The country of Haravara may be small, but it has everything that the biggest countries in the world have to offer. Sometimes even more. For example, there are trees that dance in the morning and make a nice creaking dance. And such creaking woke up even Kaško the little ghost.
Once he was awake, he went to see his friends.
Maxík was sitting on the bed with a Batman toy, playing the mouth harmonica and Majka was dancing beautifully around the lava lamp. Suddenly... silence. The harmonica was broken. Maxík kept blowing into it but it didn't make a peep.
"Never mind, let's play on something else," Maxík said, looking at his backpack.
"My lord, I lent my instruments to Tonko, who sits in the third desk in our classroom. He went on holiday with his parents and wanted to entertain them," said Maxík sadly.
"But I haven't practiced my Father's Day dance for kindergarten yet," saddened Majka sat down on the floor with her eyes moistened a bit.
"Don't worry, we'll work something out!" Kaško thought.
As they were thinking and thinking, a little bird perched on the window and began to sing beautifully.
As they were thinking and thinking, a little bird perched on the window and began to sing beautifully.
"Don't worry, you'll be home by tonight."
Maxík and Majka quickly packed their things.
"Take the ballerina shoes too, Majka. We'll practice," winked Kaško mysteriously.
At the station they found a bus to Krásna Hôrka.
"Now you will see something wonderful," Kaško promised.
And indeed, as soon as the bus came down the hill on which the road wound madly, they saw a magnificent castle on another hill. It was like made of sugar or just baked from the whitest flour.
"But this is a castle, not any concert hall!"
"And do you think that there was only eating, drinking, fighting, and sleeping in the castle? I remember when I was here with my brothers and cousins 350 years ago. We wanted to give the soldiers here a little scare. But there was beautiful music playing all day. So, we just kept dancing," Kaško recalled.
"You know how to dance?" Majka asked, surprised.
"I've lived here for over three thousand years; you think I haven't had time to learn?" Kaško said with a mock insult.
As soon as they finished talking, they were on the hill in front of the castle.
"Follow me!" Kaško shouted.
He led them through the magnificent kitchen, the beautiful lounges...
"And here we are!"
They found themselves in a room full of musical instruments. There were instruments like piano, violin, violas, guitar, and some strange trumpets and drums that looked like kettles for cooking goulash.
"Well, Maxík, take one of these and you, Majka, can put on your ballet shoes."
"That's wonderful," whispered Majka excitedly.
Maxík just opened his mouth in silence, searching for a suitable instrument.
"This is a music salon. This is where old Mrs. Andrássy used to sit and give music lessons to her children and their friends. I sat here in the corner and listened to them," Kaško sighed. "If you want to see something else beautiful, there's a mausoleum under the hill where Františka and her husband are resting in peace."
"It's a pity there aren't more of us. There are so many instruments here that we could put together an orchestra," Maxík sighed, taking care of his music.
"Good idea!" Kaško stood up abruptly, looked around to see if anyone was coming, grabbed his friends by the hands and suddenly they found themselves with their instruments in the beautiful garden in front of the even more beautiful manor house.
"What a great beauty!" Majka exclaimed excitedly.
"No, no, it's not called beauty or splendour, it's called Betliar," joked Kaško.
"Majka, you stay here in the garden – find the best place to dance. Maxík, you come with me!"
They entered the mansion. There were beautiful chambers, small and large rooms.
"This is what Majka must see," murmured the moved Maxík.
"Let's find the library first!" Kaško shouted, turning his head.
"Ah, here it is. Look! It is the most beautiful in the country of Haravara."
Kaško was rummaging through old books, and at the same time Maxík strummed on an old piano, which was placed among all the books.
"There he is!" He pulled out an old black book.
On its cover, there were two crossed arms with a mysterious ring. Kaško began to turn the pages in it. At one point he just smiled. He took the book, Maxík, and they went deeper into the mansion.
After a while Kaško opened a huge door, behind which was a large dark room full of stuffed animals, their heads, their skins.
"What are we doing here?" Maxík whispered.
Kaško said nothing, just opened the book and started whispering something.
Maxík jumped and screamed loudly. The skin of the white wolf he was standing on began to inflate, moving and huffing. Thus, all the animals in the room and in the whole mansion began to come to life. There were animals that had once been hunted in the country of Haravara, as well as animals from far away Africa.
The animals walked up to Kaško, he whispered something in their ear, they just smiled under their whiskers, feathers and scales and walked out into the park.
Majka was just rehearsing a pirouette when a wolf, a bear, a toucan, three foxes, a deer, a hoopoe, a lynx, an elephant and many other animals appeared in front of her.
Kaško murmured something from an old book and suddenly every animal had a musical instrument in its paws. When he saw that the animals were ready, he signalled to the hedgehog. The hedgehog pulled out a little stick and made it into a conductor's baton.
Hedgehog bowed, swished his wand, and the orchestra began to play.
All the animals had a tool. The hare had all the drums and cymbals, the fox strummed the guitar, the peacock played the harp, the hedgehog played the castanets. Only the elephant had no instrument. So, he trumpeted on his trunk. And Kaško and Majka prepared a Father's Day dance for Dad to this music.
Majka just laughed and shouted to the music and dance:
"That's what the lady teacher will be watching!"
When they finished dancing, Kaško and his friends thanked the animals. Kaško murmured something from the black book and the animals disappeared into the chambers of the mansion. Yet he returned the spell tools to the parlour, and they all went home.
The next day not only the teacher was watching, but all the children were watching what Maxík and Majka were showing them.
A small tear also appeared on Dad's face, but don't tell anyone, because dads in the country of Haravara don't like to cry in front of strangers.
