Wandering Spark - Part 60
"No, inside," Varan said.
"It's an idea," the mage replied.
There was a fuss on the rock. In the darkness, Varan completely lost sight of the magician; suddenly a fireball of blue and green flames flew downward, a stream of liquid fire.
"Wow," Varan just said.
"You're right, there's no water left," the magician said sadly. "Neither inside nor outside... And they are not in a hurry to look for me."
Varan was a little bit offended that he said "me" and not "us." Although, on the other hand, it was true - to search Varan here, in the top, there are unlikely to be volunteers.
"But they cannot completely forget about us," Varan said.
Perhaps the magician nodded. Varan didn’t see anything around - only the green eyes-beads broke out again in the far fault, they moved closer, blinked, and disappeared again.
"These are lutes," said the magician. "Souls of criminals."
"What?!"
"In fact, it's just animals... Although strange. For example, they easily eat each other. They live in a family - a male, a female and cubs. Then suddenly a female for no reason eats off her husband and cubs... Or a male. And it happens, a grown-up cub eats the father and mother, brothers and sisters."
"Horrible," muttered Varan.
"Therefore, they don’t breed. But at the same time, they are not getting smaller in number... They say that criminals on the earth are always in the same number. If one is hanged, another will be born immediately. On the Swamp Realm is considered a bad omen if the baby was born on the same day with execution. This little boy or girl their parents trying to send far away... And on the Placer criminals aren’t executed at all.
"And what people do with them?"
"They put them in jail for life .."
Varan shivered.
"It seems many people have to guard them..."
"There is no reason to guard them. There's a big prison, a whole city underground... And the entrance is one. And the creature has been guarding the prison for a hundred years."
"Who?"
"Such a creature... Kind of like a worm. There's a hole in front, behind a hole, on each side there are bone hooks - to grab a prey, to crawl... It quickly crawls on the ground and on a rock. And so, while it walks freely, nothing special, well, an ordinary predator... Well, it steal sheeps... But if it gets stuck in the ground, it's rare, but it happens ... Then because of hunger it takes roots out its hooks and doesn’t move ever since.
Varan swallowed nervously.
"Did you see it yourself?"
"With these eyes," the magician said seriously. "So that's it. At the entrance to the prison, such a beast has rooted. It feeds on water and earthy juices... It isn’t a predator, but a plant. But the mouth remained, and the cavity inside, and the hole behind. So the criminals, who were convicted, are allowed to get swallowed by it. It's disgusting, but they aren’t hurt. Criminal goes through the creature and goes out behind... unscathed. And back there is no way."
"Shuu," Varan whispered softly.
"And what you thought... The world is rich in miracles, and not all of them are cute."
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