From the series "Moscow – Demiurgia"
..."Give it a touch!" I couldn’t get it out of my head, it was, like a piece of candy stuck in the teeth. "Touch it," my entire being cried, "especially to the left," something unbearable buzzed inside of me - "but only from top to bottom, as high as you can reach, run your hand down it." There was a metal taste that burnt the roof of my mouth. These weren’t even voices, but some kind of tiny bits of knowledge. "Do it, do it, you’ll see!" So I ran up to it, jumped, and ran my hand down the column as I squatted next to it. I will now describe what happened next, but I’m not sure it will be clear. A piece of the faсade fell off and vanished into thin air, as if it were made not of brick, but something drawn in chalk on a blackboard that I had wiped off with a wet rag. Some kind of boundary remained, insurmountable, even though it was invisible and weightless. A boundary between what?
Between Moscow and Demiurgia. I didn’t understand what was happening, but as soon as my glance "fell" on something, I immediately snatched a piece of information, (or rather I did not even snatch it - it was given to me as a bonus). This information didn’t explain anything, it was just one of the conditions, like in a problem at school. So in this case, I just had to accept that there is a boundary that I could not cross, but it was open so that I could see the "other" side. There are a few …creatures there. I clearly remember a huge scaly . . . being (each scale was about the diameter of a man’s watch,) whose body and wide-branching antlers resembled those of a noble buck; it had tough, long turquoise-colored feathers for flying on its powerful wings.
When I glanced at the scales it was as if I felt them, was touching them. They were silver and warm, like a brick roof heated all day in the village sun. It was a tactile sensation, but one I felt not with the tips of my fingers, or by touching with my hand, but with my entire body, as if I had taken off my clothes and laid down on it. It was serpinton. I knew right away that it was serpinton, but serpinton isn’t a name, its name was - Poshkivan, while serpinton...
Moscow through the eyes of serpinton Poshkivan.
...There were still a few other of these creatures, (I remembered them later,) but the most important for me was grikan Vaii. Vaii is a name, but a grikan is half griffon, half rabikan. A griffon is half eagle, half lion, but rabikan is a large, dazzling, very fast horse.