"Evan, Roland, you are finally back!"
Before Roland and Evan had time to step into the throne room of the castle, Tani ran up to them block the passage, trying to simultaneously capture both Evan and Roland. They returned only a week later in the evening, performed with state, diplomatic duties in Goldpaw all this time.
"I could not wait for you . became so boring - just deadly boring without you and dizzying adventures it. I began to count the clock. I just didn't know what to do with myself…".
Tani caught Roland's searching gaze.
"Oh, don't worry, I worked during the day," the pirate began to make excuses, "but in the evening boredom prevailed and I…".
Suddenly, behind Tani, there were sounds that were hard to determine, from the throne room. It was a combination of a squeak, the sound of water droplets, bells, rattles and a strange rustling of leaves or wind. And cheerful laugh sounded on the background.
"Oh, what's that over there?" Evan asked in surprise.
Tani was suddenly embarrassed and threw back an excited look.
"Uhhh ..." the girl hesitated a little and tried to close her passage with a little figure. "Nothing much, really. Maybe you will go for dinner? Dinner is already waiting for you. You are so suddenly back."
"Suddenly? Tani, what happened? Roland noticed a mischievous light in Tani's eyes and, at the same time, it seemed as if she had been taken by surprise. "So, what happening there, explain us. I hope you haven'I blown the castle up?"
The door suddenly began to tremble, Tani instinctively pressed her back to it.
"N-nothing," Tani hesitated. "Nothing happened, everything is in order. Just…".
"Tani!" exclaimed Evan in horror.
The door swung open, so that the girl barely managed to run away to the side, and something like a whirlwind formed from green steam, green leaves and various wildflowers suddenly flew out from inside the throne room.
Roland and Evan ran to the side. The whirlwind made a circle in the waiting room and, crashing into the wall, splashed onto the floor in a huge puddle.
"HIIIG!" was heard again.
Evan, Roland and Tani turned around: through the open doors of the throne room a green higgledy ran out and, shaking a leaf on his head, greeted the travelers, inviting them to go inside.
"What was it? Tani, what kind of storm did you arrange for us in the castle?" Evan was perplexed, carefully walking around the newly formed puddle.
Roland resolutely went to the throne room and was dumbfounded at the sight of the picture before his eyes. The throne room was transformed into a bizarre greenhouse or, more precisely, a miniature forest. The walls, windows were entwined with vineyards, ivy roses. Trees and shrubs grew around the throne and on the sides of the hall. Free space was dotted with roses, tulips, peonies and some unprecedented varieties of flowers. The slabs on the floor were covered with grass and green moss. Butterflies and birds flew around the room, chirping merrily, from branch to branch, and in the middle of the hall, higgledies rode and tumbled around, making the sounds of bells, drops of water that Roland and Evan heard outside the doors. Two higgledies attracted special attention: one higgledy was holding a brush in his hands and enthusiastically painted the remains of the plates of the throne room - in the place where the higgledy was drawing with a brush, grass grew; from above, he painted flowers that immediately made their way through the earth and gracefully opened their bright robes. Another higgledy conjured huge stalks right in the air in the form of intertwining slides on which higgledies jumped and rode with joyful screeching, colliding with each other and making the sounds of a bells, which meant higgledies laughing.
In the hall were Martha surrounded by a dozen higgledies, tugging at her skirt and jumping on her shoulders, and Muriel from the peaceful pasture of Evermore.
"It seems to me that I'm either sleeping or crazy, pinch me," Roland said, looking around the "Mini Forest of Niall".
"Tani, can you still explain what is going on here?" exclaimed Evan, dumbfounded by what he saw. The young king tried to behave with restraint and even strictly, but he could not restrain the enthusiasm for the embodiment of the forest masterpiece right in the throne room.
Tani bowed her head guiltily.
"Yes, we overdid it a bit, I admit," Tani looked from under her forehead with apprehension at Roland, since she was the most careful about his reproaches. Roland watched the pirate girl carefully, folding his arms over his chest, waiting for an explanation. "You see, today's grass hygledy's birthday," Evan's eyes widened in surprise, "and we decided to celebrate it by organizing a forest festival. Well, you must admit," Tani went on, determined," after all, this is an important event, and the hygledy also deserves a full royal feast, right?"
Tani and Evan looked expectantly at Roland, whose face remained serious.
"Yes, the forest festival was a success," Roland summed up.
He was silent for a few seconds, looking around, and suddenly laughed, which pleased Evan and Tani indescribably. Roland's laugh signified the approval and condonation of Tani's innocent prank, which had grown into an unprecedented forest inside the throne room of Evermore."
"Of course, Tani, you're right. Higgledies also have the right to a royal birthday celebration, and we should also congratulate them, so I think we should join in the general fun, " Evan resolutely nodded his head.
Tani shone with joy at once. The higgledies surrounded the trinity and jumped around it, expressing joy and admiration.
"But this, if you are interested in my opinion, is a very wise decision," intervened Martha's voice, who went up to Roland and Evan along with Muriel's loss. "Please join us, me dears."
"HIGGG," the higledy birthday boy issued a bell as a token of gratitude, drank some tea and, with a ringing, put a tiny cup on a plate.
The prank conceived by Tani turned into a warm family evening, which brought everyone together. Martha set the table with sweet tea from the fragrant healing herbs of Evermore and wonderful little cakes. After a long period of adventures, the founding of a new kingdom, hard work, heroic battles, state affairs, for the first time Evan and his closest subjects, his subjects and friends simply rested their souls in an atmosphere of friendship, carelessness and love. He felt that such a small spiritual pause, no matter how insane a little it was embodied, was simply necessary, and not only for him, but also for Roland, who worked for the good of the kingdom, not sparing himself, then leaving for diplomatic affairs, then burrowing in the central archive of Goldpaw. The last time he felt such warmth and peace before the death of his father and Aranella in Dind Dond Dell, when his father arranged cozy evenings with his closest subjects (among which was the royal adviser to King Leonhard Otto Mausinger). And now it he felt so good: "Here it is - Evermore," thought Evan with a smile, looking around his friends, surrounded by the higgledies jumping around them and around the table: Tani and Muriel, who chirped gaily between themselves, giggled, bending over some then an object in Muriel's hands, which Evan could not see on the other side of the table; to the bully of Batu, who looked funny with a tiny cup in his hands, into which Martha poured tea: "Indeed, I prefer something stronger, but this is the most delicious tea I have ever tasted!"; on Roland's restrained smile, he was looking thoughtfully off into the distance, supporting his chin with his hand, on his face, always calm, one could see satisfaction and peace. Evan was glad of this expression on Roland's face, because usually, no matter how Roland tried to keep calm, encouraging and supporting Evan with a restrained, but always sincere and warm smile, Evan saw a shadow and inexpressible longing in the depths of his eyes. None of the subjects, even Tani, could notice this small detail of Roland's portrait characteristic, but Evan, for whom Roland became unusually close and dear, watched intently his elder friend, his emotional state and noticed how Roland was sometimes invisibly to others went to the window and looked somewhere far into the night, while his eyes reflected frozen bitterness, or retired to a long garden or field. Evan realized for a long time that Roland was hiding in the depths of his heart, experiencing a whole drama, but he never dared to ask what happened in his life, which now hung like a heavy burden on him, squeezing his throat, not allowing enjoying fully all the colors of life. But Evan's heart was filled with delight when Roland looked at him: at that moment, the lurking anguish in the depths of his eyes disappeared, and they were replaced by pride and even fatherly tenderness.
"What a wonderful evening! Tani, my dear, thank you for such a glorious idea to arrange a holiday for higgledies," Martha turned kindly to Tani.
Tani burned with joy.
"I just thought that Evermore is really the most extraordinary, wonderful country that I have ever heard of, like its king," Tani glanced towards Evan, blushing a little. "Aranella bequeathed to Evan to build a country where everyone will be happy and smile, but to achieve this, it is necessary that everyone feels comfortable, everyone feels necessary and important, regardless of rank, race, origin, size. Each resident of Evermore should be a holiday for each other.
All the higgledies jumped together and rang, supporting Tani's fiery speech. The audience also greeted the words with applause.
"Well done, Tani. You showed sensitivity and attentiveness. Maybe a little in an extravagant form, " Roland grinned.
"Really? I'm so glad! Evan, Roland, you are no longer angry with me, I hope?
"What do you say, Tani!" Evan shook his head. "We thank you. There would not be such a wonderful family party that we all needed without you.
"Friends," Muriel addressed everybody, "Tani and I still want to show something. Look!" and Muriel finally held out on her palm what they examined enthusiastically with Tani - it was a little chick who, having pulled his head into his body, pouted, fluffed up and chirped.
"Wow, Muriel, it is so nice!" laughed Evan. "Where did you get it?"
"Once I went into the field to graze a flock of my lambs, and while they were saturating peacefully, I walked forward wherever my eyes looked (Evan, Tani and Roland looked at each other, recalling the case when they had to look for Muriel, who was lost because she wandered into the unknown, dreaming about something)". Muriel explained.
"Well, this time you did not wander off somewhere and Evan did not have to look for you," Batu interrupted in a thunderous voice.
"Yes," Muriel agreed and continued. "Maybe I would have been lost if I hadn't heard a strange squeak under my feet. I was distracted from my dreams and saw a little chick falling out of the nest in the grass. It had not know how to fly yet, and there was no one to help it, and I decided that since my mother did not return to the chick, I had to take care of it. We nursed him along with Tani, and today it has fully recovered and is already learning to fly. Your Majesty, want to hold it?" Muriel handed the chick and put Evan in her hands. Evan received him with trepidation. The little bird joyfully flapped its wings in the hands of the young king.
"How cute it is!" Evan exclaimed, holding his breath.
Roland approached Evan to look too.
"Roland, maybe you want to hold too?" Tani took a chick from Evan and put it in Roland's hands.
Apparently, the bird really liked Roland's hands no less than Evan's: it fluffed up and began to rub its head and body on his fingers.
Roland's face suddenly changed completely. It was filled with such trepidation, tenderness, his eyes suddenly shone, so that all those present were surprised. Evan, Tani and Batu had never seen Roland like this.
"Roland, you have changed so much!" Tani remarked.
"I ... I`ve just remembered something," Roland said quietly.
There are memories In the life of any person, probably, that pop up in memory only after many years, under the influence of some fleeting impulse, sensation, a case from the present, which carries back, resurrects a thing that has gone into oblivion. Moreover, not only some inconsequential episodes of life can be forgotten. Innermost and significant memories can disappear, but later they are resurrected and come up in memory with vivid pictures suddenly, like a flash of lightning,. The same thing happened to Roland when Tani put a chick in his palms.
When everyone went to bed closer to night, Roland could not fall asleep for a long time, under the influence of living pictures of the past that had risen from the inside of the memory. Toward dawn, he dressed and left the territory of Evermore, heading for the coast of the sea. Not reaching the coast, he stopped in the middle of the field, watching the sun rise slowly from under the horizon, as the first timid rays emerged from the fog and began to cover the sparkling gilding grass, trees, hills. Time to time the morning refreshing breeze gently touched the grass, and she, as if hugging, enveloped her legs. Almost like then, on the day when the dark-haired boy came running into the reed field to cry out his pain to nature, only the reeds were so tall that they could easily cover Roland in full growth. Beaten and humiliated, the boy rushed into the thickest and most distant thickets of reeds and, falling to the ground, cried. He mourned the defenseless chick, that Ollie and his friends threw rudely and ruthlessly into the field, his helplessness and inability to protect even those close to him and dear to him, his worthlessness and earthly injustice. Olli hit him very hard and knocked him to the ground, as a result of which the boy hurt himself badly and scratched his arm, blood flowed from the wound, spreading a trickle along the golden-green stems, but Roland, depressed by the pain, did not pay attention to physical pain, he did not care . "Why, when you want to protect a creature dear to you, you lack the strength of mind to do this? Why? Why is everything so unfair? I could not protect him, I could not! But why should an innocent creature suffer because of my insignificance? "flashed through the boy's head. Soon the tears dried up, and he simply lay on the grass, exhausted from mental and physical pain, listening to the silence, broken only by the light rustling of reeds. The sun suddenly hid, the air became stale and hot, as before the rain.
Suddenly Roland caught a strange rustling in the distance, as if someone was wading through reeds. He sat up and began to look around warily, preparing to flee from Ollie. But, listening, he realized that this was not Ollie: someone was walking slowly, smoothly and carefully, as if afraid to violate natural harmony, to bring chaos, alarm. Finally, the reeds parted, and a little girl emerged from them, gently stepping on the ground. She was dressed in a cream dress, belted with a pink-purple belt, there were cream shoes on her legs, similar to ballet shoes, with ribbons wrapping her legs up to her knees, and her dark hair was also tied with a cream ribbon. A strange small bag was tied to her belt on her side. Roland never met this girl. Much less saw one of the girls from school dress like this. The dress looked beautiful on a stranger, but it could not be called festive at the same time. It seemed to be made for wearing in a completely different time.
The little stranger approached Roland, and only then he noticed that she carried something carefully in her hands.
"Don't get so killed, here is your friend," she said, reaching out a hand to the boy, in whom lay a lifeless chick.
"But he is dying," Roland stated bitterly, not understanding why this stranger tormented him, but for some reason, every intonation of her gentle and warm voice inspired calm.
"No, he is still alive," the stranger shook her head with a slight smile. She sat down on the grass with her legs under her, and, opening her hands with a chick, she tilted her head to it and closed her eyes. Roland was ready to swear that he saw how a barely noticeable flash of light passed from the girl's hands to the chick. The stranger opened her eyes and held out her palms with the chick to Roland.
"Look," she said.
The chick in the palms of the girl began to come to life slowly, and the children silently watched the process of miraculous recovery. The girl sometimes stroked the feathers of the bird with one finger. Each stranger's movement was conscious, full of delicacy, tenderness, as if she blessed it and its whole being and everything that she touched.
The stranger got up and extended her arms to put the chick in Roland's open palms. For a moment, her palms with the chick lingered in the palms of the boy, and he felt the pleasant warmth of her small tender fingers.
"Now trust me," the girl crouched next to him and took his bloodied hand. Her face was so close that the boy could make out her large green eyes, which struck him with childish seriousness and penetration; they radiated light and the power of life. None of the children younger and older than him, he did not see such eyes, reflecting as if the whole content of life. The stranger seemed to him an integral part of a harmonious natural landscape: so clean, direct, meaningful in details and at the same time fragile and gentle. The wound on the arm healed, but on the heart it became easy and calm.
"Roland!" Roland started up and turned around, returning from his memories to reality. It seemed to him that someone was calling him - but it was only the wind rustling in the grass, in a mysterious voice whispering the name.
The stranger left as suddenly as she appeared hiding in the thicket of reeds, and Roland never saw her again and haven't heard anything about her...