Solnishko and Maksim’s Friends’ Club

2.1. Thirst for adventure

Every summer Maksim had his vacations in the village with his Granny. He liked to go with her to the forest for mushrooms and berries, to fish in a pond, swim, sunbathe and run across a meadow, simply to relax from the hustle and bustle of Moscow, from endless employment, when the day is scheduled literally in minutes. He liked when someone read for him historical books about ancient civilizations, sailors, pirates, discoverers, he was fond of popular science literature.

There is a lot of work in the village. Maksim helped his Granny in everything. All this was enough for him to rest and recover, but not this summer. The boy was bored. Even chess and a computer could not save him.

Maksim thirsted for adventure. At that time he did not know yet that our thoughts, words, emotions can be materialized. For much of the day he was in dreams and illusions. Perhaps that is why his dreams were extraordinary and so exciting that it was possible to escape film watching. One day Maksim dreamed as if he found himself deep in the forest all alone. It was already late and he got lost. There was such silence all around that he could hear the beating of his own heart. Fear seized the boy. Behind each tree he imagined either a hungry bear, eager to grab and drag him to his lair, or a lone wolf, fighting off the pack and scouring in search of prey. The farther he went, the more terrible it became: behold the Leshiy, waiting for him behind each bush, and there is Zmey Gorynich, who went out for a walk through the forest in search of fresh human blood and the thrill of sensations.

Maksim literally became numb. He did not know what to do: to go further or go back? Meanwhile, it began to darken and get colder. It was necessary to make some decision as soon as possible. And Maksim decided to go on his way in search of a night shelter. But, alas, in the dark he did not notice a tree fallen to the ground, apparently, by a strong wind. He stumbled, injured and dislocated his leg. The leg was swollen and each movement caused severe pain. The boy spent a lot of time and energy looking for a stick on which he could lean and somewhat alleviate his suffering. Then it started to rain. When Maksim was completely exhausted, wet and lost hope of finding shelter, dim light loomed ahead through the trees. The boy was delighted, and at that moment his only desire was that this light should not be a mirage, a figment of his imagination.

The hope of finding shelter gave the boy new strength, and, overcoming the pain, he went towards the light. Soon all doubts disappeared in himself. The light came from a hut, sheltered in the thicket of the forest. Maksim’s heart pounded. So, there are people nearby who will help him. When the boy finally reached the hut, he knocked on the door. No one answered. He knocked again and again. There was no answer. Then the boy tried to open the door. The door succumbed and he entered the hut. It was illuminated through the light emitted by a candle. It was tidied up everywhere. A large mat was spread out on the floor, the stove was burning and something was boiling in the stove in a large clay pot, covered with a lid. Only now Maksim suddenly felt a strong hunger. But from the pot came a strange intoxicating smell, not conducive to food. There was not a soul around. It seemed that someone had just gone out of the hut for a short while. Approaching closer to the stove to warm up, the boy patiently began to wait for the owners of the hut. He took off his wet clothes and shoes, laid them on the stove to dry.

Quite a lot of time passed, but no one appeared. Then the boy, exhausted from fatigue, pain and hunger, decided to eat a little. He took the pot out of the oven, put some of its contents in a smaller clay pot, took out a wooden spoon and began to eat a pottage soup, if only you could call like that the muddy liquid made possibly from leaves, roots and flowers of different plants. The food was very tasteless, with a disgusting smell, but Maksim, forgetting the saying often repeated by his mother, that it was better to be hungry than to eat, whatever, continued to eat. Soon he felt that his body seemed to be filled with lead. Legs, hands, head, tongue hardly obeyed him. With the last spoonful of food, he felt himself falling into a whirlpool. There was total darkness. It is not known how much the boy overslept. He woke up from severe pain in his leg and the touch of a terrible monster, bending over him and carefully examining his leg. The monster was huge. It occupied almost the entire space of the hut free from things. The monster resembled a two-headed snake with the body of a crocodile. His eyes burned with fire. The boy was horrified and closed his eyes. But, strange thing, with such dimensions and terrible appearance, it spoke in a beautiful and soft human voice:

– Already better. Wait a while. I fixed your leg, healed the wound, now I will again rub it with ointment, I will change the bandage and you’ll feel better.

So it began carefully looking after the boy. Its movements were quick and agile. It was felt that the monster was able to handle wounds and heal. All this was so ridiculous that it seemed to Maksim that he was still sleeping. But the pain let go and fear left him with it. The boy suddenly realized that he trusted the monster and even rejoiced at his presence. A conversation ensued between them, from which it followed that Maksim slept for seven days. The pottage soup he ate was actually a terrible potion of a witch, who had bewitched a noble prince and turned him into a monster. The boy was lucky that it was not yet completely ready. Otherwise, Maksim would fall asleep forever.

– The potion is prepared for a whole year, and this period expires today. Exactly at midnight the witch will return for it, – said the prince in the guise of a monster.

– Excuse me Your Majesty, but how can you talk so calmly about this?! – the boy was surprised. – How many other lives can the witch cripple?! – Let me destroy the potion, – said Maksim, heading for the stove.

– Wait! – the monster stopped him. – What are you doing? This potion is my only chance to regain my former appearance, – the monster shouted.

These words stopped the boy and made him think. It turned out that the witch needed the prince in order to prepare the potion. Threatening the prince with the death of his parents, the witch took the word from him that he would strictly abide by all her instructions. During all this time, the monster kept fire in the furnace, every day at the same time it added the necessary number of roots, leaves, flowers and fruits of certain plants that it collected in the forest to the contents of the pot.

– However I can not understand anyway why the witch chose me.

– But because you were born a prince, so, a man of honor. Then, educated and obviously you have something to lose. To inspire you to work hard, Your Majesty, the witch invented a spell:

– Be in the guise of a terrible monster until a beauty girl will not be fallen in love with you.

And the witch continued, by grinning:

– And if it’s not, it doesn’t matter either, you’ll wait for my death, maybe in a few years… in a thousand. My death is your deliverance.

– The year has passed. As soon as I appeared, all the girls scattered.

– Your suffering is in vain, Your Majesty. The beauty girl is an indefinite concept, – the boy tried to console the prince.

– Your truth, – the prince answered. – I really didn’t think about it. – As for death, then the witch was deceiving. Jesus Christ himself appeared to me in a dream and said:

– The witch’s death is in her potion. And if you manage to feed her all the potions at once, then she will fall asleep forever.

– All this year I have been carrying out a plan of salvation, but I haven’t come up with anything. And time remains less and less. The witch will appear, take away the potion and I will have to wait for my chance for another whole year. Yes, and it’s not safe for you to stay here. If the witch sees or smells you… then I can’t help you here, – the monster finished his story with sadness in his voice, – but because… your leg is almost healed, your swelling has gone down, you can return home before it gets completely dark.

– Let me take care of you in gratitude.

Maksim lay down on the mat, closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, as his mother often did when she was meditating. Mom was doing yoga. Many people among Mom’s friends were not serious about her hobby, but she said that it was thanks to Yoga that she was able to remove all stressful loads: physical and emotional. Yoga also helps her make the right decisions and, most importantly, on time.

“Mom, help me, don’t let me down,” – the boy begged, mentally addressing his mother and trying to relax as much as possible and concentrate on the problem that tormented him.

At first, nothing worked. Maksim could not throw off the burden of the past, all the emotions that fell on him. This prevented him from starting from scratch. It made it difficult to focus on the present. Then he tried to revive the image of his Mom, the dearest person to him. It seems to have worked. The tension subsided. Even a smile played on the boy’s lips. Gradually, he calmed down, plunged into the sweet dream of childhood memories, when in moments of disappointment, sadness and longing, Mom caressed him, indulged all his whims, and when he calmed down, as if instructing him meantime, she taught him about life. And all this was so unobtrusive, calm, without fuss, annoyance, in a quiet melodious voice, and, as a rule, before bedtime. He suddenly distinctly heard his Mom’s voice, calming, lulling. And the boy began to quietly sink into a nap. It seemed to him that his soul had separated from his body and began to wander around the hut, looking into every corner of it. Then it went somewhere down to the cellar, the entrance to which was hidden under the mat. It began to examine the shelves filled with bottles, buckets, jars of vinegar; on them lay various dried herbs, garlic, the remains of people and animals, skulls, bones, hair… In a word, the whole witchcraft set of the witch. Then, as if having finished the inspection, the soul returned to the body and an inner voice awakened him from sleep: “It is time, my friend, wake up! You know what to do. Hurry up.”

And Maksim, as if nothing had happened, got up from the mat, lifted it and went down to the cellar. Meanwhile, the monster which had been amazed at him all this time continued to remain silent. It could not go down due to its size and therefore began to wait for the boy upstairs. After some time, Maksim appeared with cans of vinegar and a bunch of garlic in his hands. He began to scatter garlic and sprinkle vinegar in the corners, on the floor of the hut and cellar. Then he asked the monster to crush the garlic. As a result of all these manipulations, the hut was saturated with the pungent smell of vinegar and garlic, which interrupted even the terrible smell of the potion.

– Maybe you can explain what do all this mean? – the monster was curious.

– I need to hide in the cellar. So that the witch did not smell a human smell, I had to make this mess, – the boy explained.

– What do you command to tell the witch? How to explain all this to her? – asked the monster.

– You will tell her that you accidentally touched with your tail cans of vinegar and a bunch of garlic, – Maksim explained. – And when the witch lies down to rest, replace the contents of the pot with a decoction, which we will now prepare. Then mix the potion with her lunch. She will not feel anything with hunger.

– But garlic and vinegar are in the basement. I can’t get there. The witch will guess that strangers have been here, – the monster objected with doubt in its voice.

– I apologize, Your Majesty, I could not come up with anything better, – the boy replied with a note of annoyance in his voice, caused by a misunderstanding of the prince. Thus he continued:

– It’s because you don’t get there, she, tired of the road further, will not suspect anything. In addition, you will be extremely polite and courteous with her, my prince. Although she is a witch but still a woman…

– It was invented superbly! – the monster evaluated the plan of Maksim. – I dare to hope the witch will not change her usual routine.

The new potion was ready. Roles were divided. It remained to wait for the witch. She did not keep herself waiting long. At exactly midnight the wind whistled, a storm rose, the forest rustled, swished, the shutters of the windows of the hut rattled, the door creaked, and the witch flew into her hut on her broomstick. She screeched, noticing the monster which was removing garlic crushed on the floor:

– What a pogrom you made here!

– Sorry, this was not on purpose. My tail touched a bunch of garlic and a jar of vinegar, – the monster began to make excuses.

Sneezing and cursing, the witch went to the stove to check the quality of the potion.

– I see you worked hard. The potion turned out to be excellent, – said the witch, opening the lid of the pot and stirring the muddy liquid with a wooden spoon. – Only these disgusting smells of vinegar and garlic do not allow me to enjoy the aroma of the potion.

– Okay, all the talking later. I’m tired of the road. I should lie down to rest, while you will cook dinner. In the mortar you will find everything you need.

With these words, the witch lied on the mat and fell asleep in a sound sleep. Her snoring was heard not only in the cellar, but throughout the forest.

The monster, meanwhile, laid out the witch’s bones, skulls, berries, greens and meat from the mortar in a large pot, added water and put it in the oven to cook. An unbearable smell of human remains went throughout the hut, which in the process of cooking became more and more disgusting. Then the monster changed the potion to a new decoction, and added the potion to the witch’s dinner. It seemed to the monster that the witch would wake up very soon and it would not be able to complete the work he had begun. But each time the witch only turned over from side to side and continued to snore. The monster was very restless. Today its fate was decided. Any wrong move, any accident could delay the implementation of his plans for a whole year.

The prince in the form of a monster was in a hard condition, but it was even harder for the boy. He crouched in the cellar between barrels filled with some strange and nasty-smelling liquids. Their smell made him sick, his head was spinning, and he seemed to fall into some kind of semi-unconscious state. This was the only place where the witch could not notice him in case she tried to go down to the cellar. In addition, Maksim decided to be careful perhaps in order to kill the human smell. All these inconveniences drowned out fear. But he took a big risk.

Meanwhile, the witch did not think to wake up. Three hours have passed. The monster tried to escape from thoughts of salvation. But nothing worked out.

– How did the boy meditate? – thought the monster. – I need to concentrate on something good.

And the prince remembered his country, the palace, the king and the queen. How sad they must have been when he disappeared. How much grief has gone through, how much tears have been spilled… However, no need for sad things.

Images were recalled from childhood when, as a child, he comprehended the wisdom of fencing, learned to ride a horse. The best teachers in natural sciences, languages, music, painting, dancing and military art were invited to teach him. Father was fond of the East and believed that his son should perfectly master all types of cold weapons, martial arts. He paid special attention to healing, the study of all kinds of poisons, their antidotes.

The prince remembered his faithful friend-mentor, with whom he shared all his innermost thoughts, experiences. The prince read a lot. He was especially interested in stories about generals. He knew the details of all the famous battles. Since childhood he was fond of Alexander the Great and Hannibal. The prince largely imitated them. He led the same Spartan lifestyle. He absented himself from the palace for a long time, disguised as artisans or merchants and wandering with his friend in the kingdom. He knew well the needs and aspirations of his people. He tried to be fair and be faithful to his principles.

Once during a hunt, they wandered with a friend into a dense forest and fell into the hands of an evil witch. The prince sent his friend back. He was saved, but the prince did not have time to hide. And the evil sorceress turned him into a terrible monster, of which only one sight was terrifying for everyone he had to face. And therefore, the monster itself, sparing the feelings of people, shied away from them. And if the witch didn’t instruct at specific hours to collect everything necessary for the potion in certain places in the forest, it would sit all year in a hut. Hunger made the monster hunt at night.

– But why I am thinking only about bad things. Apparently, it’s time to get up, – the monster did not have time to think, as the witch’s shrill voice came: