THE FOREST’S LEGENDS
Appearance
High in the mountains, in a dense forest, away from human eyes the lake with healing water is hidden. These places kept the legends of which birds sang at the dawn and drifted strange dream-vision to all who heard them at the same time. I heard the story of the emergence of a magnificent lake in one of these ghostly dreams.
Once, in the darkest morning time, a bright star fell to the ground. It fell and seemed to be faded. In place of its fall, among scorched trees, a wasteland was formed. And for a long time there grew neither grass nor a blade of grass. But the penetrating wind learned about that quiet place and drove together a flock of white clouds there for the night. Among these playful friend clouds, there was one gloomy cloud.
— She is so strange! — the friends whispered — she could cry, if it is too hard for her!
— Indeed, it is impossible to accumulate emotions all the time — whispered friend clouds but strange cloud was not going to protect herself and kept aside.
It was the night and all was quiet. The morning breeze could lift only light clouds in the sky. Playful and obedient, they rushed afield joyfully and even didn’t care about the fate of sad friend. And the wind rushed to seek and he did not immediately realize that the sad cloud turned into… the quiet forest lake.
— You will not be able to travel with us in the sky! — the wind concerned.
— I want to stay alone. Do not worry! Recently I have failed to fly carelessly and foolishly in the sky and I did not want to cry. So I turned into a lake.
— You are variable! — the wind remarked happily.
— Yes, but my attitude toward you hasn’t changed. Fly to me sometimes, I’ll be waiting!
The wind feasted his eyes with remarkable changes of the cloud and being full of joy, felt such a thirst for adventure that promised the cloud (or rather, not the cloud but the crystal lake) to come back with tales of his long journeys. Once he flew away, all was quiet again. This silence was so solemn and beautiful that even the stones would like to speak to utter their delight, but they didn’t dare to break the silence and they were silent.
Since then, the beautiful and mysterious pond became the heart of fabulous mountain forest. The lake-cloud slept and his dream was clear and clean. It was so unusual,
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