Suddenly he felt a sudden temperature change; he saw fire sprouting everywhere around the stone, huge flames climbed onto the roof of the cave, very loudly. The entire gallery was completely illuminated; Night Eagle was not frightened and on the contrary, he just carefully observed the walls and the roof of the vault. The fire became more violent and headed threatening towards him. The young man had found the center, the equilibrium point.
Something told him that this stone was the navel of the world. He knew that towards his head was the sky; towards his legs the earth; to his right side was the known world known and to his left the unknown world; that in the center of earth, from his navel, consciousness was exalted towards the prodigious and immeasurable of the sacred heights of the spirit, but also, if balance was lost, could fall into the degraded hell of stupidity and the despicable existential soul destruction. Night Eagle had ceased to be him; he now was part of the ancient stone. He was only a witness without feelings and judgments. In an instant the fire disappeared, the huge gallery was again in complete darkness and silence.
Time went by; rather, time ceased to exist. Night Eagle was there, immutable and perfect, as a piece of stone that had been there millions of years, and without any problem, could be there many more, as it was only a stone.
It was then that the four men came for him. They found him lying and motionless, on the stone. More than a corpse, he seemed a perfect sculpture, sculpted by his inflexible will on the same stone. When he left the cave it was night. The sky was completely full of stars and moonless. Night Eagle never in his life had felt heaven vault this way. The Milky Way was a river of bright stars, as if welcoming him. Fire snake and Night Eagle spent five days more in the city of the dead, because the boy had to recover from the consequences suffered in his Florid Battle.
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