Andrey Prudkovskii - Trilogy of Dhana and the Earth. Book two. War with reptilians

“The sun, show us the way!”

Its light pours from above, penetrating me through and through, and it seems that something is happening…

Then I realize that we have to go the West. We never went with grandmother in that direction, as there was marshy lowland, overgrown with impassable bushes.

Terra is silent and does not object, she is all in her grief. So I will decide! I wipe the solar dish on the roof for the last time and do not switch off the generator. Let those who come here find a warm hut. I do not take a lot of food, because Terra and I are able to eat everything that grows in the forest. They say that in ancient times people did not know how to do that, and because of that there was starvation. I hope that we will find water at the bottom of lowlands, so I just take a small water-bottle. And, of course, a long rope, it can always come in handy!

For four days we make our way through the bushes on marshy lowland, but ahead, on the high hills, long pines invitingly stand. They are very close, but ahead is the river, though not wide but violent. Terra and I can’t swim! We go along the low bank, sinking to the waist in the mud. Here is bending, water with force is striking in the opposite high bank.

One end of the rope I tie to a bush, the other around Terra, and push her into the water. With a squeal she disappears under the water, but a minute later the stream carries her straight to the opposite shore. There she ties one end of the rope to a tree, and I tie myself to my end and throw myself into the water. I cannot get to the shore as Terra did. I am brought to the surface and carried at the center of the stream. The rope tightens, and Terra begins to pull me toward the shore. So we crossed the river, and at the same time washed from the mud.

We continue our way. There’s a path ahead in the right direction. After a few steps we see the light and hear someone’s voices. There are creatures unknown to us, men-princes our grandmother told us about. Or maybe they are not princes? They sit by the fire. The fire was new to us, too, because my grandmother never put it. The men look at us, both in dirty gray robes and pants, the older one with a mustache and beard, the other a young boy.

“Chicks came to us,” says the older one, “take off your dresses and let’s have some fun.”

I obediently take off my dress, but Terra won’t. A bearded man comes toward me with a knife in his right hand. Good knife, I would like to take it with me!

“Well done, chick” he says to me, putting his hand between my breasts. He puts the knife to my stomach. The second guy tries to knock Terra to the ground and tear off her dress. Terra fights back…

“No, they are not princes!” I compress the fingers of my boyfriend with my breasts, at first he smiles, then, when his fingers begin to crackle and break down, screams… and suddenly sticks his knife in my stomach. That’s what I need, my stomach muscles pinch the blade so he can’t take it out again. The knife is mine!

“They’re not people!” he yells, tearing and ripping out his skin, trying to take his hand away of my breasts.

“Pasha run away!” and he disappears around the bend of the path.

I pull the knife out of my stomach, outstretched my arm and poke it into Pasha’s hip, which was sprawled on my sister.

Pasha looks at my outstretched hand with horror and rushes away with a scream.

“That is all” I say to Terra “get up”. At the same time I put on a dress. In comparison to Terra’s dress mine is not even crumpled. My sister gets up and rushes to me crying.

“Bess, are men really so disgusting?! They are not like that in fairy tales.”

“Oh, Koschey the Immortal is also ugly enough… Let’s put the fire out! The grandmother said that the fires are dangerous, but I’m afraid to come closer to it. Do it, Terra!”

Meat is fried at the stake on metal sticks, the smell is disgusting! But Terra really adores it. Taking a metal bowl from the ground, she throws fire with the ground takes meat sticks with her and starts eating!

“Do you want to taste it, Bess? It is so delicious!”

I flinch in disgust,

“No, eat it yourself! And let’s leave the path; otherwise these fake princes will bring here their friends …”

And again we are walking through our native endless forest. Terra is chewing meat, and I am viewing my trophy – a brilliant knife, blade is two my palms long, the handle is comfortable, leather, with a support for the fingers. The wonderful knife. Gap from it in my stomach is already tightened, only a drop of transparent tar is on the surface…

Terra

I follow my little sister and remember our past life. The adventure with those men woke me up. Everything became special. And especially Bess, such a familiar, my sister. We are so alike and different at the same time, for example, I could get scratched in the forest, could prick my led, but she…

It had never happened to her. Once a month my grandmother cut my hair to keep it out of the bushes, but she never cut Bess’s hair, because it was already short and slightly curly. “It’s probably from your African ancestors, like your dark skin” my grandmother used to say. And when I got sick once a month, Bess didn’t, but my grandmother was sorry for her and not for me. Bess had never been afraid of anything neither of the forest, nor of the rushing river. The only thing she was afraid of was fire and nothing else, even those nasty men… And now she is walking and mentally greeting trees, and those even respond. “Wait! How do they do that? Can I hear them?! So I can talk to trees! Can I also talk to Bess that way? And no platers can hear me because they will take my thoughts for those of a tree?!”

“Bess, do you hear me?! Bess, we can talk to each other mentally without fear, but not as people talk, but as trees do! And no platers will catch us. They’ll think we’re trees!”

“Indeed! How could I not have guessed?” rejoiced she. “Now we can always talk, even at a distance, and never lose each other!”

Rin

Today is a holiday, ours came back from war with Homos.

I am sitting on a log near the grandfather and looking at the blazing fire around which are dancing the returned fighters.

“Grandpa, so ours won?”

“No, grandson, to win Homos is not for us! The matter is that platers are near them.”

“Why are we fighting Homos, but not platers?”

“You’re funny! After all platers do not treat us as people at all!”

“Can they beat us easily?”

“Of course! They just do not want to! Our wars are just an entertainment for them. Even Homos are not easy to be defeated, because they are better armed than our people. Today they again drove us away from the field…”

“Have we ever chased them away?”

“Once. But platers interfered… and we lost again.”

“So they fought ours?”

“Not exactly! They turned on brainwash on their saucers and drove ours through the forest almost to the village. Then everyone has a headache during the whole day … That’s how we live. Look! Mute came out! This is no accidentally!”

“Grandfather, and who is he, this Mute?”

“This, grandson, is a great immortal! He knows everything, understands everything, and therefore does not speak. Go and bring him a jug of milk! He loves milk. Always welcome him, and you will be happy! So the old people said.”

“How old is he?”

“Don’t even ask! He is immortal. He always lived here. And strangely, he never left his place. You know, once one hundred years ago, people wanted to drive him away.”

“And what?”

“He just looked at the attackers… and all of them immediately fled in terror. Such was the case! This Mute is a real sorcerer! Look, look, he’s pointing at something! Hey, people!!!”