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FAIRY TALES |
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AN EMERALD STAR'S SECRETIt happened on a far north island, where snow, ice, polar bears and the strange black bird live...There, near to the sea shore, a beautiful castle with seven towers stands. Polar Night lives in this castle. When her time comes, she harnesses the flock of the black birds and frisks among the clouds, sprinkling with snow petals. But sometimes the clouds scatter before her harness like timorous reindeers and the endless expanse with star dust is opened. Then Polar Night stops her horse-birds, stands motionless and admires... And if she likes some star - she takes her colour radiant net, stretches it out over all the sky and catches the star. All the polar bears of the island gather to look at this star-fishing. The net blazes variegatedly, playes, interlacing oddly in the beads of the stars. How beautiful! But once Polar Night saw an unusual emerald star in the celestial ocean. She swam easily, thoughtfully among her girl-friends and some secret was in her light... Night tossed up her rainbow net, began to whirl on the sky. But what is it? The net had scarcely touched the emerald star when all froze - both the net and Polar Night's harness and even Night herself. The polar bears, which admired this show as usual, were gobsmacked. They exchanged glances with each other. What a wonder? Polar Night was the best hunter and no star could elude her net. And here... It wasn't clear... There were some bear-cubs. They had seen the Polar Night's hunting only once before and they dreamed of sweeping over the sky like her. The oldest and the most curious of them, White, noticed that the net was caught on the neighbouring cliff. They whispered to one another and ran throght the white field directly to the cliff. While the adults bethought about them, they were before the cliff. The polar bears made after their bear-cubs, but they stopped after several bounds... White clambered carefully along the rainbow net. A myriad of stars shone around, coloured threads quivered and sounded melodiously. The bear-cub touched lightly with its paw some threads at once and the net answered with the chime of little bells. At that time other bear-cubs grew bolder. They clambered on the coloured net and started jumping, tumbling. There was the tinkling of bells around! Noisy, but they were joyful! Suddenly the net revived - got roused, beamed. Polar Night woke up, saw the bear-cubs and began to laugh sonorously. She gathered them all in her silver sledge and drove them among constellations for a long time. Yet the emerald star slid throgh all the sky and hid beyond the ice horizon. But every year it shows up above the island, illuminating the world with its secret. Polar Night doesn't pursue it anymore. On this day she puts on her beautiful apparel, gets the silver harness ready and playing with all the colours of her magical net she calls the babies of the island to come driving over the starry sky... (C) Alexander Kalinkin |
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| All work contained herein is protected by National and International Copyright Laws All Copyright © 2002-2010 Alex Kalinkin |
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