A falcon flew by, caught a dove in its claws, and tears it apart dead, and blood flows, and he himself sits on a dark column, at the very top and blood flows onto the altar, the bird made a sacrifice to someone ... To whom?

The wanderer galloped past, cried, saw him off, and the robbers chased after him, caught up, tore him up, killed him and took the gold from the bag, divided it equally, between three and three roads diverged, and no one saw them together again.

And he remained on the ground lying lifeless, a dove flew in and brought water to him and he came to life, the wounds healed, he woke up, looked around and did not see those who were chasing him and did not see a bag of gold. And the dove brought him a blue bag, he opened it, and there were diamonds.

He went to the city and decided to sell precious stones, but not a single shop worked in the city, everything was closed, only the local tavern opened and he went there, and behind the counter, black as a raven, a stranger poured him green and steaming wine, the wanderer did not drink , pushed back the hour and looked askance at the raven.

And he told him: -Kar!

I wanted to run away, but the body grew to the floor and did not.

Then the raven: - Kar... You know what? Do you want money? Do you want to rule the world? Do you want a girl? Do you want a palace? I have everything ! I will give you everything!

And the man turned into a bird, and the bird became a man ...

scene two

Double walled room.

Inside, in the very depths, there are two, one is a wanderer, the other is someone else...

He whispers something in the ear of the wanderer, he wants something and almost demands something, but he can’t do anything, in fact, time has shrunk like a snail and only a lie crawls like a worm over an apple, something eats an apple and it dies.

- I don't want to! - the wanderer answers, - I won't! I don't need

Need! You need everything - croaked a raven, he slammed the book, with a bang and the spine flew off, hit the wall and, as if alive, flew over the floor, landed in a porcelain bowl and burned down, there was no ash.

And the raven whispers everything, whispers ...

- Put on a mask and become like a leader, you will rule the nations! You will be great and powerful! You'll get everything!... But you'll give me your soul, and then I'll take you into the darkness so that you don't see the light. I will take them to the darkness earlier, so that sadness and anger and hatred will devour your soul.

-What about the contract?

- You sign it with blood ... Take that knife, cut your finger, and squeeze a couple of drops of blood into ...

- And it's all?

- Yes, everything and nothing more (and to myself), but you will not get anything, and I will take my soul into darkness.

Irina Tall (Novikova) is an artist, graphic artist, illustrator, writer. She graduated from the State Academy of Slavic Cultures with a degree in art, and also has a bachelor's degree in design.

The first personal exhibition "My soul is like a wild hawk" (2002) was held in the museum of Maxim Bagdanovich. In her works, she raises themes of ecology, in 2005 she devoted a series of works to the Chernobyl disaster, draws on anti-war topics. The first big series she drew was The Red Book, dedicated to rare and endangered species of animals and birds. Writes fairy tales and poems, illustrates short stories. Her work was published in the journals "Gypsophila", "Harpy Hybrid review" and others.