Hi from reality English (2023-2025)

Follow the raven

*Art – unprocessed photo.

"No one is eavesdropping on us," the witch drew a fire sign, surrounding the space with a wall of Silence, "speak boldly, queen."
The beautiful woman looked around. Nothing but the forest. Not even a single bird.
"Make sure he never remembers that he's waited somewhere. May he never won't leave."
The witch moved away from the tree-stump, sat down at the table, opposite the queen and propped her face with her hand, thinking.
"Yes, our country has long waited for such a king. It won't be good if he leaves"
"And who he was there, nothing,"sighed the queen.
"Are someone is waiting for him a lot?"
The queen sighed.
"To some girl he promised to return, to their village, they didn't even have anything between. She gave him a forget-me-not. Here it is."
The witch took a thin, dry flower laid out on the table by the queen.
"I will help you, queen," nodded the witch.
The queen suddenly shuddered.
"There's a raven!" She pointed to a tree.
The witch turned around, looking where the queen was pointing.
"It's not a raven, laughed the witch, it's a branch".
The queen took a closer look and exhaled a smile.
" I so scared!"
"Me too... – the witch said thoughtfully and smiled too, – take this, return it to the place where you took the forget-me-not. Say that you gave it to him when you first met him. And he kept it."
A withered white clover appeared on the table.
The queen hid the flower and put the crystal on the table as a token of payment.
The witch nodded and the crystal disappeared.
"Go now, and don't worry about anything. Our king will stay with us."
XXXX
"Ay, what's that again! The girl stroked her ankle with a ringing hiss, and pushed the branch that whipped her. Didn't break it, just pushed it. "Damn forest, why are you so mean!"
She had been walking for days now, and the forest still wouldn't end.
The girl sat down on the grass, leaning her back against a tree.
"I don't seem to be walking in circles, the marks are all in place, what's an enchanted place!"
The girl talked aloud, hoping that maybe someone would hear and want to help her.
"Why are you just sitting there? She saw a raven among the branches, you could show me a short way out of this forest!.. Ah, you're a branch."
The girl sighed and smiled, admiring the game of shadows and foliage.
"So vivid!" She came closer to the tree, the silhouette of the raven, which loomed between the leaves was a whimsical play of nature. The foliage around the branch gathered like that, drawing the black bird.
"Follow me, I'll walk you out," she heard and shuddered.
It was the branch that spoke.
"Oh... you are alive. Thank you! I've been looking for a way out for days."
"I've been looking for you for days, too," cawed the raven, flying down from the tree and slowly flew to the direction where the girl came from.
"Hey, where are you going, I came from there, I need to go to the kingdom of the Golden Cedars!"
"I know, follow me."
"But we're going the wrong way!"
"Follow me and never, never argue with me again."
"Or what?" muttered the girl, following the raven.
"Otherwise you'll do what I say, only wasting time and getting into more troubles."
XXXX
"Gods help," heard the witch mocking voice and froze over the tree-stump, on the polished surface of which she drew pentacles.
The woman turned sharply. The stranger was smiling easily, rather, only with his eyes, not with his lips. Huh, stranger, the witch recognized them immediately. Something about them all was the same. The ruthless gaze of assassins.
"Thank you, the witch said warily and ingratiatingly, what brings you to me, stranger?"
"Give it to me," he held out his palm.
"What?" the witch asked in a servile and surprised manner.
"Give me the forget-me-not."
The witch sighed sorrowfully.
"Not a branch, huh? It was you after all?"
The stranger barely shrugged.
"Please, don't take him away, huh? Leave him to us. We've suffered for so many years. Let the people live well. Do you want the crystal? Take it. You see, here.
The crystal of desire appeared in the witch's palm.
The stranger now smiled genuinely.
"You can keep the crystal. Give me the forget-me-not. He will remain your king. The queen will be changed. "