Part 1. Unexpected journey - Chapter I. New acquaintance

Chapter I. New acquaintance

Nea Cupeena stood on the ferry and gazed at the approaching shore. In the soul lurking resentment. The grandfather who practically raised her, who looked after her every day, who taught her, played with her, and was the closest friend - suddenly disappeared. Nea remembered her last meeting with him: she and her mother were on vacation for a week in Turkey, he gave a list of gifts that Nea had to bring. They were pebbles from the sea, a herbarium of exotic plants, and photographs of places she had visited. She didn't want to go, she wanted to spend the holidays with her grandfather, as always. Every summer vacation, she and grandpa planned. They usually went to the Park or ice cream parlour every day, sometimes to the circus and the cinema. In the evenings we played Board games, read books and shared our opinions. Once they wrote even a fairy tale about the lost Princess.

Daddy girl did not know. One day Nea got up the courage and asked her mother about him, she darkened and said that dad was a terrible criminal, he committed a terrible crime and is now in prison. Nea never spoke of her father again. Her grandfather was so close to her because he had replaced her father.

When Nea and mom returned home, no one met them at the airport. The apartment was empty. She and her mother called her grandfather on his mobile, but they were told by a soulless voice: "The Caller is out of range." They called all their friends and acquaintances, nobody knew anything. The neighbors haven't seen grandpa since they left. Her mother put her grandfather on the wanted list, but a month passed, and there was no news about him. Nea nights did not sleep, constantly arguing with my mother. The girl thought that if they hadn't left, grandpa would have been fine. She blamed her mother, who suddenly took it into her head to spend a vacation in another country. And instead of helping Nea find him, she decided to send her to a remote village, some village Chingis.

"How could she?"- Nea was angry. - "They do not care about the fate of his grandpa. She didn't do anything to find him!»

Nea stood on the ferry and looked at her reflection in the mirror of the car that also crossed the river on this ferry. Looked at her blue eyes slightly red from crying. Her face was sad and thin, and her unusual hair, snow-white and silver, fluttered in the wind. Hair color was a genetic feature of Cupeen's family: her grandfather always wore long silvery-white hair, her mother also never cut her hair and went with long hair of the same color.

The girl was dressed in black jeans and a t-shirt, and on top of it she threw on a bright red cloak, which she really went. Her grandfather bought her this coat last year, and she loved it more than anything. The ferry was cool. Nea wrapped in his cloak and folded his arms on his chest. Suddenly, the corner of her eye she noticed movement, and, frightened, turned around. It came to the boy, her age. His thick brown hair fluttered in the wind. Brown eyes looked at her with curiosity.

- "Hi! You at Chingis?"

- "What?" – Nea was confused, and then nodded her head. – "Yeah."

- "I, too," - smiled guy. - "I'm Constantine. You can simply - Costa. What about you?"

- "Nea," - she said briefly.

- "Interesting name," - said Constantine.

- "Y-Yes, interesting", - indifferently answered Nea. It's not news, everyone always said the same thing. What an interesting name, what an interesting hair...

- "You're the summer in the village?"

- "Yes," - the girl said sullenly.

- "Me neither. I come here every year to my grandparents."

Nea shuddered at the word "grandfather" and almost cried.

- "My mother sent to stranger grandmother for the summer," – suddenly she snapped and clenched her fists.

- "So what?" - the boy replied. – "Big deal. But you'll have a great summer. It's cool. Where will you live? On the island or the shore?"

- "What?" - Nea didn't understand.

- "Part of the village is on the island, which is connected by a dam with a single, that is, with the shore," – said the boy.

"I don't know," – Nea said sadly. Suddenly its hand someone licked. Girl saw before a dog, a small, with curves and short legs, white with black spots. Nea smiled tenderly:

- "Shorty, honey, how are you?" - she patted the dog gently behind the ear.

- "Is this yours?" – Costa admired. – "Pretty. A boy?"

- "Yeah. His name is Shorty." – Dog gave grandfather on 1 September. He was only 11 months old. And it became a true comfort after the disappearance of his grandfather. "If the dog is on deck, so is the mother," thought Nea. And indeed, she saw it. The girl's mother is a rare beauty. Her track everything is always turned around. And now, Nea read the admiration in the eyes of the men on the deck of the ferry. Her mother's name is Oksana Cupeena, she was a blue-eyed blonde, like her daughter. Only her hair fell back in beautiful waves. And the hair color of silvery white, played in the sun bright glare. Tall, slender, in jeans and a denim raincoat, she stood and looked at the approaching shore, and in her eyes was read anxiety.

Nea came up to her and frowned.:

- "Where are we going to live? On the island or shore?"

Oksana turned around, saw Her and the boy next to her and said:

- "Have you made friends yet? Fine fellow. We will live on the island, with an old friend of your grandfather - Pavlina Ovsyannikova. She lives on Kalinina street, house 10."

- "I'll be on the island too!" – Constantine exclaimed. – "My grandmother Bozena Petukhova, she lives on Artisanal street, house. 49. Come as a guest. Look, we're coming!"

Costa ran to the stern and waved his hands to his grandparents, who met him at the pier. Nea came up and saw that in addition to his grandparents Constantine, he was met and the boy of the same age as they are. He jumped and waved cheerfully. The boy was very thin, his face freckled, his eyes gray and anxious, and his hair was light brown, hard and sticking out in different directions. The boy seemed somehow awkward and frail, and even ugly. From afar he was like a locust: long thin legs and arms, a large head. And his clothes were kind of worn: an old faded t-shirt with a logo and dirty beige pants, which he tucked above the ankles.

Costa waved happily and turned to Nea.:

- "Look!"- he pointed to the dock. – "My friend Jeremiah Milovan is there."

Nea smiled at Constantine and nodded, saying that she understood everything. Oksana went to her daughter and hugged her shoulders. Nea frowned and turned away. The ferry moored and all foot descended, making way for drivers and their cars. Costa ran up and hugged his grandparents, and greeted his friend with a special welcoming gesture. Nea and Oksana went to the other grandmother standing alone on the pier. Nea saw an old woman with a very sweet and kind face. She had very beautiful blue eyes and white-gray hair. She neatly pinned up with hairpins. Nea was surprised to see that the hair color of grandma Pavlina was the same as hers! Oksana and Pavlina hugged very tightly.

- "So, what is the granddaughter of tan Gaara?!" - grandmother Pavlina exclaimed.

- "What?" - Nea was surprised. – "Why did you call grandpa that? Why Tangaar? His name was Gaar..."

Oksana seriously looked at Pavlina, but she smiled cheerfully and said:

- "Tan" means "dear." Expressed in Ancient Russia, when affectionately talking about the close people and relatives."- "I didn't know that," - Nea frowned.- "So you're still little, then will be at the Institute to study the ancient customs of the Slavs," - waved his hand grandma Pavlina.

Oksana breathed freely, and smiled. Then Costa came up to them and quietly invited Nea to go fishing tomorrow morning. Nea agreed – grandfather told her about fishing. And then it came to her – grandmother Pavlina clearly knew grandfather, and very well! She turned around at the moment when Oksana angrily whispered to grandmother Pavlina: "Pavlina, be careful! No need to tell Nea about the past of our family, especially about the past of her grandfather! She can't know anything about the Midlands and the Veil! Trouble courted! We all sacrificed a lot for my salvation and the salvation of my descendants!". Grandmother nodded and said nothing. And Nea suddenly realized that she heard some nonsense.

But still... Many times Nea heard from grandfather strange words and stories, his tales were not like any that she read in books. But their house was very old, in other languages. Often grandfather told or played or taught her something, but there was always a rule: "Mother should know nothing about it!". Nea turned away and pretended not to hear. She needed time to think.

(The text is translated using Yandex translator, so I ask you to consider this point. If you find errors in the translation, let me know in the comments to the text and I'll fix it. Thanks for understanding.)