The Last Days of Pangea

An unexpectedly powerful blast of the elements stirred up the essence of the soul. Roshan felt the breath of cold currents on his face and shuddered. It seemed to him that the elements had broken the flight. The essence seemed to have overcome an invisible line and, having weakened the impulses of aspiration, stopped. With his body, the shaman perceived a previously unknown lightness, as if his camp had lost its attraction. After a moment, the heights of the heavens, which a moment ago were shrouded in darkness, completely dissolved, and around the outlines of the creator, the starry abode of the night appeared.

***

Bright stars engulfed Roshan’s vision. The cold radiance of countless luminaries – both small and great – littered the valley of darkness. And that valley had neither borders nor horizons.

The shaman was stunned by what he saw – even at night, so many stars could not be seen from the ledges of the Great Volcano! And their leader was amazed at their multitude and open spaces, that they had no edges, not only from above, as usual, but also from below, where the warehouse of Her monastery allowed walking along the paths, and from all over the world, where the horizon bordered on something!

And then, at a distance from the camp of Pangea, the Great Fire rushed into the eyes of Roshan.

Like a lonely fire in the midnight wasteland, the Great Fire blazed in the endless desert of darkness. And there was no one around except the Earth and the dark stars. And the fiery shone that warmed each new day, which foreshadowed twilight by sunset, at that moment no longer blinded the shaman’s gaze. Her eyes returned to the leader and softened the brightness of the dazzling rays, allowing you to consider the coherence of the red-hot body.

The fiery mixture of glow and heat aroused clumps of fiery elements in the camp of the Great Fire! The warehouse of the Great Fire was seething like boiling water in a vat, and the seething streams seemed about to spill into the abode of the night. The leader, fascinated by the reality of what he saw, held his breath and again felt how anxiously the heart of his flesh was beating in the Temple of the Creator.

«Who is the creator of this world? Who is the true builder of the primordial life? And are these stars really souls? And who created them, and why are they still so far away? – Unrestrained thoughts disturbed the mind of the shaman, and at that hour he inadvertently noticed how the Great Fire began to slowly circle the western edges of Pangea, and darkness began to fog its eastern halls.

And immediately after the darkness, serenely bending around the Earth, as if deliberately hiding behind its coherence, a pale silhouette appeared. He slowly walked around Her camp, brightening with its essence the darkness of the eastern lands of the human world. «The moon that illuminates the hunting trails in the night!» the leader agreed.

The Warehouse of the Moon shone dazzlingly from the radiance of the Great Fire. And the shaman for all the lived moons of the moon has not seen such a guise! The dark side of her gray camp, which was not touched at that hour by the rays of the fiery luminary, was cut by high rounded ridges. They appeared to Roshan as giant scars and inspired thoughts that something was disturbing the Moon for thousands of moons…

Seeing all this, the shaman realized one consideration that worried him and other shamans: the Great Fire and the Moon, as relatives of Pangea, were and circled around Her in the night abode and succeeded each other day and night. But the sages bequeathed other knowledge to their descendants: the ancestors repeated that the children of Alak knew them, as Zavrin saw the Great Fire go into the water. As if Pangea was creating a fiery luminary at the horizons of raging water elements on the other side of the world. It was as if She was escorting him along the vault above Her abode to the northern shores of the fair-skinned ancestors to the same restless waters, so that the perfect lands would not be incinerated by the heat of the Great Fire. So that the Great Fire cools down by dawn and warms the expanses again. And in his absence, She lifted the Moon from the same water, so that Her creations could rest from fishing and see dreams, and in order to calculate – to become wiser and gain strength. Those observations turned out to be inaccurate, but the sages were only right in that they noticed variability in the Moon and in the fiery star and in the sky of stars the movement with time.

Reality was moving farther and faster away from the gaze, but at the same time, Roshan stopped feeling the movement of the essence of the soul – as if Pangea herself rushed away from the reincarnated essence of the shaman…

Soon the Moon and the Great Fire noticeably circled the Earth. The fiery become clung to the other side of the human world and no longer cast any light on Her warehouse visible to Roshan. And the pale luminary shrouded the lands of Pangea with a shadow, and the leader realized that there – on Earth – in the expanses of Her abode, night had come. Roshan watched the mesmerizing performance one more time, and his thoughts about the idea of unity returned to him. The shaman strained his gaze and turned the essence of the spectacle back. And not far away, a fiery mixture of newly appeared elements appeared before him…

***

Fiery fragments filled the stellar abode, and at that moment it seemed to the leader as if he had fallen under a fiery rain of blazing stones. Boulders flying towards them left behind clots of white smoke and shining dust, and Roshan’s gaze, darting from side to side, avoided collisions with boulders and gradually approached the newborn star. Sometimes the essence of the soul did not keep up with the frequent stumbling of stones and cut through their red-hot barriers. Permeating the vision of stone warehouses, the shaman felt the malleability and incredible ardor of their red-hot body. And it seemed to the leader at that hour that they were not stones at all, but something else and completely unfamiliar. Roshan has not seen such stones either in the abode of Pangea or in Her unities!

The closer the incarnation of the soul approached the manifestation, the hotter the night became. Very soon, the course of the essence turned out to be close to the fiery nature, and the shaman was able to discern the essence of the mysterious manifestation.

The confluence of flame and blackness, having filled the vision with its grandeur, seethed in front of Roshan. The leader saw how clots of fiery elements rushed about in the coherence of the stars. And they were similar to the elements of the Great Fire, but the essence that was hiding under the flaming exterior was unlike anything seen before. The black, in some places with blue insides constantly changed its restless shape – it became elongated, then more rounded, as if something alive was hiding under a fire-breathing cover.

At times, with a roar and crackle, the star spewed ardent fragments into the abode of stars. Not soon cooling down, its fruits turned into those very alien stones. And the stones scattered across the expanses of the night, and some followed their offspring, as if they were kept nearby by an unknown force.

Soon the shaman drew attention to the fact that the star itself gradually approached the gaze. The leader was momentarily filled with confusion, and the essence involuntarily rushed to the side so as not to collide with the fiery element. The essence of Roshan at that hour resigned itself to the heat of the fiery appearance and began to soar nearby, as if seeing off the course of the newborn manifestation. Behind the star, like a tail, continuing its warehouse, a long train of fire, smoke and red-hot boulders stretched. And the tail stretched far into the abode of the night and dissolved there.

The shaman contemplated this obscure phenomenon for some time, and then realized what was happening, but suddenly the vision began to shake. Roshan began to hear disturbing voices, and the red star that was blazing in front of his eyes suddenly shattered into fragments. The leader focused his gaze more strongly, and human silhouettes appeared in front of his vision without skin and hair…

Bonfire – second night

The whole day in the village there was only talk about a flash in the night sky and a star being born. Both old and young discussed the newly appeared sign. Kindred eagerly awaited news from the Temple of the Shaper. Most of all, young descendants chatted about what had happened. They expressed their assumptions about the manifestation to every adult and elder who passed by. A lot of chatter went to Varna. He spent the whole day with teenagers in the training arena, and the young constantly asked the craftsman various stupid questions: «Why did the star light up?», «And when will it go out?», «Will there be more?”… As if Varn lit the heavenly stars and deliberately did not say anything about them!

There were also those in the settlement who had not even heard of the heavenly miracle. They were sentinels who changed their posts in the first half of the night. But the children immediately broadcast about the mysterious glow to their ignorant fellow tribesmen, and by the onset of twilight there was not a single relative left in the camp who did not know about the revealed star.

As soon as the rumble of daytime living creatures ceased, the women led their children on araucaria to huts. All the boys were told to get ready for bed, even though they asked them to stay at night with the elders to fuss with the Totem of Flame and at the same time look at the bizarre particles of hot resin and the glow of the red star. Only future hunters remained to help build the Fireplace – those who were admonished by the second hundred moons.

With the advent of dusk, the first stars lit up. The cloudless sky adorned the night luminary, and next to the Moon, turning the gaze of the sentinels on itself, a mysterious phenomenon also shone… The first people lit the lights. Some of the elders, at the call of Hord, descended from the caves. Night has come.

In the Pavilion of Flame, as usual, there was a noise-din. The tribesmen gathered in crowds around the refectory bonfires: women cooked meat dishes and treated them to young and old people, youths, led by Ana and Varna, erected a fire totem. The fry were in a great hurry with the construction of the Fireplace, despite the fact that it would be set on fire when the Moon reached the middle of the sky. The young hunters were eager to see the fiery whirlwinds, and they believed that the sooner the Totem of Flame was erected, the faster the tedious waiting would fly by, so the turmoil in the tent was still so.

The enthusiasm and restlessness of the young tribesmen gradually cheered up Anya, and she was very worried about the leader. Roshan has been in unity so far. The huntress knew that no one had tried to comprehend the abode of the stars before, and this alarmed her. But the fun of the young gradually distracted the woman from her anxious thoughts, and sometimes she even smiled and laughed at all the stupidity and clumsiness of future hunters.

Soon Inga and several elders entered the tent. The sorceress immediately spotted the fair-haired huntress and slowly walked towards her.

– Hello, my child!

– Inga-ah! Hello Inga! Ana happily hugged the old woman. – You haven’t been down to the camp for a long time! Did you bring us your new potions?

The sorceress laughed, snuggling back.

– No, honey. Didn’t bring. The last thing I made from the tricky drink I gave to Roshan.

Did you add a red flower? the huntress asked excitedly. – And how is he? Tell. Was unity quickly overtaken him?

Yes, I added. Yes, yes, very quickly!.. Don’t worry, Ana, everything is fine with Roshan. He’s strong, he can handle it! I think if you cook meat broth from this muck, then you can poison the lizards, – changing the subject of the conversation in a different way, Inga spoke. «Razaurs and all sorts of Raptors. I heard that the toothy little ones completely filled the grove.

Yes, Inga, yes! All the Polosuns were exhausted… Good idea! Do you think these creatures can’t smell the red flower? Prepare this potion for me too. Roshan will return – I will go hunting, I will test it.

– I’ll cook, I’ll cook. How is Omi? Is she in a hut? Learned to shoot a bow?

Yes, I hope she’s asleep. Shooting, shooting! So far, only for butterflies,» Ana answered fervently.

– Ma! – Varnus threw the firewood to the ground and rushed at the healer.

– Hello, my good! the old woman hugged the craftsman. «They say in the caves that you built this tent. Well done son! Elders and shamans are proud of you. And the leader too!

– Thank you, Ma! What did you bring us this time? Elixir of the Great Hunt? Will one of the trackers now become more agile and faster?

The old woman broke into a smile.

– Oh, and you’re a joker, Varn! Maybe I’ll bring it tomorrow. You can check with Ana whether he is good for the Great Hunt or not at all, «she answered, laughing.

After talking with her relatives about this and that, about the events of the previous night, Inga undertook to help Anya and Varna with the Fireplace. And soon the fire totem was erected. When the moon reached its peak, Radon, Hord and several sentinels arrived in the tent. Under gracious speeches and parting words to the detachments of the Great Hunt, Radon set fire to the Fireplace. And when it became very hot in the Pavilion of Flame, the tribesmen left the building. Like last night, they settled side by side, in a clearing near the fire.

A warm monsoon descended to the foot of the Great Volcano. The wind, with a sudden gust, stirred up the lights of the lanterns that illuminated the bypass paths, posts and huts of the settlement. From the breaths of the winds, the silhouettes of the shadows of the way of the village danced on the hills and sheer ledges of the mountain pedestal. The flickering of light under the power of the windy element seized the midnight spirit of the camp with mystery, and the newborn star on the eastern side of the sky assured this mystery with its bizarre scarlet radiance. She riveted the attention of the first people. Kindred, while eating half-eaten dinner in the Pavilion of Flame, stared intently at the night sky. And not everyone noticed at that hour that the star changed its stay among other luminaries and became a little more than its manifestation last night. And those who noticed thought they thought it was. Everyone thought so, but not Hord.

When the heat reached its limit, Varnus released particles of hot tar into the chimney, and the Totem of Flame with its glow touched the sky. In anticipation of another miracle, the tribesmen, sitting by the fire, looked either at the fiery swirls or at the red star, but nothing surprising happened in the night sky. For some time, the elders-shamans listened intently to their inner urges in order to catch the voices of their ancestors again. Each time, shuddering from the sudden crackle of a fire or gusts of wind, the relatives perked up their ears even more, but the spirits were silent… Very soon the elders calmed down, and the wonder of the manifested star and the light of the incandescent particles became commonplace for the gaze – and then the time for cognitive stories came.

***

Amidst the booth of juveniles and the dialect of adult tribesmen, Unga, the younger relative of Taro, turned to the senior sentinel. The future hunter or shaman, the smart youngster has not yet decided what path he will take, but his interest in the unity of the leader drew attention to the conversation with Radon and other relatives.

– Radon, when will the leader return? Why has he been in unity for so long?

– Yes! Yes! When? the youngsters cried out.

– Why is it so long? Not long at all,» the watchman replied. «I’m sure Roshan will come down from the caves in the morning,» Radon said convincingly, looking at his older fellow tribesmen.

The teenagers nodded in agreement.

– And what is there, in the unity of the leader, Radon? Unga continued to pry.

«Ask the sage Valan, my friend,» Radon waved his hand towards the seated elders. «He was most united. I chose a different element. I like hunting.

The young descendants immediately turned their eyes to the elderly relatives, located opposite. The youth tried to look out who Radon called Valan, but the light from the flame of the fire was too dim, and it was impossible to see who among the elders was the sage of unity. Besides, teenagers might not have seen Valan before. Few people met him in the settlement – the old shaman preferred to spend his moons in caves. And even during heavy rains, he retired to the Temple of the Creator. But the building of Varna and its Fireplace aroused curiosity in the ancestor last night, and he and other elders went down here – to the Pavilion of Flame.

Khord and several of his relatives sitting in front turned towards his tribesman – his dark silhouette in a hoodie. Puffing, the mysterious old man reluctantly got up from his seat and, barely moving his legs, moved closer to the fire. Teenagers closely watched the stranger. His green robe dangled to the very ground, and the hood of his hoodie was fairly pulled over his head and hid the face of the old shaman. The ancestor, while walking around his fellow tribesmen, accidentally caught on his own cape and almost collapsed to the ground – he was held by other elders. Having got out of the crowd into the front rows of gatherings, Valan sat down on his cloak and, slightly raising his headband, turned his gaze to Unga. The light of the fire touched the dark face of the shaman and revealed his appearance: long gray hairs protruded from under the hood of the old man, into which the fangs of lizards were woven, the shadows in the pits of the wrinkles of his face in the dim glow of the fire sharpened the features and darkened the skin even more, and the hooked spiked nose and brown eyes shone from the radiance of the flame.

«No one knows, my young friend,» began Valan. «No one has seen the stars with Her eyes before. Now, if Roshan of the earth knew the far-lying diseases of our flesh and poisonous or life-giving streams, then unity could be assumed. Any vision through Her eyes, even the first unity of the hunter, is similar to one another.

The youths tensed, trying to understand the meaning of what they heard, and for a moment silence reigned around the fire. Ronin broke the silence.

– And what is there, in the first unity of the hunter?

– Yes! Yes! What? The other children immediately murmured.

Haven’t you been taught yet? Valan was surprised.

– Yes, where are they going, – Varnus entered into the conversation. It’s too early for them to think about it.

– It’s not too early! Let them listen to the wise man while his head is reasonable! – the old shaman exclaimed and turned to the young relatives: – In the first unity – in the unity of the hunter – the prana of Pangea is known, which is called a flame on a carved engraving and that gives unprecedented strength, – Valan began teaching. – Until you know prana, you will be beaters on the Great Hunt or lookouts until the end of the moons allotted to you. You can hunt. You will go to the freestyle – to drive all sorts of trifles, Piskunov, for example, which is faster than smart ones, which is one tooth, and then it will get stuck – until you get some Chameleon for dinner. And in order to ignite a flame on a carved engraving and strike a steadfast giant with a flame, you will have, at the very least, to walk the path through Her eyes in unity.

Adult relatives roared*, supporting the tale of the old shaman.

– In any unity, whether it be the first or the other, Pangea grants her eyes so that you can see with the gaze of Her expanses created by Her! exclaimed the old man, spreading his arms. – And She leads through Her expanses every hunter who wishes to know unity. And among these expanses, particles of light of primordial life dwell. And each of Her creations consists of these particles. From one particle, a seed grows into a tree, from another, the element of wind incarnates into a storm. In the third, an unprecedented disease lives, and in the tenth, a reptile is formed from a reptile’s egg. And many such particles are contained in unity. It is from them that prana must be withdrawn and turned into a flame!

The young were fascinated by Valan’s story and, opening their mouths, heeded every word.

«Each hunter has his own path in unity,» continued the sage. – As Azis said, the starry sky is his soul, unity is in our heads and in our thoughts. What you imagine in oblivion, you will see with Her eyes. And the path through Her abode and the elements presented and creations will appear before the eyes … – Valan thought for a moment, and the sentinels, having heard speeches about Azis, stared inquiringly at the old man, expecting that he would tell something else about the old shaman, but Valan continued to broadcast about unity. «As I said, Her creations are made up of particles of light. And the particles of some creations are different from others, and they keep in themselves the prana of the original life – the flame. And in order for the prana of the particles to turn into a flame, it is necessary in the unity of each particle of the incarnation of the one who looks closely, whether it be a blade of grass or a whole bush, or maybe a flower or a primitive creature, a dragonfly, for example, remove prana. Remove from all the particles of the incarnation, to the last! Don’t leave a single grain! And so the element of flame will gather from them into one whole – into the flame. And the one who knows the flame in unity and called it with an impressive engraving, will see the flame through the eyes of Zavrini. And all the steadfast trackers,» the elder waved towards Khord and some experienced ones sitting at a distance, «who once seized prana, can see one flame alone! The unity sage raised his index finger to signify the importance of the next clarification. – But if the engraving does not belong to you, but to another hunter, then in order to embody the flame in it, you need to perceive the message carved and important of that hunter with both mind and spirit! Valan finished his explanations, and the fry immediately began to whisper, trying to catch the truth from all this string of ambiguities said by the sage.

«And why is it possible to see the flame only through the eyes of Zavrini, but not through human eyes?» asked Renri, the offspring of one of the leaders of the Great Hunt.

The old shaman’s cheekbones stretched into a barely perceptible smile, and he replied:

«Because Pangea created Zavrini in her own image, to think and create in her image. And in order to think and create, She imprinted her element of primordial life into the belly of a lizard – the soulless Razaurus. And she didn’t just capture it, but lived in her eye, so that Zavrinis were connected with Her by Her eyes, so that they were reasonable and saw the truth, and could create life. So you can see the flame that your leader Roshan obtained with her gaze, with the hunter’s vision – the incarnation of Zavrini! – explained the old sage. – So our ancestors knew our ancestors, and I’m telling you now, so that the truth does not go away – it does not dissolve in being.

The children understood little of what they heard, but their faces showed delight.

– What do her eyes look like? one of the youths shouted, and grins were heard among the older relatives.

You can’t see her eyes! Valan responded promptly. «It’s only given to look at them…» Valan thought for a moment. – And remember! he immediately added. «When you undertake to withdraw prana in your first unity and incarnate it into a flame, the main thing is not to confuse the particles with the transformations of other particles that are alien to them!»

– What happens if you mess up? Unga asked casually.

Yes, yes, but what will happen? – shouted the young descendants.

Valan frowned.

«Otherwise, the prana of alien incarnations will mix and dissolve in the wastelands of the presented. And you will have to collect new particles and withdraw prana from them. AND…

– And if you can’t collect it at all? interrupted Ronin.

– What do you mean – at all? the old shaman frowned even more. – There has never been a hunter who, having surrendered to the first unity, could not turn prana into a flame. Is it really a matter of repeating this flame on a carved engraving in reality, and making the symbol incarnate into the true element…