In a land where mountain cliffs and the sea are brothers and where the trees are slender and tall, there lived a young girl named Lovana, who was shy of people.
She loved peace and quiet.
Her eyes were dark and timid, but when she wandered through the forest, they shone with delight and surprise.
Lowana lived alone in a hut made of bark and wove bags for anyone who asked her. Her fingers were long, they quickly and deftly intertwined strips of bast, and therefore she made more bags than other women.
Because Lowana was so quiet, no one spoke to her for long. The young men of her tribe passed by her hut when they went hunting - she did not know how to joke with them and greet them with a kind word. And she sadly looked after them, because one young man was walking among them, and when they disappeared behind the trees, Lovana felt even more alone than before.
This young man's name was Yaadi.
One day, all the tribes went far from the camp for a holiday. Children ran screaming across the lawns and hid among the trees. The women carried the smallest children on their shoulders and laughed with them.
The women had bags hanging behind them, the same bags that Lovana had woven for them. The women took with them a lot of yams, and the men spears and wommers, and all the tribes set off together. People followed each other at arm's length, and when their leaders were already out of sight, a line of people was still stretching across the camp.
Soon only Lovana was left in the camp, because no one thought to tell her: “Come with us to the holiday.” Everyone forgot about her. And her mother, and father, and all her relatives left and did not even remember her. She was too quiet, and among the fun and noise, no one noticed that she was gone.
Various tribes walked through the forest for many days, and where they passed, there was no game left - after all, how much people needed to be fed!
Ten days later, Yaadi, who was walking at the head, turned back and walked along the line of people to the last old woman and the last child who was left behind. And then he shouted for all the people to stop. And asked:
-Where is Lovana?
But no one could answer him. From the old woman who trailed behind to the men who paved the way, people passed on three words to each other:
- She's not here.
This news reached Yaadi, and when he heard it, he shuddered.
“I’ll come back for her,” he said. “She probably has nothing to eat.”
He took his stone axe, spear and womera, his shield and nalla-nalla and left everyone. Yaadi was returning along the path along which the tribes had passed and where there was no longer any game, so he had to move far to the side and hunt in a deep, distant forest. He cut paths through the thickets and carried all the loot on his back. He looked for bee nests in hollows and walked every day from early morning until night fell.
And the closer Yaadi came to Lovana’s hut, the more he had to weave through the forest, although he was already staggering under the weight of the booty that he was carrying to the girl.
From the day the tribe left the camp, Lowana sat in the hut and weaved bags. The food she collected did not satisfy her hunger. She could not go hunting because she did not have spears. She ate yam and water lily roots and collected crabs on the shore.
But suddenly a moment came when the bast from which she was weaving the bag began to tear. Lovana kept getting the stitches mixed up and her fingers were trembling.
She was ashamed of her awkwardness and worried. She tried to weave as carefully as possible and not tug at the strips of bast.
Lovana knew why her fingers were trembling and why she kept glancing in the direction where the tall trees had fallen silent in anticipation.
Someone was coming closer, and closer, and closer.
Lovana could hear her heart pounding. She bowed her head so that she could see nothing but the bag she was weaving.
Someone was coming closer and closer.
She clutched the bag with numb fingers.
Someone was getting closer.
She didn't look up.
And then Yaadi's shadow fell on the girl, and she looked at him.
Lowana saw his face above her, and closed her eyes, and fell to the ground, and lay quietly and quietly.
Yaadi knelt down and took her head in his hands. He looked at her face and was silent.
Then Lowana opened her eyes and looked at him, and there was no fear in her eyes.
- What's wrong with you? - Yaadi asked.
- Why did you come?
- I came for you.
- Why did you do this?
- Because a long time ago your father and mother promised to give you to me as a wife. So I came.
She didn't take her eyes off him.
- Do you want to eat? - Yaadi asked.
“Yes,” Lovana answered. He gave her the food he had brought and kept looking at her while she ate.
“Now let’s go,” Yaadi said when the girl had eaten. - Let's go to our tribe.
“Let’s go,” Lowana whispered. He walked forward and she followed. The girl left her hut and all her bags and never looked back. She looked only at the one who walked in front.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru