Zorya is a wild and a beautiful, pagan princess who loves spending time in the depths of her forest, side by side with her wolf, becoming one with a nature.
Darius is a cruel, and dark Christian King, feared by many, with a tragic fate, who comes t...
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"Come on little one, you need to be steady with an arrow." Zorya said to the little girl. She was helping children as they were practicing on how to use bow and arrow. Zorya was quite cheerful today, as always. It was so rare to see her without a wide smile across her face.
Her axe was always with her, in case someone needed to be defended, and her wolf named Kreshnik was always by her side. It was a big, grey wolf, his name had a deeper meaning. It has a meaning of a spirit who wanders in the bodies of animals and fights evil spirits and vampires ensuring happiness and safety of the people.
"Go easy on them sister, they are still young." Boris said as he stood with Yaropolk in the distance.
"Nobody went easy on us when we were their age and I think we turned out quite well brother." Zorya said with a smile and then walked over to a little boy as he was trying to hold an arrow that was almost bigger than him.
"Don't be afraid little one. Someday you are going to be a man, and you will defend your family and your nation, right?" Zorya asked the little boy who smiled at the beautiful pagan princess.
"Now shoot, make the gods proud of you." Zorya said to the little boy as he tried to shoot the arrow in the apple once again, this time he managed to slightly brush it with an arrow and it fall on the ground.
"Good! You may take your apple!" Zorya said to the boy who happily took an apple. The other kids tried shooting as well, as they wanted to claim the big, red apple as well.
"You really find a way to motivate them." Yaropolk said .
"Well it is better than them off with The Screamer isn't it Boris?" Zorya asked and glared at her brother.
"Oh come on Boris, why did you do that? The Screamer always gave me chills when I was little." Yaropolk said.
The Screamer, or how Slavs used to call him "Drekavac" was a monster like spirit that resembled children that died unbaptised with the old pagan ways. So The Screamer walks around the graves, and yells horrifyingly begging the people to baptize it.
"Well fear is always a good motivation." Yaropolk answered.
"Oh is it really?" Zorya asked as she watched the little kids who successfully shoot their arrows into the apples and then happily run to them and took them.
"I think Zorya wins. She is a better teacher. Sorry brother" Boris said and ruffled hair of his younger sister.
Yaropolk was the eldest among the them, so he gained the significant amount of respect from his younger siblings most of the times. But even he had to admit that Zorya was more creative than him.
"Will you tell us a story Princess Zorya?" One little girl asked her.
"Oh yes, sister you are good at telling stories." Boris said.
"Please?" Little boy asked.
"Fine, everyone gather around. I am going to tell you a story about how Rod created the world." Zorya said and children sat around. Kreshnik sat down by her side, earning a pet by Zorya, the children weren't afraid of him either, the wolf often played with the children around.
There once was a Golden egg wrapped in dark and nothingness and in that egg was the father of all the mankind- Rod. Rod broke out of the Golden Egg, and immediately created himself a helpmeet-this is Mother Lada, goddess of love. And with this love he breaks through the darkness and straight away gets to work separating the oceans and seas from the skies." Zorya begant talking as everyone were listening to her carefully.
"He divided the world into 3 parts: Правь (Prav) which is the place for gods. The visible world he called Явь (Yav). The lower world was the underworld called навь (Nav). This was the place for the deceased." Zorya said.
"Next, Rod bore Mother Nature, Goddess Mokosh that we respect so much.
And the sun was made from Rod's face-from, the face of the heavenly god! The father of the gods!
And the shining moon from his chest...
The dense stars from his eyes...
The bright sunrise from his eyebrows...
The dark nights from his thoughts...
Powerful winds from his breath...
Rain and snow and hail from his tears...
And his voice became thunder and lightning..."
Rod then creates a son and breathes life into him"
Zorya spoke with a smile, about the great myth of how everything was created, so passionately, always amazed by the stories of the Gods.
As she spoke, Vadim and Mira stood in the distance listening to their daughter with a smile on their faces.
"She is going to be a great mother someday." Mira said.
"Of course she will Mira, but we have no time to think about that. You know that another war may come." Vadim said as the smile began fading from his face.
"It doesn't have to be like my love. The gods are going to protect us from the evil." Mira answered.
"Darius The Dark knows no gods." Vadim said.
"But the gods know everyone." Mira replied with a smile and made her husband look at her by touching his face. "We survived many wars, we can survive this one as well if King Darius decides to start a war against us." Mira said.
"You are right, the gods know everyone and everything."
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