Читать книгу Chronicles of the coast, or a ray of sunshine in the semi-darkness. Fantasy - Larisa Sugatova - Страница 4

Now, when the sound of the waves so pleasantly caresses something in the soul, in this wilderness, very far from civilization, the feeling of unreality of everything around did not leave me. I wanted to walk around the neighborhood.

White clouds beautifully covered the volcano’s hill in the distance. I decided to take a little walk. She was walking at the edge of a steep bank. Dark waves ran over each other, white foam bordering their edges, like elegant lace tied on bobbins, looked beautiful against the background of dark water. I will never get tired of admiring such a view.

The rocky shore was dotted with orange fragments of crab shells. My path lay along the noisy sea to the left.

I took a little to the right, deep into the island. The desert landscape was sometimes enlivened by the trees encountered. The road was steadily going up. The volcano, which used to look very far away, was getting closer. The outlines of trees began to blur around me, my head ached and shortness of breath appeared. Somehow I didn’t like my idea already. It’s probably time to go back, it was getting dark very quickly, I’m not used to such a rapid change of day and night. Gradually, there were more and more tall trees. Soon I was surrounded by pines and firs on all sides, and I found myself in the forest.

I walked and walked, I didn’t notice the coming darkness, I was tired, I should have rested. I sat under a tree for a while, decided to continue on my way, that’s where the hitch arose, and where should I go, in which direction? I can’t remember where I came from at all, all the trees around seem the same to me, only after looking closely in the darkness that has not yet completely taken over around, in the semi-darkness I barely distinguished birch, alder, pine and spruce.

The darkness was getting thicker all around. A very sad situation. Decided to stay where she was, where to go in the dark? Also, an unpleasant feeling of cold gripped the whole body, the skin on the arms and legs was covered with small pimples. I was tired, my eyes were closing, as if the whole weight of the world had suddenly fallen on me.

In front of me is a huge thick tree with old bark and gnarled branches, like the tentacles of an octopus. It’s hard to see in the dark, but it looks like it’s an oak with a big hollow. Where did the oak come from? They don’t grow here. Probably, in the dark and from fatigue, I’m already imagining things, but there is definitely a hollow in the tree, it could fit not just an animal, even a person of not very large size. I have to wait out the night, and I cautiously squeeze into the hollow. It’s a little cramped, it smells of rotten bark and old withered leaves, it tickles my nose from the dust that rose when I stepped on the leaves that littered the bottom of the hollow, you can even sit here with your legs bent, which I did. What a strong headache, because quite recently everything was fine.

A terrible thunderstorm broke out at night. Thunderclaps thundered directly overhead, and lightning, cutting the sky into pieces, illuminated everything around, at some moments it became light as day. I wasn’t afraid of thunderstorms before, but I don’t remember such a strong one, I’ve never seen the sky split into two parts by a fiery line, white with a flash illuminating everything around. From the fact that I was not at home behind reliable walls, but in the forest, and even in a tree, where lightning could strike at any moment, a primal sticky fear crept into my soul, at first it penetrated a little, but as the thunderstorm intensified, it penetrated more and more to the very bones. When it began to subside, and the thunder moved to the side, I fell asleep unnoticed, apparently, fatigue for the whole day affected.

I woke up to the sound of voices nearby. My head ached very much, it didn’t let go overnight. Someone was swearing. Lightly stroked the place of pain with her hand. The right side of his forehead simply ached unbearably, as if sounds were coming through a cotton swaddling cloth. She massaged the place where the pain was very strong, turned her head, listened.

One voice was stronger and louder. The other is duller and menacing.

«Don’t you dare approach our lands,» the owner of the ringing voice said loudly.

«To approach does not mean to enter,» his interlocutor answered with a grin.

– You find out, you sniff out what’s going on with us.

– And you forbid me! – answered the one whose voice was muffled.

– The scoundrel! – the sonorous-voiced one confidently concluded.

The voices gradually became quieter, until they were completely silent. Their owners are gone. I cautiously peeked out from my hiding place.

The grass at the foot of the tree was a little weathered, but it still remained damp. Ferns grew around, there were other grasses, in some places there were bushes of cranberries, blueberries. The smell of the forest is very strong in the humid air after a thunderstorm made me inhale a little bit several times. A butterfly sat on a blue flower, a beautiful delicate pink color with a purple tinge, folding its wings and slightly moving its antennae. Somewhere not far away, the water was barely audible. The butterfly spread its wings and flew up towards the sun. I carefully climbed out of the hollow and stretched with pleasure, inhaling from the heart, and looked at the tree that served as a shelter for me. And the leaves are oak. And yet, where did the oak come from?

I didn’t hear the water gurgling yesterday. It came from the right. I didn’t pay attention from fatigue, went to the sound, soon saw a stream, washed my face with cold water, but it’s just icy. I rinsed my mouth, my teeth instantly cramped.

We have to get back somehow. I determined the cardinal directions by the sun and went to the southeast, I didn’t know exactly, but it seemed to me that this was the right direction.

I had been walking for half an hour when I ran my hand over my neck and discovered that the pendant was missing, probably the lock on the chain broke, and the pendant fell. Tears welled up in her eyes. My father gave me this pendant many years ago. I always wore it, but here it was a reminder of home. about mom, Maxim, my little nephew and Mukhtar, our dog, a German shepherd.

I went back, looked around the oak tree, looked into the hollow. I didn’t find anything.

And then I saw that a white dog was staring at me intently. I looked closer. It’s a wolf. The hair on my head began to rise, my consciousness almost left my mortal body from horror. Now the cute top is eating me, and no one will even know about it. Of course, I loved animals, but I didn’t want to become someone’s dinner at all.

What to do, what to do? I grabbed a tree branch and pulled myself up with all my strength, bracing my feet against the trunk, somehow perched on a branch, it’s good that it’s thick, it should withstand. What if I fall over?

These two appeared side by side somehow unexpectedly. Neither the branch cracked, nor any other sounds I heard. The wolf disappeared noiselessly among the trees in the thicket of the forest, as if it had evaporated, and two guys stood in front of me, who came from nowhere, dressed like hunters. Only some strange hunters. They didn’t have guns, but they had… bows and arrows on their backs. Maybe they are participating in some kind of role-playing game?

– Beauty, can you tell me where the hut-reading room is here? The short guy asked in a singsong voice, smiling all over his mouth. I jumped down from the thick lower branch of the tree. The taller one stood frowning. What didn’t he like? I didn’t touch them, they would have moved on.

– Why did you climb a tree? From wolves or something? – the first one continued cheerfully, – Now we’ll scare them away, a lot of them have divorced. So how about reading?

– what? A library or something?

They looked at each other and laughed. Without malice.

– Biblio… what?

– Well, go to the village.

They will go, and I will find out where the village is.

– What village? «what is it?» asked the shorter one, who was constantly smiling.

– Are there many of them here? Well, the one on the shore.

– That’s where we’re going, – they’ve already forgotten about the library, – and you?

– I have to go there too, – I said – they are already waiting for me, – I added just in case they had bad thoughts, – I have to hurry.

– We seem to be on our way. Let’s go,» the smiling one made a gesture with his hand, like, they allow me to follow them. That made me smile. I would have gone in the same direction anyway, only unnoticed, although if they were hunters, it’s unlikely they wouldn’t have noticed it.

– Alex, – the one who was slightly shorter and constantly smiled introduced himself, – And this is Vlad, – he nodded at his friend.

– Alice. You can Fox.

– Is it like a red fox?

– no. Not a fox, but a Fox,» I said, clearly emphasizing the first syllable.

The sun was already high overhead. It was a hot summer afternoon, clear forest air all around, in a clearing where the sky was clearly visible, I stopped and looked up. Trembling trickles of air were clearly rising up.

Among the trees, almost merging with them, there was a wooden house. I rubbed my eyes in surprise, looked at him for a long time. Behind the house there was a small vegetable garden with beds of carrots, cabbage, onions, basil, dill, parsley, beets and various other vegetables. My companions knocked on an unpainted wooden door. Inside, light curtains hung around the edges of a small window, someone lives. A little clean old lady with a kind smile on her face silently opened the door for us. The hinges are well oiled, probably someone is taking care of her and her home.

– Grandma Lisa! Meet the guests! – one of my companions, the talkative Alex, said cheerfully and loudly.

– Come on in, guys. From hunting in any way? And who is this with you?

– They found it in the forest! – he laughed in response, – she was sitting on a tree.

«From wolves,» I said, embarrassed.

– Yes, there are a lot of wolves now. I’m near the village and then I’m afraid, they howl somewhere nearby at night.

– Nothing, Grandma, we’ll figure it out, – promised the taciturn Vlad, I was even surprised that he spoke.

– You, girl, whose will you be? Grandma Lisa asked, setting the table.

– My name is Alice, you can Fox. I’m from the coast, where the fish factory is,» I replied.

– Where is it? And what kind of backwater is this? Grandma was surprised.

– Factory. We work with fish there,» I said.

– Are backwaters now called factories?

She laughs. And I’m not laughing. How do I know where to go and where to look for my new friends. Although, now, probably already old. The new companions don’t seem to mind making friends, at least Alex does.

– I was walking along the shore, but somehow I didn’t calculate the time while I was walking, it got dark quickly, and I went into the forest. It seems not far away, but I didn’t figure out how to get out. There was another thunderstorm at night, so I spent the night, and went.

– I’m Grandma Lisa. And the guys are Ty’s friends. This is my granddaughter. He lives with his father in the village,» she gestures with her hand to a room in a house with a large stove, in the middle a wooden table with the same stools on which we sit, a sofa against the wall behind the stove, «That’s how I live, I still have a small room with a bed there,» waving deep into the house.

A cleanly washed window, colored homespun paths on the floor, old but good-quality furniture. Something is missing, I can’t figure out what, but suddenly it dawns on me that there are no lighting sources. Nowhere. The ceiling is empty, the table lamp is not visible, only in the corner on a small table with knitting there is an unused splinter in a candlestick, apparently it was the source of lighting in the evenings. «Gee,» I thought.

– Well, we’ll go, – Alex began to say goodbye.

Vlad nodded his head and they left.

– You rest, Fox. Then go to Tinia. Ask around there, maybe people in the village will tell you what,» Grandma Lisa advised.

The mood was not very good. How is it possible that an elderly woman did not know anything about what was on the coast, because she most likely lived on the island all her life. And the guys didn’t know anything either.

My legs were buzzing with fatigue. After a night in the hollow, I didn’t feel very well. My head ached. The herbal decoction that Grandma Lisa suggested came in very handy.

Grandma gave me a skirt, otherwise the residents would not understand my outfit according to her words. I put on jeans and a T-shirt yesterday before going for a walk, which helped me not to freeze to death at night. What kind of stupidity is this? Well, anyway, they don’t go to someone else’s monastery with their own charter.