Darynka and the Kingdom of Living Socks: A Winter Fairy Tale

It was a crisp December evening in Lviv. Snowflakes twirled with the wind like delicate ballerinas, blanketing the world in soft white. The streets were empty, and houses hid under thick quilts of snow, guarding warmth inside as silence filled the frosty air.

In a small apartment, a little girl named Darynka wandered from corner to corner, bored and restless. Her mother had left to buy milk, leaving Darynka alone. She was a first grader who, despite a year of kindergarten preparation, despised reading or writing during winter holidays, preferring to daydream rather than study.

As she wandered aimlessly, her gaze fell upon her father’s socks lying in the hallway. They were smelly, abandoned, and tangled together. With nothing better to do, Darynka began kicking them around like a football, giggling as they flew across the floor.

Suddenly, a small squeak echoed in the quiet room.

Startled, Darynka paused. “Mice? But we don’t have any pets, and the mice disappeared long ago,” she whispered to herself.

She lifted her foot to kick the socks again when a tiny voice pleaded, “Oh! Please, don’t kick me!”

Darynka’s eyes widened, scanning the room. “What on earth?” she muttered. She leaned down to pick up the socks, intending to throw them away, when they jumped out of her reach.

“I’m asking you, please don’t throw me away!” the voice cried. “I didn’t listen once, and now I’m stuck like this.”

Darynka blinked, her imagination racing. “Mom told me I have a vivid imagination, but a talking sock? Really?” she thought. Yet the sock continued to speak.

“I was once a boy named Petryk. I used to throw my dirty socks everywhere, ignoring my mother’s scolding. One day, I began hiding them, but my mother always found them, angrier each time. Eventually, I threw them in the trash, thinking it would solve everything. Then, one day, I needed socks to play football with my friend Urko, so I took my father’s socks. But they jumped off the shelf and turned into a woman—a grandmother with kind eyes but a stern face, wearing a gown made of socks and stockings that sparkled like stars.”

The sock paused, voice trembling. “She said she was the Queen of Socksland. For my disrespect toward socks, she transformed me into a pair of socks, cursed until a princess would find and free me.”

Darynka’s mouth fell open in shock. “A princess? But I’m not—”

Before she could finish, the doorbell rang. Her mother had returned, asking, “How was it, darling? You weren’t bored, were you?”

“No, Mom, everything’s fine!” Darynka replied quickly, rushing to hide Petryk in her room, whispering, “I will find a way to help you.”

That night, Darynka was awakened by Petryk’s urgent whisper. “Your mother will throw all dirty clothes into the washing machine! If I go in there, I’ll be trapped forever!”

Panicked but determined, Darynka stuffed Petryk into her coat pocket and hurried out, telling her mother she wanted to visit the library. Maybe, she thought, she could find a way to break the curse.

At the children’s library, the librarians shook their heads, bewildered by her odd request about a “talking sock.” On her way out, she met an old woman selling beads, who handed Darynka a string of a hundred colorful beads, whispering, “You will find your answers in an ancient book.”

Darynka remembered the old book market near the Ivan Fedorov monument and rushed there, finding Mr. Vasyl, a kind vendor who directed her to the Museum of Old Books, suggesting she might find what she sought there.

The next morning, Darynka entered the museum, scanning the dusty shelves. Her eyes fell upon a mirror reflecting the words “ruo ssecnirp.” Reading it backward, she whispered, “our princess.”

Among the water-damaged books marked for disposal, she found a small, tattered book glowing softly in her hands. She took it home, and that night, she packed bread, tea, the beads, and the book into a small bag. She grasped Petryk tightly, and as her parents slept, she touched the book with a piece of cloth, and a warm light enveloped her.

Suddenly, Darynka found herself in a snowy forest. The snow was deep, but determination kept her moving forward. She soon heard a whimper and found a beautiful white dog trapped by its collar on a piece of metal. Freeing the dog and feeding it, she was startled when it spoke, “You have passed the first test, brave girl. I am Rami, and I will guide you.”

With Rami by her side, the forest no longer felt frightening. Soon, they encountered a cunning gray cat, a magician who ruled the land with promises of gifts to children in exchange for socks, which he destroyed to weaken Socksland. But Rami’s loud barking scared the cat away, buying them precious time.

They arrived at a small workshop where a kind woman explained, “Your second task is to mend eight socks by evening. If you succeed, you may enter Socksland.”

Darynka sewed diligently but struggled to find a needle. Rami offered his fur, instructing her to use it with the beads to patch the socks creatively. By evening, all eight socks were repaired.

“Welcome to Socksland!” the woman cheered, opening the gates to a magical world where socks grew on trees, cars shaped like socks carried families, and people recited poems honoring socks.

In a toy workshop, Darynka met a small teddy bear missing its eyes. Using two beads, she crafted new eyes for him, and the grateful bear guided her to the final task.

In a magical circle, a booming voice declared, “Create socks of seven colors adorned with beads within five hours, or you will remain here forever.”

With Rami and Petryk watching, Darynka worked tirelessly, using the beads and her creativity to craft the rainbow socks. Just as the fifth hour struck, a rainbow appeared, lifting them to the “House of Living Socks.”

There, Darynka learned of other children cursed like Petryk. The Queen of Socksland appeared, praising Darynka’s kindness. “You have proven yourself, Princess. Will you give these socks to an old magician for them to vanish, or will you save them?”

Tears welled in Darynka’s eyes. “I will not abandon them. They are someone’s children.”

With those words, eighty socks transformed into joyful children reunited with their families. Petryk, too, returned to his human form, a smiling boy with warm brown eyes.

The Queen placed the final bead in Darynka’s hand. “You may return anytime, Princess, simply by touching the book.”

As dawn broke, Darynka’s parents found her returning home with Rami at her side. That morning, the news reported the miraculous return of missing children across the city. Darynka smiled quietly, knowing she had helped.

Later, the phone rang, and a familiar voice said, “Hi, Princess. Would you like to go sledding?”

It was Petryk.

As they played in the snow with Rami, laughter filled the cold winter air, and even the snowflakes seemed to dance in the wind, singing a soft, happy song.

Lesson:

True courage is not just about helping yourself but about using your heart to help others, no matter how small or impossible the task may seem.