In the old days, only people lived on the earth, impenetrable forests surrounded the encampments of these people on three sides, and on the fourth — there was a steppe. They were cheerful, strong and brave people. And then one day a hard time came: other tribes came from somewhere and drove the former ones into the depths of the forest. There were swamps and darkness, for the forest was old, and its branches were so thickly intertwined that the sky could not be seen through them, and the rays of the sun could hardly make their way to the swamps through the dense foliage. But when its rays fell on the water of the marshes, the stench rose, and from it people died one by one. Then the wives and children of this tribe began to cry, and the fathers became thoughtful and fell into melancholy. It was necessary to leave this forest, and for that there were two roads: one-back-there were strong and evil enemies, the other-forward, there were giant trees, tightly embracing each other with powerful branches, sinking their gnarled roots deep into the tenacious mud of the swamp.
These stone trees stood silent and motionless in the gray twilight during the day, and moved even more closely around the people in the evening when the fires were lit. And always, day and night, there was a ring of strong darkness around those people, as if it was going to crush them, and they were used to the steppe expanse. And it was even more terrible when the wind beat on the tops of the trees and the whole forest hummed hollowly, as if it were threatening and singing a funeral song to those people. They were strong men, after all, and they could have gone to fight to the death with those who had once defeated them, but they could not die in battle, because they had covenants, and if they died, the covenants would have been lost with them. And so they sat and thought in the long nights, under the dull noise of the forest, in the noxious stench of the swamp. As they sat, the shadows of the fires leaped around them in a silent dance, and it seemed to everyone that it was not the shadows that were dancing, but the evil spirits of the forest and swamp who were triumphant…
Fear was born among them, bound their strong hands, terror was born of women crying over the corpses of the dead from the stench and over the fate of the living, bound by fear - and cowardly words began to be heard in the forest, at first timid and quiet, and then louder and louder… They already wanted to go to the enemy and offer him their will as a gift, and no one, frightened by death, was afraid of a slave life… But then Danko came and saved them all alone. [...]
To be continued..
