Dmitry Bolesov - Smile and laughter

Illustrator Darya Zhdanovich

Translator Ilias Aisin

© Dmitry Bolesov, 2019

© Darya Zhdanovich, illustrations, 2019

© Ilias Aisin, translation, 2019

ISBN 978-5-0050-6863-7

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Another one can afford to panic a little, but you do not need it. You will understand why, if you listen to this story.

This story happened near to places of little-known, but not without interest. The mountains there pass into the plain, and the plain itself lies before the newcomer, offering him peace and relaxation, protection and good sleep. There must have been more than one traveler who was able to accept its hospitable call and paid his body back of merit…

A few years ago a traveler came to the plain, not much different from his brothers in vagabondage. His clothes were as untidy as other wanderers. Just his legs weren’t crushed by the stones of the roads, despite the fact that he walked along the roads by foot, and even, hanging on his neck a somewhat strange medallion in the shape of a man with a crown on his head instead of the usual hat, gave him a certain mystery. There was no one to be curious about the vagabond, they did not cause interest if they were able to pay for an overnight stay and did not give a reason for the guard to drive them into the night field without sleep and rest… So this person would have remained without special signs, unrecognized, if in the village which stood near the mountains at the very beginning of the plain, didn’t appear a blind girl in simple peasant clothes, but without a guide or other helpers. She came by herself, she laid her own route, which in those days was absolutely unbelievable.

For a long time this village has not attracted so many guests who were \ready to look at the blind girl and listen to her. Our stranger also came to her. He stood at her side, covered by other curious people, and began to listen to her stories about the distant lands she had visited, the noise of the sea surf, and the tumbling of a spring drop that she had heard. Her story poured non-stop, she absorbed a lot, a lot was revealed to her in sounds, touches and smells. Only one girl could not tell – she could not express in words the light streaming from the hot sun. She felt his burning heat, she knew how the sun’s rays affect the singing of birds and the movement of the wind. But what the sun is and where it is – remained a big mystery to her.

They gave the girl different explanations, pointed to the sky, waved their hands in front of her blind eyes, compared the sun with a large hot stove, or talked about a heavenly god who gives people light every day. But these explanations did not help, but only confused. After all, God cannot be both a stove for cooking and that huge colossus that every day rises above the surface of the earth, pouring its power on it. Our mysterious stranger was the only silent one, not a word having spoken about his understanding of the heavenly luminary.

The blind girl could not stay at this village for a long time. Long time ago she made a vow to the Mysterious Power that she would not stay in one place for more than three days and nights, but would go around the world and in every city, every village she would tell about what she had felt, but had never seen.

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We could not continue our story further, but the mysterious stranger who walks on the ground without scratching his legs and wears a medallion that clearly does not correspond to his rank. He must have been imbued with sympathy for the girl and decided to give her an unusual gift – to let her feel the sun and the sky and the unknown that unites them in a balance unknown to people.

Long time ago, he made a vow to the Forces, patronizing him, that he could not pass by a person who wanted to discover the mysteries of the heavenly luminary. He just didn’t come across such thirsty before him, the sun in all its mystery did not cause questions from others. Everyone explained it as best he could, and was content with it. A simple explanation is always more reliable than a complex one, especially if it concerns the fact that you are extremely far away. But making a vow of knowledge cannot be replaced by ignorance. The sky does not forgive such betrayals, the sky does not forgive…

Our stranger took the girl’s hand and promised her to give an understanding of the sun itself in all its strength and glory. “He must have lost his mind,” thought the people around him, but they could not stop him. After all, there was no ban on promises, and faith in a miracle did not leave them. They released the stranger with a girl from the village, which stands between the mountains and the plain, released into the world with the hope of one day to learn the further story.

Let us satisfy their curiosity. After all, many guessed that it was not a simple ragged man who visited their border world. The clear and not diluted even with mean clouds sky during his stay in the village did not bring the heat of the sun closer to his needs and helped to fulfill a task that was not yet known to them.

The dragons of the night do not appear during the day, because the sky is filled with light, and the shadow of their wing can fall into the eyes of idle onlookers, revealing the secret of their existence. But the night darkness does not give them the possibility of a holiday of flight, so they are forced to hide, hide their dragon essence in the image of people, only slightly indicating the nature of the above-ground. Our stranger was one of those illustrious experts in the sky who can live like dragons at night, and like people during the day, because their nature knows no restrictions. So this dragon man decided to help the girl – to open her understanding of the sun without revealing his secret. For a long time he had not met a man who was capable of understanding what was needed, not distracted, and not clinging to his fears for the secondary.

The night has come… The dragon man allowed himself to fly the night, and he took the girl with him, explaining to her the noise of the wings and the gust of wind of a simple variable nature around him, not discovering that he himself was part of it… The flight was successful, the night brought new knowledge, the sky itself taught the girl balance and lightness. And the first rays of the sun that appeared warmed her body in a new way, more carefully and gently.

The day would be an ordinary day, if not for the knowledge of the world that night brought. But the solar disk was still an unsolved mystery… And the new night flight gave even more understanding of the night, but did not reveal the main secret of the day. Heaven did not want to share the secret of secrets with the girl. Then the dragon decided to make a day flight, so that the sky could no longer hide its main secret, its sun. The preparations were short, but this time he decided not to hide the fact of the flight from the girl, but kept silent, however, about his nature. But again, the flight did not give the expected result. The sky kept itself and its secret. The dragon thought… He looked in his thoughts past life, lived between people and heaven. He thought it over and decided to tell the girl everything about the nature of dragons. Since she could not see the sun, she will find out everything that dragons know about it.

It is not interesting to keep telling. Indeed, when a dragon, having mastered the nature of man, meets a man who is able to comprehend the nature of the dragon, the world changes. Knowledge transforms it. And there was no longer an unusual girl who was unable to see the sun – a new dragon appeared, one appeared whose desire for light helped to see it, transforming the darkness around itself, changing its nature.