Rarely, very rarely, there is a person here. Neither a wide road nor a narrow path is visible. A gentle hill, as if on purpose, covers that quiet, forgotten place. They drive by and don't know that there, behind this hill, in a quiet hollow, long overgrown with vines, under the crowns of birches and maples, as if hidden from everyone in the world, lies a small lake. And where there are no trees or shrubs, a very old Apple tree grows near the shore, leaning over the water. Birds come to taste her small apples and forest animals come to taste them. she covers them with her foliage, hides them in the crown, as if hugging them...
One day, by a lucky chance, we had to take my grandmother to the bazaar in the nearest town. And it turned out that she comes from a village that lies literally five kilometers from the lake that I described to you. So she told me that this place is special and it needs to be protected. She heard it from her parents, from a beautiful legend that they told her when she was very young.
Since time immemorial, this entire area has been covered with impenetrable forests. In the place where the lake is now, there was a house of a forest maid. She did not live alone, but with her daughter. As legend has it, beauty is irresistible.
And in the distance, approximately where the village of our narrator now lies, there was a huge prosperous farm of a forester who served a rich prince who owned all these forests. It so happened that while hunting, the forester's youngest son accidentally met the daughter of a maid. As soon as I saw her, I fell madly in love. The girl was also fascinated by the young man's strength and agility. Of course, they began to meet, but only secretly. The guy asked his father's brothers not to tell about the girl, because he knew that he hated his beloved's mother. The forester, having once met a maid, demanded that she leave the forest. To which the priestess of the pagan gods replied: "You are placed over the forest by power and money. I'm here as his sister, sent by heaven and Mother Nature."
Maybe one of the brothers let it slip, maybe the forester himself found out where his son went at night. He locked him up in the storeroom. But the young man ran away, and his father immediately gave chase.
A guy ran to his beloved in the house of a maid. They confessed everything to the girl's mother and begged for help. She embraced them in tears, read a spell over them, kneeling, and ran out of the dwelling. She ran off among the trees, shouting words to avert trouble from the house with the children, to delay the chase. The pursuers really rushed right after her, wandered through the forest for a long time, but still caught up with the priestess and killed her. And when the forester came to vaydelotka's dwelling, he and his people saw a small lake in its place, and an apple tree on its shore. The forester guessed what had happened to his son. People chopped up an apple tree with his swords and threw it into the lake. But the following spring, her sprout appeared from the stump. This is how the Apple Tree girl was reborn next to her lover. They have remained together ever since.