Trilogy of Dhana and the Earth. Book two. War with reptilians. Andrey Prudkovskii
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may I come with them?”
“Yes, you may, Rin, you are almost an adult. Take just in case our bow with you. You are not still ready to fight like a real man!”
The men grabbed their clubs and trotted through the forest.
I ran ahead of everyone. Eastern part of forests was forbidden. Women did not go there to gather berries and mushrooms, and did not let their children to play there too. There, in the East, lived the meridichi. They always bullied ours and were always ready to steal the lost woman.
I got far ahead and was the first who heard a woman’s scream.
“Let me go!..”
Jumping out on a glade, I saw five healthy men, who were knitting a little white girl. The sixth guy tried to grab the other one, the dark one, but she deftly waved him away with a large knife. He didn’t try very hard, though. Then his partners finished knitting a white one and headed out to his aid. I fired and hit the man in the shoulder. The dark one did not yawn and stabbed him in the other hand, so the dazed man fell to the ground and rolled away. The remaining five split up. Two of them ran to the dark one, and three of them began to walk around me. I am not stupid and did not shoot at them because it was impossible to hit a target. I shot the one who was running toward the dark one, and I hit him in his ass. He screamed and stopped. But the second swooped at the girl. I couldn’t help her, and I ran.
Behind me, three of my enemies were crashing and cursing. We were heard a mile away, which I was counting on. All three ran to the place where were ours, and then they got it. And I turned back. The dark one and a man laid motionless on the ground, hugging each other, and a pool of blood was spreading beneath them.
Screams were heard behind the bushes, there three trapped meridichi were flogged.
“Do not go in our direction! Do not go!” Ilya said, he always flogged the guilty.
I came to the swarthy one.
“What is your name?”
“Bess, and you?”
“I’m Rin. Come to us, meet my grandfather. We have no mistress; you can live in our hut. And, I feel, Petrya will not let your friend go, she will live in his hut.”
“Will she feel good there?”
“Do not be afraid! Petrya is kind to the women. Never offends anyone! Yes, the main thing is to thank the Mute, if not for him, the meridichi would have dragged you to themselves. It’s bad to live with them, they are all angry! They even beat their women!”
“Why?”
“I do not know. Probably because of their anger…”
So, talking, we slowly reached the village. At first everyone came to the fence of the Mute and bowed low. The Mute stood, so tall and stern. He was looking somewhere above our heads.
“Bow down!” I whispered to Bess.
“Wait,” she whispered back, “let me talk to him.”
“He’s Mute, he never speaks!”
“Don’t interfere,” Bess went to the fence and gave a hand to him, and he gave his own in response.
Everyone looked at it in amazement. Both seemed to be petrified, and then the incredible thing happened. Mute came up and opened the wicket-door; the swarthy girl slipped into it and went to the house with him.
The crowd gave a sigh simultaneously. Something unusual was happening. Mute never let anyone into his area, and moreover, never invited.
Bess
Terra and I were wrong not having taking care before. We needed to run away immediately after that bad meeting. And we walked slowly, talking with all the trees we met, and only then, when it was too late, we noticed the silhouettes of pursuers behind.
My cry, “Help!” on a wavelength of the trees could be heard only by the trees, but nevertheless someone answered.
My sister and I were fleeing as best we could, but, of course, they caught up with us. Terra didn’t try to resist, she just shouted plaintively: “Let me go!”
They knocked her down and began to tie her up, but I took out my knife. The owner of this knife, who recently ran away from me, approached me, but he was in no hurry to attack.
“Now your sister will be tied up, then I’ll take care of you,” he said, coming closer to me.
“And what are you afraid of?” and I waved a blade towards him.
Suddenly, he jumped up screaming in the place where he stood. An arrow appeared in his right shoulder. And I poked him with a knife in the other hand, and, strangely enough, hit. Then he will know how to attack defenseless girls! He rolled down the grass with a scream.
The other five finished to tie Terra up. Two rushed straight to me, and the rest to the forest, from where the arrow flew. However, one of these two immediately got an arrow in the ass and immediately lost his enthusiasm, but the last, hefty man with a knife in his right hand, clearly decided to finish with me. He overturned me with his huge body, while trying to knock a knife out of my hand. He was late. My knife was stuck directly into his chest, and, falling on me, he pushed it to the hilt. His knife also appeared under my left breast, it was very ticklish, but I could not do anything – the man was too heavy. Tickling became unbearable, and moving my chest, I slowly squeezed his knife out and covered the cut with tar.
Meanwhile, something was happening in the clearing, someone’s voices were heard… Well, of course, everybody crowded Terra, who, I feel, was all right, but me, who was completely crushed, remained unnoticed. Finally, one saw me and took a dirty, sweaty body away from me, but then he decided to take the knife from me! It will not work! It’s my knife, I won’t give it back! I got up to the laughter of the whole company. I looked around – the same men, sweaty, dirty, but… funny! Not princes, of course, but it’s better to go together with them. The chief immediately went to Terrochka and took her in his arms. The rest were watching… And why does everyone like her so much? Only a young one, with a bow, came up to me. After all, it must be him to help me by shooting from a bow!
And so we went: Rin and I, for Rin was the name of this one with a bow, and others were around the chief with Terra in his hands.
I mentally contacted her:
“How are you?”
“Great, little sister! I like it so much!”
I calmed down. So, everything is fine. Maybe this is her suiter, as grandmother told us?
We came to the place where there were a lot of houses, a village; everything is as we know from grandmother’s tales. And here’s a special house, there a local sorcerer lives. It was him who heard me and sent all of them to help.
I stay and look in the stern face of the sorcerer, listen and hear nothing.
“He does not speak,” the companion whispers to me.
“Come to me,” I hear suddenly, and my legs themselves carry me to the fence. Our hands meet, and our thoughts as well.
“How old are you, girl?”
“I think about fifteen, like my little sister.”
“You are mistaken, baby, you are much older … I can’t even imagine how old you are. The last time I saw people like you, several thousand years ago … There was a terrible time, everywhere bonfires were burning…”
I flinched, imagining my mother writhed in flames.
“It was so … But it will never be so again!”
“Why does everyone call you Mute?”
“I cannot speak with them … How could I explain this to you? In a word,