eaten, and some with a single smell could conjure an image of the talking saber right before your eyes.
The transitions were very challenging, but traveling through the native forest was incredibly interesting. The Vedichs didn’t even know their Dockol-Mo could be so diverse. And it only took leaving one’s native city in the wilderness to experience a few transitions.
14
One night, as Fao, Ina, Nome, and Komos all suffered from insomnia, they decided to communicate quietly – almost in a whisper – so as not to wake the others. Only the solitary hoot of owls accompanied their conversation and gave it an ominous color.
“And remember,” said Fao, “how they frightened us with the six-fingered? Like, lock all the windows and doors for the night, otherwise the six-fingered will come and drag you away! And now? We already slept three times six nights on naked moss in the darkest thickets – and nothing! We were frightened by fairytales!”
“It’s strange,” Nome began to argue. “Tales or not, the images of these six-fingered came from somewhere, didn’t they! Why do they scare kids with them? My grandmother told me a fairytale about a swamp monster that could swallow a bear, and I was so scared! Just imagine what this monster is like, if it can swallow a bear!”
“They say the Goddess of Death, whom the Taurs worship, is also six-fingered!” Ina reminded the group.
“There is no Goddess of Death!” snapped Fao.
“Maybe not the Goddess of Death,” Nome suggested. “But Ayduen existed. Yes, even if she is a six-fingered, she just gathered the squad once and left Swa-Ioledea, as we did! Henceforth, the elders called her the Goddess of Death! To take revenge!”
“Aha, and now the Goddess of Death is called Faolabre!” giggled Ina.
Fao slapped her hand, “Why not Inaonomose?”
“Wait,” said Komos, who had been silent before. “Maybe there have been many six-fingered ones. Only they lived a long time ago and looked like people, but they had six fingers. They were very, very evil, and they killed everyone. People eventually defeated them, but the fear remained,” he said quietly. The Vedich girl shivered, as though she had become frightened by her own intonation. Fao and Ina stopped laughing at once.
And then the owls began to grow louder. Everyone became uncomfortable.
“You scare us,” Fao whispered.
“And I heard a story,” Nome continued in a serious tone, “that somewhere far away in the west of our forest, in one village, a baby with six fingers was born. His parents were so scared they immediately killed him.”
“Well, I won’t fall asleep now!” confessed Ina.
And then Fao felt something fall on her shoulder. She froze with fear.
Somebody’s hand!
Fao seemed to feel six fingers on her shoulder. She immediately screamed and jumped to her feet.
A huge bat flew from her shoulder and disappeared into the night mist.
Fao looked around, embarrassed. Now the entire camp was awake, as the younger comrades stared at her in bewilderment.
15
The next day, the forest began to thin out. With each step, the trees parted as more and more and openings began to appear all around, leading to a solar kingdom! Such a huge clearing in the world could not exist.
Fao guessed that they finally reached the great river Kawa.
First, they walked smoothly, holding their breath. They were whispering about what awaited them when the trees finally parted. They could distinguish a huge blue sky with white clouds, a powerful water barrier, and beyond it – an endless green glade.
“A field!” explained Wey-Leya. “Not a glade, but a field!”
Gradually, curiosity completely took over the most troublesome ones – Nome, Ina, Swaol-Ney, and, of course, Fao.
Laughing and shouting excitedly, they rushed forward. While on the move, they agreed to run a race. Whoever reached the river first wouldn’t need to do anything at the break. Nome broke forward, with Swaol-Ney not far behind. Fao rushed along with Ina, and then made a sharp jerk, leaving Nome behind.
She jumped out into the open space, and stopped dead.
In front of her stood a group of people lined up in black robes. They were dressed in absurd sleeveless jackets with an incomprehensible symbol at the center – a lizard with wings. Fao looked at the faces of the men, women, and even several children standing there.
In the middle stood a very lean man of short stature. Muscles showed through his clothes. The man’s hair was cut short in a strange ornament. Such patterns were also drawn with dark paint on his hands. He shifted his thick black eyebrows and looked threateningly at Fao. She tried to turn around and run back into the forest, but the terrible man extended his arm forward, and Fao stopped abruptly. She did not understand what kind of power was holding her, only that she could no longer move. She was frozen like a stone!
CHAPTER 4. THE DEPRIVED FROM THE SKIES
To know the teaching of Tau, one must know oneself.
1
Ulari, throwing the sword from hand to hand, watched as Mou’Kaa, Khan, and Sa’Ea brought the rest from the forest.
Master Nao still held the four Vedichs in a daze. They were the first to jump out of the forest, however, the Ulutau were already prepared to meet them. They had felt the approach of the unknown people for a long time, and Ulari had no doubt their newly appeared captives were the Vedichs. Already in Tokana, Master Nao told his pupils how representatives of other nations can look.
“Is that all?” Ulari asked Mou’Kaa.
“It is,” she replied. “I’m sure.”
Ulari counted sixteen prisoners.
Four more are on the beach. The faces are very young, some are still just children.
“Who’s in charge here?” he asked calmly, but severely.
“I am!” the redheaded Vedich girl stepped forward. “My name is Wey-Leya and my people will serve as the Embassy to the Valley! By what right do you hold us and threaten us with weapons?”
Ulari looked intently at her face. Wey-Leya was also young, but still looked older than the others.
She is indeed in charge!
“Master Nao wants to talk to you!” Ulari preferred that his teacher himself answered the questions asked by Wey-Leya.
The leader of the forest-squad obeyed and followed him. The other Vedichs slowly followed. When they reached the shore of Kawa, Master Nao finally dropped his hand, and the four teenagers, who up until now were held frozen, collapsed to the ground. The master knew how to draw away enemies with a simple move of the hand – let it be six or six hundred.
“Her name is Wey-Leya,” Ulari introduced the red-haired Vedich girl to the master. “She’s the eldest!”
“I want to know why you stopped my squad!” Wey-Leya took a step towards the master, her voice angry.
Master Kuno and Master Ean took a step forward to help Nao, but he stopped them with a gesture of his hand.
“Are you Vedichs?” he asked Wey-Leya.
“Yes, we are the Vedichs,” she responded.
“Can you shape-shift into animals?” interrupted the master.
“I can, but…”
“Shape-shift, then!”