Time to Gather Stones, Chapter 1, Segment 6

TIME TO GATHER STONES
By Lidia Gladyshevskaya

Chapter 1 “The Land Of Fire”
Segment 6 of 23


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Melis’s family was still sleeping at this hour. They were laying every which way on the slimy, rocky ground with their large fur skins tucked underneath themselves. Those skins were their clothing, and their rugs and their blankets in especially colder days.

The bodies were laying in piles, and it was impossible to determine who certain body parts belonged to. There were arms and legs, covered in hair, unkempt heads, wide backs and stomachs swollen from indigestion.

Ad scrunched his nose from the nasty smell that was coming from the depths of the cave. He went inside, but he was stopped by the stench from the filthy clothing, permeated by the age-old sweat and grease.

It was much cleaner in Ad’s dwelling, thanks to the strict rules he enforced. Here, everything stunk and the heavy smell of defecation floated over the sleeping people.

Luckily, his partner was snoring right by the entrance, where the air was not as thick with stench. He was laying with his long legs stretched outside the cave. Ad immediately recognised him by him by his naked heels with cracked, rough skin. The thick skin was going off his feet like a molting snake.

Melis hated any kind of shoes and he never wore the leather boots even in winter, regardless of how cold it got.

The savage kicked the sleeping comrade, trying to hit his bloody callouses as painfully as possible, and yelled at the top of his lungs:

!Still sleeping, you dumbass! The sun is up! Get up immediately!

His partner woke up with a start, rubbed his eyes and was looking around in a daze after such a rude awakening.

His hair, cut in a haphazard way were tied into a messy knot on the back of his head. Some escaping sticky strands were hanging below his eyebrows, his temples, chin and disappeared somewhere in the fold of his fat neck.

HIs hanging cheeks, covered in spots and a large belly were revealing his unbridled love for food.

Having received another kick, Melis got up and bared his teeth in a tormented smile. Ad believed that his partner’s crooked jaws happened because he would open up his mouth too wide, trying to stick rather large pieces of food into it.

A loud burp that revealed last night’s calorie-rich meal was another evidence of that.

However, Melis still could not gather his scattered wits. A new blow to the head finally woke him up. He was a head taller, and much stronger than his tormentor. So Melis was planning to hit Ad back, but he was met with Ad’s vicious glance, changed his mind immediately, and said in a peaceful way:

I have been ready for a while, and I was not asleep. I was just nodding off a bit, waiting for you!

The reason for this behaviour was very simple - the tribe members were afraid of the weird glow that their chief’s eyes emanated every now and then. The tribesmen knew darn well that they better not mess with him when that was happening.

 
 Translated from Russian by Gregory Novikov @2022
Under the reduction of Lidia Gladyshevskaya