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– Oh deear! – Hope drawled with admiration, picking up one of the canvases and looking at it with rapture. An incredibly beautiful women was looking at her from the picture with her green eyes, framed by golden eyelashes. And there was so much warmth and light in her gaze, that Hope was lost in admiration, having forgotten where she was. Besides, she wondered how did the artist manage to achieve such an effect? Just how deeply one needs to feel the human soul to reflect with impeccable technique not only the facial features, but also the inner world of a person. The picture was so brilliant, that the girl in it seemed alive, ready to wink and smile tenderly any minute.

– Didn’t your parents teach you that it’s bad to take other people’s things?! – yelled Koschei behind her back. He snatched a picture from the girl's hands and threw it aside. But Hope had time to notice the wrench he looked at the canvas with. A wonderful portrait landed on a bunch of others. The edge of the pastoral picture emerged from the bottom, where one could easily recognize the forest near the house.

Not allowing her to see other pictures, he snapped his fingers, and the next moment they appeared in front of a locked door of the room. Hope frowned, refusing to understand why to hide such beautiful paintings. She felt how much these works and images in the pictures meant to him. So why is he hiding them and from whom? Now she didn’t care about the other rooms or stuff that was hidden from view on the second floor, where a wide staircase led.

– It is you who draws so well, isn’t it? – the girl asked. And then she began to remember that she found herself in this forest, when she was drawing a different, unremarkable forest; and when, in anger, she touched the canvas with her foot. So, maybe, and the way out can be found in one of the paintings? Well, then she has to get into this room again by all means. Or beg the old man to draw such a forest. Indeed, he's a wizard and can help her. Or at least let her take one of his wonderful canvases, so she could try to draw that forest on her own.

 

Chapter 4