Anyone who reads these lines, big or small, is sure to believe in true fairy tales. One cold winter’s evening, Fairy Barbóca kept herself warm in her swinging chair in front of the fireplace. Suddenly, a small spark of fire rose from the flames… Fairy Barbóca opened the window to give more air to the blazing fire. She sat back down at her desk, only to see a little horse of fire rising from the window of her room into the sky. My dear Pirici-Pampuci Paper, tell me, who is this fairy tale about? And Pirici-Pampuci Paper with the filling pen Pikular began to tell the story.
Once upon a time there lived a little princess called Tilici on a circled cloud. She travelled through the clouds so speedily that ten horses could not keep up with her. Her parents feared and guarded her. For when she was born, Snowball, the white witch, cast a spell on her. Tilici could never go and never see what was beyond the clouds until a fire steed walking on the sky would have reached her and freed her from the curse. Tilici’s parents were sad because they knew that in the realm of snow-white clouds, there was no fire from which the fire-whistle could arise and save their daughter. Still, they went to the sun, begging for help and hoping that by some miracle their daughter might one day see what was beyond the clouds. One morning, Tilici tiptoed through the cotton clouds that smelled like gingerbread. And there flew Wanderer, the snow-white dove. Tilici, will you come and play with me in the forest of the clouds’ empire?. Wanderer and Tilici’s favourite amusement was to build towers out of cloud puffs in the woods. Tilici was just adding the last of the fluffs to the tower when her foot slipped and she landed on the edge of a cloud. Wanderer attempted to pull Tilici up with his beak, but he couldn’t hold her on. Tilici began to recite an incantation she had learned earlier from her father:
Sun, moon, stars,
I am your fire girl.
Lift me up, lift me high,
so I can see the sky.
Just then, a fire horse appeared from beneath the clouds and picked Tilici up on its back. Wanderer was so happy that he kept repeating:
Tilici has been freed from the spell.
Tilici had been freed from the spell.
The fire-horse took Tilici up into the sky, and millions of stars were twinkling in the sky that night. Tilici has since been called the sky-walking princess.
With love, from beyond the round forest… a tiny fairy.
