The night is dark and hides a lot from people’s eyes. If
there are no lights nearby, if the moon and stars are hidden behind clouds, then the
darkness falls so thick and
impenetrable that it begins to seem as if you are in a closed
room without windows and doors, frightening
in its obscurity. Therefore, at night it is necessary to dream, hiding
from all the fears of this world with a soft blanket. The only person who blesses
the darkness is the one who wants to be hidden, carries the tai-
nu, and wants to keep something out of sight.
This September night was particularly dark. The weather
was warm, but it was going to rain, and clouds covered the sky.
In the fields beyond the village, near the forest, there was not a light,
and in the darkness, without a lantern, it would have been impossible to distinguish whether it was a field
or a road, a forest or a clearing, and therefore no one would
have seen that the figure of a man was moving across the field.
The stiff posts of straw sticking out of the ground
made it difficult for him to walk quickly. He walked smoothly and confidently
on the ground, as if there was no impenetrable darkness around him, as if he
saw every step, every piece of the mown field.
When the man was well away from the road,
he stopped. Taking a small object out of his pocket, he said:
I squatted down, put it in front of me, and
walked quickly back. And then from a strange object with a hiss
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a column of steam whistled out. The ground around him glowed with an
orange light, and it looked like it wasn’t just
light. The hay poles nearby began to burn and charred, everything
around them began to turn black, to sink down, and
a scaly, clawed paw appeared from the pit. As soon
as the column of steam disappeared, the man came closer. The light from the fire
pit revealed what he looked like. It was a man
in his thirties, wearing a black business suit. When he saw the paw, he
rolled his eyes and made a face of displeasure, but he didn
’t move again.
The pit stopped burning, the smoldering pieces of earth no longer
glowed so brightly. Following the paw
,the rest of the strange creature’s body appeared. It is difficult to describe what
it looked like – whether it was a baby dragon, or
an overgrown winged lizard. The thin
leather wings on the skeletal carcasses looked lifeless and hung
like rags on stakes, torn in places, cracked
and crumpled in places. The creature’s face was still more like
a dragon’s, its nostrils steaming, and its eyes glittering with fire,
silver runes with strange markings were woven into the mane
,and they tinkled melodiously as they clashed together. The creature
sighed heavily, let out a large stream of
steam from its mouth, and shook itself, saying —
«That’s it, Keijigen, you can’t even shake hands with an old
friend!
«
The man in the black suit said in a tired
voice.
«Keiji, you can greet me
normally, I’m having a hard time breathing, I need more time.»
I didn’t come for a minute. Give me permission, «the dragon
lizard croaked.
Keijigen ran a hand over his disgruntled face and
beard, closed his eyes for a moment, then took a deep breath
and said, «I’m not sure.:
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– Arfimaino Arbaham, fiery guardian of the ninth
Wall and the sealed gate of the ninth Vale, imperishable
protector of the abyss of despair and hopelessness, knight of the black
cauldron of the 12th rank, I welcome you to this land.
Immediately after that, the dragon lizard
let out a sigh of relief and looked down at its paws. The scales
stopped glowing, and the entire body gradually took on a silvery-
bluish hue. His nostrils stopped steaming, and
