The brave Vai lived on the very edge of the earth, in the tundra, by the sea. And the sea was terrible: big, wide, waves moved across it, sea animals lived under the waves.
Hunters will go out to hunt for fish or seals, and a walrus, or a sea bear, or a whale will look out of the sea - they will capsize the boat, and the hunters will be dragged to the bottom of the sea.
The hunters were afraid of the sea, but there was nowhere to go: their grandfathers and great-grandfathers lived in the tundra and did not know the ways to other lands.
One day the brave Vai went out to the sea and sat down on a pebble.
The morning was clear, quiet, and the sun was warm in the sky. The old father also came out of the tent to warm his bones in the sun. Vai says to him:
- It's good at sea today. I want to go fishing.
“What are you saying, Vai, don’t go,” the father answers, “we don’t have a good boat.” Ours is narrow, small. You can't go far into the sea on it.
- No, father, nothing. “I’ll still go,” says Vai.
“Okay, go,” the father replies, “if you are so brave.” Just be careful not to swim too far from the shore. It’s quiet now, but the wind will rise and it will carry you into the ocean, and you won’t be able to swim out.
“It’s okay, I have a lot of strength,” said the brave Vai. He took his bow and arrows, took his knife, got into the boat and rode across the sea.
The weather is good and quiet. Vai sailed far out to sea - the shore was already barely visible. He became brave and began to ask the wind:
- Wind, wind, blow harder!
And I heard the wind. As soon as it blew, waves began to run across the sea, rocked the small boat, and began tossing it from wave to wave.
Vay grabbed the oars, rowed, tried, and the wind carried him further and further from the ground. The shore has disappeared from view, all around is the sea - black, terrible...
The boat carried the boat across the sea for three days. On the fourth day the wind began to subside. And Vai sits in the boat, holds the oars tightly with his hands, and sings a song himself.
The sea calmed down, and the seals around the boat began to poke their noses out of the water.
Vai killed one seal, killed the second. After the second, two more sailed.
Vai killed ten seals, put them in a boat, rows them and rejoices:
- It’s okay that he disappeared from home for a long time. But the fishing was successful.
And the sea seemed to hear. Suddenly someone snorted near the boat itself.
Vai looked, and a large black walrus appeared at the side. And this walrus has not two, but four tusks.
The walrus clings to the boat with its tusks and looks at Vai with round eyes. Vayu felt uncomfortable.
“Move away, don’t touch me,” Vai says to the walrus, “I’m an angry person.”
But the walrus doesn’t seem to hear, he leans his whole body onto the boat, trying to capsize it.
The brave Vai grabbed the walrus by the tusks with one hand, and hit the round head with all his might with the other hand. The walrus splashed his paws on the water and drowned.
Vay swims on, rejoicing in the good fishing.
And suddenly he hears it again - someone snorting near the side of the boat. Vai looked around, and there was a huge sea bear swimming straight towards the boat. A bear swims up, puts his paw on the side of the boat - he wants to capsize the boat, pull Vai into the water and eat him.
Brave Vai says to the bear:
- Move away, my dear, don’t tease me. I am an angry person: I can hit you with my fist.
But the bear doesn’t seem to understand. He climbs into the boat, roars, and wants to get to Vai as quickly as possible. The bear doesn't listen to any words.
Vi sees that there is nothing to do.
He grabbed the bear by the ear with one hand and hit the furry head with the other.
“We need to hurry home quickly, lest someone else comes,” Vai thinks. He leaned on the oars with all his might.
Suddenly, everything around Vai became as dark as night, and the sun seemed to have set behind a cloud.
Vai raises his head and sees - in the gray foam, right in front of him, a huge black whale, and not an ordinary whale, but with a comb on its head, a whale to all whales. The whale looks straight into Vai’s eyes and roars in a human voice:
- You're gone now, Vai. I won't let you go alive. Neither your father nor your grandfather were ever so daring; they were always afraid of the sea. Now your end has come.
Brave Vai was frightened, but he didn’t show it. Looks at the whale and says:
- Okay, but let's fight you first. If you defeat me, eat me, and father, and all our deer. And if I defeat you, you will stop disturbing our sea and destroying hunters. Agree? We will fight up to three times.
The whale thought and said:
- I agree. How can we fight?
“But here’s how,” says the brave Vai, “you see, the shore is in the distance and our tent is standing on the shore.” Whoever gets to the plague first will win.
“Okay,” says the whale, “let’s try.”
And so they started racing. Vai's boat is small and narrow. Vai grabbed the oars, leaned in - the boat flew like an arrow.
But the whale is big, heavy, and it’s more difficult for him to swim. But still he floats, keeping up with the boat.
Vai rows with all his might and sees a whale overtaking him. The whale swam to the shore first. He lay down on the sand and shouted:
— Vai lost, I’m the first!
Vai waved his oars, and the boat crashed head-on into the sand. Vai jumped ashore, stood on the threshold of the chum and answered:
- You are not the first, but I am. The agreement was: whoever gets to the plague, and not to the shore. And you won’t be able to go ashore.
“Well, okay,” says the whale, “let you win this time.” Only our dispute with you is not over. We'll see you two more times.
The whale went to sea. And brave Vai pulled the seal out of the boat and ran to show his prey to his father.
Whether long or short, spring has come. Vai set off along the shore, along the ice floes, to fish. He walked for a long time, got tired, lay down on the soft snow to rest, and fell asleep.
Vai wakes up and can’t figure out where he is. He floats across the sea on a small ice floe. Vai was scared.
- So, it was I who lay down on the ice floe, and it broke away from the shore and carried me out to sea.
But Vai was not the type to cry out of fear. He sat down on the ice and began to think about what to do now.
And suddenly it became dark around, as if the sun had gone behind a cloud. Vai looked - a huge black whale stood out of the water in front of him, with a scallop on his head, not an ordinary whale, but a whale to all whales.
He looks at Vai and roars in a terrible voice:
- This is the second time I’ve caught you. Your end has come. There's no way you can escape now. I’ll eat you, I’ll eat your father, and I’ll eat all your reindeer too.
- Do you remember how we agreed to fight three times? - says Vai.
“I remember,” the whale answers.
- Look, over there in the sea, a large ship with people is sailing. You and I will go our separate ways across the sea. Wherever the ship sails is the winner. Agree?
“Okay, I agree,” says the whale.
He swam in one direction, and the wind carried Vai in the other.
People on the ship look through telescopes - an ice floe is floating, and on the ice floe there is a man.
He’s completely alone, and he doesn’t have any weapons with him.
“Look, a man is swimming,” the sailors shout. And others answer:
- You can see the whale from this side!
- We need to save the person quickly! - they shout on the ship.
He turned the ship towards the ice floe, swam and took Vai off the ice floe and headed towards the shore.
The whale caught up with the ship and said in a human voice:
- Okay, brave Vai. Once again we will meet - you will not leave me.
The whale dived and went under water. And Vai returned home to his father.
And for the third time the brave Vai went fishing.
He got into the boat, just managed to go around the large rocks at the cape, when the sky darkened again, as if a cloud had covered the sun, and a black whale stood out of the water in front of Vai, like all whales, a whale, a large mouth, evil eyes, a black comb on his head. The whale roared with all its might:
- This is the last time we met!
“Well, let’s fight for the last time,” says Vai. “Let’s race across the sea.” Whoever gets tired first loses. Agree?
“But you’ll lose,” says the whale, “you won’t be able to row for long.” Your hands are weak, I am stronger.
“But let’s see,” Vai replies, “just say: do you agree?”
“I agree,” says the whale. He turned and swam into the sea. And Vai jumped out of the boat, jumped onto the whale’s back and sat down. The whale turned around and said:
- Where did you get into? Get off.
“But there was no agreement that I would race in a boat on the sea,” Vai replies, “so you swim, and I will ride on you.”
The whale got angry, began to spin around, beat the water with its tail, but Vai held on tightly, there was no way the whale could throw him off the back. The whale dragged and dragged him across the sea, finally tired, exhausted.
“Get off,” he says, “from my back, I’m tired of you.”
- Tired? - asks Vai.
“I’m tired,” says the whale.
- So you lost?
“Well, I lost,” says the whale.
“So remember,” says Vai, “you promised that you won’t disturb our sea anymore, you won’t destroy the hunters.”
The whale waved its tail and sank deep, deep to the bottom of the sea.
Since then, hunters from the tundra began to calmly go out to sea. They beat the animals a lot, extracted meat and skins.
And since then no one has been afraid of the sea.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru