You're listening to Jana, and I'm here with a traditional tale from Russia, from the time of the Tsars.

They were the kings or emperors of Russia. The story involves a magical bird that appears in quite a few Russian tales.

This is a firebird with feathers that shine at night.

There's also another animal associated with Russia, a grey wolf.

But before we start, I'd just like to dedicate this story to Daniel, Ava, Julian and Ian who kindly support Story Nauri.

The Firebird and the grey wolf. In a faraway kingdom there was a Tsar named Vislav Andronovich.

He had three sons, Dmitri, Vasili, and the youngest, Ivan.

The Tsar owned a garden so grand that there was no garden in any country in the world that could compare with it.

In the middle of the garden stood his most precious tree, one that grew

golden apples. But then a firebird became a regular visitor to Tsarvislav's garden. It had golden

feathers and his eyes were like oriental crystals. This magical bird flew to the garden every night and sat on Sávi's love's favourite apple tree.

It sat for a while, lighting up the garden with a golden glow before nibbling at some apples.

The firebird then plucked a particularly large one, gripped it tightly in its talons and flew

away.

Tsar Vislav became more and more upset, because every night he lost more and more of his

golden apples.

Eventually, he called his three sons to him and said,

My dear children, which of you can catch the firebird in my garden? Whoever succeeds shall have

half my kingdom, now, and the rest when I'm gone.

His children, the princes, cried out with one voice.

Dear Father, your royal majesty, we will do our utmost to catch the firebird alive.

On the first night, Prince Dimitri went to keep watching the garden and sat under the apple tree from which the firebird was picking apples. Unfortunately, he fell asleep and did not hear how the magical bird flew in and picked a great many apples.

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