Little Masa Fairy Tale

The tiny mosquito, as soon as it was born, began to admire itself.

— Look at this, how wonderful, how beautiful I am! This is what they call amazing! If I look at my legs, there are six of them! Long and elegant! You stand upright on four legs, while the other two: the fifth and sixth — are your guardians. They keep anything from getting too close to your body.

Now the mosquito looked at its wings. They are so transparent, light as a feather, and can lift off quickly. Its antennae are fluffy, and its snout is like a needle.

— What can I do? — the mosquito asked itself. It began to sing. Its song was so delicate and thin; who else sings like this? It didn’t know who to share its joy with. It tried singing to the river, but the water flowed by without hearing it. Then it started singing to a tree — the leaves rustled and, noisy, they didn’t listen either. While it was going on like this, the mosquito encountered a mouse. The tiny mosquito wanted to sing its song to the mouse, but the mouse ran away towards a bush. The long tail of the hiding mouse was left sticking out.

— You won’t listen to my song! Well then! — said the mosquito, poking its needle-like snout into the mouse's tail.

— Oh no! Mommy! — squeaked the mouse, starting to run away. At that moment, a rabbit saw the mouse running away in panic. It also got scared, started to shout “Mommy!” in its own way, and hopped off in the direction of the mouse. Just then, a sly fox appeared in front of the darting rabbit. The rabbit didn’t even have time to look at the fox. The fox realized that a terrible danger was coming after the mouse and rabbit. It too ran away without making a sound. The mouse, rabbit, and fox were running frantically, without a moment to look around. At that moment, a wolf was sleeping in its den. It woke up startled by the commotion of the animals. It jumped up and followed them:

 — A-a-a! The mouse, rabbit, fox, and wolf were running for their lives. At this time, a bear was busy poking around an ant hill. Seeing the animals rushing past, it sensed something bad was happening and, without a second thought, took off running through the forest… The mouse, rabbit, fox, wolf, and bear were running, running. At one moment, the rabbit asked the mouse:

— Why did you call for your mommy?

— The mosquito! The fox asked the rabbit:

— Who are we running from? 

— The mosquito! — said the rabbit.

— Who? — asked the wolf, not understanding.

 — The mosquito!

— Wolf, who is chasing us? Is it hunters? — asked the bear, joining in.

— Who would come? The mosquito!

— M-o-o-s-q-u-i-t-o! — roared the bear, and the entire forest echoed, as if the sky were falling to the ground. The bear's heart raced, and it fell to the ground, hiding its head in a badger hole. Just then, a frog jumped out of a puddle in front of the animals:

— What happened? Who are you running from? 

— Oh no! The mosquito is after us! — said the bear, unable to catch its breath. Meanwhile, the tiny mosquito buzzed on, singing its song. The frog, astonished, widened its eyes and opened its mouth: “Ah!” — and swallowed the mosquito. Thus, the mosquito's song was silenced forever.