SHELTER

     

The howling ends as suddenly as it began. For a few moments the silence is deafening. Sawanni stops next to me, peering into the night woods. Dular and Amur join us, leaning on me from both sides.
     Sawanni turns to us, gun hanging from his arm, and asks in a conversational tone of voice: "So, what are we going to do now?" I am speechless: too many things are happening all at once. "Well, we could go and have a cup of tea!" - is the only thing that I can come up with!
     In my home's kitchen Sawanni and I sit at a table, warming our hands on earthen mugs of tea. I tell Sawanni, I have to explain things to him. If we are to cooperate in an attempt to save our people and the land, I need to be honest about the means by which we secured his and his unit's trust. At first, he is incredulous, then - paces the floor and runs out of the house. I don't know, if he will still be committed to the course he has chosen when he comes back. 
     I see him outside, sitting on a log with his head in his hands. Dular and Amur are looking at him through the bedroom window. He stares back at them in wonder for a long, long time.
         In the morning, he gathers his unit and tells them that their mission of destruction is off. In fact, all who agree to do so can help me and the boys to restore peace to the world. Then I explain  about the boys' special ability to not only elicit  good will but also - stimulate a person's sense of right and wrong. Amidst the soldiers' barrage of questions, I begin to see, they are awe-struck and a little scared, but determined to support us.
     I wonder, if the hidden tendencies of goodness and fairness, awoken in these rough men, would have asserted themselves even without the aid of science. 
     In the next two days we leave our sheltered life and the only place we have known since birth. The Evenks say good bye to us. After a long,  long trek, shadowed  by Midori and her pack of wolves (she, finally, found a family that accepted her), we go on a plane ride to Yekaterinburg - a town in what used to be the Ural Mountains. The command center of the army and the high ranking military officials, who sent Sawanni's unit to taiga, are there. It is time for us to meet them.



To be continued



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