Бесплатный фрагмент - Magic Colors of Rinia

Magic colors of Rinia

by Viktoriia Filina

Illustrated by Lesya Bilenko

Edited by Marie Date

Text copyright © 2016 Viktoriia Filina

All Rights Reserved

To my husband and kids for their love and support

Table of Contents

Prologue

Balinese sunsets over the ocean are to be admired endlessly. They’re so beautifully fascinating that you can’t take your eyes off them.

In the second visit to the Island of the Gods, Bali, our family moved from the green Ubud to the hot ocean side for a couple of days. We immediately arrived at Dreamland, our favorite beach.

We strolled along the white sands, peeped into dark caves, took photographs of fuzzy green coastal stones, admired the power of the ocean and swam in the blue water just before the stunning sunset. The ocean belonged only to the surfers until the sunset; the waves were huge, a surfer’s paradise.

When it started growing dark, a nice old woman appeared on the beach. My daughter, Veronica is always very willing to make friends with “beautiful women” Of course, she also found a common language with this new friend. Later, I sat down with them and heard a fairy tale.

The woman turned out to be an Englishwoman who was married to a Russian man. One day, they came to Indonesia and fell in love with Ubud. When her husband retired, they bought a small house and settled on the island.

The woman’s name was Anabella. Her husband died, and now she lived here alone. When she met children, she told them fairy tales. Anabella told Veronica about the magic country.

Chapter One

…Suf opened his eyes. An endless gray lifeless desert stretched out in front of him. It’d been green and blooming once. Birds were chirping all around, flowers were growing, his children were running. But it was all gone in no time. Everything had disappeared: love, happiness, and then there was ash. A lot of ash. Then emptiness. Whom to blame? There was no one. Sadness and grayness around. Life was a disappointment.

Suf closed his eyes…

Eugenia was standing in her room. Paint from the paint brush in her hand was dripping on the floor, drop by drop. And the orange flower on the white wall was appearing brighter and brighter. The room was becoming filled with light.

Eugenia lived with her parents in a beautiful house surrounded by the forest.

There were a lot of birds in the forest. She loved to listen to them singing. Birds used to fly into the room, to peck the grain from her hands, they’d leap on her shoulders and even nestled into her hair.

Once, a baby bird with an injured leg flew into her room. He was a dirty-gray color, skinny and weak. The little girl nursed him for a whole month. She splinted his leg and fed him until he could fly, his plumage started shimmering with a blue-green color. The baby bird recovered and stayed. Eugenia called him Lotus and they became great friends.

Everywhere Eugenia walked, Lotus sat upon her shoulder. He pecked from her plate, swam with her in the lake. He seemed to even read books with her. Lotus settled on the wardrobe in her room.

Eugenia had an unusual room. To be more exact, Eugenia’s mother was unusual. She was an artist. When they were building the house, her mother told the builders to paint all the walls in white.

Eugenia and her mother painted pictures on these white walls.

They just painted the picture according to their mood. Eugenia painted her room herself. When she wanted to draw a new picture, she just took some white paint, repainted the wall and drew her new fantasy.

Chapter Two

One sunny morning, Eugenia woke up and remembered a beautiful dream.

She immediately jumped out of bed, and still dressed in her nightgown, with messy hair, she took brushes and paints and began to paint a fabulous forest from her dream onto the wall.

There were birds and animals, rainbow flowers, dense thickets of violet bushes and bright yellow trees. She painted a hollow in one large tree.

The forest appeared to be mysterious. Eugenia felt it. Lotus began to behave in a strange way. He was flying quickly around the room, shouting as he flew around. He flew toward the picture and suddenly kept flying straight into the hollow. The hollow that Eugenia had painted.

It was a miracle! He disappeared. Eugenia walked to the wall, stroked it where the hollow was drawn, but the wall was smooth.

How did Lotus do it? Why and where did he disappear? Would he ever come back? Eugenia didn’t tell anyone what happened. And when her mother asked where Lotus had gone, she said that he’d flown off somewhere. Which, in fact, was true.

Several days passed. One evening, when Eugenia was sitting at a table and reading a book, Lotus returned. The brightly colored bird flitted out of the hollow. He suddenly appeared from the wall where the hollow was drawn, and began to speak.

This was the second miracle! He swooped down directly onto the table, drank some water from a glass and said, “Eugenia, you accidentally drew the ancient country of Rinia on the wall.”

“Me? How did I do that accidentally?” Eugenia asked.

But then she found out that it was not by accident.

“Rinia,” Lotus said in-between preening his shiny feathers, “is a forest country with magically speaking birds and animals. All creatures live in it peacefully, they eat fruits and plants. Their task is to help people. These creatures are called Rinians; if someone needs their help the Rinians can see them, as though they were looking through their window and they go to help them.”

“How do they help?” Eugenia asked Lotus.

“Here’s how! A person, for example, is stroking a cat, feeding a pigeon or playing with a dog and suddenly the idea comes to the person of how to deal with the difficulties that concern them,” Lotus replied.

“I don’t understand Lotus,” Eugenia felt very confused, firstly by the fact that her bird could now speak and secondly by what her bird was telling her.

“A person thinks that this is his idea, but in fact, it was the Rinian’s idea! And it always works, if a person loves animals, flowers, trees, mountains and oceans and loves all nature it will always work.”

“How wonderful!” Eugenia cheered. “I just realized, your whole country is nature, isn’t it? And this must help.”

“Yes!” answered Lotus, “Our country is ruled by the magic bird Ecku. She has bright red plumage, a large beak and the incredible power of the Great Sorceress. She knows about all the signals that came to Rinia and all the ways of helping. A human can get to Rinia, but only when Ecku herself invites him.”

Chapter Three

Eugenia was listening to Lotus’ story with her mouth wide open.

It turned out that Lotus himself was a magical creature from Rinia, “I’ve an important message for you. Ecku sent me to you for your help,” Lotus said.

“How can I help? What can I do?” Eugenia immediately thought this without saying the words aloud.