LITMIR.BIZ

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to it. With a conventional gesture, the man stopped another chatter of a teenager and instantly embodied his gaze. Salas froze, watching his relative.

      The whites of Taro’s eyes were filled with yellow, and the pupils narrowed. The bright colors of the real world – the sky, grass, shrubs and other vegetation – dissolved in the hunter’s gaze and acquired cold gray hues. Perception in the eyes of the hunter weakened the light of the Great Fire, everything around turned pale, and only some details of the environment, to which Taro paid special attention, concentrating his eye on them, kept the color of reality. The rustling of grass, the rustling of leaves from gusts of wind, the rumble of insects – everything around calmed down, resounding with a barely audible echo in the subconscious of a man. And only the deep rhythmic beats of Longneck’s heart in the ears of the red-haired hunter broke the muffled sounds of reality.

      Taro looked around carefully. The eyes of Zavrini – the eyes of a hunter – made it possible to see, hear and distinguish all living things around. Penetrating the distance with his eyes, Taro could see in the distance what the human gaze was beyond the power of. All those who were endowed by the creator with a heart, which of the reptiles could hide nearby in the grass or thickets, did not go unnoticed! And today the Great Fire itself favored the Great Hunt. Apart from the huge red relief of muscles, veins, and the flawless skeleton of Longneck, from which people would later make protective shells, there was no one nearby. With the gaze of a hunter, Taro saw the smallest detail that was hidden by the dense skin of a lizard. Huge muscles, every vein, down to the bones – everything was before the eyes of the beater. Like a web that cave creatures weave, the giant’s crimson heart was wrapped in many blood vessels. The source of life contracted quiveringly and uneasily, betraying the excitement of the reptile with tactless, momentarily fading blows.

      – Taro? What’s there? Salas asked, pulling himself up to the trunk.

      The man took another look at the area.

      «I don’t know what came over him… Everything seems to be quiet. It is time! he commanded and jumped to the ground. «We need to get around and launch the arrow.

      Taro’s eyes returned to their former human form, and the beaters rushed around Longneck, and the giant wandered lazily, moving away from the planned ambush.

      Running, hiding among the vegetation, the tribesmen reached a convenient position and began to prepare.

      Come on Salas! He must be returned to the detachment, otherwise we will remain hungry!

      The teen sighed deeply as he unslung his double bow from his shoulder and took out an arrow from his quiver.

      «Come on, come on, Salas!» You have the blood of real hunters! – Taro encouraged, pulling out the remains of silicon from the bag. «Zavrini’s presentiment promised me that today there would be a successful hunt!»

      «But they haven’t told me anything yet!» the young man balked.

      On the third attempt, the stones sparked. The reptilian-greased wrapping of thin, dry, loose branches of the liana tree at the end of the arrow ignited. The teenager looked sadly at Long-necked and, raising his bow to the sky, he pulled the bowstring with all his strength. Having gained maximum height, the arrow hung in the air for a moment and, leaving a dark plume of soot, headed towards the ground. Valla’s squad received the signal.

      ***

      On the other side of the field, behind a small rocky hillock, sticking out alone on the outskirts of the liana forest, was the main party of hunters. Lying on ledges, smeared with the juice of ground coniferous leaves, which interrupted the smell of human presence, dressed in leather vestments, in bone armor and armed to the teeth, two dozen rangers, and with them the shaman Vall himself, were already waiting for prey. Powerful bows, wooden spears and clubs with carved stone tips and Edge stones – all this, engraved and painted with symbols from hilts and blades to shock parts, today will break another giant so that the tribe of the first people would not remain hungry and continue their race.

      The hunters had gone too far from explored lands, and in all the days only Raptors, Lazoons, and scavengers Vultures had been encountered on the fishing trail. Honoring the will of Pangea, the precepts and instructions of ancestors and sages, nosy Raptors and small scoundrels, people shunned, and the meat of scavengers was nasty and smelly. Like all herbivores, the Vultures ate vegetation, but they did not refuse any dead or half-eaten flesh: because of the disgusting diet, the fried meat of the Vulture tasted like rotten meat, and the smell even gave off droppings. Eating these reptiles was not possible! And since the stocks in the village were coming to an end and it was completely unknown how the other hunting parties were doing, the Great Longneck Hunt today became significant. The carcass of the lizard would have been enough for the tribe for several moons!

      Vall, the black-haired leader of the Great Hunt, donned a Rasaur skull helmet. The inner part of the bone, lined with thick leather, sat tightly on the long curls of the shaman, hiding his face to the chin. Through the bored holes that once served as the eyeballs of a reptile, the bright green eyes of the leader shone. Pulling on his helmet, Val took over the responsibility of the huntsman. While the others distract their prey by hitting it with spears and archery, Vall will try to climb onto the lizard’s back in order to stick a powerful knife made of Edgestone into the victim’s neck more than once before the reptile falls dead.

      Yesterday, the Zavrinis themselves whispered to the shaman about the glorious hunt, but tonight the heavens cast a strange sign. Val looked at the rest of the hunters and thought.

      On the eve of the sunset of the Great Fire, the detachment set up camp on a liana tree, almost at its very top. When it got dark, Wall replaced Taro on patrol. And when the first rays of moonlight began to break through the foliage, the leader of the Great Hunt climbed to the other side of the crown, under the starry sky, where mighty Pterosaurs reigned. Val knew that today, at the foot of the Great Volcano, his tribesmen would set fire to the creation of Varna.

      The path of the detachment lay through the liana forest, and they wandered through it for four days. But during the day, climbing the crowns and following the path back to the camp was tantamount to death! The lords of the skies, the giant Pterosaurs, sensed the human spirit from thousands of paces away. Once the shaman had already seen such a predator… Only the light of the Fireplace, promised by Varn, could show the path through the forest, and only at night did the winged lizards become inactive. Despite the danger and risk, Wall climbed to the top of a liana tree and saw an unusual phenomenon there – a bright luminous circle formed in the middle of the sky. The stars in it seemed to cling to each other, and it seemed that another moon was born in the sky.

      The shaman peered into the heavenly miracle for a long time, trying to unravel the cause of the mysterious radiance, but inadvertently he was attracted by another unfamiliar glow – far on the horizon, Val saw a stream of light. Bright and mobile, as if alive, a thin flickering beam clearly stood out among the darkness. Closer to the sky, it was a little wider than at the source. The glow swayed randomly to the left, then to the right, like nothing else, never seen before! And the leader guessed that they were particles of hot tar – the light of the Campfire. This is how the one-eyed man described his manifestation.

      «Good job Varn!» thought the shaman and took out a parchment. Wall marked the end of the liana forest and marked on the map the path to the Great Volcano. After that, the leader contemplated a mysterious luminous circle in the sky for some more time in order to understand what kind of manifestation it was, but nothing sensible came to mind – the shaman saw such a phenomenon for the first time. And when he was about to return to the camp, the mysterious stake suddenly flared up, as if lightning flashed in the valley.

      Val shuddered in shock. Soon the dazzling glare in his eyes weakened, and the leader saw how the glow of a strange phenomenon hastily disappeared, and in its place a bright bizarre star was born. It shimmered with shades of scarlet and was more expressive and larger than other stars. Amazed by the appearance of the red luminary, Wall admired

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