Читать книгу Portal to the City of Gods - - Страница 3

Alcmen was getting ready for bed when his father entered the room. The boy was very happy because they always had a great time together, but unfortunately it was very rare. Alcmen didn’t often get to see his father, who was a very famous archaeologist and therefore often absent from home. But when he was home, he always came to the boy’s room and told stories about lost cities, lost treasures, and artifacts that no one had ever heard of. In his father’s absence, Alcmen missed him terribly and dreamed of their next meeting. He constantly imagined how they would talk and wanted to spend as much time with his father as possible. He really wanted to hear from him all those stories that he unearthed from the depths of time. Or like everyone, at least listen to a bedtime fairy tale, because the story told by his father always turned into something more than just a fairy tale. It could easily become a legend or a myth, similar to modern fantasy.

Dad entered the room and sat down next to the bed. Alcmen looked at his father with a cunning look and his father immediately understood.

«It’s you again!»

«Dad, tell me a story,» asked Alcmen.

Dad stroked his son’s head.

«You know I’m a scientist, not a storyteller. I can’t tell stories. Let’s just chat,» suggested dad.

«Well, tell me. You know a lot of myths and legends, and they’re also very fairy-tale-like,» demanded the boy, he really wanted to hear a new story.

«Okay, I’ll tell you a legend about the destroyed city of the Gods, whose inhabitants disappeared,» said dad, intrigue in his voice, waving his hand in the air. The room immediately changed, the light became subdued, and the atmosphere was mesmerizing, it seemed that a knight in shining armor would soon appear from behind the bed’s back or a dragon would emerge from under the floor.

«Is it true or fiction?» asked the son, getting closer to his father, waiting for a wonder.

«Until recently, no one knew if it was true or not. There was a legend and live oral traditions, but there was no evidence of the existence of this city. But since it’s a legend, we believe that we can trust it, so we were looking for this city. Do you know the difference between a myth and a legend?» asked dad.

«Approximately»…, the boy said and hid his eyes, feeling like he didn’t live up to his father’s expectations. In fact, he was wrong. His father undoubtedly wanted to see something of himself in his son, but this was by no means imposed as a given. He understood that every person is already a separate personality from birth and can think completely differently than is assumed, let alone as others might want them to. Dad looked at his son and ruffled his hair, and then looked him straight in the eyes, as if piercing the invisible barrier between consciousness and subconsciousness. Alcmen recoiled.

«Real events and personalities that once existed are described in legends, without any hint of religious deviation, while myths have religious themes, and in myths, the life of the gods is fully described.»

«How uninteresting all these definitions are,» Alcmen thought and let them pass by his ears.

«Dad, tell me more about the city of the Gods,» the boy asked, his eyes lit up.

«The city of the Gods was destroyed six thousand years ago. At that time it was an enormous, developed metropolis. Science in the city had gone very far. Its inhabitants knew mathematics, astronomy and astrology, physics and anatomy, maybe sang songs and wrote poetry. They knew many things to perfection, better than we do now. Their builders surpassed our builders by several decades. We still have to perfect ourselves to their level. The city’s inhabitants knew how to control gravity and probably surpassed the speed of light, using sound and light for their purposes, using them in their economy. But at the same time, they did not cultivate fields, as they replaced animal and vegetable food with special synthetic preparations.

«So smart, and they ate junk,» Alcmen suddenly said.

«Not exactly. These manufactured products were not substitutes for real products. They possessed precisely the same properties as the real products. That’s where their secret lay.»

«That’s great!» exclaimed Alcmen.

The boy immediately imagined an artificial pizza coming off the assembly line like a machine. It is typical for us to imagine what we already know and completely untypical to imagine what we have never seen before.»

«What else did they have?»

«Most likely they were not religious. According to legends, the inhabitants of this metropolis could fly into space. They had flying machines like our rockets. They also had carriages without horses, but they moved without fuel. What propelled them is still unknown».

The boy closed his eyes and tried to imagine a huge metropolis where carriages moved on their own, rockets flew everywhere, and people ate artificial food. «It’s very difficult, despite the fact that Dad always says that I have a wild imagination.»

«But that’s not all,» Dad continued. «According to legends, they could control time. In the city of the Gods, there was a temple of time, where there were clocks that could take you to the past and the future. But unfortunately, this is just a legend.»

«Dad is the real storyteller, talking about how people used to fly into space and control time. It seems more like a myth, because real history tells us that people were primitive and definitely did not fly into space, and most certainly did not travel through time. But what if it’s all true and Dad isn’t making it up? Dad doesn’t have as much imagination as I do,» the boy realized. «I wish I could see them,» Alcmen thought.

«Once something very mysterious happened in the city. Legend has it that it was a battle in which the strongest and most powerful inhabitants of the planet participated. The battle took place in the sky, flying vehicles like our airplanes were flying in the sky. Since the forces were not equal, the city was destroyed, and its inhabitants left it. They went to another world where there are no wars. Where they actually disappeared to, science still does not know».

The boy’s imagination immediately ran wild, he imagined how dozens of airplanes were flying in the sky and trying to shoot each other down. Everything falls on the city and destroys it.

«What are you thinking about?» asked the father with a smile, knowing of his son’s boundless imagination.

«I just imagined it. I wish I could see them and learn how they lived.»

«I can’t promise everything, but I can guarantee something. In about a month, we should determine the exact location of the City of the Gods, and we’ll fly there together.»

«And me too?» asked the surprised boy. He hadn’t even thought about asking to fly to excavate the mysteriously destroyed city, whose inhabitants disappeared without a trace.

«And you too,» said the father, flicking the boy’s nose. «Now go to sleep.»

«All my words have disappeared somewhere,» said the boy, pouting. «You never took me anywhere before.»

«This expedition is special. It’s more exciting than all the others. You’ll have the opportunity to visit the past, the past that no one will ever tell you about in school. And if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to see what’s left of the City of the Gods.»

«Awesome!» exclaimed Alkmen.

«Okay, quieter. We’ll go in about a month. I’m leaving for another expedition tomorrow and I need to consult, but as soon as I get back, we’ll go.»

«M-m-m,» said the boy, pursing his lips.

«Now go to sleep!»

«Okay…»

The boy turned to the wall and closed his eyes. «I’ll be able to see the mysterious past with my own eyes. And if I’m lucky, I’ll get answers to all my questions, or at least some of them,» thought Alkmen.

Through his thoughts, pictures from the past appeared, and the boy no longer distinguished between his imagination and dream. «Everything exploded and flew in different directions, but people still walked towards their death. It was hardest for them because they couldn’t fly or dodge, they didn’t have any extra protection. Kras lifted off into the air, not needing any additional flying devices. He unleashed all the power of his weapons at Vors and his flying machine shattered into pieces, sweeping away everything in its path, people, elephants, houses, and even hills. The force of the impact melted the stone, which flowed like thick tar and immediately solidified in fanciful shapes at the base of the slope. The machine flew a few more meters and crashed into a wall, which instantly turned into a pile of stones, leaving nothing living around it for hundreds of meters. «Victory will be ours!» Kras shouted and ran towards the retreating enemy army. No one knew how the battle of super warriors might end, it was impossible to predict the outcome. Kras thought victory was only one step away, but from somewhere in the sky, Lars rose up and unleashed all his strength on Kras. Bright lightning bolts flew towards him and piercing rays of light. Kras’s protective shield cracked and exploded into small pieces a moment later. Kras fired his energy charge at Lars, but Lars dodged it, he was less vulnerable than flying machines. Kras had nothing to do but launch himself at Lars in hand-to-hand combat. He threw off his protective ring and pounced on Lars. They flew down together, crashed into a building, but the building didn’t stop them. They flew further, leaving ruin behind. The building fell apart like a house of cards in different directions. The enemy army stopped and froze, waiting for the outcome of the battle between the two best warriors. Kras’ warriors stopped too, and for a while, silence hung in the air, and ash began to dissipate. After a while, Kras emerged on the surface. «Hurrah!» thundered from all sides. The enemy retreated again. The boy woke up in cold sweat. «Incredible, it was just a dream,» he said out loud, wiping the sweat from his forehead. «It was like going to the cinema, and Kras is a hero, he still won. I have to ask my father what kind of weapons they used and what they flew on.» But I couldn’t ask my father, he left on another expedition at night.