Super Queen-Mother thought:
«It’s a very strange entrance. And what if it is replaying my life, year after year, at such a speed? Each dawn adds a year of my life. Nobody will go to the end of such an entrance without growing older, till the day of his or her death.»
As if in response to her thoughts, melodious, plaintive sounds came from the depths of the entrance, and an invisible cloud of a divine fragrance covered her.
«It’s time to leave from here, and the quicker the better», Super Queen-Mother decided and walked through the wide tunnel deep into the cave.
A deep stream, flowing down, took up half of the passage. Its waters fell down from a height of about four feet.
From aside, the stream looked like a long live aquarium, though it did not have glass walls, keeping the water. Some fish was seen, swimming inside the stream, closer to its edges. The water was cloudy, with some mud in it. Sometimes, some shadows were flickering here and there. They moved very quickly, and it was difficult to make them out.
A small white fish jumped out of the stream, thrashed on the dry floor of the cave for some time, then jumped back into the stream and swam out of sight. It looked like the fish often carried out such tricks.
An interesting thought came into Super-Queen-Mother’s mind. She waited for a fish, falling out of the stream, caught it and came back to the beautiful passage. Super Queen-Mother threw the fish inside it and started watching.
Very soon the fish stopped thrashing, became stock still and then began to decay. Super Queen-Mother smiled ironically – her guess was right.
She returned to the stream. Suddenly, the picture became yellowish-waxen. Super Queen-Mother moved away from the stream to the wall, but then changed her mind and took up a position in the middle – between the stream and the wall.
A huge medusa jumped out of the stream at a great speed. Its jelly-like body was of different bright acid colors – dark-purple, dark-red, and dark-green.
At the same time, a yellow cloud of steam came out of the opposite wall of the cave. The yellow-waxen color of the surroundings became more intense, and Super Queen-Mother left the dangerous spot.
She watched the medusa slowly, like in slow-motion pictures, coming into the cloud of concentrated poisonous steam. Its jelly-like shell and feelers were dissolving as it was flying through the deathly cloud and it fell down on the floor in the form of colorful pieces and drops. Its core – a dense, bright, emerald green ball with thorns, which remained intact – hit against the wall of the cave.
The sound of cracking stone was heard, and knocked-out pieces of the rock flew every which way from the spot where the ball had fallen. The stone rain continued, followed by the noise, but the ball was not seen – it got inside the rock. The noise it was producing also went to the depths of the rock.
A stifled, continuous death cry came out of the rock, and pieces of torn flesh began to fly out of the hole, followed by a strong blood jet.
«What a bad creature», Super Queen-Mother thought and went farther along the tunnel. She could not even imagine what animal had lived inside the rock.
The passage appeared to be very dangerous. Super Queen-Mother restored the yellowish-waxen picture and went on with great care, ready to meet any lightning attack.
The stream of water ran down into a pit in the corner of a small hall. There was a small whirlpool at the spot where it fell. The noise of the falling water was not heard, because the running water took up the whole pit.
Super Queen-Mother stooped and walked under the stone, hanging above the passage. She found herself in a big hall.
At the very top numerous creatures were swinging like enormous chandeliers, holding on to the ceiling with their strong claws.
The «chandeliers» had a lot of small mirrors instead of lamps, and a lot of small wings located on the mirror pads.
Their flask-shaped heads were provided with telescopic eyes, turning round. The eyes, not used at the moment, sagged in their holes on their heads.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
