Andrey Prudkovskii - Trilogy of Dhana and the Earth. Book one. End of the world

From the Red Book of Dhana

And the demons took Great Raa to another reality in which only demons live and from which there is no coming back. The demons do not know the FOUR TRUTHS. And the Sun shines on the demons with its round yellow eye. Because the demons are cruel and kill all those, who appear in their land.

Having got to know that Great Raa had arrived in the land of demons without permission, the main demon Radogast decided to take his life, and not just to take it, but with the help of his great witchcraft. But the young demoness saw Great Raa, and she wanted to have a son from him. Therefore, she hid him in her cave and gave birth to a son from him, whom she named RaDem, since his father was Raa, and his mother, Dem, was a demoness. And Great Raa lived with her for eight years, and taught his son wisdom in the spirit of the FOUR TRUTHS. And his son surpassed all human wisdom, despite his young age. At the end of the eight-year term, his main demon found him at that demoness’ place, fought with them and defeated them. He killed the demoness with his magic lightning, and Raa hid from him in a dense forest under the guise of a tree. For a whole year Raa was hiding in the forest, and then secretly entered the magic ship of demons and flew back to his country of Dhana, where his wife Siegle and daughter Raegle were waiting. (The names of the children in Dhana are usually derived from the syllables of the names of their parents.)

From a letter from Aleksandra to her sister Masha

Hello, Masha!

This is my fifth year in the city. I really missed our house, but the work is important, they will not let me go for a long time. As already mentioned, I have a car for two years. Imagine your, little sister driving a car through fearless crowds of pedestrians and cars without fear! On Sundays, I went to the river, rode a boat. And this summer I bought myself a collapsible kayak. I get to some coastal village in my car, leave it there. Then, I go with a kayak on a bus upstream. Then I collect a kayak…and two happy weekend days – down the river.

Are you asking if I have a boyfriend? Did I get married?

It’s hard for me to answer on your question: what happened to me is so strange and unusual that I don’t know what to call it. Perhaps I will tell you in detail.

It all started with a kayak.

I was late that day. I am floated under a high bank, covered with barbed wire in the bend of the river. It seems like we have around the foundation pit. Towers, searchlights, dogs are poured…

Suddenly, something from the coast slid right under the nose of my kayak. I thought it was a stone. But it flounders, screams. I swam closer and saw that it was a man. He choked and was drowning. Well, I flopped into the water and catch him by his hair. Of course, the kayak was turned upside down. But I haven’t lost anything. Everything is tied, and the inflatable sides are kept on the surface. So, with the current, I pushed myself and a kayak to the shore, an oar was in my left hand, in my right hand was completely naked drowned man. While I pulled everything ashore, he stopped moving. I think it is the end. But just in case, I turned him over and shock for five minutes. I poured water out of him and he breathed a little, but doesn’t come to his senses.

I rubbed it with a towel and stuck it in my sleeping bag – let him get warm. By the way a sleeping bag is dry, because all my things were in waterproof bags. I set up a tent, hung wet clothes on the ropes. Then I dragged him along with a sleeping bag into the tent, undressed and ducked into the bag. Brr – how cold he is. Well he is a real drowned man. But I overpowered myself, pressed him to the body and slowly warmed it up. I didn’t notice how I fell into a dream.

Alexandra and Ra in the spring forest.

I woke up late from some kind of stirring under my arm. The saved one come to senses and is trying to free him from my embrace. I quit hold him of and he jumped out of the tent as a bullet. I threw on a dressing gown and also crawled out. Splendid! The sun! There are dewy beads on every blade of grass and on every leaf! Birds are singing!

My drowned man vanished into thin air. I am running to the river, have a swim, brush my teeth and comb my hair. Then I returned completely pacified. I see that at the edge of the meadow my saved one is standing, twisting his head, surprise in his eyes. He is naked, but without complexes, doesn’t pay attention to me. I examined him and understood that he isn’t one of us. He is swarthy, brunette, nose with a hump, a typical Marazian. Where did he come from? I tried to talk to him but he didn’t understand. I spat and went to cook breakfast. I cooked semolina with condensed milk and tea to make it faster. I had a spare spoon, so I put it in a bowl and took the pan for myself. And… he put in his mouth a full spoon of hot porridge. Well, of course, right there, he spat it out. Apparently, he ate hot porridge for the first time. Maybe they don’t eat porridge in Marazia. As mentioned, they are all savages. Oh, how I laughed. When the porridge cooled, he ate it all, but, apprehensively.

By the end of the breakfast, the sun rose higher and began to bake, the dew melted before our eyes, thin strands of fog crept through the lowlands to the river. The day promised to be hot. In the meantime, I decided to establish at least some contact with the rescued.

“This is a tree – I say.”

He repeats:

“A tree.”

“There are a grass and an acorn”.

I see he became interested in acorns. I explain:

“Somebody plant it, and a big tree grows up – just like this.”

He is silent and looks at me with a strange attitude.

I say:

“I am Aleksandra – and hit myself in my chest.”

And suddenly he clearly says:

“I love Aleksandra.”

These words seemed to destroy the entire illusion of the serene world around me. I was shocked by the thought that I was alone in the forest with an unfamiliar naked man. I immediately remembered the television series, where an evil rapist with a bang tears the dress on his victim.

And indeed, it is clear that his wild southern temperament arouse in him, he rushed to me and pulled off my robe, so that the buttons fell. Well, I think if you feel like it, look at me, I’ve seen enough of you, but you just won’t be able to do anything else. But I was mistaken. At first he pushed me sideways playfully, and when I didn’t react he jumped onto a neighbouring tree like the monkey and, pushing away from it, flew towards me and hit me on the shoulders with two hands. I stumbled and crashed onto my back from surprise. Probably I even lost consciousness for a minute. I woke up in some state of bliss. The grass is soft, and over the head is a blue-blue sky. I haven’t seen such blue colour in my life…

Then I came to my senses and realized – girl, stop relaxing, after all, he can rape you. And he was lying on my belly. I fumbled with my hand the nearest log and so lightly stroke him with that log. But apparently I did not calculate. My rapist lies, his eyes rolled and does not move, and blood flows from a dissected head. I stuck it with a strip, but, I see, the matter is bad. Maybe I killed him. Then I listened that he was still breathing. And such relief and happiness came over me!

It is amazing how the world can change over the course of just five minutes. At first I experienced the pure joy of being, then there was a moment of fear, later was an amazement, then was a blissful thoughtlessness, after a hatred, then a repentance and a regret, which turned into a despair, and, finally, a joy again. My whole life ran in five minutes.