It was like a fateful arrangement, and like a meteor responding to her wish. The window in the room was forgotten to close, and the breeze blew in and ruffled the girl's hair.
Little Anya saw a red bird landing at her window and chirping non-stop. At that time, little Anya couldn't understand the bird's words and could only vaguely feel what the red bird was saying to her. .
"I don't understand what you are talking about..."
The red bird seemed to become anxious after hearing what little Anya said, jumping up and down on the window, and then flew into the house abnormally.
Logically speaking, this little bird is very afraid of people, but when it saw Little Anya, it was as unafraid as if it were seeing a similar creature with which it could not speak the same language. It circled in the girl's room a few times, then flapped its wings and flew to Little Anya's house. Beside him, he held the cuff of the girl's pajamas in his mouth, as if trying to pull her up.
"You want me to follow you? But... I can't stand up."
The red bird seemed even more anxious. It flew in front of little Anya and looked at the girl. It made a rhythmic sound in its beak, as if to cheer up.
Anya couldn't describe that feeling, but she slowly began to understand the meaning of the birds' chirping. Looking at her pair of white little feet, and then looking at the cold floor, little Anya swallowed.
"Okay, let me try."
When she slowly moved her body to put her feet on the ground, common sense fear kept her from lifting her body weight off the bed.
The birds chirped even harder. Little Anya mustered up the courage to put the stuffed bear aside, supported her body with her hands on the bed and jumped down. For the first time, her feet, which usually could only be used as decorations, relied solely on her own strength. Stand on the floor of the room.
Little Anya used her slender arms to maintain balance, but soon a shaking of her legs caused her to fall directly to the ground, and her immature body fell to the cold ground with a "thud".
Little Anya endured the pain and covered her mouth to prevent herself from making any sound. She listened quietly to the movements around her and made sure that no one heard anything unusual. Then she gradually smiled happily from her heart.
Although she failed the first time, she had found the feeling. This feeling was completely different from before. She could do it as long as she tried again.
The skin that could be broken by blows was bruised from the fall, but this pain could not cover up little Anya's excitement at this time. She pushed herself against the floor and tried to stand up, her legs shaking again when she stood up again.
But little Anya didn't want to give in. She suppressed her instinct to help anything nearby, gritted her teeth and took one step forward, then the second step, and the third step.
The terrible curse was overcome by brave will. Little Anya's legs no longer trembled. She stood in her room, just like any other normal child.
Little Anya had never felt so excited and happy. She couldn't wait to tell her father the good news, but the red bird seemed to have more important things to do, and sometimes flew in front of Anya and pulled her clothes. Sometimes he would fly behind him and push her forward.
Anya didn't remember how she was not discovered by the servants that night. She only remembered that she secretly opened the door, went down the stairs, and finally opened the door and followed the cardinal into the forest.
Little Anya was walking barefoot in her pajamas among the woods full of stones and weeds, but she was so excited that she couldn't feel the pain at all. The further she walked into the woods, the faster her steps became. steady.
From swaying left and right at the beginning to gradually being able to run, little Anya felt that she was slowly approaching the thing that could make her recover, and that thing was hidden in the forest, where the cardinal was taking her. .
There were more cardinals overhead, and in addition, there were all kinds of colorful birds in the forest dancing and flying under the moonlight, accompanying little Anya to mysterious places. From that time on, Anya began to listen to Have to understand the language of birds.
The birds brought Little Anya to a clearing in the forest. In the middle of the clearing stood an abrupt low mountain. Before Little Anya could figure out the situation, the birds that were singing just now dispersed in an instant, leaving only Xiao Anya stood there alone at a loss.
The surroundings became quiet and no one even heard the chirping of birds. The young Anya couldn't help but feel a little scared, especially when she heard the heavy breathing coming from the other side of the low mountain, and the outline of the low mountain also appeared with the sound of breathing. Heaving up and down weakly.
Little Anya didn't know where she got the courage, or it was just pure curiosity. She quietly approached the "low mountain" with bare feet.
The moonlight splashed on the thing, and what was reflected was countless silvery scales... Little Anya realized that it was definitely not a low mountain, but a huge creature entrenched here.
The ground began to tremble, and the creature began to move its body and slowly stood up. Its sharp claws were thicker than a century-old tree trunk, and the entire mountain above the ground was shaken.
Then, the creature stood up and raised its head. Its length and width were astonishing, like a living castle.
It spread its huge, broad wings to both sides, and its lizard-like long and pointed head had a pair of huge eyes, with sharp and majestic erect pupils.
Looking down at the young Anya as if looking at an ant, hot breath came out of the wide nostrils, and the huge wind and waves blew the little Anya almost flying out.
It was a giant dragon, a legendary dragon, a great creature whose existence had been denied in the world.
The dragon bent down its thick and flexible neck, opened its mouth slightly, revealing a mouth full of fangs several times larger than Little Anya, and said something vaguely. It was more like some kind of cry than a beast's cry. ancient language.
But little Anya was already frightened at this time. She clasped her hands in front of her chest in fear and stepped back. What she saw in front of her was far beyond her understanding. This was no longer what a six-year-old child could rely on. A sight that can be overcome by being brave.
It was almost instinct that replaced the brain's work. Anya made the decision she regretted most in her life. She faced the unknown she had always longed for, but chose to escape.
There was no screaming or crying. The little girl turned around and just wanted to escape from here. Her legs were uncontrollable and she ran along the way she came.
She ran, through the woods where she came from. The birds no longer accompanied her, and she ran all the way back to the mansion alone. When little Anya came back to her senses and looked back, nothing was chasing her.
Afterwards, Lauryn held a grand dinner to celebrate the recovery of her daughter's legs, celebrate a miracle and praise God's blessing.
And when Anya mentioned what happened that night and the giant dragon, no one wanted to believe it. Everyone just thought it was Anya having a weird nightmare, or experiencing a sleepwalking with her legs that had just miraculously recovered. .
Only Anya herself knew how real her experience that night was. And when she returned to the clearing again, nothing existed, even the dragon's paw prints on the ground had disappeared.
Anya...never saw the dragon again, but as she grew older she not only became able to communicate with the birds more fluently, but also gradually understood what the dragon said to her.
Long said at the time.
"Come on, kid."
The story ended here. Cesare was confused when he heard it. He firmly believed that creatures like dragons could only exist in fairy tale picture books. There was no need to delve into this story at all, and there was no need to compete with Anya.
However, Polonius listened with great interest and was very excited, especially when he heard the part where the dragon appeared, his eyes shone. "Great! This story is great!"
He looked like he was twisting, as if he was about to dance, but only if he had limbs. "Thank you so much for sharing, this story is interesting and novel, you will never imagine how much this means to me!"
He was extremely emotional, and even Anya, who should have been happy to be praised, was a little frightened by the other party's excessive reaction. "Ha...haha...as long as you like it."
He laughed awkwardly a few times, perhaps realizing that a quiet audience like Cesare was also quite good, so he turned to Cesare and shrugged helplessly.
Polonius seemed to want to ask more about this story. His tied body kept twisting and shaking his head to sort out his words. When he was about to speak, he was shouted out by the leader of the group who was performing over there. The train of thought was interrupted.
"Polonius! Polonius!!" The bets lost by the townspeople were already piled under the feet of the leader Claudius, and the performance was in full swing. "Now you are the only one who has not jumped through the fire hoop! Don't worry, we will throw you in like a colorful ball, haha!"
Several child laborers were busy collecting the bets from the townspeople. The leader of the group, Polonius, stepped towards the three of them. He walked up to Cesare and Anya and lowered the brim of his hat, squinting his eyes and smiling.
"Excuse me for disturbing you two." Then he untied the rope that tied up the human stick, took the human stick Polonius by the collar with one hand, and lifted it up from the chair like an animal, humming under the scarf. The circus tunes leisurely returned to the performance.
The performance of the circus freak show does not have a finale or a thank you session at the end. Everything starts silently and ends naturally.
The fog never lifted and it was impossible to see the specific time changes. All I knew was that before the sky got dark, the residents of the town began to look nervous. The audience who had been cheering just now gradually became gloomy and some people began to leave.
Before long, even the number of passers-by walking on the street became less and less.
When the light in the fog gradually faded and dusk came, Cesare noticed the changes in the expressions of the audience. People no longer focused on the freak show performance, but looked to the sky and whispered to each other. looking at the present time.
Several women anxiously looked for their children in the crowd, took their children's hands and left the crowd.
The scene was noisy, as if a mother had spoken to her little son. "Go home quickly, or Mary will be here..." Cesare looked at the audience leaving one by one, frowning, feeling that this place was starting to become weird.
The "Mary" mentioned seems to have appeared in the nursery rhymes of local children before.
