Tales of Wraps
#1
Once upon a time a girl lived. She was very beautiful and good-hearted, everybody loved her. And she was rich – she had everything, even a cat – very fluffy with black mask around his eyes. Such cats might see vampires.
One evening the girl was going to bed and saw that her cat raised hackles, bared his teeth and fuffed and hopped towards the window in the bedroom. And the bedroom is on the 19th floor. The girl looked through the window – it seemed like nobody was there, but there was a tension in the air.
Next evening all the same happened, and the girl felt like a window screeched and cracked open. Poor girl was not sleeping all the night long.
In the morning she woke up and ran to a fortuneteller to ask what was going on. The fortuneteller looked into the magic crystal, set out cards and realized everything. She said, that vampire was chasing her and wanted to suck out all her blood! The girl was frightened, she cried not knowing what to do and how to survive!
The fortuneteller felt sorry for the girl. She said, that only three things may help — aspen, sun and love. And let the girl think quicker, because the third night the vampire would definitely fix her.
The girl came home, without any cry, she fussed her cat and began think and guess. And that what she has got. She brought a chair, put it legs up and extended a rope in front of the window. She also took a lamp from her grandfather’s library, took her mother’s favorite wrap Mokosh Airy Rossa, and waited in ambush behind the sofa for the vampire to come.
The night fell, the owl screeched; the cat raised hackles and hopped. The girl was paralyzed with fear. Somethings creaked, the window opened and a shadow stepped into the room, with long shining fangs.
The cat spat! And the vampire jumped aside, caught on the rope and fall right on the legs of the chair. The chair was made of aspen. The vampire twitched on, poked through the chair’s legs and cannot run away. The brave girl jumped out of the sofa, switch on the lamp on. It was an UV lamp as her grandfather was a doctor. And the strands were like sunshine. The vampire screamed and burn away.
The girl came closer to have a look and saw that ash pieces were banding together, the vampire wanted to revive! Then she grabbed mother’s wrap, in which she had cuddled her, and wrapped ash into it. Then she shook the wrap – not even a piece of cursed vampire left. He was defeated by parental love enclosed into the wrap.
And the girl and her cat lived happily ever after, and keep the wrap for her children.
#2
Once upon a time a girl-vampire lived. She was very kind, good-hearted, beautiful and she didn’t want to suck blood. But most of all she was anxious for her children, because they were vampires as well and they were terribly thirsty without blood. And she felt so bad, that she left for the forest, sat on a stub and cried out.
At that time out of nowhere a young handsome man passed by, he saw a crying girl, sat down nearby, comforted her and found out what was up. And the vampire-girl told him everything. He sympathized with her and took to the Wizard.
The Wizard looked at them, listened to them and said that there is one way. In order the children of vampire-girl won’t like to suck blood, it is necessary, that somebody will give the girl the most precious thing thankless and for free.
The young man started thinking. He liked poor vampire-girl, it’s obvious, that she’s kind and beautiful. And the man was very handsome, eyes are dark blue and long-haired. He cut his hair and weaved a wrap from them adding cotton thread. The wrap was for vampire-girl’s children, to cuddle them, and it was called Airy, that meant “True bonds of love”. The vampire-girl cuddled the children, hug them – and they never wanted to suck blood, they became simple humans.
The man married the vampire-girl and they lived happily ever after.
Written and illustrated by
Ekaterina Konopleva with her son Yura