(Free adaptation of the comic strip by Guillaume Chardon. In memory of a friendship that began twenty-six years ago.)
The monster.
A seven-and-a-half-year-old boy, his lips stained, painted with blackcurrant jam, was crying bitterly in the middle of the tall grass. He had just dropped his toast over an anthill and watched the insects climb up the bread crumb and get stuck in puddles of jelly.
His distraction prevented him from seeing the giant praying mantis that was approaching. She was green and her yellow abdomen covered with a thick satin breastplate. It was the height of a plum tree (since the sound demands it).
The boy had spiky hair that was glossy with gomina, blond. When he saw the insect, terrified, he uttered a sharp cry.
- Mom!
Supreme irony that this filial cry launched just before death! Sublime maternal attachment! Subtle last word!
The child hid his eyes with his arms. The insect's leg descended in a sliding slow motion, mowed the grass at ground level and cut the child in two.
The praying mantis lowered its plasticized body, the back of the body erect towards the sky and mandibles shredded the prey, sheared and hooked the toddler sprawled in the grass.
The mother thought she heard a suspicious flow of water, the curious sound of a broken gutter. His house of white beams was located at the bottom of a snowy pass. She called the child, and went to find him. Bypassing the west wing, she found herself face to face with the beast, which rotated its neck in an automatic movement. She let out a cry of horror: Son! answered in the distance, a rooster. The creature spread its crab legs and threw itself on the woman, grabbed her by the shoulder and, like a scissor, cut off her arm.
It was the first time in this country that a monster was detected.
Introducing the heroes.
Two kilometers from the carnage, a freestone residence is planted as a refuge, the curtains are drawn on large bay windows overlooking a pond. The light sprinkles the shiny stones which seem to sweat. The door of the house is open, the air circulates in the rooms and refreshes three occupants who are lying on the ground discussing how to occupy their afternoon.
Among them is a young girl in a navy blue skirt. She is wearing patent shoes and pink socks, and a dapper yellow T-shirt with Vitamin C written on it.
She has round metallic turquoise eyes, her cheekbones are firm and pointed, and the crescent-moon mouth reveals white teeth, lined up like the bricks of a wall. She is lying on her stomach with her head in her hands and looking ahead of her, an insect struggling in a spider's web.
The other two characters are teenagers, the first is wearing jeans and sports shoes type basket, with a whirlwind logo, he is lying on his side and his head touches the ground, he has a very colorful shirt with geometric and asymmetrical stained glass designs where reds, blacks and oranges dominate.
The second boy is stretched out on his back, chewing on a straw stuck in a bottle of bubble syrup that he has just finished. He seems to be seriously bored.
He says addressing the young girl:
- Hey, Kokuri, my shaman powers are wasting away in this land without waves.
- I know, I know, Puppisar, but I don't know what to do. She replies after sitting in a lotus position on the couch.
- We should get back to training and put on our combat gear. Said the second young man, whose name is Untaï.
- Yeah.
Kokuri takes off her t-shirt which she negligently throws on the floor, she unzips her skirt and walks around in panties. Her breasts are the size of melon in May, they have the consistency of Chasselas grapes. The two boys have gone bare-chested and are beginning to put on their special jumpsuits.
Kokuri takes his equipment from a drawer, a tight-fitting green miniskirt and a sticky mini-blouse with blue stripes, grayed out with streaks. She has some difficulty getting her head through and the rubbery blouse is tearing her hair out. Once put on, the garment presses against the body without letting any air bubbles through, it has the fault of flattening the chest, because it is really super tight.
She makes warm-up movements, raises her head high leg, sends punches to the void, then grabs under the bed his pair of boots which go up to mid-calf. On contact with the skin, the boots retracted to hug the lines of the hocks.
- These thermo-formed boots are excellent. She says before going out in a pirouette which makes the two boys exclaim.
Outside, she nervously hangs around in the field of poppies which stretches out in front of the house.
Untaï follows her, he is wearing a streamlined helmet, and a gun in the belt. He stretches under the sun and joins her in the field. Puppisar appears in his turn in his red and white jumpsuit, he has damp hair, full of locks and triangles.
They begin training among the culvert flowers. Untai, hands clasped in greeting, launches into pike jumps and athletic spins. Puppisar performs relaxed movements on one foot, one leg bent under the buttocks like a heron, he keeps his arms in airplane wings to maintain balance. Kokuri does a handstand, his face in the rods.
The sky is plain pale blue.
After an hour, sweaty, with sticky faces, they stop the exercise. Now, a more formidable task awaits them: to find out who they are and save the world.
Kokuri is in her bath, her spread legs touching the edges of the tub, and the water is rising up to her knees which form islands. The alveoli of the breasts, two mauve circles with hard nipples, draw brown floats above the water. Her hair is tied in a red bow. She reads a video game magazine. She is small and round, her child-sized body is formed. Her navel is wide and hollowed out like a gash, her vulva is shaved and the two valves are spaced out by a coral-colored line.
Lying in the bathtub which is right at her waist, she reads and kicks her legs to provoke swirls that crash against his chin.
- Yes. she said, addressing the large white tiles in the bathroom. This game looks really good! I have to buy it!
Another young woman has pushed open the door, the bath towel on the hook is spinning.
- It's fine, I'm coming. Each in turn. I have the right to bask. Said Kokuri.
The girl who just entered is named Sunshi, she is the same height and weight as Kokuri. They resemble each other in the conformation of the eyes and even in the silhouette, but Sunshi has stronger shoulders, more milky breasts and calves of a cyclist. Her hair is cut in a bob with a braid in the back. She is superb.
- Still to dabble! Hurry up, the master wants to see us. Said Sunshi.
- I'm almost done. What does he want?
- He has a mission for us, he called it Operation Initiation.
- Let him wait. Getting out of the bath too quickly is very dangerous. You can die of it.
- For two months, I have been preparing for today's ceremony. Answer Sunshi. I don't want to be late. Hurry up, little sea lion.
- Ok. Said Kokuri turning off the hot water. Just five minutes.
She finally gets out of the bath, and wipes herself. Drops as big as gravel smooth her hips.
- How do you find the master? Have you ever had bad thoughts about him? She asks.
- You're not well! You speak of our master! Taking a bath made you crazy.
- Come on admit that you love her.
Sunshi raises her finger to her temple and grimaces.
- I'd rather wait for you outside if it's to hear nonsense. I'll give you two minutes to calm down.
Kokuri is finally ready. The two girls have received an order, they must find Master Ichi, who is their teacher and their spiritual guide, at the church. From him they learn tricks of the mind, challenges of consciousness, and telekinesis. They had been waiting for this moment for several months.
The church is a wooden building, with a very simple platform that juts out onto the street. The porch is supported by buttresses. Opposite is a saloon, filled with men in leather hats, in sagging jackets that smell of cow's muzzle, and whose eyes are seized up. Over there, the days are counted, in decilitres and not in hours.
The interior of the church is uncluttered, benches painted white are lined up, each seat has its cushion and a particular crest to help the people to identify with the rite. The altar looks like an arch, it opens like a sideboard and contains offerings, it is covered with an embroidered fabric where you can see canoes, fish, stars and shells. Behind, a red stage curtain descends from the ceiling. And behind it again is the celebrant's secret lodge. Niches have been dug along the walls, they contain ex-votos, flowers, plaster statues, often casts, sometimes handmade earthenware.
The two girls enter the bar, that's where they have a meeting. To wait, they decide to have a drink at the counter. Their eccentric outfits make men wink, some lose at cards because of them, others become dreamers and believe they are falling in love.
- We have ten minutes left. Said Kokuri to reassure herself in this virile atmosphere.
She makes the effort to speak to give herself a countenance. She feels intimidated, although she has no reason to be.
- We should have changed at the last moment. It hurts her, these clothes in this lost hole...
A man with a mustache next to them is reading a newspaper which is made up only of images and headlines. On the cover, we see a giant praying mantis, next to it is drawn to scale an adult of six feet tall, a plum tree and a two-story house. The mantis is the size of the tree.
The man is drinking a yellowish beer, he is unshaven, and hair is covering his neck, he has a thin fluffy collar on his chin. His sparse, thick, pubescent mustache is vaguely ridiculous, it is wet with beer. He smokes a long cigarette that smells of wood and releases thick yellow smoke that flies like suspended lakes.
- Hello girls, how are you? Said the man who put down his newspaper and approached.
- Don't answer. He's a drunkard. Sunshi confides in her friend's ear.
- It's me, Master Ichi. Said the man who leaned close to Kokuri's neck who felt warm breath making her shiver with disgust.
The two girls turned around with the same gesture, in a double parallel movement. Their faces express surprise and a youthful anger ready to burst. Kokuri's eyes split into almonds and their edges straightened as a flame sparkled in the iris.
- Watch what you say, my little sir, I'll give you a correction!
- I am Master Ichi, I tell you. Come on. I decided to change my appearance to come to the bar. I couldn't come here, with my classic physique.
Kokuri makes a surprised schoolgirl pout, she hesitates to identify in the pale beer drinker with the greasy mustache, the master she venerates. Yet in the tone of voice and certain lines of the forehead, she believes she recognizes the characteristic attributes of the master. She feels a curious aura hovering around the stranger who speaks to her. Despite the rather ugly face, she thinks of the tip of an iceberg, and imposes on her mind the eccentric idea that the face she observes conceals another face. The feeling is still confused, but persistent. Sunshi is taken aback, she thinks and her intuition tells her that the man is not lying.
- It's him! Said Sunshi in a satori. Ah! What joke ! So you, master! You are terrible!
- I expected to be spotted sooner. I'm disappointed that a degraded appearance prevents you from seeing the aura. You are still blind.
- Excuse us. Did we fail the test? Said Kokuri whose features froze in surprise like modeling paw.
- Don't worry, it wasn't a test. (He sighs) Did you enter the church? Ichi asks.
- Yes.
- Did you find the moose?
- Moose. What momentum?
- Mystical momentum! His head is hung behind the curtain, it serves as a relay and transmitter for the other world. I'll go with you.
- Why did Master Ichi choose this appearance, um, rather unaesthetic?
- It's that of a guy very popular in the United States that I saw on t -shirts.
Zzzzaaoouummm BBBBaaaaannnnnnnnggggg
A plane in the sky just broke the sound barrier, the sound burst behind it like a parachute.
VVVVVVVrrrrrooooooooommmmmmmmm
The master has pushed back the curtain, the head of the elk shines in the tiny sanctuary, it is surrounded by a clear halo that makes it a necklace of luminous, mossy and undulating flowers. Kokuri shrugs, she giggles at the comical look of the stuffed animal.
- Don't laugh. Here is the passage to the initiatory world of the parallel dimension. You're facing the portal. Well, I know, it doesn't look like anything. Go ahead and touch its muzzle.
The moose's mouth seems to be charged with static electricity, it is covered with luminous rootlets which dance like fireflies.
- You are sure that it is there no danger? This mystical beast scares me.
- You have nothing to fear. Be rested and serene. Touch the moose's antlers, to be transported to the pyramid where your initiation must take place. Says Master Ichi who draws puffs of thick gray smoke from a ceramic pipe decorated with X-ray patterns.
Sunshi puts her hands on Kokuri's sweaty shoulders, she gently encourages him.
-Mass- me a little neck, please, it relaxes me.
She kneads the flesh around the salt shakers, pushes the thumbs into the hollows, the weeds of the fingers.
- I am no longer afraid. Said Kokuri, reassured by the warmth of the contact, who now feels ready to cross the dimensional door.
She nods her head like one about to take a dip in a glass of water, jumps in place by leaps like a kid, approaches the moose, touches it with the full hand.
An explosion like a sneeze from Z began to whistle and Kokuri instantly finds himself at the center of a kaleidoscope of colors that infuse each other into each other. In a second, she disappeared.
All that remains of her presence in the sanctuary is a smell of incense and Armenian paper that Master Ichi inhales to appreciate.
- She smells very good, this small. She is adorable. Go join her now, it's up to you to make the trip.
Sunshi puts her fingers close to the elk, after a second of hesitation she turns to the master who is sitting on the ground and smokes his pipe . She waits for a gesture of encouragement that does not come, then displeased, she roughly grabs the antlers. Immediately, it is surrounded by a pink cloud where blue snowflakes gravitate.
It vanished. A perfume of caramel floats. Master Ichi breathes and sniffles.
- There is a faint whiff of leather and coffee. She is delicious. I've never had better students.
Half the journal is devoted to the giant praying mantis. Witnesses claim to have seen the insect, a man regrets that his wife is dead, another launches a search warrant to find his missing son in an unsanitary neighborhood. He pretends to believe that the monster is responsible for the disappearance of his son who is sleeping in an alley, after having unsuccessfully tried to return home by bicycle, without having managed to hold on to his saddle.
Scientists are wondering about the nature of the monster, artists offer sketches. An animated photo shows a lawn mowed like a golf course, in the center of the traces of paws digging in the earth.
Master Ichi went back to the bar, read the latest articles, he orders a drink that drives you crazy, called the drink “Test and which makes those who lack mental resistance lose consciousness. The sun is stopped in the window frame, it looks like a big lemon pie. Master Ichi is shaken by the Test drink, despite his knowledge, his sapience, his science, his wisdom, this supersaturated alcohol hits his temples and he has to fight. tongue and descends safely from the stool. He still managed to finish his drink without falling. In the country, they are a hundred to be able.
Initiates.
Kokuri is caught in a whirlwind of fresh wind which, by its force of rotation, draws around her like the spiral of a shell. She feels the air coil, harden under the speed and form a protective bug, then she is propelled forward, into an infinite white square. She closes her eyes and has the sensation of being weightless, of standing in space, of swimming carried by a current, of planking, of dreaming.
The journey ends and she is ejected from the bubble. She's lying on the ground, on top of a tiered pyramid, but she doesn't know it yet. She feels the touch of the hot stone on her back.
She makes the effort to get up, but her muscles are stiff, she has a cramp, Ouch! Ouch! She can only turn her neck. She feels fragile. Gradually, she bends her elbows and straightens her chest forward. Her penis stings and itches.
The top of the pyramid is surmounted by a canopy. Remarkable labyrinthine inlays of characters drawn in single file in a single continuous line cover the top floor. A man in a seated position is carved at the top of the steps, he has his hands crossed on his stomach and wears a crown which winds on his forehead. Near him are two dogs with prickly coats and beaks. One looks to the right towards the ponant, the other has his eyes raised towards a bird with implausible plumage.
The roof is engraved according to processes that defy logic, but which a thorough study makes it possible to understand. The ornaments recall the mandalas which are cosmic figurations of the universal order. Many imaginary animals are depicted as in the margins of ancient Bibles, dragon slugs, fish with legs, rabbits with shields, donkeys with glasses, roosters that lay cubes.
Kokuri blinks in astonishment .
- How itchy! Cow ! Damn!
She has just heard the sound of breathing, hair appears at the top of the stairs, hair similar to hers, then a forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, similar to hers, finally it is a woman's entire body that is visible. She is facing her double as before a mirror. This exact copy, ersatz or doppelganger, has just passed the last step and approaches without a word. Kokuri protects herself from the hands, she has regained a tenth of her freedom of movement, she gropes on the ground, tries to recover. The double comes to meet him and kisses him on the cheek, then slides his hand over the breasts, which he fondles.
Kokuri is stunned. What is this crazy story? Another pervert thing! She thinks, very angry. The double has sat on her legs, and looks at her sideways.
- What a curious experience to be kissed by yourself. It's pretty nice, but I don't have to do that. Think our heroine who has recovered her strength.
The double has bent over, he lifts the elastic of the jumpsuit and flattens the plump belly. It's starting to get awkward. It's at this dramatic high-intensity moment that Sunshi in a BAMZAM red flash is teleported onto the pyramid. Yeahhh! So cool!
Her hair is disheveled, her bob cut is rather bowl cut, and she lands with a sharp blow on the stone but she does not fall on her back and stronger than her colleague, gets up immediately, dumbfounded by the scene where she has just made her entrance. Kokuri has a big smug smile, and her tongue sticking out of her mouth, tries to scream. The double is not disturbed by Sunshi's irruption, and quiet, he tries to lower Kokuri's panties, whose eyes become huge. He holds the left hip brace tightly, he pulls and giggles stupidly.
- To the shake....
Sunshi, have no hesitation, she has to save her friend from the horrible terrible dreadful danger. She throws herself on the double, grabs him, pinches him, pulls his hair, bites him, claws him, harasses him. The double squeals and struggles, Kokuri stuffs his ribs with soft punches and his back is slapped. It pitches without reaction. He is in a very awkward position, mobbed and molested.
- Stop! he shouts. You are going to make me cry. You are hurting me at the end.
The two girls do not flinch and continue to drum their enemy who begs for mercy.
- Please! I can't defend myself. Stop. You won.
- What's your name? Answer and I'll set you free! Said Sunshi without releasing the pressure and ready to elbow.
- I'm the Mochoï Pichu. Says the double whose voice changes.
Sunshi moves her torso and steps back, she holds one of the double's arms in a key. Kokuri rolls over like a caterpillar and goes to sit cross-legged.
- Look! It transforms!
The Mochoï Pichu has covered itself with hair,his face lengthened, his back arched, and his hands closed. Pads appear. He stands on all fours, and shrinks in size. A horn pierces its muzzle and grows like a plant, the ears go back to the top of the head. The eyes have narrowed and a tail has grown out of it.
Appears around the double a colored pencil hatched pink light - Ring Tshaw Onyx Zam Opal - which expands and compresses. The cloud masks the final stages of Mochoï Pichu's body modification, which surrounded by pastel mist yelps. He has become a coyote. He has moist nostrils, his yellow canines protrude from the brown, drooling flesh of his cheeks, his tail throbs in the air. Except for the rhinoceros horn that ends the muzzle, the feather duster tail that recalls that of the squirrel, the animal that yelps standing on its four legs is from the Canis latrans family and more specifically from the Coyotl Aztecis Errabunda subgroup.
Sunshi gasps, his heart beats, his senses are on alert. Kokuri remains with her legs bent, the victory against the Mochoï Pichu seems to have blossomed her, she tastes the epic moment, the sweet flavor of success, the happiness of having triumphed restores sap to her limbs, the blood flow of life irrigates his weary body.
WOUUU WOUUUUWWOOUUU Howls the animal that lives between the girls like a pet dog. Finally, he speaks in perfect French with a pointed accent:
- I belong to you. I am your ally. Treat me right, and I'll follow you. Now let's go back down.
At the bottom of the pyramid stretches a sandy desert area, where two garden chairs, more precisely deckchairs, are deployed. Master Ichi and his companion, the charming Mio Otori Kanuki, known as the mischievous, are comfortably installed there. The sand is wrinkled by a wind that ruffles rare thin bushes, it meanders along the dunes. Ichi smokes, he wears a red T-shirt with the letter S written in capitals. He has his navel in the air, his belt is unhooked. Mio Kanuki is slumped in her chair, her shoulders low and her head bowed, her eyes the color of a mountain stream, light blue with mouse-gray flashes. She thinks of nothing, which is very complicated when, like her, you are awake.
- Look! It's not true ! The slacker! Sunshi exclaims, coming down the stairs following the Mochoï Pichu, who frolics, barks and hops.
- What a bastard all the same. Replica Kokuri who has just seen in the blurred golden yellow distance burned with rays, the erased silhouettes of Ichi and his concubine.
- We do everything! He will hear me! The trickster!
Slowly, grumbling, holding hands to help each other, they descend the grand staircase. They seem to forget that the ordeal was easy, and that they acquired a fabulous animal, destined to become their totem.
- Ah, I see that! Let's relax!
Kokuri stammers, her anger is so childish, so mischievous and pointless, that words don't come to her, she screams to let off steam, repeats herself, insists. She uses onomatopoeia to express herself. Sunshi drops to the sand, she goes on strike in rage, and refuses to move.
- You have been up to it. Master Ichi said. Approach. You have been impeccable.
The compliment comforts them, and defuses the conflict. They come to sit down, while the Mochoï Pichu sniffs Mio Otori Kanuki, scratches the ground, noses in search of jerboas. Kokuri buries his left leg, under grains that his hand disperses in an hourglass.
- You will have to use the pyramid to reach your awareness of the doubles and seal the pact. Mio will accompany you to watch over you. She is initiated and will assist you. Did you know what a Mochoï Pichu was?
- No. Answer the girls.
- His transformations vary depending on the opponent. Once defeated, he takes on the appearance of his enemies' totem animal. For you it was the coyote.
The sand drips on Kokuri's thigh and forms a nipple. A bird in a cactus sings a mambo, or maybe a rumba. His song punctuates Master Ichi's speech, and is heard louder during breaks. The sand dunes seem arranged with symmetry like fractals, their locations seem to have been thought out and subjected to mathematical laws of harmony. It is a reconstituted desert, the arrangement of the trees is logical, and ordered according to the number pi.
- When the sun is lowered, its center is aligned with the eye of the pyramid, the second stage of your journey will begin. adventure. Mio will be in direct line with the eye, Kokuri will be on the left, Sunshi will be on the right. Now silence. Let's listen to nature.
The two girls remain motionless. They wait confidently for the hours to come. From the back, they look like chubby little statues.
Master Ichi has taken out a book, he is reading and slowly turning the pages. He tastes the subtleties of the language, like a wine connoisseur details the components of a Bordeaux. He savors twists nested in ideas, he rediscovers the particular flavor that emerges from what has been written by intelligence. It recognizes the familiar and always new place of the SPIRIT.
- When you return to the world, you will be assailed by subterranean desires, like those of dreams. To dominate them, you will have to remain neutral there. Said Master Ichi.
The sun is high, the wait at its zenith is prolonged.
- Another quarter of an hour.
The solar disk has advanced towards the roof, rays flirt and crop the engravings, they shine, sparkle with diamond reflections.
- It's time. Climb the pyramid.
The three girls climb the steps one by one, panting and smiling. They take positions and anxiously wait for the moment to come for their ascension. The sun places its first arrow of light in the eye of the pyramid, then it fills the heart of the target. Yellow lightning flashes.
PACCCMCCCANN PC MAANNNNN
Mio Otori Kanuki is struck by the resplendent spring, she is stunned, she flames. It melts and flagellates. Ecstasy.
- I'm coming, I'm here. She thinks indistinctly.
The sun has passed through her, warm like a dripping light bulb of energy. She is electrified.
Her eyes are disproportionately wide and although blind, she looks into the furnace.
- Calm, calm. I am.
- This is wonderful.
YEAH
The quest of the two boys.
Meanwhile in another dimension, thousands of miles away, the two boys are bored. They are alone in the big house. Untai is reading a dog-eared old newspaper that is missing pages that were used to wrap fish. Puppisar bites into a chocolate bar, caramel, nougat, roasted peanuts. A computer is humming in the room, the screen saver has triggered, revealing spaceships inspired by Renaissance paintings.
- What are we pissing off! Said Untaï to Puppisar who approves.
- 72 hours left. How long.
- I suggest you break the instructions and go kill the giant insect.
- Yes. Answers Puppisar who puts a finger in his mouth to clean his molars.
- Let's go, otherwise nothing will happen.
Puppisar is squatting like a frog, his hands dangling on his legs.
- According to the information, the insect lives in the mountains, it has a burrow in the heights.
- I didn't know you could read.
- I'm buying the talking newspaper.
They have equipped themselves to withstand low temperatures. They set off on foot across the field, with sacks of provisions. After half a day's walk, they reach a sign that marks the border with the cold lands. On the sign is written: Beyond this limit, the void and the ice begin. Attention, the fauna is hostile.
At the marker under the indication, a note is scribbled: Attention! It's the end of naked women. Remember to take rations.
- Are we going anyway?
The mountain raises its peak in front of them, it is only pure white and fir trees. The snow starts from the first meters. Their boots are wet. Untaï is in charge of the mapping, but since they don't know where they are going, he always points up. His wine-colored tongue smokes. The icy winter spreads its fluffy white mantle (sic), its crust of salt, its immaculate ivory sheet (resic), the black hanging that Anaxagoras saw (?), its dazzling cotton (bis sic).
Puppisar takes a thermometer out of his reinforced jacket and sticks it in the ground.
- Minus five.
Untaï curled up and pulled his jacket down to his ankles, like a poncho. The snow crackles and his feet are taken as in a pedestal, they are molded in the soft cement of the crystals.
- You know the story of the boy who slept with all the girls, without caring about their social class or of their beauty but for one evening only? Said Puppisar.
- No.
- He claimed to be a benefactor of humanity, and said he preferred ugly girls, because he said that they alone are shy and abandon themselves without a second thought.< br>- He's a friend of yours?
- Bah, he's a legend.
As they discuss the possible veracity of this amazing story, a lynx crosses their path. It arrived without a rustle, soft and liquid. His pointed, speckled ears quiver. Furtive, he stops, nervous, he inspects. Untai has put his hand to his side, he is holding his pistol by the butt. Puppisar is preparing to fight if necessary, he has taken the electrified staff from his bag and activated the total shield of his suit. Thus protected, he is almost invincible and only a shell could pierce the force field that surrounds him.
- I don't want to kill. He said.
- Same.
- Come on, go big cat.
The lynx isn't hungry, he doesn't care to attack. He passes with contempt, and goes away under the conifers.
The mist has just risen, it creates an opaque curtain like a cloud on the ground. The snow is pearly, depending on the slopes and layers of frost, it glistens or dulls.
- I feel like I'm walking through sugar or crushed straw.
The icy air hisses powdery at the ground level. Thermal suits are powerless to protect faces, the cold grips their temples. They walk in the crunchy layer. The temperature seems to decrease with the hours. Their necks tucked into their shoulders and puffing, they move forward with their heads bowed. It is a kind of pain, a shrinkage that crystallizes, their stiff bodies lose the faculty of feeling, the senses atrophy, the thought wears out and freezes.
- I am like a block of wood and at the same time, I feel fragile. Said Untaï, who articulates with difficulty words that go up in smoke.
He shivers and is hunched over, his arms grouped around his body so as not to lose heat.
- Can't wait for the pain to stop. Said Untai. I'm tired of freezing myself.
- And me, my blood turns into little curds. Screw it!
- Yes, you're right. Fuck, shit ass and shit to this badly made world.
- Moniche of cow, fuck of female dog and pine that shits. Puppisar replica. Granny panties and hairy girlfriend. Mierda!
Untai doesn't answer, there's no point in going any further. Now he has a massive snail-like migraine that sucks the right wing of his brain. He repeats musical tunes he has never heard, he invents lullabies to keep himself company. Walking in the biting cold is dizzying, the nearest trees appearing as a trompe l'oeil on his tired retina.
Despite the weather conditions and the violent wind, a few crows croak, like mocking spectators. Installed in the branches, they sing their cynical songs, wave their wings and shake the trees as they take flight.
- Finally! Here is the cottage. Here we are. Says Untaï, who sees a hundred meters away the packed mass of a dwelling.
He shakes himself like a horse, pushes the door and goes to slump on a bench, without noticing that the kitchen table is engraved with hieroglyphs which are changing. Similarly, closing his eyes for a few seconds, he does not see above the fireplace, the polished skull of a human being, framed by two candles.
Puppisar picks up logs, soaks them in gasoline so as not to waste time, and throw a match into the hearth. A good fire blazes immediately in a large flame that starts out green then turns blue before turning pink and glowing red.
Untaï has leaned against the wall, his cheeks warm up and his flesh softens. He does not want to make the slightest gesture, he dozes without will. He hears a bubbling of steam and then it's silence again. His consciousness has stalled, he indulges in the pleasure of feeling the bodily sensations return. His head is reeling, images swirl around in his mind, diluting fatigue. Sleep embraces him and smokes him.
Puppisar has grabbed a book lying around, his feet on the table, he is examining it. Exhaustion makes him want to laugh for no reason. For a moment, he looks up and smiles as if at a dead acquaintance. He greets her with a nod of his chin.
NNNIIIRRRVVV AAANNNAAA-
A slit of light coming down from the roof, slashes Untaï's face, which snores slightly. He dreams, the heat of the fire disperses in the room, the flames throw their tongues on the wood. A few sparks shatter the fir branches.
Puppisar reads without understanding, the words add up in sentences whose total is inexplicable, fatigue breaks the links, the paragraphs lose their sequences, he reads the same terms three times, without being able to fix them. He is possessed by fatigue. The book is labyrinthine, the commas are corridors, the adjectives are bifurcations, and it only reaches the point after getting lost on the way.
Too bad. He then takes a sonar out of his bag, places it on the table, and unfolds the antenna. The instrument works as an alarm, and captures movements around the chalet. If a mass were to pass within a perimeter of 150 meters, the sonar would sound a long BEEP. The light off, he lies down on a mattress. Blue cap, blue cap he thinks, then he falls asleep.
After ten hours of sleep, it is still day, night has refused to fall.
- The praying mantis cannot survive more than an hour in the dark, his body like that of a plant only survives under the action of light, by photosynthesis. This is why it has found its natural habitat here. Said Puppisar.
- Quickly, let's smack him and we can go back and drink some champagne.
- According to my calculations, if we go up again and then turn right,we will discover a geyser. In all likelihood, his burrow must be close to a heat source.
- You know I admire you!
- Let's eat before leaving and leave a record of our passage.
Puppisar walks ahead, he advances attentively, anxious not to be caught off guard, not to lose the right path, his thermal compass flashes indicating the increase in temperature. The snow has started to melt, and areas of gray grass are appearing in holes. The vegetation turns green as you approach the geyser, it's like an oasis in the mountains.
- I really like this passage. Said Untai. Look, here's a plum tree that isn't dried up, it's bearing fruit.
- Hush!
- I'm going to go see if there are any that are ripe. Oh, but yes, you should come and see.
- Shut up. Hush!
- They're good, juicy and oily. You want me to bring you one to try.
- Shut up, damn it.
The wind is making the sound of bows.
In front of them, still hidden by the branches of a pine, the snow has just risen, the creature which was sleeping, has risen on its feet, disturbed by the conversation of the intruders. Its filiform abdomen straightens, the mandibles activate, with the noise of an oily sharpener. The front legs are at the height of the two gigantic scissors which maneuver in front of a tiny triangular head whose round eyes explore the world in facets. The insect has a surprised, stupid, sideways movement, as if making a bow. His coarse hearing prevents him from hearing the two boys who are silent and remain motionless.
The standing mantis, watching. The hind legs raise the body on stilts, it makes a rapid movement then suddenly runs in the direction of Puppisar and Untaï who cannot hold back a cry.
They see the insect arrive, in a kind of dance in not hunted , see him stumble awkwardly on a patch of ice, and get back on his feet, his paws wide open. Untai fires, and Puppisar rushes forward, shield activated, to plant the electric baton in the fleshy and viscous part of the belly. The laser beam fuses in a neon light, the shot like a sword slash tears the left side which sweats a yellow liquid. The mantis braked, the impact slowed it down, but it rushes at Puppisar and with a shear blow, sends him to the ground without him being able to touch her. Untai shoots. The beast's neck explodes and breaks like a giraffe's, the head falls suddenly, and the insect will crash into the snow on Puppisar who attacks it with a shock in a hind limb. The dripping insect, its neck cracked, has one last reflex stimuli. His paw is waving like a white flag, but he's dead, living only by reflex nerve endings. His beautiful green body festers with a dirty yellowish cream.
Puppisar tears off the stick, planted in his thigh and gets up.
- We're heroes, in a way, aren't we?
- The beast is dead.
- We could have found a cage for her.
The mission is over, all they have to do is go back down, after taking a mandible as a trophy.
- It's a success.
- Yes, my dear, it's a success.
