Earth. Book one. End of the world - Andrey Prudkovskii - Страница 7

From the Red Book of Dhana

And the demons took Great Raa to another reality in which only demons live and from which there is no coming back. The demons do not know the FOUR TRUTHS. And the Sun shines on the demons with its round yellow eye. Because the demons are cruel and kill all those, who appear in their land.

Having got to know that Great Raa had arrived in the land of demons without permission, the main demon Radogast decided to take his life, and not just to take it, but with the help of his great witchcraft. But the young demoness saw Great Raa, and she wanted to have a son from him. Therefore, she hid him in her cave and gave birth to a son from him, whom she named RaDem, since his father was Raa, and his mother, Dem, was a demoness. And Great Raa lived with her for eight years, and taught his son wisdom in the spirit of the FOUR TRUTHS. And his son surpassed all human wisdom, despite his young age. At the end of the eight-year term, his main demon found him at that demoness’ place, fought with them and defeated them. He killed the demoness with his magic lightning, and Raa hid from him in a dense forest under the guise of a tree. For a whole year Raa was hiding in the forest, and then secretly entered the magic ship of demons and flew back to his country of Dhana, where his wife Siegle and daughter Raegle were waiting. (The names of the children in Dhana are usually derived from the syllables of the names of their parents.)

From a letter from Aleksandra to her sister Masha

Hello, Masha!

This is my fifth year in the city. I really missed our house, but the work is important, they will not let me go for a long time. As already mentioned, I have a car for two years. Imagine your, little sister driving a car through fearless crowds of pedestrians and cars without fear! On Sundays, I went to the river, rode a boat. And this summer I bought myself a collapsible kayak. I get to some coastal village in my car, leave it there. Then, I go with a kayak on a bus upstream. Then I collect a kayak…and two happy weekend days – down the river.

Are you asking if I have a boyfriend? Did I get married?

It’s hard for me to answer on your question: what happened to me is so strange and unusual that I don’t know what to call it. Perhaps I will tell you in detail.

It all started with a kayak.

I was late that day. I am floated under a high bank, covered with barbed wire in the bend of the river. It seems like we have around the foundation pit. Towers, searchlights, dogs are poured…

Suddenly, something from the coast slid right under the nose of my kayak. I thought it was a stone. But it flounders, screams. I swam closer and saw that it was a man. He choked and was drowning. Well, I flopped into the water and catch him by his hair. Of course, the kayak was turned upside down. But I haven’t lost anything. Everything is tied, and the inflatable sides are kept on the surface. So, with the current, I pushed myself and a kayak to the shore, an oar was in my left hand, in my right hand was completely naked drowned man. While I pulled everything ashore, he stopped moving. I think it is the end. But just in case, I turned him over and shock for five minutes. I poured water out of him and he breathed a little, but doesn’t come to his senses.

I rubbed it with a towel and stuck it in my sleeping bag – let him get warm. By the way a sleeping bag is dry, because all my things were in waterproof bags. I set up a tent, hung wet clothes on the ropes. Then I dragged him along with a sleeping bag into the tent, undressed and ducked into the bag. Brr – how cold he is. Well he is a real drowned man. But I overpowered myself, pressed him to the body and slowly warmed it up. I didn’t notice how I fell into a dream.

Alexandra and Ra in the spring forest.

I woke up late from some kind of stirring under my arm. The saved one come to senses and is trying to free him from my embrace. I quit hold him of and he jumped out of the tent as a bullet. I threw on a dressing gown and also crawled out. Splendid! The sun! There are dewy beads on every blade of grass and on every leaf! Birds are singing!

My drowned man vanished into thin air. I am running to the river, have a swim, brush my teeth and comb my hair. Then I returned completely pacified. I see that at the edge of the meadow my saved one is standing, twisting his head, surprise in his eyes. He is naked, but without complexes, doesn’t pay attention to me. I examined him and understood that he isn’t one of us. He is swarthy, brunette, nose with a hump, a typical Marazian. Where did he come from? I tried to talk to him but he didn’t understand. I spat and went to cook breakfast. I cooked semolina with condensed milk and tea to make it faster. I had a spare spoon, so I put it in a bowl and took the pan for myself. And… he put in his mouth a full spoon of hot porridge. Well, of course, right there, he spat it out. Apparently, he ate hot porridge for the first time. Maybe they don’t eat porridge in Marazia. As mentioned, they are all savages. Oh, how I laughed. When the porridge cooled, he ate it all, but, apprehensively.

By the end of the breakfast, the sun rose higher and began to bake, the dew melted before our eyes, thin strands of fog crept through the lowlands to the river. The day promised to be hot. In the meantime, I decided to establish at least some contact with the rescued.

“This is a tree – I say.”

He repeats:

“A tree.”

“There are a grass and an acorn”.

I see he became interested in acorns. I explain:

“Somebody plant it, and a big tree grows up – just like this.”

He is silent and looks at me with a strange attitude.

I say:

“I am Aleksandra – and hit myself in my chest.”

And suddenly he clearly says:

“I love Aleksandra.”

These words seemed to destroy the entire illusion of the serene world around me. I was shocked by the thought that I was alone in the forest with an unfamiliar naked man. I immediately remembered the television series, where an evil rapist with a bang tears the dress on his victim.

And indeed, it is clear that his wild southern temperament arouse in him, he rushed to me and pulled off my robe, so that the buttons fell. Well, I think if you feel like it, look at me, I’ve seen enough of you, but you just won’t be able to do anything else. But I was mistaken. At first he pushed me sideways playfully, and when I didn’t react he jumped onto a neighbouring tree like the monkey and, pushing away from it, flew towards me and hit me on the shoulders with two hands. I stumbled and crashed onto my back from surprise. Probably I even lost consciousness for a minute. I woke up in some state of bliss. The grass is soft, and over the head is a blue-blue sky. I haven’t seen such blue colour in my life…

Then I came to my senses and realized – girl, stop relaxing, after all, he can rape you. And he was lying on my belly. I fumbled with my hand the nearest log and so lightly stroke him with that log. But apparently I did not calculate. My rapist lies, his eyes rolled and does not move, and blood flows from a dissected head. I stuck it with a strip, but, I see, the matter is bad. Maybe I killed him. Then I listened that he was still breathing. And such relief and happiness came over me!

It is amazing how the world can change over the course of just five minutes. At first I experienced the pure joy of being, then there was a moment of fear, later was an amazement, then was a blissful thoughtlessness, after a hatred, then a repentance and a regret, which turned into a despair, and, finally, a joy again. My whole life ran in five minutes.

Now it was necessary to decide what to do. I have only one question. Who is he and where is he from? He is naked and upstream are a barbed wire and dogs. So, everything is clear, he is a runaway prisoner from Marazia. So, I won’t give him to any hospital. My bitterness lies, breathes, but does not come to itself. I wrapped him in a sleeping bag, put him in a kayak and quietly went on. By nightfall we got to the place. I drove the car, folded the kayak and went home. The next morning I had to go to work.

At home I put him a mattress in the corner, covered with a blanket, and treated him to tea. He lies, breathes, but does not come to consciousness. This is how my life goes on over the past month. I go to the work, in the morning and in the evening I treat the patient (he drinks, eats, but does not come to consciousness). I’m afraid to invite doctors.

Oh, I didn’t say the main thing, because until the last day I didn’t even suspect about it. I expect a baby. It appears that my rapist made it in time. And how could leave this unnoticed?

Write me! Sealed with kiss! Your sister Aleksandra!

Notes of Raa about Life in the Land of Demons

I was dying in the cold and revived in the heat. It was hot and I was suffocating, but I lived. I was pressed with enormous force to something soft and red-hot. Turning my head with difficulty, I sighed and looked around. I was in a hut with translucent walls, from where poured a greenish light. Nearby, I saw a huge terrible demoness who squeezed me in her arms with an inhuman strength. She slept. I tried to break free, but it was not in my power. So what’s to be done? I cast about in my mind all the options for using the four TRUTHS and couldn’t understand which one would help me in a similar situation.

In the end, I just started tickling her under her arm, hoping that she would wake up and let me go. I did this for a long time and finally she took a deep breath and looked at me with surprise. Her hands clenched and it was the time to run. I jumped out of the hut and rushed off wherever my eyes could see, then stopped and slowly walked back. Where do I want to run? Everywhere, the death awaits me caused by the spell of Radogast. This terrible demoness saved me from the death. So her magical power is so great that it can protect me. The conclusion is that I just should not run. But what will she demand from me for payment?

And there was a forest around me. Of course it wasn’t my native, but an alien forest, with round tree trunks. Therefore, the nature of the Land of Demons doesn’t know anything about the Law of the four TRUTHS. The sky is bluer than that of Dhana. And in the air there are no mushrooms, but beautiful flying creatures that have something in common with each other.

A demoness came out, asked me something, about some kind of Marazia, but I didn’t understand anything. I tried to tell her about my country Dhana, but then she didn’t understand. I tried to tell her about the evil witchcraft of Radogast, but I didn’t succeed in this either. In any case, she realized that the matter was bad, and took up her witchcraft. On a magical fire, she prepared a kind of white pasta and showed that it should be eaten from a certain iron amulet called a spoon. I tried to eat one spoon and spat out right there. The paste was hot and burned my whole mouth. How does a demoness eat it, or is she not afraid of heat? She laughed. I realized that nothing bad had happened and that she was not offended by my behaviour. A little later, when the pasta cooled, I forced myself to eat it. Perhaps she protected me from the evil spells. But there was still a question of payment… I believed that the demoness had some kind of plan, but she hid it so skilfully that I could not read this plan even in her thoughts. In the end, I reassured myself, she saved my life, so my whole life now belongs to her. Let her do what she likes.

I looked around and was horrified. From all sides our camp was surrounded by foggy translucent snakes. I felt that the evil was gathering around us. Mentally, I tried to convey to the demoness my concern, but she only smiled, apparently hoping for the magic power of her magical paste. She led me through the forest, explaining the names of trees and grasses. All this was so similar to the lessons of Aleksander, which he told me in a magic boat.

“Here’s an acorn – she said.”

She showed me how they plant it in the ground and such a huge tree grows out of it. I remembered my childhood in the forest. Mom told me that at my conception, she and my father planted a similar seed of the sacred Ir-tree in the ground. Now I and the tree grow together. I looked inquiringly at the demoness, maybe the child is the payment that she wants to demand? But she suddenly hit herself in the chest and mentioned Aleksandr.

I was terribly happy that she knows Aleksandr and can lead me to him. To tell her about this, I said:

– I love Aleksandra!

She looked at me strangely and sent a powerful telepicture that terrified me. Yes, she really wanted a baby from me. This did not terrify me like the customs of the demons that surround this sacred rite. It turns out that at first I must tear her dress with a brutal expression on my face, then force her to fall to the ground and only then will I have the right to do everything that is supposed to be. Thinking now about this custom, I find in it a lot of common sense. Indeed, tearing the dress, I demonstrate to the beloved one my exalted soul and disregard for everything earthly, and when I bring it to the ground I demonstrate my physical strength necessary for protection from predatory animals. Perhaps the brutal expression on the face also means something…

But then I was not up to reasoning I had to act. The first half of the task was able to be completed quite easily, since her dress was cut in the front and held with the help of some beautiful pebbles that splashed on the grass when I pulled over the edges.

Now I had to demonstrate my strength and throw her on the grass. With all my strength I pushed her, but did not succeed, she did not even stagger. Then I suddenly remembered the words of my father that our race draws strength from the trees. Maybe these trees will help me. In instant meditation I merge with the nearest tree, some kind of force pulls me towards it, and then abruptly repels me. I fly to a demoness, shrouded in the power bestowed upon me by a tree. Good luck – she falls. I look into her thoughts, looking for clues whether I have performed the whole ritual correctly. Thoughts in her head are completely absent. As expected, she entered into the deepest meditation necessary for the acceptance of the soul of an emerging being. Huge blue eyes, like lakes, reflect the sky, connecting it with all the heavenly helper spirits.

I must act and act quickly. But I’m not ready! Everything is so unusual! First of all, the smell is not at all like that of my dear Siegle. So, turn off the nose. Now her scary look – well, why scary, to her demonic taste, she’s probably beautiful. What a magnitude, what a form! I gently stroke the huge white hills. And she saved me, how can refuse to love her after that. And eyes, what blue eyes! Now I’m ready!

And at that very moment, when the demoness was in meditation, and I was preparing to complete the final act of the ritual, the curse of Radogast again overtook me! Apparently, the demoness weakened her defense, and witchcraft defeated her. I suddenly felt an inexplicable rage overwhelming her. A little more – will I really be not in time? The demoness took a club in her hand. I managed! She dealt a deadly blow to my head, and I died. So the spell of Radogast happened a second time.

I died and looked around me through the eyes of the spirit. The demoness was crying, stroking my dead body. I realized that I was not mistaken, evil witchcraft temporarily clouded her mind, and now she is in despair from her deed. Oddly enough, I was calm and happy. Everything is over, I am free and can fly without interference over the country of demons. However, maybe alien spirits are not allowed to live here.

“Radogast,” I called, “your will has been fulfilled, I have died.

Will you allow me to see your country through the eyes of the spirit?”

“Spirits do not bother me, do what you want!”

So Radogast answered me, and happy, I soared high in the skies to see everything, everything around.

Forest, river, in the distance – clusters of huts, beauty… I looked down – the poor demoness was still busy with my dead body. Now she will probably have to do a demonic funeral rite with me. What will she do with the body? It would be nice to burn on sacred fire, but she could give it to the sacred land of this forest. To my horror, the demoness did not do neither one nor the other. She wrapped the corpse in a bag, put it in a boat and drove to the middle of the river. Will she drown him? “May you drown in a swamp!” – such is the worst curse in my land. And my body will be damned!

All day I hovered over the boat and waited for the inevitable. But the demoness nevertheless felt sorry for me and did not drown. She packed the body with the boat into the magical self-propelled cart and drove to her home.

What can I say about the demon settlements and the wonders of their country? Beautiful and multi-demon is the land of demons. Magic carts travel by land, fly across the sky, float along rivers. Demons live in caves dug in high rocks. But these caves are full of magic and comfort! You won’t immediately list all the miracles, so I’ll return to the story.

I kept waiting for the demoness to bury my body. But she never did. She laid the corpse in her cave and began to give food and drink to the dead man!!! I trembled with terrible horror, although the spirits did not have a body that could tremble. The witchcraft power of the demoness exceeded my understanding. She managed to make the dead body move. I saw my corpse eating and drinking without opening its eyes. Terrible tales about the living dead were resurrected in my memory… It was even worse than if she drowned my body.

I could not help my poor body with anything, so I left the sinister dwelling of the demoness and went wherever the road took me. And my eyes looked first of all at the magical carts, racing day and night along the roads of the demons’ country. I chose one of them and hit the road…

There were four of them – and this gave me a sign that I can join them. Dad was a demon of amazing thickness. I discovered how uncomfortable it was when I entered his mind. Only a car could give a semblance of mobility to this awkward creature. In addition, he always suffered from fatigue and constantly wanted to sleep. It was very convenient for me, since I could easily completely seize power over his awkward body.

The car-, I learned to manage it very easily, although in many ways it disappointed me. The steering wheel was a control wheel, I really liked it, but the fact that there were three foot pedals below was surprising, because I have only two legs. The lack of strength of the machine also disappointed me. Just one pillar I hit at the edge of the road led to a whole story with the curse of my mother addressed to my ward that he sleeps behind the wheel and does not see the pillar.

The creature called mom was uninteresting. It was occupied with obscure problems of the health and nutrition of children. I did not see the point in her endless thoughts on this subject. Being strong and healthy is, of course, good. But she was neither strong nor healthy, like that demoness, who killed me. She always had something hurt: either the head or the stomach. And the only thing she did… maybe you think, healing herself – no! She was worried that her children might have the same illness as her! She did not know how to treat these diseases that had not yet appeared in her children. But she knew that she could feed her children, and she fed them. How she reminded me of ants!

When terrible swamp monsters attack the anthill, the ants behave differently: some boldly rush into battle, others carry the larvae deep into the anthill, and some suddenly begin to feed the female intensely, as if a well-fed, helpless female could repel the attack.

The children – son and daughter of demons were as cute as ours. They also wanted to know everything and demanded all the time to be told about everything. I also listened with pleasure and studied with them, but once, when I had already perfectly learned all the demonic words, now, once… Listening, as always, to the evening story that father told, and the story was about an ant, I suddenly saw the image of our native ants in his thoughts! This story was about how an ant with crippled paws alone got to the house. A completely implausible story, since all the animals on his way tried to help him. It doesn’t happen here, but maybe it happens in the country of demons??? Just at the most interesting place, dad fell asleep, despite the fact that the children twitched him to tell him further. And as an expert on ants, I decided to help a tired dad and to complete the tale:

– So, kids, the ant crawled to the edge of a huge swamp. The swamp smokes with swamp gases, swamp bubbles grow and burst in the swamp, and terrible monsters are in the swamp. There is no further way for an ant. If he had healthy legs, he would have run around the swamp, but he couldn’t. Suddenly an ant sees, a mushroom grows on the edge of the swamp – a large mushroom. Growing and puffing, wants to fly. He crawled onto the mushroom cap, only got settled as the mushroom took off from the earth and flew high into the sky. The ant feels so scary, and the mushroom flies quietly, puffing with spores. Оn the horizon, and the anthill already appeared.

But then the spores of the mushroom ended, and the mushroom began to go down – to the very center of the swamp. That’s it, now the ant is gone. He lowered his mushroom into the swamp and began to sink. Then a terrible green swamp monster crawls out of the swamp. Kids, how do you call this monster? That’s right, frog. The monster opens its huge mouth and… do you think, kids, it ate an ant? No! The monster tells him in a terrible voice:

“What are you doing here, ant, in the middle of the swamp, and how did you get here?”

The ant told the frog his whole story, and she says:

– So let it be, because you told me such an interesting story, I will help you. Get on me.

The ant climbed the frog’s slippery back, and she laughs:

– Not there, stupid. Get in my mouth.

The ant got into the frog’s mouth, then it started to move with all four paws and swam in the swamp. Somewhere it swims, somewhere it dives, and somewhere it sways from one hillock to another over swamp grasses. Suddenly it reached the very shore. She opened her mouth and said:

– Now get out, I won’t take you any further, you, ants, are biting.

The ant got ashore. Looks – the anthill is very close, but there is no strength to crawl. Who will help the poor thing now? Soon the night will come. The ant will be eaten by night hunters…

Here the kids are running, the same as you – a boy and a girl. They say:

– Look, the ant is still alive. His legs are broken. Let’s drag him to the anthill, maybe he will recover there.

And the kids dragged the ant to the very anthill. There the orderlies ants took over him and, perhaps, even healed him…

– I lied, of course. I know how actually ants orderly treat sick ants. But the end of the tale should be good, especially in the country of demons, where all the animals help the ants, and maybe the ants can treat as well.

So I traveled with four demons in a car for several months. I did not discover the basics of the magic that drives the car, but I learned how to drive it, I understood how to feed the car black liquid at the points of this feeding by the road. In addition, I was convinced that the demons, in general, are not very different from the people of my country. Those whom I met on my way were not taught any special truths other than reading and writing. And, most importantly, I could easily read their thoughts, and sometimes even control their behavior a little…