Azourland is an island of fairy tales,

A real spirit of mischief.

Do not stand at the door, romantic,

Look into this region of magic.

Be polite, more polite with the heroes of these days,

Interesting meetings will be throughout the book.

Translator Ekaterina Ulanova

Illustrator Natalia Isaeva

Illustrator Ekaterina Ulanova

ISBN 978-5-4496-0853-6

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Prologue

A long time ago the Heart was born on Earth. “Thump, thump, thump, thump,” the Heart begins to beat. It was hot, he suffered quite a bit from loneliness, he wanted to love, and once he found it, he was happily willing to fight for his beloved – a dream. The dream was… that’s another story. As soon as the Heart wanted to talk seriously with her about their feelings, she would joke and slip away.

She thought: “If I’m a dream and so beautiful, then the heart must obey me, I will decide when he is to beat and when to freeze.” The Heart, was hopelessly in love and promised to fulfil all her desires. The dream answered: “I want you, my love, to create for me a whole island of a fairy tale. On this island, anything I may desire will be fulfilled. I will invite guests and let anyone who wishes, reach its dream.”

“Oh, dream, this does not happen, desires can be fantastic and at times unreal,” answered the heart. “I want such an island,” the dream cried and stamped her foot. “I will not argue with you, my lady… so be it,” answered the heart.

A fairy tale island appeared on all maps of the world, it was Azourland, since then the heart of the island is beating at a will of the dream, and the dream, a barefooted girl with funny pigtails sits on the seashore and welcomes guests.

Soon people, birds, animals, and sea dwellers learned about the wonderful island, each of them wanted to fulfil their dream, therefore they settled Azourland. They built cities, founded countries, loved and suffered for their dreams. Every day on the island someone had a wish come true. The dream claps and rejoices and the heart beats with it in time.

The days, years, and centuries passed by. The fairy tale island welcomed more and more new inhabitants, no matter if they were a bird or a man. Anyone from the island could fulfil its dream, such is the law in Azourland. The heart of the island and its beloved dream sometimes wondered at the strange desires of the inhabitants of the island, their aspirations and hopes.

Gradually the island began to develop its traditions, each of the countries on the island acquired its own identity. These changes liked the dream. She was trembling to meet every new desire and with pleasure performed them.

In the Wonderful Green Forest where people, birds and animals lived a tradition has developed and all significant events were included in the book Chronicles of the Wonderful Green Forest. The dream was very fond of reading this book in the evenings to the heart and they laughed together at the amusing adventures of forest animals.

As a reward for the book the dream gave to the Wonderful Green Forest an amulet – “The Sandglass of Time” and appointed the guardian of this watch, magician and sorcerer Khronos. The new amulet helped the inhabitants of the country managed time. It was an honourable reward and a great responsibility. Residents of the Wonderful Green Forest after this gift have changed a lot, their life was now full of deep meaning, they had great figures and philosophers.

One of them became the leader elk, the first head of the Wonderful Green Forest. His descendants still remember him with pride and tell of his glorious exploits. A lot of things happened in the Wonderful Green Forest, but one of the most important things happened recently, the elk Chernobrov will tell us about it.

Chernobrov the elk came to visit the family of swans and their children, Sudarushka and Zakharchik. He went every year to visit his friends from the Fiery Country, he was impatiently awaited by two young swans. They were very fond of listening to the tales that Chernobrov told them.

Two families sat at the table with delicious food, they ate and drank and they decided to make each other happy with stories and fairy tales. The Elk Chernobrov was the first to take the floor.

PART 1

The Fiery Country

The neighbour of the Wonderful Green Forest was the Fiery Country. Its people’s temper was hot, they liked to organise competitions and tournaments most of all. Who of them will jump further or climb a high mountain and the most favourite match they had was the game: “What is this? Guess.”

The rules were simple: a thing was hidden in the trunk and it was locked with 6 locks one by one for 6 contestants so that no one could see what lay in the trunk. The chief judge was the ruler of the Fiery Country, the wisest Arlat and five witnesses who were chosen from the inhabitants.

People gathered from all four ends of the world on the square near the palace at noon, anyone who wanted could take part in the match.

It was necessary to ask questions to the owner of the outlandish thing and he could answer the question: “Yes or no.” The one who first guesses what is hidden in the trunk wins in the match. If no one guesses, then the owner of the thing will win.

The only condition was to make a thing with own hands in order to show the skills. It was necessary to invent and make something that no one saw or knew in the Fiery Country.

After that, the owner of the outlandish thing received the title: “The Wisest Master of the Fiery Country”; the position of vizier for a year; and 100 druns from the state treasury. The druns are gold coins, where a fiery spark-amulet of the Fiery Country was depicted.

The druns

There haven’t been new viziers in the country for five years, because all the participants in the tournaments lost, none of them managed to sustain more than seven questions.

The wisest Arlat was in sorrow and he waited each year with hope, that there would be a new vizier and the wisest master at the tournament.

Guests from all over the country came to the contest this year and the only participant decided to cheat. He hid the living bird into the trunk and this violated the rules of the tournament.

When there were no more questions for the players and everyone was quiet in the joyful expectation of a miracle. The judges opened six locks, the trunk lid was lifted and the bird fluttered and flew away. Sighs of regret passed through the crowd, reproaches in deception. This bad participant tried to prove that he had made the bird himself, but no one believed him. Do not deceive your brothers, they feel lie in a mile. That grief-participant was beaten for his lie, he wanted to escape from the crowd that followed him and wash himself of rotten tomatoes.

The tale about Hayat, the inhabitant of the Fiery Country

Time passed. A young man, named Hayat, grew up in one village on the shore of the lake. He, like all children in the country, dreamed of the glory and title of “Wisest Master.” Of course, he thought that he had no talents. He tried to master the modelling on the potter’s wheel, made of wood, knit knots from ropes but nothing outstanding or surprising happened to make it, but Hayat was in a cheerful disposition, he wasn’t upset and did not lose his dreams.

He sat on the shore of the lake in his free time and admired the sunset and he dreamed that he had created such a useful and beautiful thing that would be needed in every house in their Fiery country.

The lake

He learned each year that no one had won in the tournament, the hope in his soul began to melt. He thought: “If all these clever people who live next to me could not invent and make something like that, how can I find strength and skills for this?”

Day after day he looked at the sunset and asked the Sun to send him a small clue: “How should he behave in order to win a match?” His thoughts were sincere and once the Sun responded to him.

Hayat heard a soft and mocking voice in his head: “Why do you, Hayat, complain about your fate? You waste on moaning the strength, that you will not succeed. Go to town on the market square in front of the palace, find out how the competition is going. Listen, what questions are asked. See what the participants are doing.

You have to learn how to swim if you want to swim across the lake but you can run along the shore, everyone knows how to wail and only it will not be of any use to this.” Hayat was frozen from such speech. He realised that if you want something, you have to go towards your dream.

Hayat’s journey to the capital of the Fiery Country

He went to the capital the next day. The capital met Hayat with the beauty of its white palaces, the cool of fountains, the singing of birds. Talkative girls ran through the streets. The smell of flowers was around their inhabitants.

Hayat was walking and thought that once upon a long time ago his country was a scorched desert, the roll-field was the master of this wasteland. Volcanoes in the East flooded the desert with fiery lava so that all living things perished in seconds until the great ancestors had extracted a fiery spark from the mouth of the main volcano of the Phartha volcano and had not enclosed it in a glass vessel.

Since then the fiery and deadly wind has changed into a warm breeze. Flowers blossomed and people began to live in the Fiery Country. Hayat thought: “After all, if each of his great ancestors thought that he would never manage to obtain a fiery spark, the eternal wasteland on the place of the Fiery Country would remain on the map of Azourland.”

There were no participants in the competition this year. Residents stood in the square, waited and went to their homes disappointed. The Ruler Arlat was very sad because for several years none of his subjects could show skill and ingenuity.

In the evenings he looked at a fiery spark that shone like a beacon on the main tower of the palace and hoped that changes would come to his country. The country will sigh, a fiery spirit of creative skill will fly over its inhabitants, which its people have known since ancient times.

Hayat spent several days in the capital. He looked to his relatives, visited his neighbours’ relatives, handed gifts and presents to everyone and went back home.

His mood grew better day by day: after the trip, he became confident that he could realise the dream and not in order to become famous and get the title or be liked by neighbour girls, or brave his glory in the circle of friends. No, now this dream has become his air, his life, his connection with great ancestors with their power and glory. He himself became a dream.

Hayat

Hayat and the bull Oklush

Hayat returned to his usual life. He spent on the shore of the lake evenings and pondered what could be interesting for the inhabitants of his country to see, so that they were pleased and aroused surprise. His imagination painted bright images of fountains, squares, streets, the market square in front of the palace. In his hands, he usually kept a thin twig, which he picked up on the way to the lake. Hayat drove this twig along the wet sand, drew fountains and squares in the sand in his imagination.

A thought often arose in his head: “How nice it would be to draw a colourful drawing from his memories and show it to his neighbours. After all, my grandmother Nairi has never gone outside the village, she did not see the beauty of the capital’s palaces and fountains.”

Smooth waves lapped his drawings from the sand, destroying all his works without a trace.

The stones

One day Hayat looked at the shore of the lake and noticed that there were lots of coloured stones around him. They shone and gleamed in the sun, beckoning with their colours, but no one could solve their mystery. Hayat collected stones and began to consider, they were blazing in blue, green, red, orange and yellow colours.

It’s strange, but in our village, no one uses or somehow apply these multi-coloured stones. Rarely children for the sake of fun throw them into the water, competing, who will throw more when they play into the ‘frog’.

Hayat brought a few stones home. He often took them in his hands and noticed that the stones sometimes leave a colourful dust. If you rub them on clothes, then there were coloured stains on it, which quickly disappeared when they hit the water or crumbled. After some time, Hayat forgot about the stones because he had an occasion with him.

The spring has already come to the fields, it was time to plant a thurba. Thurba is a plant with large juicy fruits, similar to a turnip, from its fruits people in the village bake bread. The seeds of the thurba are tiny, so they are difficult to disperse in the field, in order disperse the seeds correctly and evenly, they are spit out of the mouth along the furrow. In the Hayat’s village, it was an honourable and important work. The seeder collected small slippery seeds in small portions into his mouth and spit them evenly along the arable furrow.

It was impossible to disperse the seeds with the hands because they slipped and woke up. It turned out “somewhere empty, but somewhere densely,” the plants were uneven, the fruits were small and crooked. You will not get a good harvest from such a field.

Hayat took the position of the seeder. The field began to sow, Hayat was doing his job well, but he suddenly stopped, slipped on a wet hummock and flew down to the ground. He did not notice that next to him was the most butted bull of their village, it was Oklush. He was just harnessed to the plow.

Oklush and Hayat

Oklush was a bull with an unrestrained and self-willed temper, but strong and hardy, he worked one for three. So, while Hayat was flying down, he spits out the seeds that he had in his mouth and hit the bull directly into the eye.

Oklush jumped and howled in pain – he broke free and flew to Hayat. Hayat was frightened and ran from the bull, the bull did not stop until he drove Hayat to the tree. Hayat was sitting on a tree and could not get off it. The villagers were running up to the tree, trying to drive away the bull, but it was not possible. Oklush was furious and wanted to take revenge on the offender.

Only when it came dark, the bull managed to drive away from the tree and Hayat could get off it.

The next day the situation repeated, when the bull saw Hayat on the field, he again became furious and ran after him. Again, Hayat spent the whole day on the tree. The plowing stopped because the bull did not stop. All the villagers tried to pacify the bull all day long.

Hayat goes to the road

Hayat returned to his usual life. He carried out on the shore of the lake and he could see what was happening to him. His imagination was painted bright images of fountains, squares, streets, the market square in front of the palace. He usually kept a thin twig in his hands, which he picked up on the way to the lake. Hayat drove this twig along the wet sand, drew fountains and squares in the sand in his imagination.

The village leader decided how to deal with the bull and Hayat, the decision did not take long to wait. A convoy of merchants passed their village, which followed toward the Flying Rocks.

There was enough cloth for sale in the village, only the exit to the market square was postponed because of fieldwork. He decided to send Hayat with the convoy.

Hayat was supposed to take the cloth to one merchant in the city, to help him in trading in the market and to get the household utensils for the villagers and transfer it to the village with the next convoy.

Mindful of the history of the bull, the village leader strictly forbade Hayat not to appear in the village until the fall until the harvest, and by that time the bull will forget his offence.

What’s to do? Hayat got ready for the journey, soon a merchant convoy arrived. Hayat took with him several multi-coloured stones from the lake just in case, hoping to find an application for them. Hayat set off with an easy heart, the cloth of the villagers was excellent, it was a pleasure to trade them. The city was not far away and Hayat had more than once visited it.

After a few days, Hayat arrived with the goods to the merchant. On the first day of the trade, Hayat was very fortunate – he sold all the cloth, only a measured piece remained. Another day he spent in the bazaar, buying everything necessary for the villagers and negotiating with the convoys of merchants about the delivery of goods to the village. It took him two days.

“What’s to do?” Hayat thought. “You cannot go back; the village leader forbade you to return until the fall. There is much time ahead, he has already done his work. What should he do?”

That’s the way he thought, sitting on the square at the fountain he came to the idea: “Go on a trip, see other countries in Azourland. Suddenly he will find a craft that will allow him to surprise other people, win a contest ‘What is this? Guess’.”

No sooner said than done. Hayat bought at the market the things he needed and set off to the road to the Wonderful Green Forest. He heard many stories about this country. Such as the animals there can speak and the country is governed by the elk leader. This country is unusual, magical. Hayat thought that it was better not to find a place to see something new or to learn amazing craftsmanship.

Hayat’s adventures in the Wonderful Green Forest

The weather was wonderful in summer, the sun shone brightly and called to take a trip.

Hayat had been going on the winding roads for several days, a good wind brought him coolness. He heard a stream rustling in front of him. After walking along the stream for few miles, it turned into a full-flowing river. Across the river stretched a quaint wooden bridge, on which a skilled master carved birds and forest animals. “This is the border of the Wonderful Green Forest,” thought Hayat and stepped onto the bridge.

A flock of birds swirled over his head and sat on the railing of the bridge. They were falcons and hawks – guardians of the border of the Wonderful Green Forest. Their heads were decorated with metal helmets, forged to emphasise their significant and warlike appearance. The leader of the guardians was one of the falcons.

The leader looking attentively at Hayat, started to speak to him in the native language of Azouland.

Falkons

“Hello, traveller,” said the main falcon to Hayat, “you have decided to cross the border of the Wonderful Green Forest. And everyone who comes to our country must pass a test to show if he is good natured and has good intentions.

To pass this test you must have a light heart; do not hold grudges against the inhabitants of the Wonderful Green Forest. This is our law and we honour it from the beginning of time.

If you, the traveller, do not pass this test, then you must leave at once and have nothing to do with country.”

Hayat answered the Falcon: “I am ready to take the test; my intentions are good. I’ve heard so much about your wonderful country and I wanted to take a look at it for myself, we say in the Fiery Country: ‘The best song that you sing yourself; the best thing that is done by you’.”

“Then traveller,” said the main falcon, guess this riddle:

“It’s red and furious,
Eats the forests, expels the animals.
Burns but it’s afraid of water.”

Hayat thought for a moment then replied, “It’s a fire, it’s capable of destroying all life in its path,”

“Your answer has deemed you worthy for a traveller,” said the falcon.

“So, remember, while you are a guest in our country, that an uncontrolled fiery temper burns everything in its path, leaves nothing alive, be afraid to get to its fiery impulses. Behave yourself peacefully and respectfully, warming all those who are next to you, like a flame in the hearth, continued the falcon.”

“Give your name traveller, so that forest animals and birds can speak to you in the language of Azourland,” the falcon asked.

Hayat responding, “My name is Hayat.”

“Know, Hayat, that to seek shelter anywhere in our country, you will need to speak your name. You are considered equal to us and we considered you our brother.

In the Wonderful Green Forest, we consider money superfluous, Mother Earth gives us food and shelter. We provide good service to each other instead of money.

Anyone who is a visitor or resident of our country will help animals and birds build huts and carve wood. For every good job you complete, food will be given,” said the falcon and added, “if you Hayat, agree with our laws, pass this bridge.”

Hayat passed the bridge, and the guardians flew into the clouds, from where they watched vigilantly beyond the borders of the Wonderful Green Forest. Hayat was surprised by such an interesting technique and his conversation with the main falcon.

He could now talk to the birds and forest animals of this magical land. He would like to explain to the bull Oklush, that he accidentally spat into his eye and did not want to offend him.