«Well, it’s bad luck,» the old hunter said, agitated.
«You know what, let’s go for tea at Lyudka’s. She called me. The children have flown away, and she has no one to drink tea with. She’ll be happy to see you, too.»
«Oh! And you say, you do not know who was flying away»
«It’s about the bale of hay, Uncle Venya.»
«Oh, I see.»
«Well, will you come with me for tea, or not?»
«Why wouldn’t I, if that’s the case? Let’s go, of course, Maryanushka, let’s go, dear.»
* * *
Lyudmila Strogina was a very beautiful woman. she had black wavy hair, large expressive light-brown eyes, straight facial features, and a chiseled figure. What is more valuable, in addition to a beautiful appearance, she had a strong character and a surprisingly meek disposition. For many years she was considered the greatest beauty in the village, and many men would not mind hitting on her, if not for a very serious obstacle of her husband, whom Luda simply adored. He was a retired military officer due to a severe head injury sustained in an exercise. Yuri Fedorovich soon recovered from his injury, but could only continue to serve as a warehouse manager. However, he was a man of extraordinary strength, and rightfully could be called a Russian bogatyr, a short, large man, there were legends about him. From real stories, if he needed to change a wheel on his Fiat, he simply unscrewed the nuts with his fingers, without the help of a wrench, and removed and put on the wheel without using a jack, simply lifting the car with his hand. He could lift, without visible effort, two adult men each weighing one hundred kilograms, in outstretched arms, and once, on a dare, he raised a horse above himself. But, despite such strength, he was a kind-hearted man, with kind blue eyes, a disarming smile that immediately wins anybody over, and a voice that was not at all expressed in military intonation. However, the residents in Yuri’s village, of course, were afraid of him, and Lyudmila was bypassed by the tenth road.
Yuri Strogin died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 48, either because of the same injury, or for some other reason, but after his death, his wife did not want to marry a second time, although she was still very pretty, and to everyone who tried to look after her, she gave a firm, decisive and unequivocal rebuff.
The tea at Lyudmila was notable. What she mixed in there, and what seasonings she added were unknown, but the taste and aroma were such that the whole village dreamed of learning the recipe from her. However, Lyudmila Sergeevna knew how to keep a secret, and did not tell anyone how she made such a delicious drink.
Sitting at her table, and savoring every sip, the hunter Venya slowly began to tell what he had come with and why he was trying to catch up with the helicopter.
«Yesterday morning I woke up in Matveevka, where I spent the night after a hunt, with Mikhalych, the headman there. Well, so… I went to the edge of the forest to check the snares, I placed them there for hazel grouses. So, to say… Well… and so, I passed by the field and there my friend, a tractor driver, is working. Already a quarter of the field has been removed. Well, I told him: „how are you“, and he is like: „I’m great, Pavlovich, how are you.“ And… he made the tractor shut down in order to rest a little. He took out some tobacco, and we sat down there on a log, and talked a bit.»
Veniamin Pavlovich paused and sipped fragrant tea from a cup, smacking his lips with pleasure. «He told me «You know: this is a lucky day, this morning I almost hit two teens, a brother and sister. The tractor stopped five centimeters from her head. If,» he said: «the girl had not screamed, I would have killed them for sure.»
«I started asking him about details, and then, you know, I understand from the description, after all, that he is talking about your kids. And I think: «How did they end up in Matveevka?» And he says here: «they got lost,» and then: «Because of exhaustion they fell on a broken bale of hay and fell asleep.»
«Then I say to him: „Can you show me this… bale of hay.“ And he replied: „No, how can I show it to you? I removed it out already and mixed it with others at the very edge of the field.“ And I said, „But you still can show me the place, it’s painfully interesting to me how they ended up there.“ You know, I love all sorts of stories like that. And… well, my heart skipped a beat when he told me that. It was as if something unusual had happened.»
Venya paused to drink from the cup again and continued.
«Well, in general, he brought me to that place, and… I’m an old hunter. I started carefully looking all around, you know. In case that I would see something. I don’t know but for some reason I did not like the story. It’s like some kind of a bad feeling came from it. I walked there and thought: „I wonder how they fell down on a bale exhausted and did not reach the village?“ One can see the lights of it at night from that field. So… and a bale of hay, it’s not a downy feather bed. In short terms, I was looking and looking, but there were no traces of the guys around the place, none at all. You know, such a thing does not happen. If a person is walking even through the forest, there will definitely be a trace. But almost to the very place there was another trail… and you know what it was? It’s some kind of horror! The trace, it seems like a wolf. But only this size! I’ll tell you!» Veniamin opened his fist and showed with his fingers what the size of the footprint was. Judging by his story, the footprint was at least two, if not three times larger than that of an ordinary wolf, such that Lyudmila Strogina, the mother of the above-mentioned children, groaned and rolled her eyes. If it had not been for her neighbor Veniamin Pavlovich, a man of exceptional honesty, in the place of the narrator, she simply would not have believed the story.
«No, not really, Venya, do such wolves exist?» Mariana asked with doubt in her voice.
«No! The fact of the matter is that they can’t exist!» Veniamin exclaimed hotly. «If it’s not a kind of an evil scum.»
«O, my God!» Mariana crossed herself.
«What is this you are doing? Do you really think that crossing will help in such a case? Only God can help, but He must first really be in your heart», Veniamin waved at her.
«His is in my heart,» Mariana began to justify herself.
«Wait a minute,» Luda interrupted her, and asked the old hunter, «Would you please continue?»
«Well… you know… I started to follow the trails, and it was visible from the very field. And… there were no traces of the kids anywhere at all. But this one is deep. It’s a heavy animal. And kind of strange, as if he sometimes got up on two paws. And I thought: «What kind of a wolf is that then with such paws?»
«This is not a wolf, but a whole calf!» Lyudmila expressed her assumption.
«That’s what I’m talking about! But… you know… I mean, I follow the trail, and here it is ups… suddenly and completely breaks off!»
After a short pause, Veniamin took a sip of tea and said, «Well… I again started to walk back and forth, and there were no traces anywhere, yet only, at the place where the trail stopped, there were three other traces. Barely noticeable, really. Only the grass was crushed a little and… maybe barely the earth was crushed as well. I even filmed them on my cell phone. Look!»
With these words, Veniamin Pavlovich took out his rather large smartphone and showed a photo on it, in which three identical rectangular prints were not very clearly visible in the middle of the forest grass, located in relation to each other, as if they were at the corners of an equilateral triangle. Everyone listening began to look at the photos, passing the hunter’s smartphone to each other.
«But that’s not all. I also found something in the trees. Traces, like from a propeller, or from a spinning body. Apparently, when this thing landed, it somehow went with its sheathing through some places. Well, the fact is that if you don’t specifically look for something, you by no means will notice anything. But I am… a seasoned hunter. I know how to look.»
«And what kind of thing is this, Pavlovich?» the women asked almost simultaneously.
«Uh, this, girls, I myself don’t know yet. I think that is what they call UFOs. And that’s what I wanted to talk to your older son about. He is a knowledgeable person. What am I? Just a hunter.»
«Wait a minute, Venya,» Lyudmila said, alarmed. «That is, you want to say that Andrey and Lera not only got lost, but were abducted by aliens, and they experimented on them, and then threw them into a bale of hay?»
«Yes, and also, probably, their memories were erased. Only now, I don’t really believe that these were aliens. Although, who can say, who can say? Here, look, a trace. You see? Here is my hand next to it.»
He showed a picture on his smartphone, where a wolf print was clearly visible, almost the same size as the hunter’s palm.
«What a horror!» Marianna covered her lips with her palm.
«So, what are we going to do? We urgently need to call Peter,» said Lyudmila.
«You, call, neighbor, you call,» Veniamin took up the mug, «and for now I’ll savor your noble tea. Eh-eh-eh, Lyudmila, what secret thing are you putting in there, to get such a taste?
Usually, from such statements, the Lyudmila blossomed with pleasure, but now she was not up to it. With an anxious expression on her face, she dialed the phone of her eldest son.
* * *
As soon as the initiation rite was over, Kanny managed to independently turn into a wolf and return to human form several times in a row, a black raven, much larger than a normal bird, flew up to the sorcerer and dropped a note into his palm. After reading the note, the master spat and said gloomily, «This is bad. So, listen carefully, wolf cub. You may need a few more times to pass the spell, and then you will get used to it and be able to transform simply by the strong-willed order of your thoughts. And now, catch up with me, I’ll be waiting for you in the house. There’s something else that needs to be taught to you.»
With these words, the sorcerer disappeared right in front of Kanny, leaving behind himself in the spot where he had just been, a kind of bluish haze of a human form, slowly dissolving into the air.
«Master!» shouted the werewolf and took a few steps towards the place where his master stood a moment ago, and then, coming to his senses, confidently cast a spell and, in a completely eerie way, immediately turned into a huge wolf. He picked up the bag of clothes with his teeth and rushed into the forest in the direction of the forest-house, noting to himself that the transformation had become much less painful than it was before.
A great feeling of pride and malevolence filled his being. He is no longer a slave to the Spell. Now he can become a man at any moment, and at any moment, if necessary, become a wolf again. The feeling of power intoxicated and turned his wolf’s head. At the same time, he understood that something must have gone wrong, and he needed to hurry, because there were still a few kilometers to Alex’s house from where he was. He ran, crouched low to the ground, as if he were creeping along it, enjoying the inner feeling of flexibility and strength, while not forgetting to scan the area with his incredibly sharp sense. Intuition told him that the reason why the master was so upset was precisely these two teenagers whom he needed to kill, and that everything would not be as simple as it seemed at first glance. However, it was precisely this strange invulnerability of theirs, which he felt in an incomprehensible way, which challenged the very essence of his wolf nature, that forced him to bare his teeth and look forward to a possible future reprisal.
Chapter 5
A huge black raven landed on the small attic balcony of base No.18 and, folding its wings, awkwardly stepped into the attic. A few seconds later the door leading from the attic into the house opened, and a squat man dressed in a black robe came out of it and, having examined himself, shook himself a little, and hurried down the stairs. After a short time, the sorcerer Alex, just as he disappeared from the place where he was together with Kanny, appeared in the center of the pentagram in the room where the ritual of transformation was usually performed. Here he had an unpleasant conversation with his master Tennius, about which he was informed by a werewolf messenger. To the more dedicated, Tennius was a powerful magician of the highest level. It was he who taught Alex everything he could, and therefore the guard was ready to go to great lengths to please his powerful patron and justify his trust.
The sorcerer left the ritual room and, going into a spacious kitchen, sank into a small but comfortable chair, there he waited for his boss to be free and able to give him some time. For some, such concepts as witchcraft and science were completely incompatible, but not for Tennius. Being a man endowed with extraordinary power and authority, a consecrated magician. As a sorcerer and a man of a very extraordinary mind, Tennius believed that since the time of the very first alchemists and the so-called seekers of the philosopher’s stone, real science and witchcraft always walked side by side. An Italian by birth, he not only practiced magic, but in his circle of initiates was one of the five honorary owners of the so-called «rings of power». These were known to science in the form of the traditional symbol denoting an atom. However, only a few scholars knew what this symbol actually meant, and even more so, what power those who reached the level of the «Lord of the Rings» wielded. But for Tennius, each discovery of quantum physics only confirmed what he already knew and successfully practiced.
He was not at all embarrassed that for some of the so-called witchcraft tricks, spells were needed, which in essence were nothing more than the call of the so-called «gods». That is, those whom Tennius considered the progenitors of mankind, who «arrived» on earth at the dawn of formation of people. When this «powerful race of gods’,» taught people the first basics of science and witchcraft, which was essentially the same thing for Tennius, and those who were in the same business as him. He considered it an honor to be on this side of the conflict and part of the «Great Opposition» to the One whom he considered the Main Enemy, that most powerful God named Yahweh, who in ancient times expelled the race of lesser gods to Earth because they challenged Him. They wished to reach the same high level of power that He himself had. Tennius understood that those whom he himself served and obeyed were still far from the power that Yahweh possessed, but he believed that it was only a matter of time, and the moment would come when, by joint efforts, they could not only reach His level, but even surpass the enemy with their might.
However, now was not the time to go into all these details. Using a space portal opened for instant travel, Tennius’ ward, the sorcerer Alex, the guard of the 18
base, had just arrived at the place, and he had already been informed about it by electronic sensors, by his own intuition and by a messenger in a black robe. Tennius had to talk to his ward and discuss some details, but first he needed to explain himself to the rest of the holders of the Rings of Power, the members of the council, the so-called Pentagrammaton, knowing that they too, were already here and waiting for him to join them. They had a lot of questions to discuss, and very little time, so the magician knew that his colleagues would not at all want to return to the case of the missing Ch-15 microchip, which in itself was a trifle, but their own privacy policy required them to take the matter as seriously as possible, so he was very annoyed that he still had not been able to resolve this issue.
