without the eyes of a hunter it was dangerous to leave the camp!
The children giggled and made noise.
«It was hard to feed our tribe in those moons,» Valan continued his tale. «The first people did not yet know that the flame of Pangea was created from prana, and there was no Great Hunt at all. And it was then that my relative – Lasso, very young, who invented the lasso for baiting – for the first time on a hunt and knew the eyes of his ancestors. He then became bolder, did not want to put up with blindness and went alone to free trade! It means that he followed the Polosuns, and they are smart and sighted scoundrels. They see Lasso from afar, but they know his every step in advance. And at Lasso, nothing can be seen through the thickets until it comes close to the lizards. The lizards would wait until he discovered them, and immediately ran away – a hundred paces. And so the whole day – back and forth. Lasso realized that the reptiles were leading him by the nose, but he could not do anything to them with his nose. This made Lasso sad. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how he squinted, he could not see the sly one first.
«Uuuuuuuh,» boomed the fry condoling with their congener.
It was already getting dark, but Lasso did not give up. Decided to get around Polosunov at dusk! He peered, peered, and suddenly everything turned pale in front of him and his eyes appeared to him. And that evening he brought different carcasses, and told about his insight, but he thought that the twilight of the eye had awakened – he still did not know how to master concentration to perfection – at this tale, Valan turned his eyes into the eyes of a hunter, and the children gasped and began to stare consider the reptilian incarnation of the sage. – And after the epiphany, Lasso went hunting and took the young with him another moon at dusk, and then went alone into the night. And after that night he did not return. They found his body in a ravine gnawed to the bone…
The old shaman returned his human gaze and fell silent, remembering the past, while the children and older relatives groaned sympathetically.
– And when Alak gained strength, he told us about the eye. As if he understood in unity that the eyes of Zavrini with us and our descendants will now appear with the moons, as if Pangea itself is so re…
Suddenly, a bugle sounded from the direction of the southeast watchtower, a simple melody of several beeps.
The tribesmen involuntarily jumped up.
Brun is back! Radon exclaimed. «Brun’s squad has returned from the Great Hunt!
– So fast?! Hord was surprised.
– Let’s meet! shouted one of the teenagers.
A farce began, and the relatives, leaving the fire, advanced to the eastern loophole to greet the hunters.
***
– Elna, shh! Elna! Ronin whispered.
The blue-eyed girl followed her Clanmates down the path to the Hunter’s House. Hearing the call, Elna turned around warily.
Ronin, is that you? Why are you sitting there? she asked in bewilderment.
The youth hid in the fern thickets along the path. His face was smeared with a green infusion of cycad and looked like a camouflage color of a hunter.
– Shh, hush! Go with us?
– Where? Are you going to leave the camp again?
No, to the caves!
What caves? Elna asked already in a whisper, looking around and not understanding the mystery of what was happening.
– To the Temple of the Creator! Let’s look at the unity of the leader.
Immediately, Unga’s head appeared from the booth, and his face was also painted.
Elna, come with us!
– Are you seriously? The girl walked closer to the bushes.
Rhonin came out of hiding a little and held out his hand to her. Elna timidly looked at the youth. In the darkness, she could see his green eyes glittering. Peering into the features of a teenager, she thought for a moment about something of her own and froze.
– Do you trust me? Ronin suddenly blurted out.
– I? Umm…» Elna hesitated, and the young man immediately grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the thickets.
Unga chuckled.
– Can we go to the Temple of the Creator? the girl asked, frowning.
– Well, you already! They say you can’t, but we’ll go quietly and no one will know,» suggested Ronin. «Aren’t you interested in yourself?»
Interesting, but I’m afraid.
– We are not afraid! Let’s go see the leader! – Unga’s eyes burned with anticipation of a trip to the caves.
«And if one of the elders notices us?» Elna hesitated.
– They won’t notice. Most of the elders are in the Hunters’ House, and those left by the caves are most likely asleep, Ronin assured. «We’ll just see what the chief is doing there and then we’ll go back.» Nobody will notice!
«But what about the watchmen?»
We are future hunters! Unga exclaimed. «Let’s imagine that the sentinels are reptiles, and go around them!»
Elna asked a dozen more questions, but the young men had answers for all occasions, and they still persuaded the girl to go to the Temple.
The teenagers, making their way through the paths and vegetation, returned to the Pavilion of Flame, and soon came to the araucaria.
– Shh! Ronin hissed, crouching behind a rock. – Look – the lights are on the wires. Maybe there are some adults there?
Unga and Elna hid nearby, examining the branches of coniferous trees.
«Yes, everything seems to be quiet,» Unga said. – There is no one there. Everyone heard the horn. Just went to the House of Hunters.
«Then the main thing is not to wake the kids,» Elna whispered. Otherwise, they will get scared and start calling for help. Don’t get stretch marks!
«Let’s follow me,» commanded Ronin, resolutely jumped over the boulders, passed on tiptoe under the araucaria, deftly bending between the stretched rattles, and again jumped into the thicket.
The youths followed him.
The quieter the children tried to walk, the louder, it seemed, was the crackling of dry leaves, twigs, stones and the rustle of grass under their feet. Even the chirping and clatter of nocturnal cicadas and other living creatures was not as audible at that hour as the crunch of vegetation under the sandals of future hunters, as if the night itself listened and followed every step of the young relatives, illuminating the untouched by torches surroundings with the moon.
So – from one tree to another, from ledges to thickets, from huts to huts – the children made their way through the village. Miraculously, they bypassed two sentinel detachments, and this was a real test! After all, no one has yet managed to sneak past the sentinels unnoticed! True, no one has ever tried to do this before…
Elna was very frightened when the hunters met on the way. She had no idea what would happen if they were discovered, and a premonition, which adults called the feeling of Zavrini, at that hour seemed to speak to her for the first time. As if an inner voice whispered to the young maiden that all this was not good. But Unga and Ronin constantly encouraged her and assured her that there was nothing shameful in their journey.
Soon a cheerful mood picked up Elna. Teenagers thought up a game of hunters and imagined that someone was following them. Children were fooling around, giggling softly, pretending to be reptiles and trackers, hiding among boulders and thickets. The youths pursued each other, hiding in the bushes and setting up the expected ambushes. And after a while, the young relatives reached the very path