Текст книги "The Magical World of Daniyal"

The Magical World of Daniyal

Оnce there lived a little boy Daniyal. Daniyal loved everyone: his mum and dad, his grandma and grandpa, his brothers, his aunts and uncles… and everyone loved to hear his stories about magic numbers – even the kids from the neighbouring streets would come running to hear them. Because when Daniyal closed his eyes and counted “One-two-three – whee”, he was suddenly immersed in a wonderful world of fairy tales. One of the neighbourhood children was a sad-eyed girl Luna, who very rarely smiled. She would always come alone, listen thoughtfully to Daniyal and then quickly disappear. No matter how hard Daniyal tried, he couldn’t cheer Luna up. Finally he had an idea – to take Luna into his Magical world with him.

The Town in a Refrigerator

This particular day Daniyal had been out playing with his friends for a long time and came home late. He was very tired and hungry. While waiting for his dinner, Daniyal curled up in the armchair, closed his eyes and began to think how to put his plan into action – to show Luna his Magical world. He recalled his mother’s words: “A wish that is kind is sure to come true!” and then he heard the words he was so fond of “One-two-three – whee!”.

…Daniyal found himself in front of an enormous refrigerator. It was shining so brightly that Daniyal wanted to open the door right away.

Peeping inside, his eyes feasted on a sight he had never expected to see: a multicoloured candy path that led to a fairy-tale city. Whirling carousels! Shiny toys and colourful balloons! Clowns! The sun was dazzlingly bright, and there were children laughing and running through the streets. Then he caught sight of Luna, who was staring around helplessly. Daniyal jumped with joy and ran to her. Holding hands, the friends ran along the candy path towards the splendid city.

Out of the blue, a shop counter appeared in front of them – though the shop itself was nowhere to be seen. Behind the counter stood a smiling saleswoman – on seeing the youngsters she began to sing:

 
Step right up children, come and see:
In the world of Light – Еverything's free!
Cakes and pasties,
Ice cream and candies,
Have a Fanta, Coke or Sprite…
Choose anything you like!
 

Luna smiled almost unnoticeably, but Daniyal said to the saleswoman: “We’ll have sausages with chocolate.”

The saleswoman nodded approvingly: “Excellent choice. Would you like to order anything else?”

“Yes, meat dumplings with ice cream,” said Daniyal and asked Luna: “And what do you want?”

“I want… I want a hamburger… with strawberries!” Pleased with her concoction, Luna looked at Daniyal and smiled. Daniyal beamed with happiness.

The saleswoman didn’t bat an eye, and rang a gingerbread bell. Without more ado, in rushed a huge pot on wheels. From it sprang a chef who wore a necklace made of sausages, and ten assistants in ice cream caps. The order was taken!

Less than five minutes had passed when some sausages appeared on the counter – generously covered with hot chocolate… followed by burgers with strawberries… and the next moment their meat dumplings with ice cream were ready! Luna was delighted.

“Do you have chicken with candies?” asked Daniyal.

The chef and his assistants whispered to each other…

A minute later, multicoloured miraclecandies were served. Daniyal put five of the candies straight into his mouth, pocketed a few pieces, and the rest he stuffed into Luna’s pockets.

Suddenly his mother’s voice could be heard, calling him “Daniyal, Daniyal!” He woke up and ran straight to his mother, to tell her about Luna and about the city inside the refrigerator. His mother hid her smile with her hand and said: “My little storyteller, run into the dining room – there’s a girl waiting to see you. Maybe it’s Luna?”

Daniyal rushed into the dining room. Luna was sitting at the table and telling Daniyal’s father something funny.

There were miracle-candies in the candy bowl. Daniyal was happy. All his wishes had come true. And most importantly – Luna wasn’t sad any more.

The Planet of Giant Fruits and Vegetables

Оn this day, Daniyal and his friends went swimming in the river. They were swimming, diving, and swinging into the river from a rope… Only Luna couldn’t join them – she was at home in bed with a sore throat.

When Daniyal came home he was exhausted. He went straight to the armchair, curled up and closed his eyes.

On hearing the words “One-two-three – whee!” Daniyal found himself in a room filled with some kind of flashing instruments. Where was he?

On a large control panel there was a blinking red button with the word ‘Navigation’ written on it. Daniyal pressed the button, and right in front of him appeared a map showing different planets and solar systems. Daniyal realised that it was a spaceship. He already knew the names of many of the planets by heart from playing “The Interplanetary Game.” He grabbed the ship’s helm and pulled it towards him. A miracle happened – the ship obeyed and took off.

Daniyal marvelled at the view through the portholes. Multicoloured lights shone to the left and right, while in front the mysterious black sky was scattered with glittering stars. After a little flying around between the stars, the boy opened up the space map and realized that he was close to the planet of Giant Fruits and Vegetables.

Immediately after arriving at the planet, Daniyal caught sight of some little men in shiny suits. The men got into helicopters and took off, and from a great height they watered the huge fruits and vegetables.

Striped watermelons were the size of a car! A team of men rolled a watermelon up to the helipad, put it into a huge net and then fastened it to the helicopter. Daniyal could see an air traffic controller with flags who was carefully watching the flights and guiding the helicopters to the right place.

In the distance he noticed a whole mountain of watermelons. Looking through the telescope, Daniyal could see that some of the men were cutting up one of the huge watermelons with a knife attached to a crane. Inside the watermelons were yellow with red seeds.

Circling the planet, Daniyal could make out giant cucumbers, grapes, pears, oranges, and enormous thickets of raspberries and blackcurrants.

What surprised him even more were the striped apples hanging from trees – they were even bigger than hot-air balloons! And then he remembered that he had read a tale about magic apples that could cure any illness. Perhaps, these were the ones!

Without any trouble at all, Daniyal jumped right across the watermelon field and approached the little men.

“Hello! My name is Daniyal. I flew here from the planet Earth. Please give me a piece of one of your apples – I have to help my friend Luna to get better” the boy said.

Struggling with a large knife, five of the men managed to cut a piece of apple and brought it to Daniyal. Daniyal returned to the spaceship, sat in the pilot’s seat and pulled the helm towards him, setting the course for Earth.

And then his father’s voice called out:

“Wake up, sleepyhead, and look here! There’s a present for you: “The Astronaut Game!”

“That’s cool! Thanks, Dad! I’m going to be an astronaut! And tomorrow I’ll take the apple to Luna, and she’ll get better for sure!”

The Magic Pharmacy

It was a beautiful sunny day. Daniyal’s mother and father decided to take him to the zoo. At the zoo, Daniyal saw a mother elephant with her baby. The elephant’s eyes looked sad, just like Daniyal’s eyes looked when he had toothache. “Interesting,” thought Daniyal “I wonder if the elephant has toothache?”

In a nearby pool, a hippopotamus was splashing around with her baby hippo, while opposite proud peacocks were strutting with their bright tails, and a little further on frolicked cute zebras, llamas and deer… It’s a pity that the bear house was closed, because Daniyal really wanted to see the bears. But all in all, the trip turned out to be a real treat!

On the way back home, father remembered that he needed to go to the chemist’s. He went with mother to get some medicine, and Daniyal curled up in his seat and closed his eyes.

Hearing the familiar words “One-two– three – whee!” Daniyal saw a sign that read “Magic Chemists”, and before he knew it he found himself inside. The chemist’s shelves were adorned with pancakes, croissants, doughnuts, hamburgers, jars of jam and boxes of biscuits…

The boy read the labels: “The roll that makes you bold”, “Cold-remedy Salad”, “Pick-me-up Jam”, “Fruit dessert for when your stomach hurts”, “Headache? Eat this cake”, “Got the flu? This brew’s for you”, “Meat in gravy to stop you being lazy”, “I-can-do Stew”, “Eat this quickly – stop feeling sickly.” But most of all he liked the sugar-coated pills that make dreams come true.

Daniyal was delighted when he saw the chemist – a very large and important looking bear with spectacles on his nose. So that’s why the bear house was closed!

A little girl and her mother approached the bear-chemist. The little girl asked: “Do you have any ‘Throatcure Chocolate’?”

Daniyal recognised Luna’s voice and asked: “Luna, why do you need ‘Throat-cure Chocolate’? You ate some magic apple this morning!”

“She doesn’t need ‘Throat-cure Chocolate’, but ‘Honesty Jellies’ said her mother.

“Yes we have some,” growled the bear-chemist. “The freshest. Very efficient.”

“Do you have any ‘Painrelief Bananas’?” asked Daniyal, remembering about the elephant.

“The next time we’re on the way to the zoo we have to buy the elephant some bananas – just in case if her teeth start aching again.”

Suddenly he was woken up by the sound of a car horn.

The next day, Daniyal went to the chemist’s. It was very similar to the Magic one, but there were no croissants or jam on the shelves… and it was simply called “Chemist’s”. There were a lot of different medicines…

But then, on the second shelf from the right, Daniyal noticed some multi-coloured vials with the inscription: “Sugar-coated pills to make dreams come true.”

Then Daniyal remembered his mother’s words: “A wish that is kind is sure to come true!”

The Town of Frogs

Аfter Daniyal had spotted lozenges that make wishes come true in the pharmacy, he wanted to buy them very much. So the boy found out how much the magic sweets cost and started collecting the money. He often just dropped into the pharmacy to make sure nobody had bought the lozenges…

Thus the holidays passed by unnoticed, hot summer ended with them as well, and slowly a beautiful autumn approached before winter arrived.

Daniyal had three secret treasured wishes, which were hot like potatoes. First, the boy dreamed of his dad buying him a bicycle with four wheels, but not a simple one. Daniyal imagined how he would ride this four-wheel bicycle on the ground, but when he wanted to – it would fly up high into the sky, right under the clouds. Second, he wanted a magic flute that would play such fine melodies that, when you hear them, you’d want to laugh and cry at the same time. Third, Daniyal dreamed that Grandfather Frost would give him a ship on which he could sail over the sea. At last Daniyal collected 7 coins, exactly as much as he needed to buy the treasured jar of sweets. Early in the morning he ran to the pharmacy and bought the magic lozenges that could make wishes come true.

Daniyal left the pharmacy, opened the jar with the magic lozenges and was very surprised that the candies which should grant wishes looked very strange: they were of different form, different color, and different sizes. There were all sorts of sweets there! Some were in the shape of birds and animals (parrots, owls, dogs, kittens, fish, elephants, frogs, and bunnies), others in the form of vegetables and fruit, and yet a third kind came in the form of toys (aeroplanes, ships, cars). There was so much, you can’t list them all!.. There were even drops in the form of a Christmas tree, Grandfather Frost and Snow Maiden!

Daniyal wanted to take a close look at those magic sweets and therefore he ran home quickly. He decided not to tell anybody about his purchase, but as soon as his mum saw him, she asked: “And what are you hiding there, sonny?”

– It’s … it’s!.. – said the boy.

He could not deceive mum; in fact, she always told him that it’s a bad thing to tell a lie.

Daniyal showed mum the jar and said:

– These are magic lozenges! They make wishes come true!

Mum smiled:

– You little fidget! You say the sweets make wishes come true? Can such a thing really happen?

The boy fled into his room and could no longer rejoice in his purchase: he looked at the lozenges and it seemed to him that the frog in the jar… was winking at him. Of course, Daniyal was surprised that a sweet winked at him, so he took it from the jar and began to inspect it closely. The frog was small, soft, and smelt nice. But that was not the main thing… It was of a very strange colour for a frog: pink. Daniyal decided to eat and quickly put it in his mouth…

Within a few seconds he felt that the taste turned from sweet to very sour. The boy instantly spat out the sweet and noticed that it… changed colour! Daniyal was quite surprised, but he remembered that it said on the jar “Put in your mouth, chew and close your eyes. Effective within a minute.” So he did: he put the sweet back into his mouth, closed his eyes… and when he opened his eyes again, he realised that he was in a totally unfamiliar place.

Daniyal realised that he got into a world where only frogs lived! It was a genuine city of frogs! The boy was quite frightened, since he had never seen so many frogs before! They rode in cars and buses, descended from the sky in parachutes, or stood at bus-stops…

Mummy-frogs and daddy-frogs with their frog-children seemed quite lovely to Daniyal. Frog-girls were pink and dressed in multi-coloured dotted dresses, wearing ribbons around their heads. The green frogboys wore vests and hats.

But most of all Daniyal was amazed by an old toad in red tie, with a bright blue jacket, a cap on the head and a large watch on its right hand.

– Who are you? – croaked the toad, addressing the boy. – Why do you look so strange? I have never seen such a breed of frogs…

“Well, turns out that frogs are not at all small and they speak human language,” thought the boy to himself, and then said:

– Hello, my name is Daniyal! I’m not a frog, but a boy. I have eaten a magic sweet in the form of a frog and I turned up here.

– Ha-ha-ha!!! – laughed the toad. – Now everything’s clear. My name is Vangar, I’m a kind old toad, I keep order in the city and protect the city and its inhabitants from malicious and artful birds that come to us from a neighbouring country and attack frogs.

The boy’s attention was drawn to the large and beautiful watch on Vangar’s right hand. He constantly adjusted it, checking the time.

– What’s this watch? – asked Daniyal curiously.

– My father was a well-known watchmaker, and I inherited it.

Daniyal was ever so interested: the life of the frog city seemed amazing.

Vangar showed his house to the boy and said that, if any time he needed anything at any time, he would be ready to help. “Just call: “Vangar! Vangar! Help!” – he said.

Daniyal thanked Vangar and went on for a walk around the city. Everything here was quite interesting and stunning. Shops, hospitals, pharmacies…

The boy liked the kindergarten in the shape of a huge aquarium, whence frog mummies and daddies collected their tadpoles. He also saw a school, which little multi-coloured frogs in their bright garments left after classes and where their parents met them at the gates. These numerous amicable frog families formed long lines as they headed home.

The frogs stopped and stared at the colourful windows of shops and restaurants. And there was something to look at: in fact, restaurants displayed dazzling colourful signs: “Fresh moths!”, “Only here and only today! Three flies for the price of two!”, “Set menu: mosquitoes with mint sauce and snails à la naturelle”. The ticker drew the boy’s attention: “Ice-cream 333 caterpillars” – everyone will get a different taste!

It even seemed to the boy that the life of frogs was somehow similar to the life of humans. Just one thing he could not understand: what he was doing there…

Suddenly the boy heard someone sobbing. He turned around and saw a loudly crying little pink frog with a beautiful ribbon on her head next to him. Tears were pouring from her eyes so fast that they made a small puddle around her.

Daniyal took such a pity on her that he could not stop himself but approach the little frog and talked to her:

– What’s your name and why’re you crying?

– My name is Croaka, – said the frog through tears. – I got lost. Mum and I were riding a bus, I saw a billboard with ice-cream, and got off at a stop, but mum went on, ahhh… I went to look for her and got lost completely…

Croaka started to cry even more loudly, and her tears flowed even more steadily.

Daniyal asked the frog:

– Do you know where you live?

– No-o-o, – Croaka burst into tears again.

The boy decided to distract the frog. There were a lot of bicycles by the corner of a house that he had noticed to the right of him. Apparently one could take them free of charge and ride! That was the first time he saw such bicycles! They had four wheels: two bigger ones in the front, and two smaller ones at the back. “That’s interesting: why are the wheels different,” – thought Daniyal.

But here the miracles of frog city did not end. Daniyal approached the sign and read: “Bicycles of your dream! If your wish is strong enough, you’ll fly up into the sky!”

– “Wow, that’s cool!” – he thought. He looked at the crying Croaka and decided: “She must be distracted! And her parents

must be found!”

– Croaka, do you want me to take you for a ride on a bicycle? – asked the boy.

– Can you do that? – the frog smiled broadly.

– Of course! Sit down! – Daniyal said confidently.

He bravely clutched the handlebars and Croaka jumped on the back of the bicycle, between the smaller wheels. “It seems these are specially made for frogs,” guessed Daniyal.

The boy began to turn the pedals, and they went along wide city streets. The city amazed Daniyal even more: small shops and bigger shops; but the boy was especially dazzled by the huge toy shop with a bright multi-coloured shop window. Wherever Daniyal and Croaka went by, they heard nice music and remarkable songs. True, the boy did not always understand what they were about, but for some reason he liked them at once.

Even more frogs came onto the streets. Mummy-frogs with row of little frogs behind them went from shop to shop, and crossed the road only to a green traffic light. “How interesting! – thought the boy, – one mum, and she has seven or eight kids, and that one even has twelve! And all frogs obey their mums, nobody runs away! But Croaka is totally alone, her mum must be worried…”

The boy wanted to find his new friend’s parents very much. Suddenly he felt that the bicycle began to lift off slowly, going upwards!.. Daniyal looked to the sides and saw that his bicycle now had wings!

Hardly had he managed to say: “One, two, three – fly!” – when they were already up high in the sky. The bicycle was flying above the trees. Daniyal and Croaka saw how beautiful the frog city was: multi-coloured roofs of houses, shining chimneys from which white fluffy smoke rose up before it turned into milky coloured clouds.

Croaka was excited about everything she saw during the flight: the pure blue sky, the setting sun, the beauty of the city, but especially she liked the fluffy clouds. She even touched them and wanted to take a slice of cloud back home with her… But suddenly, quite unexpectedly the frog shouted: “There is our house, with the red roof! Daddy, mummy, my brothers and sisters! They’re waiting for me!”

Daniyal was ready to land on the roof, when suddenly some huge malicious birds turned up, and started attacking Croaka with their sharp and long claws. The boy realised that they wanted to take her away. The birds circled above the frog, approached and pecked her, and tried to push her off the bicycle. Croaka held on to the bicycle as best as she could and croaked loudly… Daniyal turned round: he could see the fear in her eyes and heard her groan. He tried to chase away the birds with his hand, to avoid them by turning the bicycle to the left and to the right, but he couldn’t manage… As a result of his manoeuvres the bicycle lost balance and began to fall down!..

Here the boy remembered old Vangar; by sheer miracle he reached his house and cried: “Vangar! Vangar! Help! Rescue us!!!”

Daniyal had no more strength, but he kept straight: he had to rescue Croaka!

Vangar jumped out of the house, saw the birds attacking the boy and a frog. He quickly threw a jar into the air and shouted to Daniyal: “It’s a magic potion! Splash it into the birds’ eyes!”

The boy caught the bottle, instantly opened it and splashed the magic liquid into the birds’ eyes. They started to scream loudly, turned blind and flew away.

Daniyal was proud of the victory over the terrible, malicious birds. He thanked Vangar for his courageous and kind act, and again the winged bicycle rose into the sky.

The boy and Croaka quickly reached the house with the red roof. The frog was very happy when Daniyal landed the bicycle on the lawn before the house. Even more Croaka was delighted to see her mum, dad, her brothers and sisters.

The whole family was happy. Croaka’s parents were grateful to the boy for having brought back their daughter alive and safe. They called him a real hero when Croaka told them how Daniyal had fought the huge malicious birds. Croaka’s parents began to treat Daniyal to sweets that he had never tried in his life before. Most of all, the boy was surprised by sugar candies in the form of coins.

Croaka gave Daniyal a flower, which had eggs on its roots. Every evening the flower withered away, but every morning the eggs produced a new flower.

Croaka had many brothers and sisters, and her father was a gifted artist who painted remarkable pictures. In gratitude for the rescue of their daughter the parents presented the boy with a flute.

Daniyal had not yet thanked them for the gift, when he felt a sour taste in his mouth; he began to cough and squint…

When he opened his eyes, he realised that he was in his own room, with the flute in one hand and a fine flower with magic roots in the other.

Having looked at the flute, Daniyal said: “Croaka is at home, and me too… 15 minutes have gone by and it seems it’s been an eternity… And I wonder what will happen when I eat a lozenge in the form of Grandfather Frost?..”

Daniyal took the flute and went into the kitchen. His mum was making dinner.

She sternly asked:

– What’s the flute? Where did you take it?

– Croaka’s parents gave it to me, from the magic city of frogs, – the boy answered honestly.

– My dear! You remember, when you lost a tooth, you said you’d put it under the pillow and make a wish? – the mother laughed. – Maybe the fairy came and brought you the flute?

– No, mum! This was the magic lozenges which make wishes come true! There was one candy in the shape of a pink frog, I ate it and went to the frog city.

– You little dreamer! He went to the city of frogs! You’ve heard what your son said, dad?! – mum shouted over to the father. – Sonny, you’d better help sort the buckwheat from the rice while I go to the shop for milk.

Hardly had he waited until his mum left the house, Daniyal took the flute, held it to his lips, blew and… suddenly he saw different birds fly up outside the window. Some chirped, others started singing loudly, and some began to hop from branch to branch as though they were dancing… The boy had not even managed to enjoy the dance of the birds when he saw that they started to fly through the open window and sort the rice from the buckwheat! There were so many birds that, when mum came back from the shop, there were two bowls on the table: one with rice, another with buckwheat.

“So the flute is magic after all,” – thought Daniyal. But he didn’t tell mum about that, since she would not believe him all the same and would call him a dreamer and a tale-teller.