And this story was told when travelers stayed overnight in the mountains. The site, covered on both sides by rocks from the wind, sheltered almost a dozen pilgrims, the fire burned brightly and hot, boiled on the coals kettle. At such moments, conversations were replaced by fairy tales, legends, and bikes, lived on their own skin.
That evening the story was narrated by a tall woman whose age could not be determined. The winds whitened her hair, hardened her face, and the wrinkles around her eyes spoke only of how much she liked to smile. Bright lips seemed dry, but were beautifully outlined, and the face was so thin that the relief of the cheekbone charming with subtle beauty ...
- Among the mountains, gorges and sharp rocks there is a village, - she started without looking at anyone.
- There live a tough people, strong and stocky. They love local clothes made of skins, dense leather shoes, sound weapons, which they have learned to forge better than many. Their faces are harsh, their skin dark, and their eyes are almost all shades of blue. Hair is always in the braids of both men and women. In such a land and do not survive to the one who is weak in body...
- But you know that there wouldn't be a story if things were going the way they were supposed to, - she continued with a sip of tea.
- So one day a girl was born there to a respectable couple - a famous warrior and the best seamstress of those places. The daughter turned out to be weak and painful, fragile, barely managed to take the first breath, did not wail joyfully like other babies. The midwives did not like it. However, there was one ancient woman there, who immediately pulled the rest. I looked at the baby and decided that the girl would live, ordered only to warm the water, better wrap in skins after the first bath.
There was silence at the campfire, and the wings of the night were unfolding behind the speaker's back. In pauses, while she drank small sips of herbal decoction, everyone patiently waited for the story to continue.
- The girl's parents were not young, it was their third daughter. So it didn't occur to them to pay more attention to her than to the others. Accepting that the child could leave before the deadline, they did not try to make her life easier. The girl grew up smart and gave way to her peers in strength, but sometimes surpassed in intelligence and cunning. The children tried to offend her, but the adults began to notice and even appreciate her. However, she could not hide from the seal of death. Everyone thought she wasn't going to heal, and everyone sighed sighingly at her.
As soon as her voice was quiet, the edge of the moon appeared over the mountain range. The moonlight was still blurry, and the woman covered her eyes with a ray of light on her cheek. There was something strange about her, something extraterrestrial, although none of the travelers gathered at this fire, did not look like ordinary people either outwardly or internally. And yet...
- Destiny has prepared a special way for such a child as if the storyteller remembered.
- And the more winters the fragile girl was going through, the closer her adulthood was, the more interesting her beauty became.
The fire began to fade, travelers rolled up, laying logs.
- One fall, she packed up all her things and left the village. She went up to the rock, from where she could see far away everything that surrounded her native land, and closed her eyes, listening either to the sounds of the wind or to the beating of her own heart. As soon as she stood there as little as a big eagle appeared from the mountain top. The eagle let her sit on her back and soared to the sun.
Again the pause, and many were now looking into the face of the storyteller, it seemed to them something birdlike.
- Where did she aspire to go? - Meanwhile, the woman asked.
- Where did her eagle god take her?
The girl didn't die, she didn't disappear at all. She learned magic.
- She never returned to her native land, even though at first her heart asked there for support, and later - for the payback. But when all the stages of her studies were over, neither revenge nor love was in control of her. They say that now she wanders along the lunar roads. And those to whom she meets can ask her for one gift. A strange gift...
And it became clear to everyone at the same moment what a strange gift that was.
- Take away my desire for revenge,- he asked for it all of a sudden. - Revenge oppresses me, no matter how much I run, no matter how many words I learn, and pulls me back to kill the offender. Take my revenge.
And she nodded.
- Take my love,- the other one whispered.
And she nodded again.
A little later, requests began to be heard from everywhere, but she answered every one with a nod. As soon as she did it, the weight from her heart retreated, it became easier to breathe, and her obsessions went away. That was her gift.
- Don't you want to love? - suddenly there was a question from a girl sitting behind everyone.
- You have to sacrifice something to get the gift,- she shrugged.
The eagle flew away with its horseman, and soon there were conversations over the fire. And only the girl stood at the edge, looking into the moon disk to the pain in her eyes. She didn't have time to ask to get rid of what was causing her unbearable anguish. Only for some reason, she wasn't sorry at all.