One day, evil spirits - the Tungaks - stole the Sun from the inhabitants of the tundra. Animals and birds now lived in eternal darkness, finding food with difficulty. And so they decided to gather a big council. Envoys from every animal and bird species came to the council. The old raven, whom everyone considered wise, said:
- Winged and hairy brothers! How long will we live in darkness? I heard from old people that not far from our land, in a deep underground, live the Tungaks, who stole the light from us. Those Tungaks keep a large luminous ball in a vessel made of white stone. And they call that ball the Sun. If you steal this ball from the Tungaks, the earth will be illuminated with light. Here I am, an old raven, giving you advice: send the biggest and strongest of us - a brown bear - after the Sun...
- Bear, bear! - the animals and birds shouted.
An old, deaf owl was right there repairing the sled. She asked a little bunting bird sitting next to her:
-What are the animals and birds talking about? Punochka replied:
“They want to send the bear after the Sun, as the strongest.”
“Their efforts are in vain,” says the owl. “The bear will meet a treat on the way and forget about everything.” We will not have the Sun.
The animals and birds, hearing the owl’s words, agreed with her.
The old raven gave new advice:
- Let's send the wolf, because after the bear he is stronger and faster than all of us.
- Wolf, wolf! - the animals and birds shouted.
-What are they talking about? - the owl asks again.
“They decided to send the wolf for the Sun,” the snow bunting answers.
“They are fussing in vain,” says the owl. - A wolf will meet a deer, kill it and forget about the Sun.
The animals and birds, hearing this, agreed with the owl.
Then the little mouse spoke:
“I should send this bunny, because he is the best jumper and can grab the Sun on the move.”
The animals and birds shouted:
- Bunny, bunny, bunny!
And for the third time the deaf owl asked the snow bunting:
-What are the animals and birds talking about? Bunting shouted into the owl's ear:
- They decided to send the Bunny after the Sun, because he is the best jumper and can grab the Sun on the move.
- This one will probably be able to reach the Sun. He really jumps well and is not greedy. “Nothing can stop him on his way,” said the owl.
So the bunny was chosen as the thief of the Sun, and without thinking twice he set off.
He walked and walked and finally noticed a bright spot far ahead. The bunny began to approach the spot and saw: bright rays were breaking through a narrow gap from underground. The bunny looked into the crack and saw: in a large vessel made of white stone there was a fireball and its bright rays illuminated the dungeon, and in another corner of the dungeon there were tungaks lying on soft deer skins.
The bunny went down into the dungeon, snatched a fireball from a stone vessel and jumped out into the crack with it.
The Tungaks became alarmed and chased after the bunny. The bunny runs at full speed, but the Tungaks are already very close. Then the bunny hit the fireball with his paw, it split into two. One part is small, the other is large. The bunny hit the smaller part hard with his paw - it flew up to the sky and turned into the Moon.
The bunny lifted most of it, hit it even harder - it rose to the sky and turned into the Sun. How light it suddenly became on earth!
The Tungaks, blinded by the light, disappeared underground and have not appeared on earth since then. And every spring animals and birds organized a solar festival in honor of the bunny and joyfully shouted:
- Glory to our bunny, who got the Sun!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru