Rahan. Episode 119. By Roger Lecureux. The great fear of Rahan. A Puke (TM) Comic.

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.

Episode One Hundred and Nineteen.

By Roger Lecureux, drawn by Andre Cheret.

The great fear of Rahan.

I must put an end to this "Two-Horns"!
Ra-ha-ha!
As the buffalo charged him for the third time, the son of Crao dodged and.

The "Two-horns" flowed thirty paces further.
Rahan would not have killed you, since he is not hungry!

But it is you or him! Oh!
We have seen it all, "Fire-Hair"! You are a brave hunter, will you give us this "Two-Horn"!?

Very gladly, brothers!
Your offering will protect our clan from the wrath of the "Shadows"!
The men were already pulling the buffalo out to a crevasse.

Page Two.

Into which they threw the animal!
Eat in peace, O you who have joined the "Territory-of-shadows"!

Thank you again for your offering, brother!
It will appease the "Shadows" that live in the bowels of the earth!
Hum. Rahan respects all beliefs.
But he does not think the "Shadow Realm" is under the earth!

Rahan is wrong! Some nights the complaints of the "Shadows" rise from the depths of this abyss!

One day, our old leader Troukka wanted to know. We sent him down with long vines.
And he saw the "Shadows"! But when we brought him back up, he had lost his mind!

What he saw was too horrible!
Was it not, Troukka?
The bones that live. The bones that live!

Troukka was speaking incoherently.
He evoked the great horde of dead hunters who.
According to him, populated the bowels of the earth!

Page Three.

Is Rahan convinced!?
Uh. Rahan thinks that Troukka has seen horrible things. Since he has lost his mind!

This thought tormented the son of the fierce ages all night.
Long after their death, time turns the remains of "Those-Who-Walk-Upright" into dust!

They cannot live again underground!
And yet, What if it were true!? Rahan wants to know!
The son of Crao never bowed to a mystery.

That was why at dawn.
What are you doing, "Fire-Hair"?
Rahan has decided to go down to the "Shadow Kingdom"!

No! No! No living person has the right to enter there! If he wants to go to the dead, let me kill him first!
It was necessary to restrain Troukka, who was blinded by madness.

Your courage is great, brother!
Do not believe it. Rahan is worried. Rahan is intrigued! But wants to know!
The vines were tightly knotted together to form one line.

Page Four.

If Rahan feels overcome by fear, he will shake the line!
Will you help him get back up as quickly as possible?
We will, Rahan!

The descent into the unknown began, the walls of the crevasse seemed to draw closer, letting only half light filter through.

Rahan's life now depends on this vine!
He was still going down.
The light of the torch sometimes caught a ledge.

A skeleton was pasted against the wall, like a sentinel of the "Shadow Realm."
Rahan hopes he brought enough torches.
Oh!

With this macabre warning the desire seized him to give up, to be pulled up in haste.
All he had to do was give the vine a jerk.

Page Five.

And he would find the open air, the light, the sun!
No! No!
Rahan will not give up!
Rahan will discover the mystery of the "Shadows"!
Struggling against the anguish that knotted his throat, he sank deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth.

Rahan will not let fear eat his mind!

Oh. Maybe this is the entrance to the "shadow-territory"!
Courage, Rahan! Courage!
His torch was almost completely consumed.

And he slipped into the cave to light a new one. But!
The wampas!
Falling from the vault, springing from the darkness, a cloud of.

Vampire bats attacked the intruder who violated their lair.
Rahan does not fear you, "Wampas"! He knows you fear the light!
Ra-ha-ha!

Page Six.

The attack was brief.
Not scared by the circles of fire the vampires went to stick to the bottom of the cave.
This is not where the "Shadows" live!

The projections and ledges became more numerous.
He discovered another skeleton that seemed to invite him to the Kingdom of the dead.
His anxiety would have been even greater.
If he had known what was happening on the surface!

No, No Troukka! Do not do that!
"Fire hair" wants to go to the Shadow Territory!
He will go!

Rahan will go down again! This chasm must have a bottom!
The son of Crao tried to reassure himself, But he felt like he was slipping into nothingness.

It was so sudden that Rahan let his torch slip.
Dragging the severed vine he fell into the void, into the darkness, into nothingness!

Page Seven.

If Rahan believed in "Good Spirits", he would thank them!
An overhang had stopped his fall!
His torch had gone out but was still glowing on another ledge.

The vine must have worn out on the rock!
Rahan will never be able to go back up into the open air!
Rahan will die here like the others!

He divined the bottomless pit before him.
He could no longer control the fear that invaded him.
Nothing can come to help your son, Crao!
He will join you soon!

The torch was still glowing a little and his eyes were getting used to the darkness.
Oh! Another cave! If Rahan can jump in. He might find some "Stones of Fire" there.

The cave opened at his height, on the other side of the chasm.
In the open air the jump would have been child's play for the son of Crao.
But in the darkness, with no space to gain momentum, it seemed impossible!
Rahan risked the impossible!

Ra-ha-ha!

Page Eight.

And he found himself on the threshold of the cave!
Perhaps this is where the "Territory of Shadows" begins?
Rahan should find some "Star-throwing-Stones."

Groping around, he discovered some flints and was able to light another torch.
Oh! How could "Men" come here!

A lake stretched to the bottom of the cave, from which emerged a tangle of trunks clearly carved by men. The water was shallow. Rahan entered it.

But a hideous monster suddenly emerged! Rahan was ready for battle but.
Oh! He has no eyes! He does not see Rahan!

The distant ancestors of this aquatic reptile must have had eyes.
But these of this one had atrophied, had given way to plates of scale.
What use would eyes be in this eternal night!

Page Nine.

The monster disappeared under the black water.
The alert passed, and the son of Crao found himself alone with his fear.
Only the clan could help Rahan.
But the clan will do nothing, since they believe Rahan is dead!

Oh! Rahan knows how to let "Those Above" know that he is still alive!

Rahan dragged some logs near the cave entrance. He had trouble lighting the damp wood. But he succeeded.
This smoke will prove to them that Rahan is still alive!

He was watching the smoke rise when.
From the depths of the crevasse whispers reached him.
The "Shadows!" Rahan heard the "Shadows"!

A little later.
Rahan does not want to die without knowing the mystery of the "Kingdom of Shadows"!

It was again the slow descent into the bowels of the earth.
Give courage to your son Crao!
Do not let fear consume him!

Page Ten.

The murmurs had given way to long complaints.
Rahan has left the realm of the living! He is entering the realm of the dead!

The son of Crao could not hold back a howl of fright.
Assailed by terrible creatures.
No!

Fear clouds Rahan's mind! He sees things that do not exist!

Oh. Is this still a "vision"?!
No, this water that shimmered beneath him was not a "vision"!
He saw his reflection there. He saw the dead buffalo floating there.

This means Rahan has finally reached the bottom of the abyss!
And here is the "Shadows" lair!
The complaints came from the cavern that gaped open above the water.

Once again mastering his anxiety, Rahan gave the vine a swinging motion and threw himself onto it.
Ra-ha-ha!

Page Eleven.

Rahan is going crazy like Troukka!
Faced with the spectacle revealed by the light of his torch, he thought his reason was capsizing!

Beings approached, stretching out their skeletal limbs.
Back! Back!
Rahan does not want to stay with the "Shadows"!

Why do you talk about "Shadows"?
And who are you who finally brings us the sun!
The great fear that was gnawing at the son of Crao suddenly dissipated.

He had before him men and women who were probably on the verge of death. But still alive!
I. I am Rahan. The son of Crao.
Thank you for bringing us the sunshine, Rahan.

Hands were reaching out.
Empty faces were offered to the light but their eyes were lifeless.
They "Feel the light!"
But they do not see! They are all blind!

Page Twelve.

How did you come here, brothers? Why?
The winter floods have returned four times the fingers of both hands.

Since that terrible day when the storm hit the great lake, destroying our village!
Only the children of the clan were there.

Who were dragged on trunks, towards a crevasse invaded by water.
And these waters fell. And fell.
It was impossible for these children to escape the trap of these steep walls!
The terrible night, the endless night began!

We left our useless skiff in a cave. We discovered this cave shortly after.
We? Why do you say "We"?

Because I am the last survivor of those children!
All those you see here were born and raised in this cursed cave!

Page thirteen.

The son of Crao, upset, imagined the suffering of these beings, captive for forty years in the bowels of the earth in the darkness!
At first.

Many tried to escape.
But they fell back into the abyss!
Or we heard their death rattles, when they died of exhaustion on the ledges they had been able to reach!

But how could you survive, without water, without food, without hope!
There is no shortage of water. And our spirits.
Whom we often implore sometimes send us meat!
As for hope, we have always kept it in our hearts!

If I am the only one to have known the "World-above", the world of the sun, my people know that it exists.
The elders passed on the memory to their sons, who passed it on to theirs!
And the hope of knowing this wonderful world always supported them!

Page Fourteen.

And that moment has arrived since you come to bring us back to the sun!
Um!

Rahan does not dare tell these unfortunate people that he cannot do anything for them!
That he will even share their fate! Oh!
A noise in the crevasse tore him from his dark thoughts.

A vine weighted down by a rock was slowly descending.
Ra-ha-ha!
"Those above" have understood that Rahan is still alive! They come to his aid!

The smoke from his signal was still rising when, hailed by the whole clan, he reappeared in the open air, in broad daylight.
We had to punish Troukka who wanted to abandon you to the "Shadows"!

Free Troukka!
There are no shadows under the earth, brothers!
There are only living men and women.
Whom we must free!

Page Fifteen.

Under Rahan's leadership the rescue was organized.
It would last a whole day. But the sun was still shining when the last captive was pulled from the abyss.

Do you think their eyes will revive "Fire-Hair"?
Rahan does not know! But he knows that Near you.

They will know fear no more!
The son of Crao thought of his own fear, which he had had so much trouble overcoming.

A strange litany arose.
Those who were born under the earth, those who had never seen the light of day, greeted the sun that they could not see.
But.

They feel the light! They feel the beneficial warmth!
They will discover a better life!
Thanks to you, Rahan!
Above all, thanks to the hope that gave them the will and the strength to survive!

Hope! The son of Crao was right.
In these fierce times, hope could sometimes be the last weapon of "Those-who-walk-upright"!