THE BLACK LAKE  

 Serge Koslov.

Once upon a time, there was a hare who was afraid of everything: of the wolf, the fox, and the owl and even of the branches of the trees when their leaves would fall.  

One day, while passing through the Black Lake, the hare thinks, "The lake has been here since before the forest existed.  The lake is old and wise.  It will be able to tell me how to overcome my fear." 

He then draws near to the shore and says: "Black Lake, what do I have to do to overcome my fear?" 

The lake replies: "I cannot hear you well, Hare."

The hare goes one step forward, one more, and then still another until the ice-cold water reached his feet.  

"Black Lake, what do I have to do in order to overcome my fear?" he repeats.  The lake answers him back: "You have to want it, just like what you are doing now.  Haven't you noticed that, in order to speak with me, you have gotten in my black and freezing waters that many fear? If you have already been able to do this, what else can give you any fear?"

The hare returns to the forest and shortly chances upon the wolf, who says: "Well, well, well, here's my food." But the hare continues on his way.  "Are you not afraid?"  The hare responds: "I have just come from the waters of the lake that everyone fears.  Why will I fear you?" 

This surprises the wolf so much that he goes through another way.  The hare then meets the fox who says: "You will taste delicious with potatoes.  Come here, long-eared, you will be my food for today."  Without even stopping, the hare answers:  "I went in the waters of the Black Lake that everyone fears.  And I do not fear the wolf.  Did you think you could scare me?"

When night came, the hare went up a fallen tree trunk located in the forest clearing.  

The owl approached him, with an air of importance and seniority, and asks him: "Are you not afraid of being alone here in the moonlight?  Wouldn't it be safer for you to look for a dark corner where the beasts can't see you?" 

The hare answered:  "I am very well here and I am not afraid.  I have been in the waters of the Black Lake.  I did not flee from the wolf and I passed by the fox, without running.  Did you think I would be scared of you and other animals of the night?"

The owl says to him:  "You should leave the forest.  If the other hares see how you behave, they will do likewise and we don't want that." 

But the hare pacifies him:  "Not all will behave like me." 

Autumn comes and the leaves begin to fall.   

The hare hides behind a bush, trembling from the tip of his ears to his tail.  "I am not afraid of the wolf; the fox does not scare me nor does the great night owl.  "Why I am afraid of the sound of falling leaves?" the hare says to himself.  

Then he goes to the Black Lake: "Black Lake, why does the sound of falling leaves scare me?" 

The lake answers him: "It is not the sound of the leaves that scare you; it's the coming of autumn, the cold wind and the rain... It is starting to snow; snowflakes fall gently and cover the ground like a white carpet, don't you see it?" 

Then the hare starts to jump over the white snow because he no longer fears anything nor no one.