Rahan. Episode Seven. The country with the white skin. by Roger Lecureux. A Puke (TM) Comic.

Rahan.

Show more

Episode Seven.

The country with the white skin.

Rahan regained hope.
He would probably find on this unknown shore a cave to protect himself from the cold which, for many days had bruised his whole body.
Rahan should never have abandoned the lands of the sun!

The son of Crao had never known this terrible feeling in the face of the currents prevailing over the "great lake".

The perpetual bite of the wind gnawed at his face, his back and his chest.
"Those-who-walk-upright" need sun!
How could they live in a land where the air is colder than mountain torrents?

Page Two:

Rahan had only known the mild winters of the blue mountain and the idea had never occurred to him that the cold could slash the skin like a cutlass.
Rah!
So he howled with pleasure when he discovered the entrance to a cave.

Rahan will make fire!
Rahan will no longer feel his ears, and his fingers will become nimble again!

He rushed into the shadows and suddenly stopped.
The bear growling at the bottom of the cave was the biggest he had ever faced.

Rahan knows there is no place here for you and me!
So it will be you or me!
The ivory knife flew away.

And slipped on the thick coat.
His numb fingers had betrayed Rahan!
The knife was now lying behind the bear!

Page Three:

The animal approached growling and.
Ra-ha-ha!
This feint had often saved Rahan.

Once again it surprised the enemy who turned heavily, too late.
Rahan had already recovered his weapon.

And the son of fierce ages struck, struck at that place of the underside which he knew by experience that life was born.
Ra-ha-ha!

This quick fight had knocked out the cold.
But night was coming and he felt its terrible bite again.
There is no wood in the den of the “Baloua”!
Rahan cannot start a fire!

As the cold became unbearable he snuggled up against the corpse of the bear.
Tomorrow Rahan will burn the wood of his Raft!

Page Four:

He fell asleep against the still warm side of the beast, dreaming of the sun that had disappeared for so many days.

It was daylight when he returned to the lake.
His amazement was so great that he forgot the breeze that whipped at his shoulders.
Oh!

The strangest spectacle presented itself to him.
The water of the lake had disappeared to make way for a smooth white desert!
The “White thing” has captured Rahan's raft!

His skiff, indeed, was sealed in that "thing" which Rahan did not know was a slab of ice.
Rahan will free his raft!

Hesitating, he ventured on this translucent ground.
It was colder than the blue mountain springs in winter.
He took a small step.
And another.

Page Five:

He slipped suddenly, and his knife of ivory escaped him.

What followed was beyond his comprehension.
The cutlass that should have fallen near him was moving away, further, then further.

It stopped at last, more than thirty paces away!
Rahan has never seen his knife move on its own!

Warned by his first fall, Rahan became cautious.
It was on all fours, and very slowly that he crawled towards his precious knife.

This desert is the proof that this territory is not made for "Those who walk upright".
The son of Crao had just recovered his weapon.

Page Six:

When the ground suddenly cracks beneath him, like the earth in summer.
There was a crack and.
Ah!

The translucent crust slipped away from under him and the icy vice of the black waters closed on his hips.
The water! The water is under the white "Thing"!

Rahan understands!
When it's cold, the big lake protects itself with a "white skin"!
He had to use his knife to regain his footing on the ice.

A moment later he had reached his raft, but his efforts to free it were in vain.

And he had to content himself with the logs that had been spared from the ice, which he hoisted up the small hill.

Page Seven:

He was almost happy when he returned to the cave, carrying one of these logs.
Rahan will build another raft later.
What Rahan wants today is a fire!

He had not crossed the threshold of the cave when surprise made him drop his bundle.
Oh! The “Baloua”!

The bear's corpse was still lying in the dark, but the beast had been skinned.
Only "Those-who-walk-upright" can do this!

But why?
Why steal a bit of "Baloua" and abandon his body?
Rahan was perplexed.

Do the hunters of this country prefer the fleece of the "Baloua" to its flesh?
As the icy wind rushed through the cave.

Page Eight:

He rolled some rocks in front of the entrance as those of his horde used to do on stormy days.

Protected by this rampart he managed to light a fire.
Luckily Rahan knows how to use the “Stones-that-throw-sparks”.

Rahan has learned many, many things.
He knows how to float on water.
He knows how to throw his knife and make fish traps.

And yet Rahan feels like he knows nothing.
To know nothing! Every day he discovers a new mystery.
Oh!

Rahan jumped.
The "unknown" presented itself unambiguously to him, in the form of tiny white flies that flitted around the cave.
He caught one in flight.

Page Nine:

And the fly disappeared, leaving a droplet of water in the palm of his hand!
It is a white rain!

As the swarms of flies swirling in the dark sky seemed harmless Rahan dozed by the fire.

When he awoke the entrance to the cave let in a strange light in which the very vault of the cavern was reflected.
He rushed outside.

And he thought he was losing his mind.
The landscape he discovered was fantastic.

The lake-with-white-skin!
The white-skinned hills!
The white-skinned trees!

As far as he could see, everything was dazzlingly white.
The soil like the rocks, the hills like the forest.
Rahan has discovered the "Country-with-white-skin"!

Page Ten:

The son of Crao was seized by wonder, and he went a moment later, from surprise to surprise.
Oh! The white skin is soft!

He ran happily through the snow, stopping to shake a branch and cause snow to flutter.
Ah! Ha-ha!

The cave had disappeared behind the white thickets, and he suddenly stopped, confused.

The one who stole the skin of the ”Baloua” came here!
The traces were indeed those of "Those-who-walk-upright".

With his hand on his knife, Rahan went up this track.
Rahan wants to know why he stole the skin.

Page Eleven:

In the padded silence, the snow crunched gently under his feet, and he saw the entrance to a cave.

And his grand laugh suddenly thundered, rolling onto the great lake.
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
Rahan is stupid! Rahan has followed himself!

He had just understood that these traces which came from the cave could only be his.
Rahan went around in circles and he retraced his steps!
Ha-ha-ha!

He let himself fall on the soft ground, joyfully handling the snow.
Oh!
The white thing takes shapes when Rahan presses it, cups it.

A vision came back to his memory.
That of the "clan of the red lands", who knew how to create objects with a dough pulled from the ground.

Page Twelve:

A moment later he modeled a figurine of snow, as he had seen in certain hordes.
The "Mother of Mothers" will protect Rahan in sleep!

The sky darkened and Rahan had to quench his fire.
Rahan has never known a stranger land than the "White-Skinned-Land".

He fell asleep contemplating the "Mother of Mothers" standing on her stone pedestal.

Three things woke him up at the same time.
The day, the cold, and the noise rising outside the cave.

The fire went out during the night and the cold was unbearable.
It is a beast that made that noise!
Another “Baloua” looking for a den?

Page Thirteen:

Apprehending the intrusion of a new bear, Rahan rushed towards the rock where he had left his knife.
Ah!

The "Mother of mothers" had disappeared and the ivory cutlass, at the apex of the rock, was imprisoned in a block of ice.

Rahan could not have known that the statuette of snow, while melting had filled the stone basin with water, and that this water covering the weapon had frozen!

He almost screamed in amazement.
It was not a "Baloua" crawling towards the ashes of the fire, but a man like him!
A man dressed in a bearskin!

Page Fourteen:

Rahan recognizes this skin!
So that's what the men of the white-skinned country do with “Baloua” skins!

Rahan had not comprehended why the man had seized an extinguished ember from the ashes and fled.

Like many of "Those-who-walk-upright" he does not know how to produce fire and he venerates it!

Rahan will reveal to you the secret of the fire if you give him back the skin of the “Baloua”!
But the fugitive was already too far away to hear Rahan.

He ran in the snow with an ease that made the son of Crao see him disappear behind a hill.
It was Rahan who killed the "Baloua"!
The skin belongs to him!

Page Fifteen:

Rahan was warm when he fell asleep against the "Baloua"!
Rahan should have thought of cutting the skin to protect himself from the cold!

But Rahan didn't think about it!
Rahan is a fool!
The men of the "White-skinned country" know things that he does not know!

He had rushed towards the hill, following in the footsteps of the man.
He had noticed the weapon of this man.
Rahan will possess the skin of the "Baloua", even without his knife.

He had just climbed onto the white ridge, but the fugitive was already far away on the frozen lake.

The bindings that wrap his feet prevent him from slipping!
Rahan will never be able to catch up to him!
Oh!

Page Sixteen:

Rahan saw the trunks he had abandoned the day before on the hill.
An idea came to him.

Since Rahan's knife has slipped on the skin of the great lake, these logs will slide there too!

Ra-ha-ha!
An instant later, He pushed the logs down the snowy slope and jumped on this fragment of a raft.

Digging a furrow the trunks slid faster and faster on the slope towards the lake.
Ha-ha-ha!

Rahan goes faster than a bird!
Ha-ha!
Ra-ha-ha!
Schiff!
The son of Crao laughed in the foam of snow that froze his face.

Page Seventeen:

Changing the course of his "luge" with his hands and feet, he swooped straight down to the lake.

The white crust will perhaps break under the trunks as it cracked under Rahan!?

But Rahan's worry dissipated as soon as his improvised sled hit the ice.
The ice resisted.

At a mad pace the “luge” slid towards the fleeing man.
The naked man is a demon!

Ra-ha-ha!
You will return the property of Rahan!
He did not have time to jump aside.
He was mown down by the motion of the raft.

Page Eighteen:

The two men rolled on the ice.
Rahan's adversary clutched a large bone cutlass.

But he did not have time to pick it up.
Ah!

The fluttering cutlass whirled in the distance and came to rest in one of the immobilized logs.
Klong!

And Rahan slipped, and lost his equilibrium, and came to rest in front of his onrushing adversary!

A strange melee commenced, with the two intertwined men of equal strength.
But the ice made the fight difficult.

Page Nineteen:

They rose to fall down again, either together or one after the other.
Ha-ha-ha!
"The naked man" has very soft legs!

Strong enough to do this!
Vloop!
Argh!

Ha-ha-ha!
Ha-ha-ha!
Their laughter merges.
They understood the stupidity of this impossible fight.

If you want to know the secret of fire, give Rahan the skin of the "Baloua".
My horde has always hoped to know this secret.

Here Rahan! Take!
Trahar can quickly find another fur!
Trahar whose gaze was shining with joy, abandoned the warm fur.

Page Twenty:

Soon after Rahan was teaching him how to rub the "star-throwing-stones".
So Rahan knows everything!
Would Rahan be a god?

No, Trahar!
He didn't know how to protect himself from the cold like yours know!
How did he not know this!

As he brought the torch to the stone bowl, the ice melted, releasing the ivory knife.

Rahan has learned many things in the "White-skinned country".
But he doesn't like this country!

The son of Crao still learned many things from Trahar's horde and he taught them many things.
But the thick fur pleased him and he was in a hurry to find the sun.
That is why one morning, when the "Flies" of snow were flying, he left without regret this country where "Those-who-walk-standing" looked like "Balouas".

Show less