Four Paws

By Olivera Olja Jelkić

"Olivera Olja Jelkić, a children's writer by nationality, has been writing and publishing for 25 years. She has published more than 20 novels so far. She has been a member of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Literature in Paris, since 2018. She is the winner of the "Golden Badge" of the Cultural and Educational Association of Serbia, f

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ukiyoto Publishing
• Release date: Aug 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9789361724107

Book preview

Four Paws

Olivera Olja Jelkić

Ukiyoto Publishing

All global publishing rights are held by

Ukiyoto Publishing

Published in 2023

Content Copyright © Olivera Olja Jelkić

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

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Contents

Part 1 - Asia

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Part 2 - Bear Handling

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Part 3 - Destiny

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Part 4 - Four Paws

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

About the Author

Part 1 - Asia

Chapter 1.

I

t was a cold winter night. The wide Russian plain was covered with a colorful celestial blanket and remained silent. Hushed, trying to enjoy. The constellation of the Big Dipper in the clear sky was as clear as crystal. The North Star, like a diamond on a star brooch, directed attention to the Little Dipper.

There, where the sky and the plain met, where the sparks of the campfire climbed to the heights and went into eternity, in a gentle depression, only slightly hidden from the wind, was the camp of Gypsy bear handlers: one large and several smaller tents, horses and Gypsy caravans under a badly forged eave and several cages with bears.

The smoke was shyly billowing through countless holes in the old pipe, which protruded from the tent and disappeared at the same time, being carried by the mischievous wind, which played with the expanse.

Zafir Aleksejevich was nervously walking around his tent, occasionally peering inside. He was smoking bad tobacco, rolled in a piece of paper, and he very often repaired that roll with his fingers.

The night was slowly coming. Zafir’s mother Sofia, who in the camp, was affectionately called grandma-Dusa, poked her head through the hole in the tent and said in a steady voice:

-A boy! A boy! Young Zafirovich!

Zafir took a rifle and fired a couple of shots into the air. The shots spread across the wide plain, waking the sleeping Gypsies.

- Get up, my friends! I have a son! I have a son Alexei! Alexei was born! Alexei Zafirovich!

The dreamy company was slowly protruding from their tents. One of them took a previously prepared saluting gun and hit the ground, finding shelter, but it woke everyone else in the camp, and probably everywhere else, since its sound spread through the wastelands for a long time, disturbing the peace and harmony.

The campfire was lit again, and merry Gypsies gathered around it. One was tuning the strings of the balalaika while the other was already playing the little red harmonica.

- Alexei was born! Zafir got a son! Tarja gave birth to a son! Congratulations! - it spread out across the area with the sounds of a song.

Chapter 2

T

he star veil subtly disappeared. The sun was shining on the vast plain, basking in it, as if it would stay there forever. It vented its spite on the frost and hail covering what was left of the grass. A tired morning was calling for sleep to a rather drunken company.

Tarja held little Alexei in her arms. He was wrapped in a blue blanket of faded colors, with a barely visible teddy in the middle. This blanket had warmed generations before Alexei. He had long dark hair. He was crying and waving his arms.

-Let the blanket protect him from all the bewitchery, from evil people and evil eyes – grandma-Dusa was weaving a spell while she was tying a red thread around his arm.

- He takes so much after his father- Tarja said, almost in a whisper and kissed him.

-Yes, definitely! May he be just like his father, Zafir - Sofia replied and covered them with a woven blanket with a couple of holes on it.

- Sleep. You need a break. You both deserve it.

Then she went out to visit the bears in cages and feed them. They had already been stirring a lot.

Grandma-Dusa put the food in the cage where the old bear Ursa was. There was no use of him anymore. It was a custom among bear handlers to release the bear into the forest to die, after the bear had served its working life. It was like freeing a slave in order to wash away your own sin. Grandma-Dusa did not allow Ursa to be let into the forest. She knew he couldn't handle the wilderness. He would be torn apart by wild beasts even though Ursa himself was a bear. She did not want such an unworthy end for him, because he fed generations with his dance. Maybe she had taken to him since they were of the same age. When she was born, Ursa was bought as a little bear and brought to the camp.

Her grandfather accumulated ducats for a long time to provide craft and a better life to his tribe. He paid for Ursa in gold. He gave ten ducats for him. Grandma-Dusa still remembers their glow and hears their rattle as the grandfather was counting them for the elder of the tribe who, somewhere in the forests of the Urals, caught bears in bear traps so he could sell them.

Grandma-Dusa put on a