The Magulbans had already got ready for the trip to the western Asia, on the traces of grandmother Patush, when Margo suddenly got a new strange message by e-mail, with the scheme, but without the sender’s name.

“/Africa, at the junction of 3 / +1 / good countries, where wonderful people live, have their own symbols: 6 colours – red, white, black, blue, yellow, green; sea of 6 letters; a desert; a big river of 3 letters.The way on animals, which can exist without water for a long time, takes 4 days from the sea to the tribe./ A peaceful tribe Loomozun, which ranches, lives in the centre of the African continent. In gratitude to their Gods, for the prosperious existence of the tribe, they hold a ceremony near the sacred tree, located in 10 kilometers, on the 10th day of each month. Ceremonies are held from time immemorial and recently, after the current ceremony, 10 boys disappeared. Much time and effort was spent on their searches but the children were not found. Help. M…” Margarita showed the message to the kids.

- This letter was probably sent again by mysterious Gordiz-Mountain. All this is very, very strange. But we cannot sit idly, we should act, go there urgently, and help to search for the children. Time is now five minutes to twelve.- said Margo.

All Magulbans agreed and it was decided to postpone the trip to the western Asia and urgently leave for Africa, to the tribe Loomozun.

Early in September, packing all the necessary for the trip, the Magulbans reached the tribe where the leader Loomam met them. Finding out about the purpose of their arrival, he called the council to discuss the problem: if they should trust strangers, let them approach the tree of the ceremony Thinley and let them search for the missing children. During the council shaman Lozz, with an unpleasant look, shouted and demanded to tie and put the children into the cage, otherwise their Gods will get angry. The Magulbans felt uncomfortable, they felt a great danger. But the council made the following decision: to accept the offered help on condition if they tell the leader where they came from and how they found their tribe. And 10 strong and brave warriros of the tribe had to go in search with them.

The Magulbans told them how they found the tribe. They decided to start the searches in the morning. Bagrat asked the leader to provide them a safe lodging for the night, as the people of the tribe gazed at the children, as if they had never seen other people, they also asked him to tell them about the missing of the children more in details.

After spending the night in the hut of the leader, with the first rays of the sun, taking all the necessary: rice, dried meat, water in leather bottles, putting on the clothes, shoes and heat protecting hats made for them during the night - they moved in the way. According to the custom, they must go to the tree on foot, or the tribe may get into trouble.

Passing 6 kilometers, they saw a small tree at the sight of which everybody got a strange feeling of anxiety. The tree height of 2 meters had a strong brown trunk and large round blue leaves. The roots of the tree rose up at 10cm as a question mark, and then they sank into the sand as a sword. There was a round hole in the trunk. Bagrat lit the hole with the lantern, but he saw nothing. He was afraid to put his hand into it: heaven knows what may be there: a venomous snake or spider. After finishing the inspection they sat in the shade of the tree to have a rest and refresh. An hour later they continued their trip. On the way the senior warrior Loduz thought aloud: “After the disappearance of the children, four such trees appeared on our way within a month. How could they grow up so for a month? How do the roots get moisture? We do dig more than 10 meters depth for water extraction and get only 40 tu of water a daily. We treat the water very carefully and get the part of the liquid from buffalo milk that's why our skin is so dry. We cook the meat by old recipe: we soak it in salty milk for 2 days, then we dry it for 10 days. We repeat this process twice. We also add dried insects and dry leaves of the sacred tree in the milk. The meat becomes very nourishing and healing so we never get ill. The proportions and the type of the insect is kept in strict secret the leader only knows about it.” Indeed, the dried meat and the water were tasty and nourishing and gave strength, therefore, having walked nearly 10 miles, the Magulbans did not feel tired. The other trees, which they met on their way, were exactly the same as the first one which they had seen.

By four o’clock in the afternoon, passing 10 kilometers, they came to the sacred tree Thinley with large unusual blue leaves covered with pink spots. The roots, looked like a sword, sank into the sand. The tree was huge, majestic and beautiful, stood proudly in the middle of the desert. The  warriors of the tribe stopped in 10 meters from the tree. Bagrat looked at the thermometer mounted in the compass and, seeing the surprise of Loduz, explained its designation. The thermometer showed +43. 9C. Loduz looking at the sky touched the hot sand and said that the temperature was 00. . 44C. And just as Bagrat put the compass with the thermometer on a flat place in the shade under the tree it showed +44C. Bagrat imbued with respect to Loduz. ''How did he define the temperature so exactly? Yeah, these Loomozuns are amazing people.''-he thought. The Magulbans themselves decided to sieze the trunk of the tree, in which there was a hole with a diameter of 80 centimeters, but they could not. Bagrat lit the hollow, it was deep. Then, putting on special belts, he went down with the help of a rope and the other guys secured him. Getting down to a five-meter depth, Bagrat found the bottom and appeared in a small cave. Looking around, he noticed another hole, but did not dare to go down into it without support and the rope was only two meters left. Then Bagrat returned to take the rope from Loduz made of leather (it was firmer) and go down again together with Nunu but Loduz asked to postpone the descent.

- Soon it will be sunset and for security reasons postpone your good work till morning,- he said. The Magulbans decided to follow the words of  wise Loduz.

After eight o’clock in the evening it was dark, the temperature descended to +20C. Not far from the tree they made a camp, and settling in it comfortably, they began to listen to Loduz’s story about holding the ceremony.

- It is a beautiful ritual. We begin it at six o’clock in the evening and finish at nine-thirty. We kindle fire around the tree in the radius of 20 meters. Each member of the tribe touches the trunk, getting strength and health of the touch. Then we extinguish the fire and all together come back, that’s why we do not know what happens with tree after ten o’clock. When the children disappeared from the tribe we noticed that the leaves of the tree were covered with pink spots. Our leader decided that our Gods get angry and suspended the holding of the current ceremony.

After listening to all this the expedition started to roost, everybody got a strange feeling of anxiety again, and Bagrat said that the tree had the smell of blood inside it.

At midnight /full moon/ everybody woke up because of a strange noise: the leaves were falling down on the ground like ripe apples and a few minutes later all the leaves covered the ground. Everybody slept again, only Bagrat and Loduz could not sleep, they were talking quietly as suddenly they heard a noise near the tree. Coming nearer, Loduz nervously growled out: ''It's the shaman of the tribe Lozz, it's strange why he is here? I have never trusted him. And what a strange creature it is, who he is talking to?''. The creature, having talked to the shaman for some minutes, ran into the hollow and the shaman went away. Bagrat and Loduz followed the shaman, caught him near his hunt and took to the leader. They told him all they had seen there.

- Lozz, what were you doing near the tree? Why did you go there without permition? And what a creature you were talking to?

The shaman was silent his head down.

- If you do not tell us the truth you will be punished in the way of zhuzhuma punishment.

Hearing this, the shaman burst into tears and said:

- No zhuzhuma, I will tell you everything. The day before the ceremony as usual, I went to the tree for shaman duties. I touched the tree and was paralyzed and I lost consciousness. I found myself inside the tree and saw a strange creature with three eyes. It told me that it needed 10 boys not older than 6  for research. I should have made red marks on their bodies. Otherwise my children and I would die. The creature also promised that it would not hurt the children and they would return home after 4 hours. I got frightened very much and that's why I agreed. I marked the boys' bodies and after the ceremony the children disapeared. I do not know where they disappeared. The creature knew that ceremonies would not be held any more. This time it demanded me to bring 4 more boys to the tree 2 days later.

- And you kept silent for such a long time? Traitor!

The leader ordered to take away the shaman and put into the cage.

Bagrat and Loduz returned to the camp.

- What kind of punishment is zhuzhuma?,- asked Bagrat.

- Ohhhhhhh, it is a terrible punishment. I have no right to tell you about it,- answered Loduz.

With dawn the leaves began to grow and the fallen leaves disappeared. By 8 o’clock in the morning Bagrat told the children about the night’s incident, then together with Nunu they descended into the hollow. Nunu secured and Bagrat descended lower where he saw a terrible scene. At the bottom the boys lay exhausted, thin pink threads stretched to another cave from the nose of each boy. Bagrat, looking there, saw a strange humanoid creature with large unusual ears and three eyes. Those threads were attached to its central eye. The creature was sleeping, it was pregnant. Bagrat quickly realized what he should do. He cut the threads, the children began to show signs of life. And the creature opened its eyes but it could not move. It begged with its eyes not to kill. Bagrat thought that pity was not to the point here, he wanted to tie the creature but first decided to help the children.

- Nunu, we will not be able to lift the children alone. You stay with them and I will call for help.

- Please, come back quickly,- said Nunu.

Fearing the wrath of the Gods, the warriors did not agree to go down, but having learnt that the children were alive, two of them, overcoming the fear, followed Bagrat. They also agreed to help because there were their sons among the disappeared children. Pulling everybody out of the hollow, Bagrat went down again, he could not leave this creature like that which drank the blood of the poor children during the month. He felt sorry for it for some reason. He stood and looked at the creature with three eyes. “It's impossible!”- he thought and quickly got out of the hollow.

After feeding the boys with dried meat and giving them water, everybody returned to the tribe happily, carrying the children on their shoulders. The inhabitants of the tribe went out to meet the warriors, the rescued children and our guys. And the leader called a special council and made a great party in honour of that great happiness.

- We are grateful to you for everything: for coming to our place, for helping us, finding and saving our children. We owe to you. Now you are honourable people of our tribe. We promise you to help always and listen to you in everything…

The whole night Bagrat was thinking about the creature, about what he had seen. He was thinking where the creature appeared from, for what purpose? And in the morning he went to the tree with Loduz. On the way the small trees dried and the leaves fell down as if they had never existed. Bagrat went down the hole of the tree and saw that the strange creature was dying but it was still breathing. His suspicions intensified and he began to understand…The creature seemed to wait for Bagrat, it wanted to tell him something and even began to mumble, but Bagrat did not understand anything. He thought: “Nobody has  right to take someone's life, and I have no right to hurt the creature, although it certainly deserves to be punished. But it is dying, and how….''

Bagrat turned and was about to leave, when he saw that tears rolled down the creature's cheeks, it began to mumble: “ … bagaaa… magulaa… muzeee…” and closed its eyes. “It died…”- thought Bagrat.

Bagrat came out of the hollow with a heavy heart: what did it want to say, what did those words mean? Maybe Bagrat, Magulban? Then how did it know us? Although, of course, it could… and what does muzeee mean?

Loduz shouted joyfully and pointed upward.

- Bagrat, look! The leaves are bright - blue as before!

They returned home. Meanwhile, the children recovered a bit and began their story:

After holding the ceremony, we touched the trunk of the tree to get strength, but we felt weak and fell asleep. We woke up when a creature took us down into the hollow of the tree, attached threads to our noses. Then we fell asleep again and did not wake up until we were rescued. We think that the creature was able to fly and came from the sky…

After hearing the story, the Magulbans came to two conclusions. The first- either the creature came from another galaxy for breeding and capturing first the African continent and then the whole world. It used the blood of the children as food for breeding. The second-or the creature came for some secret mission. Bagrat had also his special opinion with which he shared with his friends and the leader. He told them what he had seen in the hollow and about his suspicions… Then he asked the leader to pick up the body of the creature and bury it.

The leader’s daughter Looo had a beautiful blue bird Sisiza, with which she did not part even for a minute. The feat of the Magulbans inspired her so much that she wanted to join their company. Bagrat explained her that she had to stay in the tribe and help the rescued children to restore their health.

After all those events the Magulbans returned home and on their way they discussed everything that happened to them. They could not find answeres to many questions.

You will learn about where and for what purpose the creature came from, about the suspicions of Bagrat, about the fate of the rescued boys, about Loo’s life and her bird Sisiza, as well as about the questions interesting you, reading the next stories and looking at the pictures.