Rahan. Episode 149. By Roger Lecureux. The Sun Snakes. A Puke(TM) Comic.

Translated by the Son of the Puke Ages.
Index:
https://rumble.com/v3486cm-rahan-index-of-episodes-by-roger-lecureux..html

Source of Rahan Comics:
Philippe Ropers.
https://vk.com/topic-203785966_47424128

Rahan.

The Son of the Ferocious Ages!

Episode One Hundred and Forty-Nine.

By Roger Lecureux, drawn by Romero.

The Sun Snakes.

In the silence of the forest, the wind played a macabre music through the skulls.
Their disturbing swaying seemed to warn the son of Crao.

Page Two.

The son of Crao was more intrigued than disturbed.
Oh!
Rahan was wrong!
The skulls were not cast as he had believed.

They were real skulls coated with a thin layer of gold!
Perhaps the hunters of this territory are thus honoring their ancestors!?

As the sun was setting, he set out in search of shelter.
Rahan will easily find this clan tomorrow, when the day returns.

For the day will return!

If the son of Crao smiled as he proclaimed this evidence.
It is because this evidence had not always been certain for him!

And he remembered certain nights of his wild childhood when he had feared that the sun would never rise again from its lair.

Page Three.

From that time he had retained a certain apprehension of the night.
From the top of the trees, Rahan will discover a cave or some kind of shelter.

Oh!
Coiled around the low branch he had just climbed onto, a huge boa was staring at him.

The petrified reptile looked like it had been cast in gold!
Rahan has nothing to fear from this “Boak”!

The hunters of this territory have some very curious customs!
What else will Rahan discover in this cave?

The son of Crao did not discover anything abnormal in this cave, except that it was intensely cold.

Women have been staying in this cave recently!
Why did they not light this pyre of dead wood?

Page Four.

They tried but did not succeed! Rahan might have more luck than them!
Rahan was already striking the “Stones that throw stars.

Sparks caught on the twigs and immediately went out.

Rahan struggled to stir up a dry tuft. A small flame finally rose.
Who slipped, crackling, between the branches of the pyre.
There is not a breath of air in this cave! "Females-who-walk-upright" cannot be ignorant of the "Wind-of-the-cheeks."

Ra-ha-ha!
The sudden flash of fire panicked a swarm of vampire bats who took refuge deep inside the cavern.

As long as the fire burns, the "Wampas" will not worry Rahan!

Page Five.

The son of Crao fell asleep near the fire, which, for want of being fed, soon went out.
The nightmare of that tragic night came to torment him once more.

He relived the terrible anger of the Blue Mountain vomiting its entrails and decimating all its people.

He relived Crao's agony, bequeathing him the necklace with five claws, each of which symbolized a quality.
Courage.
Loyalty.
Generosity,
Tenacity.
Wisdom.

It was not the cold of dawn that woke him, but the slithering of a reptile on his hip.
At the first gesture, Rahan will join the territory of shadows!

Rahan knew this species to be fearsome.
He held his breath as the snake, skirting the handle of the ivory knife, slid over his loins.

Page Six.

It drew away towards the entrance of the cave.
And that was when the son of Crao could not believe his eyes.
Flee from this snake! Its venom is deadly and.

The young woman, far from fleeing, rushed towards the reptile, protecting herself with a simple skin bag.
Strike! Strike! Lahaa is ready!

The snake relaxed and its fangs sunk into the "Shield" of skin. This was its one and only final attack.

Rahan's knife, skillfully thrown, had severed his head!
Ra-ha-ha!
Rahan's victory cry thundered through the cave.

Provoking the anger of the young huntress.
Who are you, man with the hair of fire?
Why did you violate the territory of the "Sun Serpents"?
Why did you behead the one I was going to capture?
Calm, Lahaa, calm! How can Rahan answer all your questions if you assail him with words like that!?

Page Seven.

Rahan wanted to save you.
I did not need your help!
The snake had spat its venom and was no longer dangerous!
I could have brought it back alive to my sisters!

I should kill you, "Fire-Hair"! Oh!
Slap!
Rahan deflected the blow with the flat of his hand.

He disarmed Lahaa.
The light hatchet was made from a hammered gold nugget.
So there are a lot of "Sun-stones" in your territory?!

Our valley is covered with them!
It is thanks to the "Sun Objects" that our clan can survive.
Euh!?
What are you talking about?

Lahaa-the-witless has already told you too many things, "Hair of fire!"
Follow us without resisting!

The women who had just emerged were brandishing spears or wielding bows like Lahaa's hatchet.
The tips of the arrows and spears were made of gold!
Page Eight.

The bags that these women carried over their shoulders proved that they were also snake hunters.
Lahaa was at your mercy, a moment ago! Why did you not kill her?

Rahan never steals the life of "Those-who-walk-upright"!
But Rahan hates it when his own is threatened!
The Arrows and spears with their golden tips glinting were lowered.

The women who were dragging the son of Crao away suddenly dispersed into the undergrowth.

Attention! The "Two-nose" is coming this way!

None of them cared any more about the “captive” who could have easily escaped.
Oh! Lahaa!

Stumbling against a root, Lahaa had just collapsed in the middle of the clearing.

The rhinoceros charged at Lahaa. His two large gold-covered horns made him an unreal monster.
The “Sunstones” are therefore used for everything in this territory!

Page Nine.

A few spears, bursting from the scabbards, landed on the Pachyderms' flanks.

Get down on the ground and do not move, Lahaa! Rahan is coming!
Lahaa threw herself on the ground, almost crushed by the monster carried along by its momentum.

The beast retraced its steps, sniffing at this body which, lying inert, no longer interested it.
I am afraid.
That.
That, he could, disembowel me with a single blow of his horn!

Ra-ha-ha!
You could choose an opponent of your measure, two-horned.

Letting out his battle cry, Rahan fell back astride the rhinoceros' spine.
Ra-ha-ha!
Ra-ha-ha!
Who scrambled to get rid of this unexpected burden. But Rahan clutched the golden horns and struck with his ivory cutlass.

Page Ten.

As the pachyderm slunk under cover, the son of Crao realized the danger too late.
Vlang!

The low branch had cut him down with such violence that he lay there unconscious.
He did not see the rhinoceros disappear.

Nor the huntresses come running!

"Fire Hair" tried twice to help me!
No matter Lahaa! He violated our territory. He must die!

When Rahan regained consciousness, he thought he had come out of one dream and plunged into another.
A golden totem sparkled near him.
From the top of an altar, also golden, a woman looked down on him.

Her diadem, a golden cobra, proved that she reigned over the clan.
Any foreigner who ventures into the territory of the "sunstones" deserves death!
See the fate we have reserved for those who came before you!

Page Eleven.

This. This is impossible!
From the village to the crest of the cliff, strange golden statues were lined up.

These hunters had ventured into our territory! You will meet the same fate as them!
A pack of women were already dragging the son of Crao away.

Who found himself hanging by the wrists above a curiously hollowed rock.

He could see the men of the Clan bustling about. Some were keeping a fire burning, others were pouring containers of gold nuggets into a hollow rock placed on the fire.
He called out to a man who was passing by.

Hello brother.
Rahan must understand why that it is "Females-who-walk-upright" who command your clan?
And where do all these "Sunstones" come from?

Page Twelve.

Our valley is full of these stones, "Fire-Hair"!
That is why we forbid access to them! As for women.
Do not misunderstand me!
We have always shared the tasks.
The men take care of the hardest tasks and our companions, more skillful, capture the snakes that the clan needs.
Why the serpents?

Because we live by barter and the "Sun Serpents" are very appreciated by hunters from other territories.

As the man, bent under his burden of nuggets, rejoined his people, the woman with the golden cobra appeared.
We have decided to grant you a favor Rahan! That of dying with your knife!

A moment later, the woman slipped the ivory weapon into his lizard sheath.
No one can do anything for you anymore, Rahan! Goodbye!

The son of Crao had understood what atrocious death awaited him.
As soon as the "Sun stones" are melted, men will release the golden lava.

Page thirteen.

And when the hollow rock is filled, they will immerse Rahan's body in it!
Rahan shuddered as he imagined himself petrified for eternity, joining the macabre lineup of "Sun Statues”.

The familiar whistle of an arrow tore him from his morbid thoughts.
Zip!

Hum. Did they want to kill Rahan. Or help him? Oh!
Some fibers of the line had not been cut.

The men over there had just released the molten gold!
The sparkling "Lava" rushed down towards the crucible, quickly filling it.

Let the last fibers give way and Rahan would know the most cruel of deaths.

Page Fourteen.

Ra-ha-ha!
With a powerful thrust, the son of Crao had thrown himself forward. The vine had fortunately broken.

But another still bound his wrists.
He only had time to dive behind a bamboo windbreak to avoid a volley of arrows.

Rahan will not escape these women! Unless.
Tearing out the windbreak, he hurried to the edge of the cliff.
More gold-tipped spears and arrows lodged in the makeshift "Shield".

In front of him, the deep gorge where the river flowed.
Behind him, the pack of hunters.
He had no choice!

Ra-ha-ha!
All the echoes of the gorge repeated his cry as he threw himself into the void.

Page Fifteen.

Although the river was deep, Rahan touched the bottom.
With a kick of his heel, he returned to the surface where the windbreak floated like a raft.

When he climbed onto the skiff, he heard the clamor of the women massed at the edge of the cliff.
"Females-who-walk-upright" can no longer do anything against Rahan!

An instant later, he sliced his vines on a gold point from one of the lances.
Rahan is free! Free! Liberated!

Ra-ha-ha!
The cry that Rahan gave had, this time, the accent of victory.
He was so happy to be carried away by the current that the greeting he addressed to the women was as joyful as it was ironic.

When the raft disappeared at the bend of the river, these women cursed.
Only one hid a slight smile.
It was the one who, paying her debt, had come to the aid of the son of Crao!
The one her companions were quite wrong to nickname "Lahaa-the-silly".
May the good spirits of the river accompany you "Fire hair."
Farewell!