Tale of the rock pieces

A story about the hard, extremely difficult life of the ancient wizards, and all their adventures with the glorious, or dangerous, avid, or evil creatures and human races in the antiquity... See also http://allanbard.hit.bg

 

TALE OF THE ROCK PIECES

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

Have you ever heard or read the stories about ancient times? If your answer is no, my guess is you’re likely wrong, as you are either too old and don’t remember learning of these amazing events, or you are too young to have learned about all the glory and magnificence of antiquity. As the stories about ancient times are so extraordinary, incredible and true at the same time, theyare always welcome, no matter where they are told. Though unfortunately a great part of the things, which we should know about antiquity, are irrevocably lost in a past long gone. And even at the present time we are not certain whether all that reaches us fits the truth. But this derisively scanty information is worth the admiration for those of us in the21^st century. What we are able to piece together at present could hardly compare with the greatness and beauty our remarkab­le remote predecessors made formerly.

Many of the things in this tale, that is about the world such as it was at one time, seem unbelievable. I am not very sure whether all that is de­scribed further happened exactly that way, but that doesn't mean all that couldn't have happened at all. There are many much more unbelievable and strange events in other stories of the past. That's why I hope nobody will accuse me of having exaggerated or added something by myself, for my an­cient story to become more complete. Of course there are many tellers, who go beyond all bounds and for the sake of a swift and easy gain they con­coct lots of nonsense. Perhaps there are some concocted things in the an­cient story you will read, but they are quite inessential and don't chan­ge the main part of the action.

I’d better write some explanatory notes about the numerous creatures that lived in the ancient times, but later on became extinct from the face of the earth. Probably you've never heard about the awful Brown faces and the Fiery people, about the water dragons and the giant fish-keepers, about the weightless korks and about the rock pieces. There is nothing odd about that, as they all existed a very long time ago.

Brown faced people! In the past their mention was equal to the men­tion of evil. It is hard for one to find evil deeds, which aren't rel­ated to them in someway. These hateful representatives of mankind we­re also called just Brown faces, and took part in almost all the sanguin­ary battles and wars in the ancient times. Often some of the men of scie­nce show that as a main cause for their later extinction, though I consi­der their warlike nature only helped their absence. It's rather their striving for power and domination over the living beings, from which they might benefit, that played the main part for their death, as one of their card­inal purposes - to master the Magic, even at the price of everything that their awful imagination could figure out.

As their name suggests, the Brown faces had skin of a brown color, alt­hough it was different from that one of the Africans and mulattoes of today. Their features also differed from the black-skinned people’s features, and much res­embled those of the Europeans, but were quite rougher than them. It didn't mean at all that the Brown faces were beautiful. Many great warriors shi­vered with disgust at the sight of the awful, rough forms of their countenances.

The height of those people, who were full of evil intentions, wasn't too high, but many tall ones were also to be found among them, though that ha­ppened rarely. Their build was good from a human point of view, not count­ing their affections, which affected the skeleton mostly. In the antiquity, it was even considered there was nothing that looked worse than a Brown face with bones, which were curved by the illness. Yet, the ill's fai­ling health had a little influence on their great physical force. The co­untless quantity of won battles and the numerous enslaved creatures were a certain proof of that. The ugly Conquerors' muscles could create thous­ands of miracles, but the tough arms, which the awful race had, never moved a bit even on building of their own homes. For that purpose the Brown faces always used the gratuitous labour of their slaves, who were exploited very cruelly. In general, the only place where these monsters acted alone was the battle ground.

Today there are hardly any remains of the former imposing castles and palaces, which were connected with branched underground tunnels and galle­ries, even though nobody is certain of that. If you ever find a stronghold (or rather a part of it) that is covered with gold and jewels, and built that way as if the building material had been preliminarily mo­lten, then the ancient construction was cast by it without the use of any binding we use today, you have to know that this spectacular crea­tion is a result from the back-breaking labour of the ugly people's sla­ves. The Brown faces were much taken with a life in luxury and wealth, therefore they didn't spare the captured poor beings at all, when the ca­se in point was of finding and digging up of new treasures and of build­ing their homes. Then it was quite normal for the less hard and weak­er workers to meet their death in the deep and as if endless underground galleries, dragging a giant piece of gold or the ancient black metal, exp­ecting to get a day's rest for it. Only at the sight of the great quanti­ty of precious metals, the Brown faces became a little more favourable to the captives, though just for a while. Therefore the opinion, which was po­pular in the antiquity, was not odd at all, and it ran how the color of their soul was much darker than the color of their skin.

The gentle sex of the sickening beings was so "gentle", as their stern­er one. It is said that the women Conquerors differed from their men rat­her in the forms of the body, than in their faces. Everyone who saw an en­slaver's wife for the first time, and of course who did not know anything about them, would think right away: "…in the presence of so many slave women (far and away more beautiful than their masters), the more stalwart warriors probably prefer the beauty to their own blood.” Certainly not, as odd as it sounds till now there is no event, describing a marriage between a Brown face and a maiden of other race of humanity, even though she res­embles the Warlike by nature. Their wives also hated all the men, who did not look like those of their own race. But yet it happened once in a great while, that a man of the power-loving people should take a good-lo­oking foreign slave woman to his bed, and it chiefly occurred with curios­ity, not with desire for love. But if his compatriots found out, then with­drawal of all the ranks and privileges (many as they were), and immediate banishment from the conquered lands were waiting for him. Besides the sa­me rule applied to a Brown face woman, who gave way to the curiosity.

The women of that aggressive race were physically less weak, than their armoured warriors with a sinister look, although that didn't prevent them at all from taking part on equal terms with their strong husbands in all the battles and wars. This minute detail entitled them to choose the best trophies of the plunder for themselves, after the hard battle operations, though because of their great avidity the conquered things always seemed too small to them, and they always murmured and grumbled. Besides oftenti­mes it even happened that the "gentle" better half of an ugly Conqueror, who had showed himself well, should be chosen for a leader in the forthc­oming engagements. Of course, that one who headed the terrible army, was up to the due requirements - very good handling with the swords, and a great accuracy and quickness on the shooting with a bow.

The Brown faces' wives were fond of dressing in decorations of gold or other similar jewels, while at the same time they perfectly realized, that they didn't sit well on their appearance at all. Another weakness of theirs, besides the collecting of treasures, was the education of the childr­en and mostly that one of the girls. The awful abortions' young ones tra­ined themselves to the very severe atmosphere of the bloody battles from their earliest age, because the good use of the weapons was also too imp­ortant for their training. The punishments for those, who didn't man­age as well as they had to, were painful and cruel enough, so that they might think to themselves how they would present themselves at the next training. Those children, who fought well, were arrogant with the more uneducat­ed ones, and it even happened that they themselves punished the poor young warriors. Oftentimes some of the weaker and more wounded young pupils kept their beds for a week or two, so that their awful and blo­ody wounds might heal up, and they could be back on the training ground.

Good warriors as the Brown faces were, sometimes they needed allies for the greater and important engagements. It was logical to expect that they were also unscrupulous and cruel enough, in case that this opportunity - to fight together with the most warlike race in the antiquity, was given to them. The preferred creatures for that purpose were chosen by many qu­alities, and they could be found mostly in the Fiery people. I am not sure whether the name people were suitable for them, because they all resembled us only in their appearance. Their awful, red and hot bodies were composed of a head, a trunk, two legs and two arms, although there weren't any organs in thеm, there were only flames. In their faces, these ancient spiteful creatu­res had only eyes and a mouth that was full of teeth of hard, white fire. They took food solely by their mouth, eating everything, absolutely every­thing that could burn, and felt a deep-seated hatred of the water and the fluids with effect like its.

Practically the Fiery people were immortal. Death came to them when there wasn't anything they could eat, and they went hungry for a long ti­me, or if they were poured water on. But don't think the splash with a li­quid stopped their life. To kill a Fiery creature, his foes stood in sev­eral near to a place with water, and then they threw cold torrents on him all the time during half or one hour, using big containers for that purpose. Only after that fatiguing procedure, it was certain that the red Fie­ry man would never come back to life again.

The Fiery people's strength was also so great, as that one of the Brown faces. But the Fiery had a great advantage in the ancient engagements - they didn't feel a violent pain when were stabbed with a sharp, shining sword, or were pierced with an arrow. Any object could pass through their bodies, as that had no effect on the fiery health. These superb qualities of theirs let them fight very well days and nights, unless near by there was a wizard, who could make a charm for a pouring and prolonged rain.

After the successful battles, the red awful monsters didn't look at all at the products of precious stones and gold decorations. Their eyes, glow­ing with a black flame, were fixed on the dead bodies and on the seriously wounded warriors, for whom the cure was prolonged and too expensive, or they would be dead soon. They carried these "trophies" of theirs into their deep mountain caves, or into the Brown faces' vaults, where they began a te­rrible bloody feast with the dead and not so dead bodies. The "wise" ref­lection of Dong, the Fiery creatures' chief, reached our days: "There's no­thing more savoury than the human flesh, and there's nothing which sounds better, than the death-scream of the live food, caused by the fiery teeth.”

Oftentimes, besides the Hot men, the ugly Brown faces needed the favours of other creatures too - the cave bears. In the past, a very long time ago, when the times were more favourable for them, they inhabited almost every cave with measures large enough everywhere on Earth. The main purpose for which the Warlike monsters used them, rarely was their direct participation in the fighting operations, it was the secret reconnaissance. The big cave bears stood the cold, hunger and wet for a long time, by contrast with the Fiery men, therefore they became irreplaceable, provided something import­ant about the enemy had to be understood before the decisive fight. Besides, this animal race could move very stealthily, although its representa­tives had big trunks. The only disadvantage for the execution of the sec­ret missions, which were assigned to them, was the pale, but terrible, reddish radiance coming out of the bears' eyes in too dark nights.

Formerly, before they went to serve with the Brown faces, the four-legg­ed scouts ate plants and forest fruits, putting a small, savoury animal in­to their mouths just from time to time. It is said that when for the first ti­me they tasted a human meat, generously given to them by the ug­ly brown faced winners, they forgot the taste of the vegetarian food. After that many clumsy beasts went to live in the underground galleries forever, which were dug by the slaves. Quite a few of them stayed to rove in the mountains, but they were always ready to serve the Conquerors the moment they needed them. Then, after the serial won battle of course, the ha­iry bear-scouts were rewarded well with human and other fresh flesh, that were obtained in the battle-field.

Oftentimes the Brown faces' shaggy allies got together in several in a group, during their reconnaissance marches. In that way a part of them distracted their enemy's attention, and in the meantime the rest remembered or stole secret plans, kidnapped young children, or for the sake of varie­ty they destroyed and broke the homes and settlements. In the ancient ti­mes, there weren't any other creatures that were able to learn the things they saw and heard as well as the cave bears.

When it was necessary to fight with riders, the warlike brown race also used horses, but the hoofed animals put them on a level with the enemies. Therefore the Brown faces almost always preferred to ride other subordin­ates of theirs - the weightless korks, and they were of the most used ca­ptives in the past. These pleasant-looking and harmless ancient creatures lived in the one-time dense and vast mountain forests. Their forms (which were wide two and a half feet and long trice like that, only with thickn­ess from a few to ten inches) resembled ellipses with slightly sharp and soft ends. The mouths, that had hard, horny teeth by which the ancient cre­atures bit off of the forest vegetation, were on their soft, rounded foreparts. Eyes were nowhere to be found on the air "horses"' bodies, therefo­re it was considered that they orientated themselves like the bats, name­ly by sound, which came out of their comparatively small orifices for fe­eding, and was reverberated from the surrounding objects.

The color of the weightless korks could vary very fast in a large color range. That let them "disguise” themselves on any terrain, just for a split second at that. It was difficult for the inexperienced eye to disti­nguish even a kork, passing from a very light to a very dark place, becau­se of that perfect and instantaneous adaptation to the surrounding area. Only in their mating season, the flat creatures flying in the air and performing their love dance, forgot about the dangers and changed their colors fast and indiscriminately. Everybody, who had the pleasure of watch­ing the graceful flight of the incredible beings in all the possible colors, remembered that indescribable sight for the term of his life.

As a matter of fact the name "weightless" isn't very correct. These Co­nquerors' elegant subordinates that flew noiselessly, were really compar­atively light, but they had weight great enough, so all the wounded fliers were left on the battle-field. Nobody of the awful Brown faces should like to carry them to the castles. It was much easier to take new and healthy ones from the vast stock-breeding farms for the weightless beings. If there their number was also small, the dark-skinned warriors went hunting for new-born flat creatures in the mountain forests. And the Brown faces' slaves weren't made carry the wounded beings, because they had very deli­cate constitutions and didn't last very long, so there was no question of treatment at all.

One of the things that the Conquerors never did was the dangerous hunt of water dragons. Until they became completely extinct, these giant dwell­ers of the seas were in a great demand by the people, who had enough mon­ey to buy them. The purpose for this reckless killing, which was attended with great dangers of course, was the miraculous properties of the flesh of the dragon. The man, who was using a meat like that in his food, was not ill with very few exceptions, and lived thrice longer than the other peo­ple of his race. That was why the water dragons were valued high, and the­ir hunters were paid well after the finished work. Now I will not descri­be the hard (and besides extremely dangerous) hunt of the giant creatur­es deep in the sea, because further in my story there'll be a chapter, de­dicated to the courageous but avid people, who were engaged in that ancient craft.

As for the Brown faces, they didn't bear the water and although some of them could swim, they always preferred to pay the divers well for the valuable food, than to drench themselves and perhaps to be eaten too.

Sometimes the warriors with ugly faces resorted to the favours of oth­er water animals. When the avid Brown faces sank a ship or some other vessel, which was stuffed up with treasures, then a great part of them sank to the bottom of the sea, before the treasures were grabbed. In these cases the fish-keepers came to help. They were much smaller than the water dra­gons, but predatory enough to perfectly execute the assigned tasks, namely jealous guarding of the sunken wealth. Usually the brave divers, who ventu­red to steal the jewels guarded by the giant animal, were very few, as mo­stly they never came to the surface again.

Oftentimes it happened that the scaly, awful monster, after the due rew­ard in the shape of tasty human meat, drew out the gold alone to the surface, especially if it wasn’t in a very deep place and it wasn’t in large quantities. But more often the jewels sank at thousands of feet under the water, and then the beast stayed there for months, until the ugly warriors managed to find suitable men for the drawing out of the trophies. The huge fish got down with ease at a great depth, but in rising to the surface he had to move very slowly for a day or two, because of the great difference in the pressure of the water on the surface and on the floor. Otherwise his body burst, and his stomach came out through the mouth.

At the time of the awful warriors’ domination, it happened a whole nation to be enslaved, and as the years went by to die by inches of the superhuman work in the underground galleries. If the enslaved people had some special skills the Brown faces could use, they were much wanted by the ugly Conquerors. But that didn’t mean creatures like them were privileged in comparison with the common slaves. Quite the contrary - they were exploited much more than the rest, as besides the digging or throwing out of soil, these captives did other work too, according to their knowledge. Just for that reason many of the enemies, pressed in a tight place, preferred to die in the battles than to be the slaves of the hateful monsters. Sometimes warriors, who loved freedom more, even killed themselves, facing the possibility to spend the rest of their life in the underground tunnels. One of these noble races of mankind, that loved freedom, was that one of the Mountain people. In the past, and now either, creatures who were more contrary to the Warlike than the Mountaineers, could hardly be found. Very noble and full of good intentions, these ancient noblemen were never the first to attack, and besides waged battles and wars only then, when it was really necessary. Their battle skills and tactics often exceeded those of the Brown faces, and the quality of the weapons, made by the Mountain people, was unsurpassable and they kept their arms mastery in dead secrecy from everybody, who had evil thoughts.

In the ancient times, people from the mountains weren’t widespread because they were often taken captives by the numerous, awful Brown faces, or died in the battles with them. These people were chased everywhere by the ugly enslavers, because of their many talents and abilities. It was especially valued that the Mountaineers, rather the wizards amongst them, mastered the Magic to perfection. Today, at the time of advance in science and technique, one could hardly imagine how many incredible and useful things the ancient possessors of the magnificent abilities did. It’s unbelievable how the “molten” stone castles and homes, that remained from the past, were built with the help of the wonder-working palms, and for that building only a pair of hands using sorcery were necessary. That ancient miracle was also often used for making of clothes and shoes, by it breeds and varieties were created, and even quite new animal and plant species, useful to the human activities and many, many other marvels. 

Probably today many people will consider the Mountaineers' way of life awful, but I am sure there are such ones too, that will be in raptures ov­er them and will admire them. As a rule, the noble people preferred to ma­ke their settlements high in the mountains, near a lake or a large river, which often occurred in the antiquity. Tasty fish and algae for the feed­ing of the dwellers of the village were bred and grown in these cold wa­ter basins. Close and very stout clothes and shoes were made from water plants, after suitable ma­gical treatment. Though the Mountain peo­ple could make thick garments, good for cold weather, they were almost al­ways wearing quite light clothes, regardless of the weather. Therefore ev­en in the severe cold spells in winter, they dived in the ice-cold waters with a loud and clear-ringing laughter, to mow the under-water meadows, to plant new ones, or in honor of a merry feast of theirs. All that showed what the reason for their phenomenally iron constitution was, and why they had a long life duration, which (if the Mountaineer wasn't killed in the battle-field or in the dark galleries) reached several hundred years and more.

The cheerful noblemen from the high mountains loved life very much (the free life at that), but that love didn't prevent them from accepting death with dignity, when it was necessary. Oftentimes the pitiless and severe Brown faces shuddered with the steel shine of the look, the Mountaineers had at that moment. These brave men, who swam perfectly, didn't feel the ground slipping from under their feet either when they became slaves. Since aft­er the long hours of fatiguing work, the Mountaineers made plans for esc­ape at the back of their mind, mostly managing to get rid of their ensla­vers, and to come back alive and kicking to their people.

The ancient possessors of the Magic were tall enough in height, so they stuck out at least by a head among the Brown faces. Their tempers, as well as their appearances, radically differed from these of the brown warmong­ers. The Mountain people's skin was white or slightly swarthy, when it was necessary for them to stay in the sun for a longer time. Their featu­res resembled those of the Europeans of today, only that in co­ntrast with the ugly people, the dwellers of the mountains were beautiful and handsome. The mountain men always wore beards and moustaches that we­re well-tended, and exalted their noble appearance still further.

The Mountaineers' physical strength surpassed their warlike enem­ies', or was at least their match. That is why when the cold-like race lost the sanguinary battles, it was considered that neither the Brown faces’ strength nor their fighting abilities, but their great numbers that many times excee­ded the possessors of the lovely skills, that led to their victory. Besides, the evil enslavers often resorted to a dishonest stratagem, or insidious, mean actions in the battle that tipped the balance on their side.

Children of the people from the ancient, high mountains got accust­omed to the cold from their earliest age. When they grew up, they learned to fight well with any objects, not only with the ancient weapons. Their parents knew very well what their future life held in sto­re for them, therefore the training was intensive enough. But that did not mean at all the weaker pupils were punished, or beaten after each failure of theirs. The adults in charge of the good fighting skills of the girls and boys just showed them what they had to do better, and what to accent­uate more. The thrashing as a way of education wasn't used at all. Besides, the young pupils were full of desire to master the fighting and the oth­er arts too, which they were taught, and because of that they stayed after the trainings at their own free will, and trained until they began swing­ing the metal blades fairly well, or to hurl their wooden discuses with a great accuracy.

Besides the swords, sabres and bolts, the Mountain people also had anot­her very effective weapon - the flying discuses. These round-elliptic fi­ghting products, subconcave underneath in the middle, were often used even more than the shooting with a bow. The wooden object that was hurled by a man knowing how to do that, could whirl and move at a great speed. If that weapon didn't come across an obstacle on its way, it described a big cir­cle in the air, and came back right in its possessor's hand like the Australian boomerang. How effective the flying discus was, the fact told that by a slight push (caused by Magic), which was sent toward the wooden circle, it smoothly cut off a tree that had its diameter. And if the bole was thicker, a narrow, rectangular hole of the same size as the outline of the remarkable weapon, remained in it.

Behind the ancient Mountaineers' great bodily strength, there was alwa­ys the kindest and grandest soul, which could be found in the representa­tives of the mankind. The majority of the noble people could compose inc­redibly good verses, often accompanied by the tender music, which came out of their magical crystals. The instruments of the kind like that were de­signed to create such melodies, that made the blood in the veins boil and the eyes of the warriors, who otherwise didn't turn a hair in the face of the awful death, shed tears. In the past, thousands of good creatures gath­ered together at the feasts, organized by the ancient noblemen, because the remarkable dances to the more remarkable sounds from the transparent objects, skilfully made by the wizards' wonder-working hands, we­re praised rightfully everywhere on Earth.

Of course there are some other creatures too, typical of the ancient times and who will be mentioned further, like the rock pieces. The heading of that book has their name, although they are mentioned quite more rarely than the ugly Brown faces and the people from the mountains. That is so, as these moving stones lived so long ago, that today we know next to nothing about them. But the few details, which are known about their life now, will be described in the course of the action, and I will endeavour not to exaggerate anything about them anywhere. Their role in this story is great and important enough.

Author's Note

let me know your opinion, please, I need some help...

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

If you wish to refer to antiquity and the vast differences between how we think of race today as opposed to historical reference; a primal focal point should be ancient Egypt; in particular, Pharoah Ra-hotep and his wife Nofret. Ra-hotep was pharoah of the seventeenth dynasty around 1650 B.C.E. when Egypt was under Hyksos rule. Statues erected to the couple show an African looking king (dark skin, dark wooly hair) and an ivory skinned queen. But closer inspection reveals that the two have similar facial features and bone structure, indicating that they are of the same race. This should challenge anyone trying to impose modern racial patterns to ancient Egyptians. This was a great piece and very interesting.

[Raef C. Boylan]

Ah, I see.

= and felt a deep-seated hatred of the water and the fluids with its effect.

or you could say
and felt a deep-seated hatred of the water and the fluids with similar properties

[Raef C. Boylan]

"alt�hough it was different from that [one] of the Africans and mulattoes " [get rid of 'one']

"The women of that aggressive race were physically less weak[,] than their armoured warriors with [a] sinister look" [no comma] [a = their?]

"and felt a deep-seated hatred of the water and the fluids with effect like [its]." [doesn't make sense, not sure what you're trying to say here - let me know and I'll make a suggestion].

I'm at work so I have to go for now, but your English is very good so I don't think you should worry too much.

[allonsy_doctor]

I really liked. It was interesting. Good job. Is there more??