Time to Gather Stones, Chapter 1, Segment 3

Translation of "TIME TO GATHER STONES"
by Lidia Gladishevskaya

Chapter 1 “The Land Of Fire”
Segment 3


In the wind the bushes made an unpleasant screeching Instead of rustling, as if they were trying to intimidate with their dangerous weapon.

This monotonous screeching and crackling pierced the cavemen’s ears rather unpleasantly.

The savage scratched the end of his spear with one of his broken nails, and then touched the hostile branch. The prick was sharper than he thought and the blood gushed immediately from the ripped finger.

Ad subjected himself to such a “trial” before many times, and every time he was surprised to see how effective the “live weapon” really was. He got mad again, but decided not to attack the arrow-like bush, like he did the trees recently.

The time was precious, and it was silly to waste his energy for no reason.
Besides, the prickly growth was giving out without a fight under the rays of the burning sun.

It was a much more joyful thing to walk down the hill. His anger was gone and the savage even started whistling quietly under his nose.
The air was a lot more moist in the small valley, which indicated that water was going to appear very soon.

Some time later the gurgling of the small rivers coming down from the mountains could be heard. Ed very nearly slipped on a wet rock, and then he landed in a hole between rocks, that was filled with slimy silt. He got stuck there for a while, swearing. After he cleaned himself up from the clay, he hurried along.

The bushes with pine-like growth now appeared instead of the dried up wood. These were covered with thick red layers of something. Maybe, the wind brought that from the cliffs.

These also lacked leaves, so they, too, looked lifeless. The large branches ended with thick parts, for which Ed called them “blunt-ended spears”.

They grew in thick bunches all the way to the bottom of the rocky valley, where they met the small rivulets of murky brown water. Having drank the water, the branches here were much thicker. The moisture-burdened growth at their ends hung in bunches. Ad broke one such growth and a stream of blood-red juice hit his face.

The savage leaned towards the small stream of water and washed off the disgusting-smelling liquid from his beard. Then he drank to his satisfaction and looked around. There were holes of crumbling caves among the blunt-speared bushes. He was very close to his goal!

Having taken a bit of rest, our “seeker of thrill” went around a rocky outcrop that looked like a head of an animal showing its teeth aggressively. This was the mark by which Ed would always find his coveted place. Within seconds he found himself in a small semi-open grotto, and closed his eyes against his will.

Piles of glowing transparent stones of every possible color and tint of red: from bright-red to dark-burgundy were laying everywhere.

The glowing minerals looked nothing like the brownish rock of the mountaintops. The stones shined in the sunlight, bursting with fire, making the newcomer cover his eyes to shield them from their blinding light.

In the center of the cave there royally stood a large rock of round shape, of cherry color. The giant created by nature was of such a massive size that no human would have been able to move it.

Thin needles created a geometric figure in the form of a six-rayed star inside of the beautiful sphere. This unusual inclusion created a mysterious glow - the effect of the “cat-eye” stone. The eye of a large, wild cat our savage once met in the mountains. He barely got away with his life under the eye of that monster.

But the most mesmerising beauty of the rocks was not making the necessary impression on him. Better to say, Ad tried not to notice it at all. Overcoming so many obstacles, he came here with completely different urges.


 Translated from Russian by Gregory Novikov @2022
 Reduction - Lidia Gladishevskaya