"Praise the supreme Main God! Praise His Majesty of the Divine Revelation!..."
"Uwaa! Main God is very high, up in the sky! Great, great, Great Chief is very high, on the peak!..."
"The ancestors' God Mountain sits the great, great, great Main God! The eldest son born of Him is the great, great, Great Chief!..."
The red sun slanted west, and dusk gradually deepened. On the Kamchatka Peninsula in November, darkness came very early, and the nighttime temperature could drop several degrees below freezing. The Kingdom Warriors and Tribal Sailors from the Longship all gathered around the lit bonfires, eating meat and drinking soup in great mouthfuls, loudly praising and praying. All manner of shouts and songs drifted out across the cold seashore. Though the Sailors of the various tribes did not share a language, at this moment their joy, their dancing hands and feet, all came from the heart and overflowed beyond words!
Of course, on this cold, unknown coast, whether the sturdy Kingdom Warriors or the tall Tribal Sailors, all of them maintained the most basic vigilance. Underneath, they wore thick Leather Armor; over it, they wrapped themselves in soft furs; and the bronze axes at their waists had never once been removed.
And all of this was seen with their eyes, heard with their ears, and even smelled with their noses by the two Itelmen hunters creeping through the grass!
"Sniff!... Gurgle!... What meat is that? Why is it so deer-damn tempting, warm just from the smell?... Huh! What they're using to boil the soup, the fire is so big, why does it seem like it isn't wood, but... black stones?..."
The hunter Mu Lu lay prone in the grass, sniffed at the meaty fragrance on the wind, and could not help licking his lips, swallowing several