Читать книгу Dreams of Princess Sonya. Fairy tales - Мадлен - Страница 7

In the Light of the Rays of the Sun, Princess Sonya slept and slept, being transported several times a day to the Kingdom of Sleep. Where, however, she liked, because there were amazing Adventures waiting for her.

This time, entering the Beautiful Gate, Sonyechka felt something wrong. For the streets, familiar to her, were somehow different. Everything said that time had stopped here for 100-200-300 centuries. The alleys paved with wild stone, twined with ivy and flowers, with old houses, the buildings of some kings, showed her the wonderful clothes of passers-by walking toward her as on a fashionable catwalk…. The princess was transported back a long way.

The sun shining above her and the unceasing chattering from the open windows and the birdsong in the lush emerald foliage were no less than two hundred years old! Sonyechka bought a newspaper from a peddler in an old dialect and a couple of juicy yellow apples, which she gladly ate, as well as receiving a bouquet of roses from the unknown knight. Walking in the velvet inter-season, between summer and autumn, enjoying the light breeze, still clear skies, the silence of the provincial town in which, suddenly, by the will of the Dream she found herself.

By the way, it was her favorite city, the one where she currently lived. It was quite recognizable by its architectural monuments and surviving sculptures. Sonja assumed that not so far away in the other direction, her Castle, whose ancestral history goes back at least three hundred years. And, of course, she immediately went looking for it! The streets were intricately curved and ornately looped: she recognized them with difficulty. The houses were surrounded by high stone fences with heavy gates on creaking hinges. Branches of trees hung from the top, full of a good crop. It was easy to pick and eat what you wanted….

Soon she saw her family castle on a hill and ran to it enthusiastically, excited about a possible meeting and what she would see there. The castle was exactly the same! Only the color of the facade, the gates and the garden, the massive fence, through which, it seemed, there was no way to get inside – were not recognized by her. But all-all the towers, the columns, the wrought-iron cockerel (an indicator of the winds) – everything was her own, native.

The princess stepped inside and was greeted by a friendly servant and a small, fluffy, white dog which nestled his black, curly nose into her knee. Her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother lived in the castle: a rather sweet old lady, a lover of artists, musicians and poets. A portrait of her in oil on canvas survives to this day.

Sonya was escorted into the living room, through the many flights of stairs and corridors, where she was treated to tea with raspberries and pudding from pretty little cups painted in khokhloma on lace doilies. Then she went for a walk in the cherry orchard, where ripe fruit strewn everything under her feet. Her grandmother told her long stories about life, and the Princess, in response, told her own. Nightingales delighted their ears with songs, and the rose bushes were tied with lush scarlet bows – as a gift to Sonyechka.

When they returned from the garden, Grandma gathered her favorite cats at the piano, and they danced and played an encore! They were excellent musicians, because they moved their soft paws on the keys quickly and not badly. Grandma was dancing in her chair, giving the cats her smiles and completely forgetting about Sonyechka, and she slowly took advantage of the moment and ran away! Truly, Sleepy Granny was so engrossed in creativity that she did not notice the departure of her great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter.

Sleepy found herself in the garden holding her way back to the Gate of the Dream Realm. However, she didn’t get very far. Indeed, sleep is sleep, and sleepy grandmothers are sleepy grandmothers, and sleepy fences are not what they seem.

As soon as she reached the fence, a Young Man had come running over it: a handsome, dashing, freckled and fair-haired as the Sun itself, or precisely its Ray. And he stole Sonyechka!

Such impudence the Princess had not expected! In the strong arms of the Stranger, she soon found herself on the street, and then in a carriage behind the curtained windows which could not be seen at all. It grew dark and the sky was covered with bright stars, which shone a gentle light on the carriage, which kept going and going to nowhere.

The stranger, not letting go of the Princess’s hand, was silent. The hooves of the frisky horses seemed to beat away at Charlie’s dance on the stone sidewalk. And there was no end to it…

If any of them had known that they were about to rush through the covenanted Gate at full throttle, there was no telling what any of them would have done. But no one but the chasing horses noticed the Gate to the Dream Realm looming ahead, through which they entered and exited.

And so Sonya awoke in her soft bed, full of plush dogs and pillows of all sorts of cute shapes and colors, -with the first rays of the Sun peeking confusedly into the maiden bedroom, quite a Young Bride.