Wood elf

The inkstand cast a trembling circular shadow, whose outline I was concentrating on. The clock was striking in a distant room, and I, again a dreamy dreamer, thought it was a knock at the door, softly at first, then louder and louder. The man struck twelve times, and stopped to wait.

"Yes, I am, come in..."

The doorknob turned timidly, and the dripping candle slanted its light. The stranger stepped aside and stood out of the oblong shadow, his back bent, his grey coat covered with the frost and dust of the starry night.

I know that face -- I've known him for ages!

His right eye was still in shadow, and his left eye, long and faintly green, peered timidly at me. His eyes flicker like a piece of rust... The temples were gray and mossy, the silver eyebrows so pale that they could hardly be seen without notice, the absence of a beard, and the wrinkles around the mouth that seemed ridiculous -- all this seemed to play a joke on my memory, and made me vaguely angry.

I stood up and he stepped forward.

His shabby coat was too small and seemed to have been put on the wrong way - in the wrong place. He was holding a hat in his hand -- it wasn't a hat, it was a baggy, dark bundle that didn't look like a hat at all...

Yes, of course I know him -- I may have liked him once, but I can't quite remember where or when I met him now. We must have seen each other often, or I wouldn't have been so impressed by his face: the raspberry red lips, the pointed ears, the funny Adam's apple...

I mumbled something vaguely welcoming, shook his light, cold hand, and patted the back of a worn armchair. He hung down in his chair, like a crow on a stump, and spoke in a hurry.

"The street was terrible, so I hid in. Just dropped by unannounced to see you. Do you recognize me? You and I used to play together, chasing each other around for days at a time. Now I'm back. Are you going to say you forgot all about it?"

His voice really confused me. I felt dizzy -- vaguely remembering the joy of those days, the endless, irreplaceable joy that haunts me to this day...

No, it can't be: I came alone... I'm afraid it's some kind of psychosis. Let it go. But there was a man sitting beside me, too thin to be a real man, wearing long-spiked German ankle boots, with a voice as familiar as a bell, flashing gold and turquoise -- and yet the words were so simple, so real...

"Well -- you remember. Yes, I am an old wood-elf, a rascally. And here I am, forced to flee like everyone else."

He let out a deep sigh, and once more I had a vision of the rolling spirit of the waves, the surging of the tall, thick boughs, and the bright birch bark, which glittered like the waves, with a continuous melodious roar... He leaned over me and looked kindly into my eyes. "Remember our forest? Fir black, birch white? Now they've all been cut down. It was painful and unendurable to say -- I saw my beloved birch fall with my own eyes, and what could I do? They drove me into the marsh, and I cried, and I roared, and screamed like a hemp, and ran away as fast as I could, to a nearby pine forest.

"I was sad in the pine forest and couldn't stop crying. I was never used to the pine forest growing up, and, look, it's still a pine forest, just a blue shingle of cinder. Still got some more walking to do. I found myself in a wood -- a good wood, thick and deep and cool. Yet for some reason this forest is not quite the same as the old one. Back then, I used to play from morning till night, loudly whistling, clapping hard, frighten passers-by. You remember your own story -- you lost your way once in a dark part of my forest, and you were wearing your little white dress, and I kept making the forest paths intricate, turning the trunks and flashing among the leaves. Playing pranks all night long. But it was just fooling around, making jokes, and people calling me whatever they wanted. But now I'm sober, because my new place is no fun. There were strange crackling noises around day and night. At first I thought it was a fellow elf prowling the area. I called, and heard the echo again, again crackling and rumbling. But no, that's not the sound of our elves. Once, when it was getting dark, I slipped out into a glade, and you know what I saw? There were people lying everywhere, some on their backs, some face down. All right, I thought, when I wake them up, get them moving! So I began to shake branches, bombard them with pine balls, rustle, scream like an owl... I worked hard for a whole hour, but to no avail. So I came closer and was dumbfounded. Here was a man with his head hanging on a thin crimson thread; There was a man with a belly full of grubby maggots... Unable to bear it, I let out a scream, jumped into the air, and ran away...