5-8

5

"Quick, Bero, Merga has a severe headache; she's about to give birth." The old woman dragged herself to the family cave, occupied by Merga with her husband, parents, and brothers, who were now gone. It was a cave deep inside the mountain, where the entire tribe lived. Light came from a fire and torches mounted on the walls; it was warm and pleasant, without the wind howling outside. Merga lay on the skins, sweating and frightened; labor always proceeded quickly and almost painlessly. The child she was giving birth to was her first, but she had witnessed several births before. As the granddaughter of the tribe's most important witch, she had to learn how it was done and know what to do in case of complications. Although problems during childbirth were rare, now she was about to experience them firsthand. The labor dragged on endlessly. Bera brewed special water herbs and recited spells over the woman in labor, calling upon the spirits to help her. After two days of agony and immense fear, a boy was born. The new mother was terribly tired but happy. The boy was alive, but he looked strange. On his head were three horns, two in the front, one in the back, a curly black mane of hair at the top, his arms and legs each had six fingers, and on his chest was the symbol of a triangle with three drops emanating from its tips.

"Why does my son look so strange, Grandma?" Merga asked, hugging the crying child, his voice soft.

"I don't know, but I'll ask the spirits about it today."

"No need, old lady," Mergo's mother, Sanada, approached them. "I know why." Sanada came from a completely different village. Her husband, while in the Nest with his father, found her. Her father was attacked by birds and died, and as a child, she couldn't find her way home on her own, so the boy begged his father to take her to their village, although they never did so out of fear of the unknown. "I remember my grandfather, albeit rather vaguely, because I was very little when my husband found me, but still, he looked like that too. I don't remember much, but looking at that child, I feel as if I were looking at him.

" "You never mentioned that," Bera said, surprised.

"Yes, I must admit, I didn't remember much of my childhood, as I mentioned before. I only know that my father and I wandered for a long time in search of adventure, but as I said, the little one reminds me of my childhood.

" "Okay, we'll think about it later; maybe you'll remember more. For now, let's give Mergo a rest."

6

Zon didn't even notice his brother. Only when he threw an armful of brushwood to the ground did he slowly raise his head.

"Something's wrong in the house, I sense it very well, I don't know what's happening, but I feel something's wrong."

"What are you saying, how is that possible, you don't have the gift of telepathy?

" "I know, which makes me even more worried. Sit down and contact Bero."

Dero did as his brother told him. They joined hands, even though Zon didn't have telepathic abilities, he transferred his strength to Dero, thanks to which, despite the shell, or rather shadow, that stood in their way, they could reach their grandmother in their thoughts.

"I don't know what you mean, Mergo did give birth to a boy, and I also feel that something is wrong with him, as it should be, but Bera clearly made it clear that the child is healthy," Dero said after a long moment of concentration, during which he summoned his great-great-grandmother to "talk."

"I don't know what it is, but when I think about home, I feel a strange nervousness and impatience.

" "It's a pity we can't go home, we'd find out what's really going on there. Now, let's eat the eggs and wash down the rest of the tea. It's a pity there's no lake here where we could dive for fresh water, it would dry out and we wouldn't have to drink clean water."

After a delicious dinner, they lay down on their skins facing the fire, so they could add wood to it before falling asleep.

"I miss home.

" "Me too, but I'm increasingly worried about my father. Every time I try to contact him, I encounter stubborn resistance, some condensed evil, I don't like it." Dero stoked the fire.

"Me too. What do you think our father got himself into?" Zon couldn't lie down, so he got up and started pacing around the fire.

"I have no idea, but we have to get there and free him, because I feel very good that he's in captivity, but I don't know who."

7

Keraj was chained to the dungeon wall, constantly trying to contact someone in the village, first his great-grandmother Bera, then his son Dero, but in vain; the dark veil of evil could neither be destroyed nor penetrated. All he could think about was the place he found himself in, and maybe his younger son Zon would be able to find his way there by reading his mind, assuming he had already discovered his talent. He knew his son didn't know what he was capable of yet, but he did know; he remembered Zon reading minds as a little boy, but later his abilities had gone dormant, leaving him unable to grasp what dwelt within him. This was due to an accident he had experienced at the age of six. While playing with other children inside a cave, he fell off a rock and hit his head. Later, he had to learn everything all over again; he remembered nothing, and his abilities had become dormant due to lack of practice. The only hope was that either Zon discovered his abilities himself or someone reminded him of them, Keraj thought, looking out the barred window.

8

thought intensely about his father, where he might be. Dero remembered something:

"Zon, I'm thinking, your mother once said that as a child you could read minds. Try it now, I'll think of something and you tell me what it is.

" "You're being silly, how could anyone? No one has ever had such abilities. Telepathy, contact with ancestral spirits, healing powers—these are common in our clan. Other abilities, such as clairvoyance, but not mind-reading, sometimes occur."

"Try it, at least it might work. I remember Mother was very surprised by this. It's true that no one could do it. We can do magic, summon spirits, communicate with our thoughts, but we can't read minds. That's why Mother was so surprised and told me about it recently. She was wondering whether to tell you, but there's been so much going on in the village lately that she probably forgot.

"Okay." Zon sat down and focused all his thoughts on his brother. After a while, he raised his beaming face. "You're thinking about eating the rest of that cooked meat.

" "Yes, that's what I was thinking, you see, it's true after all, how did you read that?

" "Actually, it's not like that. I was thinking about you and I sensed you were hungry and thinking about what was close by, very close even, and next to you lies that meat in those bundles, the cooked one, because the rest is right here, next to me.

" "You need to practice a bit. How about we do this every evening after we set up camp?"

"Okay, why not?"

That was it, the boys went to bed. Zon, however, couldn't fall asleep for a long time. He tried to recall for the hundredth time what had happened before the accident, but as usual, in vain. With a deep sigh, he rolled onto his side and after a long time, fell asleep.

The sun was completely gone, clouds covered the entire sky, spring was marching towards them with long strides, and rain would undoubtedly fall from those clouds. It was quite warm; they could easily pack warm jackets and leave them on, except for the bird-skin shirts, thin summer jackets made of hare fur, tanned on both sides and carefully cleaned of hair. They also changed their trousers, removing the warm fur ones and leaving only the ones they always wore underneath. These trousers were made similarly to the summer jackets, and they, too, used skins tanned on both sides from various animals. Zon wore trousers made of cone-tailor hide, while Dero wore trousers made of crown hide. Konedar and koron were animals that lived close to humans, serving as their friends and helpers. Konedar had six legs and a bushy tail, his head was round and bald, his ears perched high, he had excellent hearing and smell, and his nose had three segments, allowing him to detect anything far away, warning the Frozoids of danger. Korona had four legs, were enormous, possessed incredible strength, produced a yellow drink called milk, and helped pull sleds when needed. Unlike konedar, who ate meat, he ate only fish he caught from the lake himself. Unless they went further, he ate whatever he found or got.

They walked all day, sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill, marveling that there was no snow, only bare rocks, though they had to admit it was easier this way. At one point, they came across a small clearing and decided to rest, but only for a moment. They wanted to get as far as possible today, and they also needed to find shelter from the rain. Luckily for them, there were plenty of caves, both large and small, but they were worried they might already be inhabited. They ate the chicks they had prepared earlier and continued their journey. It was already getting dark when they reached a small cave. They lit a fire in front of it to smoke out its occupant, if any, though neither of them could detect the scent of an animal. It's worth noting that their noses, with their single, rather large nostril, had a keen sense of smell, allowing them to "sniff out" animals from a distance. As usual, their noses were accurate; apart from the spiders, there were no other occupants inside.

It was already dark, the moon hadn't peeked out from behind the clouds for a moment, and it had even begun to drizzle. Zon and Dero sat by the fire, lost in their own thoughts—or rather, Zon was lost in his brother's. They practiced. They were getting better and better at these exercises. As they were going to bed, Zon began talking as if to himself.

"It's warm, very warm in fact, in the middle of it there's a circle, in the middle of it stands a stone, probably a sacrificial one, because it's all covered in blood, all around are rocks, bare rocks, something smells terrible, I see it's getting worse, it's getting darker.

" "What are you talking about?" Dero propped himself up on his elbow and stared at his brother in the light of the dying fire.

"You know, I was thinking about my father and wondering what he could be thinking right now, and that very image appeared in my head. You know what I'm thinking?

" "No, what?

" "I think I have to try to do the same thing tomorrow morning. I think that thanks to my abilities we'll finally find out where to look for my father."

The boys went to bed, and sleep came to both of them very quickly, unnoticed; they were truly exhausted. In the morning, they were awakened by birdsong and the warmth of the sun. They stretched and sat up, surprised; they had never heard so many birds and felt such warmth radiating from the sun. Chirping, squeaking, cooing, and other various sounds that birds can make. They emerged from the cave. Yesterday, exhausted from their day's wandering, they hadn't paid much attention to nature; they were simply looking for a cave, a haven. Now they noticed the beauty of the landscape. The mountains were covered with delicate down, with white and blue flowers scattered here and there. Various birds circled the peaks. A little further on, a cluster of strange trees was visible. They approached them and were amazed. This was what their mother had once said, long ago: these trees had no needles; they had leaves. Until then, even the trees they had seen on the way to Mount Nest had been conifers. They stroked the delicate leaves with admiration and surprise. It was from this grove that the birdsong came. Standing under one of the trees, they clearly saw the colorful feathers of these amazing creatures. The birds they had seen so far were black, gray, white, or simply shades of these colors; they had never seen any others.

"I wonder what these birds taste like. I've never seen anything like them before, but I have to admit, they look delicious.

" "You, Zon, are talking about food, as usual, but you'd better leave it alone. Come on, let's eat something from our supplies. We're out of eggs and chicks, but we still have smoked meat, and that can't stay out too long either.

" "But they look so delicious." Zon said sadly.

"I promise you, if we meet any more birds like that along the way and all we have left is dried meat, we'll save it for worse times (after all, who knows what awaits us next), and we'll hunt them down."

Zon had to accept his brother's decision. Hungry, but with a heavy heart, he took the pot and wandered towards the stream they had passed yesterday. The stream flowed from a crack in the rock and wasn't large, and the water was icy cold, but Zon decided to splash himself. He stripped off his clothes and bent down to dip his hands. Small fish swam in the water, but he left them alone. Refreshed with a full pot of water, he returned to Der.

Dero was waiting with a prepared breakfast. When they had eaten their fill, Zon, though dissatisfied with his brother's decision regarding the birds, devoured countless meals as if deliberately trying to deplete their supplies. Dero suggested that Zon try to empathize with his father's thoughts.