Читать книгу Elinor. The Deserted Valley. Book 1 - Mikhail Shelkov - Страница 21

They met no more demons on the way.

On the twentieth day of the journey, the fog suddenly dissipated and an amazing landscape opened to their view.

Do’Ayve stopped dead, his mouth wide open. The other Itoshins stopped as well, apparently experiencing similar feelings. Everyone was stunned. Nobody thought the world could be like that!

The contemplation of the surface of Moon Lake on a cloudless night was beauty’s top for any Itoshin. But here, the Valley was full of various colors. The green color of grass and trees prevailed, as well as the azure color of the sky with occasional white clouds. On the glades, there were flowers of red, yellow, and blue hues and a few more, whose colors Do’Ayve didn’t even know.

He looked back and saw a dense white veil.

Can this be? Is it really the Valley, which is despised by all who have returned to the Empire of the Itoshins? How different it is from our world… how scant and poor it turns out to be. And I lived without even knowing that. I’m a warrior! A warrior! And I will follow my spirit further, but can’t a warrior rejoice? Now everyone is happy. Even E’Do has changed in the face, and I want to smile! Oh yes! That’s what struck me in Reyve! She smiled at me, though we almost never smile! I look around at my comrades, and they also have smiles on their faces!

If the soldiers could still somehow could contain their emotions, the yauls have given themselves over completely. They began to moo and mumble wildly through the green glades.

Leerie and Nainuk ran to a tree with bright yellow fruits with reddish sides and began to pick them.

“Wait!” E’Do commanded. They obeyed.

The udoğan approached the tree and tore a fruit himself. He brought it to his nose, sniffed. Bit it slightly.

“Edible” he announced, smiling for the first time (what an unusual sight indeed!), and plunged his teeth into the juicy fruit.

The whole group rushed to the tree and subjected it to intense shaking. Do’Ayve was eating sweet juicy fruit until he realized that he simply couldn’t take in any more. And after a while, his stomach contracted with a sharp pain. Almost everybody’s did at the same time except for E’Do, who announced that henceforth everyone would know their limits and not overeat wild fruit.

With each passing day, the Itoshins observed more and more landscapes. The scenery changed, the colors changed. Each day was interesting in its own way – you could see something new and unusual. Simple, genuine joy came into the troop. Do’Ayve hadn’t felt it in the north, and he couldn’t understand the meaning of the words said by Goro, who preferred life in the north to the life in the Valley.

At the same time, Do’Ayve’s people remained in the cold, raw north and incomprehensible feelings of shame washed over him as he walked through flowering plains, eating juicy fruit, basking in the warm sun. The eternal struggle with the demons remained.

Suddenly quite rebellious thoughts began to visit his head, which the young man himself was frightened of.

What prevents all the Itoshins from moving here? Why does the Emperor prefer to stay in that harsh and unfriendly land? After all, we can build our fortresses here, on the borders, to keep the defenses from the demons in them! Here it is a free, uninhabited land!

But Do’Ayve quickly dismissed these thoughts. Who was he to doubt the wisdom of the Emperor? If a great ruler founded an Empire in the north, then it was necessary!

E’Do was happy, too. He tried not to show this, but his hidden joy could be read in small things: gestures, words, deeds. At the same time, the udoğan continued to warn about possible danger. After all, the Itoshins still hadn’t met any people. And at present, the detachment still didn’t know what exactly had come to pass in the Valley.