Читать книгу The Mysteries of the Shaman Stone - Иван Рассказов - Страница 7

At night, in a dream, I again ran with the wolves, in front of everyone and with a female wolf on my side, which was supposed to be with me for the second year already. It was that very wolf that boldly jumped on the dead bear – now I knew: it was my she-wolf. The grey girlfriend was clinging to me from the side, playing with me, she wanted to have cubs with me, we were in the middle of spring and it was time to mate. So, playing with each other, the dominant couple of the pack moved away from the rest of the wolves, and we, playing and biting each other from excitement, started making love. Once again I woke up in a sweat from the thought of making love to a wolf! Maybe I was going crazy? I need to wake Herman up. Even more so, as I had marks left by branches on my hands and legs once again, and the bottom of my stomach was aching as if it had been corrupted. I only ever felt this way after spending a whole night voluptuously making love with a girl I really liked. “What the heck is that?” I swore and started shaking the shoulder of sleeping Herman. When we drank the second cup of freshly brewed tea, Herman at first only laughed at me. But when I showed my body, palms, and feet, he suddenly seemed thoughtful. Then he asked: “Did you put on the wolf skin on the first day?” I told him everything I remembered about that unfortunate story when I was washing myself in the bathhouse.

Herman remained silent, imbued in thoughts. “I don’t know. May it is true, but there is a belief among the ancient Tofalar taiga hunters! If on the first day a naked hunter puts on the skin of a leader he just killed and bathes in the river with the skin on, he turns into a wolfman. And after that he will be the most sophisticated hunter, having acquired instincts unknown to man and, thanks to his new wolf essence, he will know the habits of all animals in the taiga.” Having told this story to me, Herman became silent and suggested that we check this assumption at night. The day passed unnoticed, full of chores and things to do. At night, after relaxing in the banya, we went to sleep. Herman and Nick, who was already aware of my dreams, tied one of my legs to the bed and took turns on a night vigil. It was already past midnight when Herman heard the barking of the dogs that were on the lash, as well as the howling of wolves not far away from the hut. Herman decided to unleash the dogs and let them inside the winter hut. When on the lash, the dogs are defenseless before wolves, and the latter would often use this opportunity to attack. While he was busy with the huskies, about five minutes passed and, upon returning to the hut, he could not believe what he just saw: there was no one on the trestle bed where Alexander slept, only a rope bitten through with sharp teeth. He took a carbine, woke Nikita, and together they went to search for Alexander. The dogs were leading them directly to the wolves and soon Nikita saw the entire pack. The wolves were running in a parallel course, the leader stood out at the front with his girlfriend, a fair-haired she-wolf, running next to him. Nikita threw up his gun and shot at the leader.

“What the heck are you doing?” Herman shouted, seizing the gun from his hands.

“Well, it was just as a warning, it was birdshot anyway,” Nick said.

“Okay, let’s go back,” Herman replied and they set off on their way back to our hunting hut. Entering the hut and seeing Sasha with his shorts, just as before, on and sleeping on his bed, he touched him and, making sure that he was alive and well, suggested that he’d gone out to relieve himself while they entered in panic and chased the wolves. Only the rope, bitten off with razor-sharp teeth was haunting his mind.

“Alright, we’ll figure it out it in the morning”, he thought and sank into a deep sleep.