Time to Gather Stones, Chapter 1, Segment 2

Translation of "TIME TO GATHER STONES"
by Lidia Gladyshevskaya

Chapter 1 “The Land Of Fire”
Segment 2

The sun suddenly disappeared behind the ridge, as if it held on to one of the sharp rocks, then it came down and got stuck in the gap between the ridge tops. Ed lifted his fist in the direction of the sun in a threatening manner. The sun emerged again, as if fearful of the threats.

The rocks looked haunting in the slanted rays of the sun. There were large stones, and dark holes could be seen ahead, all surrounded by the frozen foam of melted rocks.

They resembled large wounds. The large rocks were covered by the rough crackled lava, as if it was chewed on by someone. It seemed that everything was maimed here by some unknown evil force.

The savage shuddered involuntarily.But he could not turn back. He never gave up. Come to think of it, even the sun itself obeyed his order just now. Who cares, it’s just a bunch of rocks - nothing to be scared about. The coveted red cones could be seen ahead, however a whole ridge of dangerous ups and downs was still to be conquered.

Ad sat on a narrow edge of a serrated rock, he put his foot into the hole between rocks and looked down fearlessly. The 90 degree rocks were protruding from the precipice like naked ribs of a massive dinosaur.

However, he took a brave step and started going down, stretching his hands in front of himself in a reckless way. The possibility of smashing his head or breaking his neck did not faze him.

Soon his fingers were covered in blood, and there was a large bump on his forehead. The savage slowed down, and examined the torn and bleeding palms of his hands, and decided to continue in some other way.

For a while he tried to move down by sliding on his butt, slowing himself down, trying to hold on to rocks with his feet. His self-encouraging screams - “o-ho-ho” and “hey-hey” were echoing in the mountains.

What a pity that no one can see how the mountains summit to him.

After that Ed was sliding down awkwardly downwards on his stomach, with his feet down, and his pants that were made out of the skin of an animal he killed the day before, were torn into shreds.

These rags matched the color of the rock due to all the red-coloured dirt that worked into them.

 It became impossible to continue sliding down, and he had to move sideways. The brave bearded man carelessly stepped along a deep precipice that could make any other of his fellow-cavemen dizzy. However, the danger did not scare him. Very much otherwise, it amused him and made his blood hot.

Soon the savage got to the curvy bed of a river that ran dry. The sound of a creek could be heard not far away. At times the sound would fade, but then it would come back louder. But he could never find the source of water. And he was very, very thirsty.

The way down the flat dry riverbed was rather smooth. Gradually, Ad forgot about the thirst, got used to walking, stepping from one rock to another, and jumping over the crevasses.

This way he got to the widest part of the precipice that became a large valley. It was surrounded the steep slopes with poor vegetation that was few and far between.

This strange place was very familiar to the savage. Weird dry bushes with sharp pricks like arrows were growing here. In some places they were growing directly from the cracks in the rock. Ad could never understand where the water to nourish the exposed roots and prickly branches was coming from.


Translation from Russian by Gregory Novikov