The Last Days of Pangea

Unity

Embodied in the essence, but not losing the bodily connection, Roshan’s consciousness left the body and began to slowly rotate around the abandoned flesh. And everything that happened beyond the bounds of human vision appeared before the gaze of the leader. This time, the manifestation of unity was not like the previous units with Pangea, and Roshan immediately felt it.

For the first time in all times, through Her eyes, the leader saw his camp! The shaman saw his appearance like the appearance of reptiles through the eyes of Zavrini: the soulless shell appeared in unity as a body without skin, and everything inside disfigured the Temple of the Creator with a disgusting phenomenon. Mixing with the glow of prana, the lilac gleam of the leader’s combinations flooded the expanses of the dungeon with warm light. From the streams of glow, the symbols on the walls of the cave took on the color of the aura of the shaman’s body, and the lights of candles and lights became similar to the glow of night stars. The bursts of an underground stream and the crackling of blazing torches filled the manifestation of the vision, and the grotto with Her eyes came to life in a new decoration.

After examining the Abode of Unity, Roshan once again turned his attention to his own camp. Human flesh – joints of bones, plexuses of muscles, a web of veins and vessels – was enveloped in luminous fibers from all sides. And in the chest area, a vital source stood out noticeably – shimmering with a scarlet flame, the shaman’s heart throbbed quiveringly and measuredly, and it was clear how blood was circulating in the center of longevity. Despite the horror and unprecedentedness of what was presented, Roshan remained humble. Humble and ready for new ideas.

The vision did not linger in the grotto and, for some unknown reason, instead of heading towards the stars, rushed down to the base of the mountain. With a roar and crackle piercing the warehouses of the stone walls of the cave, the red-hot essence of the soul became more animated with every moment. It gained momentum and, passing through the strongholds, tore apart the particles of the coordinated forms of the Great Volcano, like an arrow cutting through the harmony of living flesh. The red-hot essence, burning the compositions of stones, penetrated deep into the mountains, and the leader felt the heat of the burning fossils with his face and body, as if he was penetrating the thickness of the volcano with his camp.

In a fleeting vision fell into the labyrinths of tunnels. In unexplored corridors, it slowed down for a moment, making it possible to consider the moves. And in one grotto, it completely hung over extraordinary creatures. «Continuations of the original lives – underground creatures!» thought the leader. They had no bones, no heart, no bloody flesh, but their bodies and paws, with eight limbs for each creature, looked like giant spiders and glowed with prana in Roshan’s gaze, as if creations were composed from the flames of Pangea. The essence circled over the creatures and rushed down again.

«Why did She direct me to the foundations of the Earth? the shaman thought, gradually getting used to what was happening. «After all, the manifestation of memories was about the stars, about their mysterious glow and a newborn star…»

At some point, Roshan’s gaze found itself in a vast cave. Having lowered their ardor, the essence of the soul and mind hung in the expanses of the dungeon, and in the vision of the shaman through the veil of nebula, the realm of the original essences appeared. The immense grotto with many niches, interweaving of ledges and passages was teeming with insect giants from top to bottom! Underground inhabitants swarmed absolutely everywhere: they clung to the sheer walls of the cave, cliffs and stalactites sticking out everywhere! And each of the creatures in the vision of the leader radiated the radiance of prana.

The light emanating from the creatures spread throughout the grotto and illuminated the most secluded corners of the vast lair, and giant insects fussily crawled along the slopes and planes, making unpleasant chirring sounds. Caught on the way one by one, the creatures probed each other with their endings – apparently, in this way they determined their own kind. Some of the creatures had elongated bodies and an abundance of limbs, others had pointed, spiked tails. Others were similar to those that Roshan saw, plunging deep into the mountain. Sometimes some creatures attacked creatures of another stock, but soon after the skirmishes they dispersed to their needs. Others were completely immobile.

The narrowed niches of the grotto were in places smeared with luminous slime, in which lay either giant larvae (Roshan could not see), or eggs. Larger species of creatures, similar in appearance to horned beetles, crowded among the rudiments and disgusting secretions. These creatures, apparently, gave birth to larval eggs, or maybe they simply protected them from other creatures.

Many passages approached the cave from all sides. The tunnels were located along the entire length of the dungeon – both above and below. And from the channels he saw on the way to the lair, the shaman realized that most of the passages intersected, creating a huge labyrinth in the heart of the Great Volcano. Stalactites, entwined everywhere with a web in which the remains of the limbs of creatures dangled, a strange interweaving of stone origins, many creatures and their disgusting chirping and clatter filled the atmosphere of the underworld with danger and anxiety. Even in unity with Pangea, being in the abode of creatures became uneasy for the leader. For a moment he imagined being here in reality – in a bodily shell in absolute darkness. Roshan had no idea what kind of mentality the insect creatures had, but Zavrini’s premonition told him that these creatures were very unfriendly.

«It was not for nothing that the tribesmen built barriers in the Temple of the Creator,» thought the shaman, and immediately decided, after unity, to fix the horns on the barriers in both the right and left sleeves of the passage.

Meanwhile, the essence rose to the center of the cave and began to absorb the particles of light that the underground creatures emitted nearby. Giant insects in the area started up! They chirped and fussily ran along the ledges of the dungeon, abruptly rushing from side to side, and sometimes at each other. Vital fibers of the fiery element rushed from everywhere from the creatures to the leader’s gaze with a visible haze, and Roshan noticed how this phenomenon began to extinguish the glow of the prana of the creatures closest to the vision. They slowed down, shrank and froze, as if their lives were cut short at that moment. Absorbing the prana of the underground inhabitants, the essence of the leader itself was filled with energy. And at one moment, having filled to the limit, she shuddered and swiftly soared up – away from the underworld.

***

When the reincarnation of the soul escaped from the thickness of the mountain, the Great Fire was already at its zenith, and the bright rays of the luminary immediately shook the shaman’s eyes – for the first time in history, Roshan returned the human vision in unity! The leader involuntarily lowered his head, hiding his face from the dazzling glare, and the animated essence turned the movement into action in an instant – bowing her gaze, she directed her vision downward, and Roshan saw the abode of Pangea in a guise never seen before: from the height of heaven! Forests and ravines, mountains and plains, fields and steppes that surrounded the Great Volcano – everything was in full view here! The shaman looked around Her expanses with amazement and once again became convinced that this unity was not similar to any other units before.

The immense grove of araucaria that spread near the camp and beyond which the first people had not yet gone, still hid behind the horizon, and its edges could not be seen. The scope of the coniferous forest turned out to be much wider than its visible outlines from the ledges of the caves – the dwellings of the elders. And this could not but comfort Roshan. The green cover of araucaria was a real boon of Pangea, since predatory reptiles larger than Raptors were not noticed in these parts. And despite the fact that both Raptors and Vultures have bred in the forest, and the herbivorous Stripers have recently begun to leave these places, the rangers, guessing the lucky lot of the Great Hunt, have always rejoiced in the grove, like small children with the colored wings of swamp dragonflies. Harassing the Stripers among ravines and araucaria-tree-covered hills, even among Raptors, was much safer than stalking giants in liana forests or bennettite plains. And the lot, as was customary, made it possible for the leaders of the hunting parties to choose the side of the world of fishing first.

Directing his gaze to the southwest, the shaman focused his vision on the liana forest. The dense crowns of giant liana trees, like elevated hills, protruded above the surroundings. The tops of the leafy cover swayed fairly from the breath of the wind, and from the sky it seemed that the blowing gusts created abundant disturbances of the vegetative plateau, like wavy ripples on the water surface appear after strong flows of the windy element. Long contemplation of the peaks caused an illusion in Roshan’s gaze. The leader for a moment succumbed to the monotonous variability of the crowns, and it began to seem to him that the deciduous cover of the trees was hovering above the ground. Feeling the deceit in the vision, the shaman released his vision and looked again at the liana forest. He immediately noticed that above the crowns near the edges the lords of the heavens were swarming – powerful and ardent predators of Pterosaurs. But from the height of the flight of the incarnation of the soul, the heavenly hunters looked tiny. And all the greatness of the Pterosaurs became at that moment insignificant in comparison with the greatness of what was seen around.

The leader looked at the borders of the forest and the previous path traveled. The leader recognized the hunting trails and the last resting place in the wooded ridge. The memories of the lands along which the footprints of ancestors and Pangea itself led to the Great Volcano inspired Roshan with worries about the past…

The constant rise of soul essence opened up views of unfamiliar lands to the south, west, and east. The edge of the liana forest on the southwestern side grew scarcely into a plateau of bennettite fields. The fields mingled either with strings of conifers, or with lush cycads, or maybe even with palm trees – everything became similar from a height. The limits of the plateau approached the wooded hills, and behind the hills a wide river meandered in a dark blue stripe, like a lasso thrown by chance. In some places it broke off into ravines, and in these places its sharp and seething declines were visible. The winding shores of the water element abundantly enveloped the jungle, liana giants and other trees.

Bor in the west rested on a hill. But the gaze had already risen so high that the vegetation on these hills had also become illegible. But in the southeast, the edge of the araucaria grove suddenly appeared, and the soils that arose there clearly conveyed the fiery shades of the half-dead steppes. Crimson arid lands in some areas of unfamiliar distances were strewn with verdant tones of vegetation, and it seemed to Roshan that there, among the greenery, lonely hollows of lakes gleamed.

In the north-west, in the led regions behind the wooded ridges, a swamp valley was already visible. But if the shaman did not know about its existence, then it is unlikely that from such a height he could make out what kind of area it was.

The essence hastily rose up, and with every moment the creator’s abode moved away from the shaman’s gaze, hiding the details of the camp and growing in grandeur at the same time. Very soon She was so far away that it became impossible to see even the highest hills and trees in Her. The lands of Pangea now differed only in the pale hues of the colors of the vegetation that covered them, and the features of the areas growing into each other were not visible at all. Yes, and the Great Volcano from the height of heaven no longer seemed so majestic. But at its summit, the silhouettes of the undergrowth could still be seen: lone ginkgo trees, yucca trees, fern thickets, grass cover and hill borders – rocky ledges and sharp slopes.

The vast expanses of Pangea were enveloped on all sides by a continuous horizon, and the leader was struck by what he saw! For the first time he saw how the horizon closed in a ring, bordering only on the firmament. The rounded forms of the horizon became more expressive with every moment of distance and made it clear that the coherence of the world, like the Great Fire, like the Moon and stars, are similar in outline. And this idea destroyed a lot of conjectures and thoughts about the creator’s warehouse in the shaman’s head.

Higher and higher the leader rose to the sky, and Pangea became more and more immense and immeasurable. Her scope was so great that she lacked the ability to see to see the manifested distances at the edges of Her form. The appearance of the creator was gradually embodied in a rounded giant Earth. And the Earth was already so far from Roshan that the gaze was enough to cover its facets with a glance!

Suddenly, the shaman noticed how the heights of the firmament began to change color. Their visible features were gradually surrounded by a mysterious black haze, and a thick white veil formed over Pangea. And through it, covering the edges of the majestic plateau, raging waters began to be seen. The heavenly color of the water, from the northern shores of which, according to the legends of the ancestors, the light-skinned Zavrini took the first step towards the Great Volcano.

An unexpectedly powerful blast of the elements stirred up the essence of the soul. Roshan felt the breath of cold currents on his face and shuddered. It seemed to him that the elements had broken the flight. The essence seemed to have overcome an invisible line and, having weakened the impulses of aspiration, stopped. With his body, the shaman perceived a previously unknown lightness, as if his camp had lost its attraction. After a moment, the heights of the heavens, which a moment ago were shrouded in darkness, completely dissolved, and around the outlines of the creator, the starry abode of the night appeared.

***

Bright stars engulfed Roshan’s vision. The cold radiance of countless luminaries – both small and great – littered the valley of darkness. And that valley had neither borders nor horizons.

The shaman was stunned by what he saw – even at night, so many stars could not be seen from the ledges of the Great Volcano! And their leader was amazed at their multitude and open spaces, that they had no edges, not only from above, as usual, but also from below, where the warehouse of Her monastery allowed walking along the paths, and from all over the world, where the horizon bordered on something!

And then, at a distance from the camp of Pangea, the Great Fire rushed into the eyes of Roshan.

Like a lonely fire in the midnight wasteland, the Great Fire blazed in the endless desert of darkness. And there was no one around except the Earth and the dark stars. And the fiery shone that warmed each new day, which foreshadowed twilight by sunset, at that moment no longer blinded the shaman’s gaze. Her eyes returned to the leader and softened the brightness of the dazzling rays, allowing you to consider the coherence of the red-hot body.

The fiery mixture of glow and heat aroused clumps of fiery elements in the camp of the Great Fire! The warehouse of the Great Fire was seething like boiling water in a vat, and the seething streams seemed about to spill into the abode of the night. The leader, fascinated by the reality of what he saw, held his breath and again felt how anxiously the heart of his flesh was beating in the Temple of the Creator.

«Who is the creator of this world? Who is the true builder of the primordial life? And are these stars really souls? And who created them, and why are they still so far away? – Unrestrained thoughts disturbed the mind of the shaman, and at that hour he inadvertently noticed how the Great Fire began to slowly circle the western edges of Pangea, and darkness began to fog its eastern halls.

And immediately after the darkness, serenely bending around the Earth, as if deliberately hiding behind its coherence, a pale silhouette appeared. He slowly walked around Her camp, brightening with its essence the darkness of the eastern lands of the human world. «The moon that illuminates the hunting trails in the night!» the leader agreed.

The Warehouse of the Moon shone dazzlingly from the radiance of the Great Fire. And the shaman for all the lived moons of the moon has not seen such a guise! The dark side of her gray camp, which was not touched at that hour by the rays of the fiery luminary, was cut by high rounded ridges. They appeared to Roshan as giant scars and inspired thoughts that something was disturbing the Moon for thousands of moons…

Seeing all this, the shaman realized one consideration that worried him and other shamans: the Great Fire and the Moon, as relatives of Pangea, were and circled around Her in the night abode and succeeded each other day and night. But the sages bequeathed other knowledge to their descendants: the ancestors repeated that the children of Alak knew them, as Zavrin saw the Great Fire go into the water. As if Pangea was creating a fiery luminary at the horizons of raging water elements on the other side of the world. It was as if She was escorting him along the vault above Her abode to the northern shores of the fair-skinned ancestors to the same restless waters, so that the perfect lands would not be incinerated by the heat of the Great Fire. So that the Great Fire cools down by dawn and warms the expanses again. And in his absence, She lifted the Moon from the same water, so that Her creations could rest from fishing and see dreams, and in order to calculate – to become wiser and gain strength. Those observations turned out to be inaccurate, but the sages were only right in that they noticed variability in the Moon and in the fiery star and in the sky of stars the movement with time.

Reality was moving farther and faster away from the gaze, but at the same time, Roshan stopped feeling the movement of the essence of the soul – as if Pangea herself rushed away from the reincarnated essence of the shaman…

Soon the Moon and the Great Fire noticeably circled the Earth. The fiery become clung to the other side of the human world and no longer cast any light on Her warehouse visible to Roshan. And the pale luminary shrouded the lands of Pangea with a shadow, and the leader realized that there – on Earth – in the expanses of Her abode, night had come. Roshan watched the mesmerizing performance one more time, and his thoughts about the idea of unity returned to him. The shaman strained his gaze and turned the essence of the spectacle back. And not far away, a fiery mixture of newly appeared elements appeared before him…

***

Fiery fragments filled the stellar abode, and at that moment it seemed to the leader as if he had fallen under a fiery rain of blazing stones. Boulders flying towards them left behind clots of white smoke and shining dust, and Roshan’s gaze, darting from side to side, avoided collisions with boulders and gradually approached the newborn star. Sometimes the essence of the soul did not keep up with the frequent stumbling of stones and cut through their red-hot barriers. Permeating the vision of stone warehouses, the shaman felt the malleability and incredible ardor of their red-hot body. And it seemed to the leader at that hour that they were not stones at all, but something else and completely unfamiliar. Roshan has not seen such stones either in the abode of Pangea or in Her unities!

The closer the incarnation of the soul approached the manifestation, the hotter the night became. Very soon, the course of the essence turned out to be close to the fiery nature, and the shaman was able to discern the essence of the mysterious manifestation.

The confluence of flame and blackness, having filled the vision with its grandeur, seethed in front of Roshan. The leader saw how clots of fiery elements rushed about in the coherence of the stars. And they were similar to the elements of the Great Fire, but the essence that was hiding under the flaming exterior was unlike anything seen before. The black, in some places with blue insides constantly changed its restless shape – it became elongated, then more rounded, as if something alive was hiding under a fire-breathing cover.

At times, with a roar and crackle, the star spewed ardent fragments into the abode of stars. Not soon cooling down, its fruits turned into those very alien stones. And the stones scattered across the expanses of the night, and some followed their offspring, as if they were kept nearby by an unknown force.

Soon the shaman drew attention to the fact that the star itself gradually approached the gaze. The leader was momentarily filled with confusion, and the essence involuntarily rushed to the side so as not to collide with the fiery element. The essence of Roshan at that hour resigned itself to the heat of the fiery appearance and began to soar nearby, as if seeing off the course of the newborn manifestation. Behind the star, like a tail, continuing its warehouse, a long train of fire, smoke and red-hot boulders stretched. And the tail stretched far into the abode of the night and dissolved there.

The shaman contemplated this obscure phenomenon for some time, and then realized what was happening, but suddenly the vision began to shake. Roshan began to hear disturbing voices, and the red star that was blazing in front of his eyes suddenly shattered into fragments. The leader focused his gaze more strongly, and human silhouettes appeared in front of his vision without skin and hair…