by Vitaly Zykov
Five hours passed by. The trail went on and on, it seemed that it had no end. It started getting dark. Suddenly, the group came to a wide platform. It looked as if it had been designed for rest.
– Halt – ordered Oleg and gave an example himself, sitting on the ground. – We'll spend the night here. Tomorrow morning we'll continue the descent. We are already near the foot.
Nobody objected. The girls fell to the ground, closer to the cliff and began to rustle, complaining about fatigue and hunger. Yaroslav walked silently to the rock and sat down too. His euphoria had gone and gave way to headache. Oleg exchanged glances with Nastya, and they together went to Yaroslav.
– Can you say what's the matter? – Anastasia began the dialog. – You acted weird during the descent – sang songs and talked to yourself.
– I don't know, while we were moving, I felt so light that I could not resist…
– And don't you think that in this situation it's abnormal? – Said Oleg. – For a man who miraculously survived, you were acting inadequately. I even thought that you took a tranquilizer, but your pupils and coordination were normal. I don't understand… Although there's one thought…
Suddenly it dawned on Yaroslav, and from this thought he felt cold sweat. His mind built a chain: the wounds on his body, the blood of the dragon, poison. Yes, something had got even inside his stomach and lungs. His lips, having become cold at once, whispered only one phrase: «Dragon's blood».
– You understood too – the former border guard noted with satisfaction. – But you can relax, since you're still alive, it likely to be a long-delayed poison. It will leave your body gradually.
– There is such a thing as sedimentary poisons. Or something like that. Poisons that accumulate in blood, and an antidote is necessary for their neutralization. – Yaroslav's lips began to tremble.
– Come on, cheer up! – Oleg friendly tapped him on the shoulder and his girlfriend hugged Yaroslav and kissed him on the cheek.
This friendly support helped him to calm down. Here Yaroslav remembered the doubts that occupied him during the descent, and he told about his observations regarding the signs that meant the trail was handmade.
– You noticed that too? – Anastasia exclaimed joyfully. – We talked with Oleg about that all the way.
– Do you realize that there may be people who are not like us? The trail may have been made by some intelligent creatures, other than people…
The dialog was interrupted by Natasha and Olesya who jealously inquired about the causes of secrets in their small team. By tacit agreement, it was decided not to irritate the girls with such conversations. The evening passed in relaxing atmosphere, the morning nightmare was forgotten easily. The severity of impressions had gone off.
They had to go to bed without supper. Sleeping on the rocks arose little enthusiasm, but having no other choice every body lay down on the chosen places. Yaroslav remained on the unnaturally flat platform which had attracted his attention. It was getting dark. Everything was covered in darkness. A pleasant, enveloping silence swathed the vicinity. Yaroslav heard that breath of his companions gradually calmed down, but he could not sleep. His whole body was tingling as if small needles were piercing into his internal organs. Not a pleasant feeling.
«Obviously, there were toxins in the dragon blood, some hormones or other biological bullshit. – The thoughts flowed like a bleak dark stream. – What else could it be? But alien filth should not affect humans…». In former times Yaroslav had read that alien viruses created for other life forms could not harm people. So he was surprised by his own bad state.
In order to somehow calm his nerves, he began to stroke the stone, on which he was lying. His fingers constantly felt some notches. Strangely, but in Yaroslav's mind began to form too distinct a picture of disposition of these notches. It was too familiar. Two parallel lines, the dot between them, and a little lower – a short dash. Yaroslav seemed to have fever, his forehead was covered with cold sweat.
«Why, during the ritual we were lying precisely in the form of this sign…» – The flow of his thoughts suddenly became clearer. His fingers continued to stroke the lines to the beat of his thoughts – from top to bottom, from left to right, firstly – the lines, then – the dot. With each repeated line it was getting more and more difficult to move his fingers, but his hand was as if bewitched. The plate on which Yaroslav was lying became gradually warmer with each movement of his fingers. He began to feel a weak flow of Force, going upward from the stone. The tingling in his body increased. On the twelfth time he felt as if a lightning struck into his eyeballs, and his consciousness turned off.
At seven o'clock, with first sun rays, the travelers began to wake up. Oleg jumped up first – excited and cheerful as if he had not been sleeping on bare rocks. Then the rest awaked too. Yaroslav rose the last, and deserved a reproaching glance from Oleg and disparaging ones from the girls. But he did not care. He had a nasty taste in his mouth, a hellishly pain in his eyes and in his head was a feeling as if some drunken blacksmith was working with a hammer. At first Yaroslav examined the stone on which he had spent the night. It had a right rectangular shape and there was the damn sign as if melted into the rock on its upper right corner. He had no desire at all to repeat the night experiments. Yaroslav spat on the stone with anger and looked at his companions. They all were ready and waiting for him. Their descent continued in the same manner as the day before.
Half an hour later they came to another flat area, with handmade steps. A paved road was running down from this area. The girls squealed happily and Oleg supported them by whooping. Echo thundered in the rocks. Yaroslav was the one who kept grim silence. Finally they all calmed down and continued the descent. The exhilaration helped even forget the pain in their empty stomachs. They reached the foot of the mountain in about five minutes. After a little discussion they decided to go on along the road hoping that it would bring them to people.
Only Yaroslav did not participate in discussion. His mood became gloomier. High fever and fog in his eyes mixed to the tingling in his whole body now. The reminiscences of the tentacles, with which the dragon had been piercing into his soul, did not improve his mood. It seemed that with his extreme efforts, Yaroslav had stopped the aggressor, but… something had happened with him, he was changed by that fight. This thought was bringing him even more down. From time to time, he began to tremble. Only one thing was good – no one was paying any attention to him…
Their hike continued. Five hundred yards away from the beginning of the stair, the small group suddenly went into the jungle. Dark green wall of unknown foliage came close to the paved road, but without crossing some invisible border. Cacophony of unusual sounds stunned the people – some cracks, hubbubs, sounds of distant blows forced them to wince. The group huddled together, their moving automatically hastened. They were fearfully expecting some beast to pop out from the bushes! Yaroslav mechanically remarked that the girls tried to stay close to Oleg. For unknown reason it was sad and bitter. He did not envy, but an unpleasant feeling arose in his soul.
From time to time an eerie roar interrupted the common noise. In such moments they all froze, clinging to the road. Though Yaroslav was shivering with others, he was more busy thinking about his own fate. Suddenly Oleg ordered to stop. He came up to Yaroslav and led him aside.
– We need to find food and water – he said bossily. – You and me, we have to take an expedition into this jungle. Do you know anything about edible plants?
– Why only plants? What about animals and birds?
– And how are you going to kill an animal or a bird? With a wrench? Or, perhaps, with a hammer? – Oleg sneered. Of course, I understand that you have had a hard time, but it hasn't been any easier for any of us.
Yaroslav could respond nothing, just shrugged apologetically. He was ashamed. He is a man, but snivels like a child. Even the girls do not complain, only he is philosophizing and showing his grief. He feels bad, but needs to hold on and n
ot show weakness to others. Survival of the group depends on each of them. This simple truth came to him and plucked up his spirit. Yaroslav nodded emphatically and said:
– Give an order! What am I to do?
Oleg looked at him attentively and chuckled skeptically. Then he slapped Yaroslav on the shoulder and said, addressing to the girls too:
– Well, it seems now we can discuss prospects of lunch. I repeat: who knows anything about plants in jungle?
The silence and uncertain smiles was the answer. Yaroslav decided to speak:
– Bright fruits are usually dangerous – they may be poisonous. Other fruits can be eaten after a check…
– What check?! – asked the girls.
– To break it and squeeze juice on your hand, wait a few minutes… – Yaroslav frowned, he had read a book about surviving a long time ago, and it was quite difficult to remember it. However, he felt that he should make one small mental step, and remember it all… As if something clicked in his head, the memories flowed like a stream. – If you see redness on your skin, that means danger. If that does not happen, then you can drop the juice into your mouth. If taste is bad, you have to spit it out – it's poison. Then take a bite, roll it in your mouth, listening to your feelings. If everything goes well, swallow it. Wait for six hours, if there are no unpleasant effects, eat one fruit. Wait… Then you can eat.
– Wow, that's really something… I'm starving… – Anastasia even showed how much she wanted to eat. She rolled her eyes and began to lick her lips.
– I should add that each man chooses one fruit and do all of these checks only with it. So we will know maximum number of edible fruits in minimum time… – Oleg was, as always, extremely laconic. His task was military short and understandable. – We're looking for fruits edible at first sight.
The searches lasted long. As it was decided – the girls went to the road and looked at the edges of the thickets, the guys went deep into the jungle and looked there. Oleg armed himself with a hammer for this occasion, and gave Yaroslav a big wrench. Unfortunately, their idea was not successful – to wade through the jungle without machete was devilishly difficult. And if every moment you expect that some beast could want to eat you, then the problem becomes almost unsolvable.
The girls went far ahead, surpassing the guys who stuck in the jungles. Half an hour later, angry and tired, Yaroslav and Oleg got back to the road. Flexible branches were snatching their clothing, lianas were trying to choke them. The only result of the expedition was that their clothes were painted in brown stripes, and fresh scratches appeared on their faces. Annoyed, they trotted after the girls, when suddenly a woman scream drowned the surrounding beasts' noise. Oleg and Yaroslav exchanged glances – apparently, some unknown beast had attacked the girls. Oleg ran forward, Yaroslav on his heels. It turned out that he was a bad runner. Oleg easily overtook him and disappeared behind a turn, just the thud of his shoes on the plates were echoing ahead. Yaroslav tried to speed up, but he was not in his best shape. He had not tormented himself with unnecessary exercises before, plus his sedentary job… Perspiring, straining and stumbling, he flew to the girls and Oleg. They all were safe. Then he saw the thing that had caught their attention. The road there was expanding and forming a cozy space. To the left was a small stone pool filled with water. The water was falling into the pool from some spring and flowed further somewhere into the jungles. Besides that, behind a small stone fence, were growing some bushes, covered with small fruits. These bushes differed sharply from the surrounding vegetation. They resembled cultivated plants too much, so they could hope for their edibility.
Olesya chattered excitedly:
– Oleg, I could not resist and ate a couple of those green ones. I think it's ok. And drank some water. Don't be angry, eh?!
Oleg could only sigh.
It was decided to make a halt for rest, eat, swim and prepare fruit for next journey. Everybody's mood rose to the highest level.
The girls were bathing first, then Oleg and last, Yaroslav as he was the dirtiest. He did not mind – the blood of Roshag was not wiped off completely yet. The guys had been waiting for about an hour, turning in the opposite side of the pool, listening to the girl's screams, grumble about cold water and absence of towels. Oleg was the next. He bathed in silence. At this time the girls were filling some packages which Olesya had found in her handbag with fruit.
Yaroslav's turn finally came. He undressed slowly – he carefully stripped off his rags that were striving to breakup along all the seams, and stepped down into the water. It was moderately warm, moderately cool and pleasing for his exhausted body.
«Why would the girls say that it's cold? Oleg also said something like that…» – a single thought crawled like a sleepy fly.
Washing off dirt and blood, Yaroslav confusedly looked at the muddy water. But, fortunately, the dirt did not stay there long, the weak flow of water quickly washed all dirt away and the water became crystal clear once again. Some doubts arose in his mind. If the spring was very close, the water must be really cold. He stepped to the groove through which the water was flowing from the spring, dipped his finger into the water. Indeed, the water was colder here, and moving the finger towards the source, Yaroslav felt that the cold intensified. He snorted. And suddenly he felt an overwhelming desire to lie down into this pleasant, gentle water, and did so with pleasure. The stream was gently washing his body. Some pleasant languor filled all his muscles. The heat subsided, the tingling disappeared, the fog in his head dispelled. He did not notice half an hour pass by. It was time to get out. Looking around himself, he paid attention to the thin threads of white scars covering his body. His yesterday wounds were healed. Obviously, something wrong was happening to him…Yaroslav grunted again and began to get dressed.
– Well, you take long baths. Like a beautiful maiden, – Oleg joked. The girls supported him with chuckles. – You can go and get fruit yourself. We'll have a rest for another hour and then resume walking.
Yaroslav went silently to the small garden, without noticing Oleg's long queer look. Oleg could not quite understand how such a weak man, like Yaroslav, spent so much time in the ice-cold water. All others plunged a couple of times and that's all, but Yaroslav was lying there like in a warm bath… It was some food for thought.
Meanwhile, Yaroslav was blissfully happy. The feeling of pure and rested body gave such cheerfulness that he did not want to pay any attention to the abusive behavior. Passing by the spring, he leaned down to drink water. As he had suspected, his teeth were pierced by pain from the cold, but the thirst forced him to endure it. He drank in long greedy gulps and could not stop. The water was amazingly delicious. Finally, he stopped and walked forward. But now his mind was occupied with other thoughts – the spring, as well as the swimming pool, was covered with small stone tiles, but the tiles in the spring had hieroglyphs on them. These hieroglyphs were exactly the same as the one he had seen on the rocks in the mountains. Two parallel lines crossed with a wave.
Thinking about that, he began to pick fruit from the nearest bush mechanically. These unknown fruit had the shape strongly resembling ordinary apples on the Earth, just their peel was like that of oranges and with similar flavor. They were surprisingly tasty. Yaroslav had eaten apples with such taste only in childhood, when he was a boy and his family lived in a cottage and had their own garden. And there was one tree with apples of the same taste. Yaroslav remembered the taste and the name forever – it was Sugar Arcata. After leaving that cottage, he never ate anything like that, and it was incredibly nice to come across the taste from childhood now.
So, relaxing and filling his stomach, putting aside all the puzzles, mysteries and horrors of his present life, Yaroslav forgot for a while the uncertainty of his current situation, the fear to never see people again and even his newly-appeared belief that magic was real were forgotten. His readiness for danger had passed, even the jungles did not seem so scary any more. Something always happens in such gracious moments. So
metimes it seems that your life has improved, everything is good, you're quietly making plans, and then… Ms. Fortune turns her ass to you. Some people even believe that it is the true face of Fortune.
That was exactly what happened that day. Yaroslav had looked at that part of the jungles just a moment before and everything was quiet, not even a single leaf moving. He turned to take an apple, turned back and there… was a beast. No, not just a beast, there was a BEAST. It looked like a panther, but only at first sight. Firstly, it was twice as large as a black panther. Secondly, its fur was half a foot long, of gray metallic color, with a blue tint. Thirdly and finally there were claws. They strongly resembled Roshag's claws, only shorter in length, and curved down – like small scimitars. The claws were steel-blue in color and they were a perfect weapon for murder. Besides that the beast had teeth, clearly visible in the open mouth. Milky-white and terrifying.
But the worst of all was its eyes. Yellow, without any iris or pupil – they were just two balls of gold. No animal has such eyes, none! The only thing that looked common in this animal were ears… and now they were snuggled to its head, as in extreme rage.
Seeing all that, Yaroslav froze to the spot. A scream stuck in his throat. Meanwhile, the beast was walking leisurely, with a lazy grace of the lord of the whole world. Its movements were fascinating. It seemed that it was flowing from one position to another. It was a matter of mere seconds when the beast approached him and was just a few yards away which took Yaroslav by surprise. A moment ago the beast was standing at the edge of the jungles, and now it was already here. Yaroslav shook off his numbness at once. He roared with a wild scream of a primitive watchman. By the corner of his eye Yaroslav noticed the girls and Oleg jump up, saw the animal and rushed down the road. He also noted that the beast shook its head in surprise and made a scrubbing motion by its forepaw. Then a shower of sparks sprayed in all directions and Yaroslav made such a leap towards the jungles, that could shame any Olympic champion. He had no thoughts except one: «I must not fall!» Yaroslav did not even know how he had broken the branches on his way and burst into the bushes. After a wild scream he was uttering no sound, just ran ahead, sometimes dramatically turning around. The fierce growl with a blend of anger and frustration, indicated that the animal was literally breathing at his neck. Yaroslav should die in a few seconds…