The Enchanted Moccasins

The Enchanted Moccasins

Long ago, far to the northwest, a brother and sister lived among forests and rivers beneath a wide sky.

When the brother was small, people called him the Boy Who Carried a Ball on His Back. They said a special power was hidden in that ball. The boy himself rarely spoke of it. He loved to sit beside the water, watch clouds drifting over the treetops, and wonder what lay beyond the distant horizon.

One day, when he had already become a young man, he asked his sister:

“Are you and I the only people on the whole earth?”

The sister laughed.

“Of course not. There’s a large settlement, but it’s very far away.”

“You knew, and you never told me?”

“You never asked before.”

The young man was silent for a while, and then stood up resolutely.

“Then I will go there.”

The sister looked at his old, worn-out shoes and shook her head.

“First I will make you a few pairs of moccasins. The journey is long.”

She set to work. The moccasins were soft, strong, and light. She made one pair with particular care. They looked almost like the others, but when the young man picked them up, he felt them tremble ever so slightly, as though eager to set off.

“Take good care of these,” his sister said. “They’re special.”

The young man put them in his bag and left.

On his travels he called himself Onwi Bamondang, the Ball Bearer. That was how he introduced himself to everyone he met.

The journey was peaceful for several days. Then Onwi saw a small house. A very old woman was sitting by the fire.

“Come in, grandson,” she said. “Are you going far?”

“I am looking for a large settlement.”

The old woman stopped stirring the coals.

“Many people have looked for it. Not all of them have come back.”

Onwi sat down closer.

“Why?”

“Before you reach the settlement, there’s a great tree with a smooth trunk. A small house hangs from it, and that house can rise into the sky. Two sisters live there, Ajabi and Neganabi. They lure travellers in, confuse their paths, take their bags and belongings, and send them so far away that they spend years trying to find their way home. They say two of your older relatives disappeared that way.”

Onwi frowned.

“I must stop this.”

“Don’t be too quick to use force,” the old woman replied. “A clever mind can sometimes reach higher than a fist.”

She gave him a handful of small bone supports.

“In this story, these have magic powers. When you tire of climbing, push one into the bark and rest on it. But remember, you only have a few.”

Onwi thanked her and set off again.

Soon he saw the settlement, with an enormous tree in its midst. There were no branches on the lower part of its trunk. High above hung a small house.

“So this is it,” said Onwi.

He touched the tree.

The tree trembled and instantly stretched upwards.

The hut became so distant that it looked like a bird's nest.

“Interesting,” Onwi muttered.

He tried to climb faster. The tree stretched towards the sky again.

Then Onwi remembered his magic power. In a moment he became a swift squirrel and ran up the trunk.

But the tree turned out to be no less swift. The higher the squirrel climbed, the higher the hut flew.

Onwi was barely able to catch his breath when he remembered the bone supports. He stuck one into the trunk, stood on it, and rested.

Then another.

And another.

The ground below turned into a green spot. The clouds were no longer above him, but beside him.

He had used up all the bones.

“Well,” said Onwi, “there’s just one thing left to do: keep going.”

He gathered his strength and rushed up.

The tree trembled, trying to grow even higher, but there was no room for it above the sky itself.

Onwi grabbed the edge of the house and climbed inside.

Two sisters were sitting there.

“Who are you?” asked one.

“And who are you?”

“I am Ajabi,” said the girl on the left.

“I am Neganabi,” said the girl on the right.

Onwi began talking to Neganabi—and felt the house rise again.

He turned his gaze to Ajabi.

“Have you lived here for a long time?”

The tree sank lower.

Onwi was surprised.

He turned to Neganabi again, and the tree shot upwards.

He spoke to Ajabi, and the house drifted down.

“So that’s how it works,” he thought.

And he began to ask Ajabi questions one after another:

“What can you see from your window?”

The house sank lower.

“Where does that path lead?”

Even lower.

“Where do you get your water?”

Even lower.

Finally, the ground was very close.

Then Onwi became serious.

“Enough. Because of your spells, people lost their way home. Return everything you took and lift the spell.”

The sisters laughed.

“And if not?”

Onwi took the ball from his back. In his hands it became a heavy magic staff.

He did not strike the sisters. Instead, he tapped the floor with his staff.

Thump!

The house shuddered.

He tapped again.

Thump!

Other people’s bags, cloaks, jewellery, knives, belts, and travelling gear tumbled from the walls—all the things the sisters had taken from travellers over the years.

And a third time.

Thump!

The spell cracked like thin ice in spring.

Far away in the forest, people who had wandered for years along enchanted paths suddenly saw the way home.

Ajabi and Neganabi turned pale.

“What have you done?”

“Opened the roads,” Onwi replied. “Now either live honestly or find somewhere else for your tricks.”

The sisters ran to their father and brother.

Their brother was the most angry, because he had long used the things that the sisters had taken from travelers.

“I’ll catch Onwi!” he cried. “And I’ll get everything back!”

The father said:

“If you’re going, let nothing distract you along the way, and don’t stop to eat until you’ve found him.”

The brother set off in pursuit.

Onwi quickly realized that he was being chased. He ran for a long time, but the pursuer did not lag behind.

Then Onwi pulled out his enchanted moccasins.

“Help me,” he said softly. “Run to the very edge of the earth and leave tracks as though someone were walking in you.”

The moccasins moved.

Thump-thump.

They set off down the road all by themselves.

Clear footprints remained in the sand.

The pursuer reached the crossroads, saw them, and exclaimed:

“Aha! That's where he's going!”

And he ran after the moccasins.

They led him over hills, through a marsh, and across a dry plain, all the way to a distant land where he finally found… nothing but a pair of shoes.

“Have I been tricked?!”

The moccasins seemed to chuckle faintly.

Meanwhile, Onwi went another way.

But the pursuer was stubborn. He turned back, found fresh tracks and caught up with him again.

Then Onwi created a large garden in the middle of the road. There were berries, corn, fragrant herbs, and near the cozy dwelling there was a table with hot food.

Onwi took the form of the old man who lived there.

When the pursuer approached, he could barely stand on his feet from hunger.

“Come in,” said the ‘old man’. “Have something to eat first.”

“No!” the pursuer replied. “I gave my word not to stop.”

But the smell of warm corn porridge was more convincing than his determination.

“Perhaps just one spoonful…”

After the first spoonful there was a second.

After the second, a third.

Soon the guest forgot why he was so angry. Then he yawned.

“I’ll just close my eyes for a moment…”

And fell asleep.

Onwi returned to his own form. He took the pursuer’s weapon and left a bag of food beside him, along with a note:

“When you wake up, go home. The roads are open again. Don’t make other people’s troubles your livelihood.”

Then the magic garden melted away, and Onwi found himself near a large settlement.

There he was in for the biggest surprise.

His sister was standing near one of the dwellings.

“How did you get here?” Onwi cried.

“The road opened,” she replied. “And not just for me. People who disappeared long ago have come back. Some even remember our two older relatives and are helping them find their way.”

The people in the settlement thanked Onwi, but he only waved his hand.

“The most important thing is that now you can walk the road without fear.”

He hung the magic moccasins at the entrance to the house so that they could rest after running to the ends of the earth.

But in the same settlement there lived a man named Ko-ko, who was nicknamed Owl.

Ko-ko loved to talk about great deeds that he would certainly do tomorrow.

“If I had moccasins like those,” he said, “I’d do twice as much as Onwi!”

“What exactly?” the people asked.

“Everything!” Ko-ko replied. “Twice as much!”

One night he quietly crept into Onwi's house and stole the magic moccasins.

“Now everyone will see a real hero,” he whispered.

Ko-ko set off for the magic tree.

On the way he met the same old woman.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“To finish the job that Onwi didn’t finish.”

“What job exactly?”

Ko-ko thought for a moment.

“Well… a very important job.”

The old woman hid a smile.

“Maybe you’ll at least listen to some advice?”

“Me? Advice?” Ko-ko puffed out his chest. “I can give advice myself.”

“So I see,” the old woman said.

She gave him a few ordinary fish bones. Ko-ko decided that they were also magical.

At the tree, he began to climb.

The tree stretched out.

Ko-ko was soon out of breath.

“I’ll become a squirrel now!”

He closed his eyes.

Nothing.

“Okay. Then a wolf!”

Nothing.

“A bear?”

Nothing.

“At least a little mouse?”

He remained the same Ko-ko.

“It's okay. I have a magic bone!”

He stuck a fish bone into the bark, leaned on it - crunch!

Ko-ko slid down the trunk and sat right in the soft moss.

Ajabi and Neganabi's father looked out from above.

“Who's that clattering?”

Ko-ko was scared, but immediately decided to brag.

“It's me, the great Onwi Bamondang!”

“Really?” came a voice from above. “Wait there, then. I’ll come down and talk to you.”

“No need!” Ko-ko squeaked, and ran.

The sisters’ father climbed down after him. He did not want to fight. He wanted to know why someone was using another person’s name.

But Ko-ko didn't know about this and ran as fast as he could.

Suddenly he remembered the moccasins.

“Well! Show your strength! Carry me away!”

The moccasins obediently hopped onto his feet.

“Forward!” ordered Ko-ko.

And they sped away.

Not forward.

But straight back, toward the man Ko-ko was running from.

“Not that way!” he screamed. “The other way!”

The moccasins sped away even faster.

Ko-ko flew past the astonished man, ran around him once, then twice, and then turned onto the wet path.

Squelch!

Ko-ko almost fell in the mud.

“Stop!”

The moccasins did not stop.

They carried him through the bushes, around the rock, across the stream, and back to the road.

“I understand everything!” begged Ko-ko. “I won’t do it again!”

Finally the moccasins stopped abruptly.

Ko-ko sighed with relief.

And just then they slipped from his feet.

Thump-thump-thump.

Without their master they rushed home.

“Stop!” cried Ko-ko.

But the enchanted moccasins had already disappeared over the hill.

The next morning Onwi came out of the house and saw them at the threshold.

They stood neatly side by side, as though they had stayed at home all night.

“Where have you been?” asked his sister.

The moccasins, of course, did not answer.

But there was a drop of mud on one of them.

A few days later, Ko-ko returned to the settlement, looking very serious.

“Well?” the people asked. “Did you do twice as much as Onwi?”

Ko-ko scratched the back of his head.

“I… travelled twice as far.”

Everyone laughed.

Ko-ko pouted at first, then he couldn’t help himself and laughed.

Later he went up to Onwi.

“I took your moccasins without permission.”

“I know.”

“How do you know?”

Onwi pointed to a speck of dried mud.

“They told me everything themselves.”

Ko-ko looked at the moccasins in fear.

“Do they talk?”

“No,” Onwi said with a smile. “But sometimes all you need to do is look carefully.”

Ko-ko asked his forgiveness and never took anyone else’s belongings again.

And Onwi didn’t keep the magic moccasins to brag about their speed. He only took them when the road was really difficult or someone needed help.

Because the most amazing thing about this story wasn’t that the moccasins could run on their own.

The most amazing thing was that they always knew where to run and what to run away from.

Even the swiftest feet, people said after that adventure, could not take the place of a clever mind, a kind heart, and a willingness to listen to advice.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨