Natalia Isaeva - Azourland. Dream chooses the braveheart

The squirrels nodded in agreement.

“As far as I remember, dear squirrels, that according to this agreement your squirrel clan had to help me in harvesting.”

The squirrels again nodded in agreement.

“In the contract, it was said that you, squirrels will have to collect berries, mushrooms and nuts at my request, carry out any of my assignments.”

The bravest squirrel replied: “Yes.”

“I will help you if you fulfil your part of the contract,” said Khronos and grinned at his beard, “so you must gather 20 squirrels of ceps and dry them, 15 raspberry baskets in prickly bushes, 5 bags of walnuts. Nuts stuck, cores in a mortar crush, squeeze out the nut oil.”

The squirrels began to resent such a difficult task and the amount of work. They did not negotiate such slavish conditions at the beginning of the summer. In response to these exclamations of squirrels, Khronos objected to them that it was also a difficult task to help win elections because everyone understands that the fox will win. At the mention of the worst enemy, the squirrels gnashed their teeth.

Khronos laughed and invited the squirrels to terminate the agreement by mutual consent. The squirrels conferred and decided to fulfil the task of Khronos.

In the clearing the work was boiling to make everything, the squirrels called all their relatives. Khronos walked between them and checked the quality of mushrooms, berries and chuckled.

Squirrels worked for two weeks, not interrupted by day and night. When the work was finished, they could hardly stand on their paws. All works were performed with excellent quality; therefore, the contract obligations were fulfilled by the squirrels.

Khronos ordered the election of one squirrel from the squirrel clan, which would represent all the squirrels in the elections. Tomorrow morning, he will wait for her to visit.

Squirrels must fulfil one more condition – to sit and wait for the election to begin, if at least one of the squirrels violates this obligation or again takes up a provocation, then Khronos will not fulfil his promise, and then it is already clear to the squirrels that there is no victory.

The next morning the squirrel, which the squirrel clan had chosen, came to the house of Khronos. He met the squirrel, closed the door behind her, lowered the curtains on the windows, no matter how hard they tried to pry and hear that there were other squirrels in the house of Khronos, they did not get anything done.

From the chimney stacked yellow smoke. “He must be conquered,” the troubled squirrels concluded and dispersed to their homes. There was a week left before the elections. Squirrels ran to the house of Khronos every day to see how things were going, but they did not find out.

Three days before the contest, such a devastating event occurred that stirred the entire forest community, holding the elections was in danger, and the squirrels had nothing to do with it.

March cat, named Sigalt, illegally procured valerian infusion. “Here’s the brat!” There were rumours that this was somehow related to the foxes, but there were no facts, there was no evidence.

“Is this where the guards looked?” This question did not leave the mouth of the forest community. “Valerian infusion is forbidden in the Wonderful Green Forest. Everyone knows what drunken wild cats are capable of! What do we pay our taxes for? Disturbances were experienced in every herd. Predators cannot provide us with security and order on the paths. Where did the birds look, if anyone can bring this poison to our forest? Smuggling Valerian! Where does this world go? But what about the vaunted custom of birds to check every traveler on the border and look for violations from a bird’s-eye view?”

The wolves and falcons who served as guards in the Wonderful Green Forest had only to clank their teeth and click their beaks when they heard these disturbances.

So, the March cat, named Sigalt, three days before the election, brought valerian infusion and smuggled it in. After that, he imagined himself, at least, a tiger, and ran along all the forest paths with shouts: “I am a terrible Sigalt cat. My tail is the best tail in the world! It works like a compass, wherever I want, I twist there, and I can predict the weather. And if I want, I will send you hail and a fierce wind.”

The behaviour of the cat did not fit into any stereotype. This wild cat molested all the ladies and fought with a ferret who stood up for his wife. Sigalt punched him in the face. The ferret did not dodge, fell from the tree, and the cat continued to pester the lady. He tried to give her valerian infusion. He promised to take her on a paradise trip to Oceania.

When the guards, wolves and falcons tried to arrest him, he showed the wonders of gymnastics, with the cat’s ease he eluded their nets.

The cat violated all existing prohibitions in the wonderful green forest and almost ripped off the election, mentioning its tail, be it damned.

Such a disgrace has not been since the times of the great opposition between predators and herbivores. To solve this confrontation, the elk proposed to solve the ‘food question’ between predators and herbivores in a peaceful way. For which he was unanimously elected the first elk-leader.

He proposed to introduce food taxes for herbivores. From now on, every herd handed over milk, and birds discarded eggs, people baked cakes. These products were shared by the inhabitants of the forest. The bees could barter honey. (It was considered a special delicacy since all the animals had a sweet tooth.)

Pie, eggs and milk were transmitted to predators. For this, the carnivores did not touch anyone in the Wonderful Green Forest, guarding its borders and internal order. In order to satisfy their hunting instincts, each predator, on reaching the age of majority, received a hunting license from the leader moose.

It was possible to hunt only in the forest thicket beyond the black line. Who lived there no one knew. The predators kept silence, but other animals noticed that sometimes not all wolves returned from hunting, and some on their return sat in holes and healed wounds. Doctor Owl has seen many such wounds but he also kept silence.

It was rumoured, that one of the hares saw something in the thicket behind the black line, but he was famous for his foes, and as they say: “Fear has large eyes, and the fearful hare is even more so.” In general, no one believed the hare’s assurances that terrible monsters live in the thicket. You never know that he dreamed of fear.

So, the March cat was not caught and put under arrest. Definitely, good luck on that day was on the side of the cat, as if they were drinking the infusion of valerian, and not the cat. The forest society watched the whole day, as the cat Sigalt deftly left the chase, while still having time to sing bawdy songs about the forest guards; hint to the inhabitants of the forest that it is necessary to elect him as the main guardian of order, as if he alone is worth all of them.

Wolves and falcons, already, roared from such insults. Together, they drove the cat into a trap. While he was being led to the place of arrest, he shouted to the ferret’s wife that he would return for her and steal her, because he was in love and ready to marry, which he admired the romantic ladies.

At night, he undermined and escaped from arrest. It was again rumoured that the fox had helped him to hide the truth about Valerian smuggling.

Sigalt

In the morning, the ferret, on the shutters of his house, saw a paw print of a cat and a rose with a pinned note: “I will love you forever…”