"David and Leigh Eddings - [Dreamers 04] - The Younger Gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

useful. There were creatures without legs that had long, sharp teeth that could
instantly kill anything the creature without legs saw as something-to-eat. There
were other creatures who had eight legs rather than six who could turn the
insides of things-to-eat into liquid that the eight-legged creature could
conveniently drink. There were creatures with hard shells that covered and
protected their bodies, and there were still other creatures with hard, sharp
mouth-parts that could cut pieces off the thing that was being eaten.
The more dear Mother considered it, the more she thought that the teeth of the
creature that had no legs might be the most effective.
Then, in seasons beyond counting, Mother put generation after generation to work
on the high hills that stood between our nest and the land of the sunset. There
were burrows that would safely take Mother's children beyond the peaks of the
high hills, and there were many flat stones piled on the slope of the high hill
that appeared to have once been nests of the man-things, and it seemed that the
empty nests might be useful to deceive the man-things.
In time, all was complete, and Mother waited as the elder divinities grew older
and less responsive. Then, in the springtime of this present year, all was
ready, and Mother commanded the children to attack the man-things clustered near
the top of that particular high hill.
And great was the consternation of the man-things when the servants of our
mother crossed the empty ground to attack the pile of rocks the man-things had
gathered at the top of that high hill. But the man-things knew not that most of
the servants of dear Mother were creeping through burrows that went beneath that
high hill to come out in various rock-piles lying on the sunset side of the high
hills.
And Mother rejoiced, for victory was now in her grasp.
But it was not to be, for disaster came down on the servants in the burrows. Two
of the high hills did most suddenly burst into flame, hurling liquid fire high
into the spring sky. It was not the liquid fire in the sky that brought grief to
Mother, however. It was the liquid fire that ran down through the burrows that
made the servants of dear Mother vanish as if they had never been.
And when word of this reached Mother, she shrieked in agony, and all who lived
but to serve her shrieked as well, for our overmind was made less by this
disaster.
Now, the seekers of knowledge had spent much time over generations in the lands
of the man-things, and they had come to learn the way by which the man-things
used noises to communicate with each other. And many of the seekers of knowledge
had learned how to make the noises the man-things called "speech." And so it was
that when our beloved Mother decided that we should go down into the land of
longer summers where there was much to eat, the seekers went up the slope of the
high hills to gather information about the man-things of that region.
And while the seekers worked on this task, beloved Mother brought forth many new
forms for the warrior children. The new forms were well-designed to overcome the
many advantages the man-things appeared to have had in the land of the sunset.
And when the seekers returned, they were sorely discontented, for the man-things
had told them many things that were not true. In truth it would appear that the
man-things said more things that were not true than were truly true. The seekers
had discovered one thing that they felt to be most important, however. Although
that which ruled the land of longer summers was called Veltan, there was another
man-thing called Omago, who had far, far more power than did the one called