Blue Stone

Even the horses froze. The scream was heard again. The voices seemed to pierce Yelis like a needle, and they blocked his ears at an angle. Then the screams faded and disappeared. Clueless, Mextumsila dismounted and scanned the sky. "Lucky, he's looking for the river to find us," he said, suddenly taking a realistic tone. "Let's go inside, get some rest and have a warm bite to eat and drink." As everyone looked around in the open area, she pointed to the clearing between the trees. The opening was so narrow that they crawled on their hands and knees and crawled down a short tunnel. They finally stopped, there was an irregularly shaped area just ahead. "Let's make a fire, we'll be safe here," said Ewin. Uras quickly prepared a bed of river stones for fire. The wet wood caught fire easily when Mextumsila poured a bottle she had pulled out of her cloak into the woods. Everyone in the group gathered around the fire to warm up as the smoke drifted upward. Mextumsila and Ewin threw their cloaks aside and sat cross-legged by the fire, facing each other. throws it away, settles around the fire and he stretched out his hands to the heat.

Then the woman began to speak. "According to an Ice people legend, the world was once very cold. In the Kutsk language, cold winds would enter through the hole opened by the star of Ulger in the sky and freeze everything on earth. One day, when a great warrior showed great courage and wanted to close the hole, he made forty pairs of wolf skin gloves so that his hands would not freeze and he succeeded in closing the hole by ascending to the sky. After the hole was closed, the earth became warmer and the ice people congratulated this warrior and gave him gifts. But the Blue-maned wolf, the friend of the Ice people, was very angry with this situation and cursed the Ice people and the warrior. Because this warrior was descended from a blue wolf and betrayed his own bloodline. From that day on, the blue wolf's curse continues," Elendiz said, poking Yelis from behind. and muttered something.

After a bit of a bite, Tumaris and Uras took out water bags and leather sacks from a corner in the wall, pulled out a teapot and began to prepare tea. The woman pulled something like a pipe from her cloak and focused her attention on stuffing it. "I am," Yelis said. "Am I of the ice people?" Ewin "We have never seen, we were born and taught in this world. There has always been order. It has been for thousands of years. Legend has it that Tonka will return in the body of one of his descendants that day there will be a battle with the Icebreaker, after that battle Tonka will take us back home, we are not of this Earth. This world limits our power. That's why for thousands of years Tonka's lineage lived and died without knowing who he was. You are one of them, but they found you, touched you. They called Tonka's descendants in the East," he said. Yelis "So Uncle David and Aunt Abigial are not my real relatives, are they?" Ewin nodded. "The wise have cleared most of the mark from you." Yelis had so many questions she wanted to ask, but for some reason she didn't know why, she felt tired all the time. "And who are we after, the blue wolf?" Ewin stood up abruptly. "That's enough for now," he said. "You need some rest for the journey." When the woman finished filling her pipe, she stood up and when she bent over and touched Yelis's head, Yelis' eyes closed and her head fell on Abigial's shoulder, who was sitting next to her.

The woman rummaged through the pouch on her belt and took out the small blue stone. "This is what will guide the girl… This way she will avoid the unpleasant effects that befall those who have to find their own way."

Elendiz's eyes widened as he stared at the stone, and he moistened his lips repeatedly. "Is that... a part of Tonka's power?" "Of course not," snapped the Clue. "Tonka got her power from the sky god. She couldn't share or distribute her power. Besides, things don't have power, my child. It's just a beautiful blue stone." The woman put the stone on the fingertips of the sleeping Yelis. "It's better that way than doing it alone. It clears your mind and helps it." A light flashed on the stone on Yelis's finger, only a blue glow, and then it was gone. Ewin and Woman stared blankly at the stone. Another flash came, and another, until the azure light flashed like a heartbeat. Aruzes, he thought desperately. Uras, the woman must have been doing it, and Yelis stirred restlessly in her sleep.

Before they slept, Mextumsila knelt beside each one in turn and placed her hands on their heads. Ewin grunted, saying he didn't need it and shouldn't waste his strength, but he didn't try to stop him. Elendiz longed for this experience; Tumaris was clearly frightened by this but could not say no. David tried to get away from her hands quickly, but without success. When he finally made it to all of them, they looked refreshed. Uras had leaned back against the wall and leaned against the wall, hoping he would be overlooked. He wanted to close his eyes as he leaned back, but forced himself to watch. He pressed his fist to his mouth to suppress his yawn. Still, the Woman hadn't forgotten him, and Uras winced at the coldness of the fingers on her face and said, "I -". His eyes widened in astonishment. With the woman's touch, fatigue poured out like water flowing downhill; aches and pains disappeared. Uras was taken aback, The Woman just smiled and pulled her hands away.

"It's over," he said, and stood up with a weary sigh. He could not find a solution to his own exhaustion. The woman curled up by the fire and fell asleep as soon as she wrapped herself in her cloak. The others, with the exception of Ewin, had fallen asleep wherever they could find a place to lie down. Uras, however, felt as if he had slept in a comfortable bed, as if he had been resting for a week.