The Shaman: And other shadows by Alessandro Manzetti Read Free Book Online Page B

under the faded light, which now turns to purple. A monkey ? Ga-Gorib thinks. Then he focuses his gaze: The creature it's too big to be a monkey. It has a shiny grey skin, dotted with lighter spots, like the leopard's ones. Maybe those who live here, close to the Mount Meru, have this strange appearance. Monsters with stains.
    The creature approaches the two bruised bodies, that drip blood. He walks on all fours, then gets up on its hind legs. There’s a strange wail. The creature seems to speak to the mountain, asking permission for something. Now it looks like a fat man, deformed by a strange disease. The elongated head, a disproportionate mouth. Teeth, fangs, inside its mouth there is stuff that knows how to cut, slay. Ga-Gorib he's still watching the scene, breathing on his toes.
    The monster grabs the preys at the legs, dragging away the bodies. It leaves behind it a trail of blood, in place of its tail.
    One of the robbers is still alive and begins to squirm. His abdomen works hard to push himself up, to grab that mighty arm dragging him. But it's useless. The creature turns its head, for a moment, then resumes walking. It ignores the man's attempts to break free from its grip. The man, the prey, has a shining red mask. His skull is smashed by stones, just as his friend’s. The monster continues its path with great detachment, ignoring the screams. Maybe it doesn't have the ears, and he can't hear them.
    Ga-Gorib follows the creature keeping a safe distance. The Mount Meru stretches its neck, but now it isn't able to enjoy the scene. It decides to bring down the sun, now it doesn't know what to do with all that light. The night explodes in a few seconds, now it’s difficult to orientate in that place. The easterly direction, the thin lips of the edge of the forest. The house of the monster, his herd, must be there. The creature stops, right in the open field, just before disappearing among the green columns. It folds to the ground, moving leaves and roots, digging inside something. A circle, a pit, a dark spot that pierces the yellow soil. Then it throws the men into the pit, with a motion similar to a whip of muscles, from right to left. It looks like a deep hole. The pain is now underground, and will last for a long time. Something bites the bones. Ga-Gorib runs away before the monster finishes the flesh.
    Darkness everywhere. The Mount Meru has disappeared. It took off in a few seconds like a rocket. Ga-Gorib wants to go back to the plateau, to look for his mother. Chicka has taught him the way of the stars, those perfect roads, the compasses and the geometry of light.
    His skinny legs tremble from exhaustion, but Ga-Gorib doesn't stop. His father would have done the same. Maybe he is watching him, from somewhere. He imagines his father sitting on the top of the mountain, while he is enjoying a tamarind juice or some Konyagi, if he was brought among the righteous, after his death.
    Ga-Gorib has been walking for a long time, riding the ground, but now the sharp stones don't cut his feet anymore. He slows the pace, sees a white body amongst the volcanic stones. A black face, fragments of purple cotton. It is her: Chicka. He has found the right way, the shortest one, cutting the entire clearing. He approaches: she has no longer a face. The moths come in and out from her empty eye sockets. Chicka has the smile of a horrid black hole, and a root pushed between her thighs. Smashed  margins, smell of urine, mixed with the honey of death.
    A line, clean from the leaves, is engraved in the ground and is surrounding the body of Chicka. It's a perfect circle, the train of the Black Reaper dress.
    Ga-Gorib is not crying, he doesn't despair. He sits next to Chicka, kisses her hand, right where the ring is missing. The one is now floating in the monster's stomach, along with pieces of men and the rest of the loot. Ga-Gorib throws a last look at the stars, if they have something to say. He addresses to the black sky without