Mom ordered to walk only in the courtyard of the house. Lou nodded, but immediately forgot about the prohibitions when she stepped on a wooden bridge over a ravine. It was the border of the city.
Yes, their high-rise new building stood on the very outskirts of the city.
On the edge of the forest.
Lou and Chanterelle crossed the bridge. The moon pulled out a bag and shook its contents under the pine tree. A small mottled stone, dried rowan berries and dust from the leaves fell out of the bag.
“All the amulets that lost their strength in a year, we returned to nature,” said Lou. - It's time to look for new ones!
She looked forward.
“What a foggy morning today!” But I didn’t notice it! Well, let's go!
Ahead, above the dark path through the forest, maples, birches and lindens closed the branches, forming a “corridor”. And further from the road grew pine trees, wild apple trees, mountain ash, oaks, and hazel. It was a strange place as if on the edge of the city every tree put up a guard, and this forest turned out. It was small, and after it began a wasteland, on which residents of neighboring houses walked with dogs. And here before the Moon, as before the heroes in epics, there was a choice - where to go: left, right, or straight?
To the right, you will go along the edge of the forest and you will come to a tree-tent. It squinted - as if its branches were blown away by the wind on one side. Maybe the tree wanted to fly away after the wild geese, but could not? And so it grew, dropping branches-hands - tired and desperate. But the moon loved this tree. At its base lay a log on which it was possible to sit, hiding under a canopy of leaves, as in a house, so Lou called it a tent tree.
One summer, the Moon came here with Artair. They sat on a log and looked at the blue glass of the sky, stuck in the foliage, while the Fox was eating a stick nearby.
“Like a stained glass window,” said Artair.
- Stained glass window? Asked Luna.
Artair googled on the phone and showed his niece paintings made of stained glass.
- How beautiful! - admired Lou.
- Alice also has a stained-glass window in a cafe. Remember the round window, on which like branches with flowers? I just made her portrait near this window. My favorite.
Lou did not like it when Artair talked about Alice, and he had always talked about her lately.
"Fools in love - they are," giggled mom.
- I also want to be photographed by the stained glass! - Lou said loudly, and even Chanterelle was distracted from the stick and looked at the hostess.
“Let me take a better picture of you here among the branches and foliage,” suggested Artair. - And even better in the wasteland, towards evening. How do you run in the grass among the pale moths? I think it will turn out great! With your hair. And I’ll call this photo “The Growing Moon”.
“Whatever you say, boss,” Luna said without enthusiasm. “You are a photographer, you see so.” In moths so moths. They are like snow in the winter.
There were indeed many butterflies in the wasteland. And if she chose the road directly, then she would just come to the wild field. The moon was not afraid of the wasteland, it knew all the walkers here and ironed all the dogs. She also liked to get off the narrow trodden path and climb into the grass, go and watch how small dusty-white moths fly out from under my feet and sit in front of you, at a step distance, to immediately take off again. The chanterelle, of course, followed on the heels of the mistress, and Lu guessed the movement of the red-haired girlfriend in the grass only along the white tip of the tail.
One of the dog lovers, seeing the Moonwalking with a bouquet of flowers surrounded by these pale butterflies, called her the Princess of the Moths, and the rest of the neighbors picked her up.
But most of all, Lou liked to choose the left path and go to her secret place - an abandoned garden near a burned-out house. Old, groomed, and therefore such clumsy and beautiful apple and pear trees grew here. Yellow tall Jerusalem artichokes bloomed in piles, some orange flowers were lower, and currant bushes were buried in lilac-blue little stars of wild asters. Girl’s grapes climbed the surviving wall of the destroyed house and hopped entangled the rest of the arbor.
But most of all, Lou liked the old, bombarded well, which inside was covered with moss. Lou believed that the moss at the bottom of the well was the back of a dragon: it was too plush and attractive.
The mossy dragon sleeps at the bottom of the well and probably guards the treasures, or the entrance to the dungeon, or both.
On one side, the brick wall of the well collapsed almost to the ground. The moon sat on the remains of bricks, took out a thermos, a container with sandwiches and had breakfast.
And today, she poured tea into a glass-lid and put it on a stone so that the herbal tea cools down a little. Chanterelle whisked further into the garden. Because of the fog, she immediately lost sight of it.
- Fox! - called the girl. - Do not go far. I do not see you! Such a fog!
Corgi returned with a pebble in her mouth and threw it at the feet of the mistress.
- Do not drag stones, you will spoil your teeth! - threatened the moon finger.
“U-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-r-r-r,” muttered Fox.
- Yes, I know, dog, I need to look for amulets, I remember. Thank!
She reached into her pocket and handed Chanterelle a few biscuits. Corgi instantly licked the treat.
“And now I'll have breakfast too!”
Lou took out her grass diary and began to leaf through it, holding a sandwich in her other hand.