Devastated Olivia sat on her knees: “What the hell is with her, because of what she exploded so much ... She just exaggerates”, the blonde girl calmed herself trying not to let herself go. She took a basket of raspberries which she managed to collect and dejectedly, as if offended by a puppy, dragged behind Sangea. At the moment, her decision to go along with her did not seem so joyful ...

Sangey and Rowell, in total death, overcame raspberry thickets and walked across the verdant plain. The deserted road along which they walked was laid first of all by those few merchants who decided to conduct their business with Lacerta. Lizards lived quite apart and with rare exceptions did not need anything. They themselves, even if they moved to the western side of the ridge, didn’t use either mountain crossings, no paths, or any other roads. They had their own methods of movement.

The road, well fried by the sun and weakly blown by the wind, lazily looped over the green surface of the plain. At the sight of Olivia to the foot of the black peak, they remained about twenty kilometers.

- Forgive me! - broke the silence Sangia.

- For what? - Collins blurted out on the machine and immediately regretted such an answer, she herself had long hoped for an apology.

“I didn’t scream at you for nothing, I just don’t want to lose you, you understand?”

- Understand! - the girl responded, for her it was like a balm for the soul.

“Damn, and how could I have slept like this, I didn’t wake up from the way you left ...” said Rovel with displeasure.

Olivia waited for an apology, albeit stingy, but quite sufficient for her. The rest of the day, dedicated to the fascinating walking under the scorching sun, was no longer so sad as it was diluted with Rowell's stories.

According to the warrior, the bandits wanted to cross the mountain range through the caves near Black Peak, and then take to the north. Lacerta were not homogeneous in their views: in the south they revered Matrum Terrru - considering it to be the progenitor of the earth and all life in the world, in the opposite part of the world, they were more modest about the views of their fellows. Not all Southerners were united by the unshakable faith that their neighbors were so proud of, their lands were subjected to civil wars from ancient times, divided under the rule of various rulers, both wise and just, and blinded by the power of fools mired in cruelty. Therefore, the bandits and sought in that part of the world, many cities would have fallen off a hefty pile of coins for two pretty slaves ...

“And who is this Matrum Terra,” Collins asked intrigued.

“How can I explain to you something like a fairy tale, the story of the lazert about how she created the world,” Rovel wondered, “although not quite a fairy tale, even as a teaching, you know, it’s not so easy to explain all this.”

- So how old is she? - surprised Collins. Now we have one thousand and twenty eighth year, that is, at least so many years should be? But this is impossible! The average age of all living ranges about a hundred years, even among elves of long-livers, hardly anyone crossed the boundary in two centuries.

- Yes, I completely agree! Only you do not forget that one thousand and twenty eighth since the time as the dwarves learned to make paper and the first opportunity to save information. It's funny that in spite of all our abilities, there was no less effective way to document knowledge. So, something I was distracted ... As a result, it turns out that she is much older.

- Well, well, then we can throw another thousand years from the countdown in the opposite direction?

- Nah, take more, fragmentary information about those times still remains, but the farther you dig, the less knowledge you can’t say for sure how deep the story goes into a minus.

- So what happens is this Matrum should be no less than several thousand years? - Olivia was horrified.

“Who knows,” Rowell shrugged. “Imagine that they believe in the immortal omnipotent creation of the female, which in their opinion created the whole world,” smiled the warrior.

- I wonder what she looks like?

- Are you also believed that? Can you stay with southern lazert? - Szhagala sangia.

- Well, okay, you, if they so strongly believe in it, maybe she really exists? - Collins offended.

- All the way, I imagine a beer mug, but in front of me it does not appear, do you guess? - good-naturedly snort warrior.

The sun, having already overcome the middle of the sky, began to lean to the west when sweaty, tired girls settled in the shadow of stone boulders in front of the ridge.

- Now we will arrange a small halt, and then we cross the black peak caves, we spend the night on the other side of the distant mountains, Rowell noted.

“Okay,” Olivia was emptying a flask of water at that time.

- Do not be surprised now, we have guests again and I doubt that they are benevolent.

- Who else?

- Mountain giants, about seven or eight individuals, surrounded us while we rested. - Stay behind me, so it will be easier for me to protect you!

- Well, but can they not touch us?

- They are not touched? Well, yes, yes, yes, ”Rowell snorted.

Sangia rose and walked around Olivia, stood before her:

- Gentlemen, in my opinion you want to make us a company so go out, do not hesitate! - Welcome Rowell.

In response, she had only silence, and at first Olivia decided that her friend was mistaken, but then several guttural cries were heard, and because of the stone boulders, located a few dozen meters above them, the giants began to crawl out. Even in her childhood, the girl heard that the giants are different, and many of them do not disdain to eat fat, ordinary and low-calorie meat. It is not difficult to guess to what kind of meat attributed the gnomes, elves and people blunt gourmets. Usually their height ranged from three to five meters, often hunched backs, disproportionate bodies, dirty, wrapped in those rags that food left them. In addition, they had a very primitive language consisting of loud guttural phrases, which unfortunately (or fortunately) was not studied at all, due to the absence of interested scholars. And, apparently, it consisted of a set of words: “to attack”, “to kill”, “to eat”, “to run”, “to copulate”.

Sanghi managed to count nine monsters, one of them was extremely interested in the girl. About five meters tall, large and for the measurements of a giant, the big guy was also a Siamese twin. The body of one of them was the main one - he had two legs, and one powerful pumped left arm, which went down to the ground, on his right side, in the chest area, was his fellow. The frail twin with a small body and short arms. He dangled lifelessly, continually touching his head against the belt of his second half. While Rowell was pondering: whether a little dwarf was born underdeveloped, or died quite recently, as a little fellow grunting and clinging to the straps of an alypist bag hanging behind his close friend, he looked up and looked at the girls with bright blue eyes.

“Well, at least the eyes are beautiful,” said Rowell, addressing Olivia. - And the beauty was found in ugliness ...

Sangia waved her sword, but did not dare to attack, intuition told her that it would not be superfluous to wait for the first step from the enemies. The latter did not take long to wait. Eight blockheads did not hurry into a fight, they only surrounded the Siamese twin (now the undisputed leader) in a small ring, while the dwarf holding the backpack with one hand, with the other performed strange motions while screaming.

“So,” said Rowell thoughtfully, “I don’t think that his screams can somehow affect us, but now something will definitely happen!

- What could be? - Olivia asked anxiously.

- Well, I do not know, but judging by his behavior, similar to a strong constipation or terrible intestinal colic, he ... Read more →