The Story of the Moon Hare
It is difficult to imagine an animal more harmless than a simple hare. He is considered cowardly, weak and stupid. True, only those who have never seen a hare with their own eyes think so. They also probably confuse him with a rabbit.
From time immemorial, the inhabitants of the Sphere peered into the night sky and saw there the silhouettes of various animals: a boar, a bear, a wolf, a bird of prey, a dragon. Among them there was a place for the hare. True, they found it not among a scattering of cold stars, but on the yellowish surface of the moon. The play of light and shadow, piles of rocks and deep gorges seemed to form a face with long ears and a cunning eye. Stargazer scientists refused to include the long-eared animal in the list of celestial animals, but the memory of the Moon Hare remained in the memory of peoples, as did the belief in its miraculous powers.
The Moon Hare is especially known in the North, in the cradle of the human race, where people still live by hunting and gathering, where faith in the forces of nature and the spirits of ancestors is still strong. Shamans often tame hares, considering them to be guides to another world, and wild hares sometimes gather in clearings where shamans perform rituals under the full moon.
Northern shamans believe that in times of great need, if you ask well, the Moon Hare can come to the call and fulfill any desire. Is it so? Perhaps no one knows for sure. But yellow-eyed hares, bearing the stamp of the sun and moon, do exist. They do not fulfill desires, and they do not appear to everyone. They can follow powerful sorcerers and other heroes, bringing them good fortune, dispelling hostile magic, or hiding it from the evil eye.
No one knows where they come from and what is the secret of their amazing power. Maybe this is the Moon Hare coming to the Sphere to get a better look at this world, which he usually looks at from the cold darkness. Or maybe this is just a fairy tale told on a long northern night in the winter hut of the first people.
