"Княжна: о чем поют птицы"

The illustration and text were created for the author's project "Princess: what birds sing about". ("Княжна: о чем поют птицы")
The sketch has been lying "in the table" for about 2 years. The world will finally see it :)
The illustration belongs to : Irina Evseeva.
Author of the text : O. Reytern
Иллюстрация и текст были созданы для авторского проекта "Принцесса: о чем поют птицы".
Эскиз пролежал "в столе" около 2-х лет. Мир наконец-то увидит его :)
Иллюстрация принадлежит : Ирине Евсеевой.
Автор текста : О. Рейтерн
Translation:
The city burned. It perished in agony beneath malicious laughter.
Crimson tongues of flame devoured the tower, while sparks leapt from house to house, driven by an unholy pinion.
A colossal bird—and was it truly a bird? —raged across the heavens.
The city burned. It drowned in torment and ash, paying the price for the prince’s folly.
The fire-wrapped walls concealed three eggs, within whose shells lurked an otherworldly stench steeped in blood.
The volkhv raised a prayer to the gods, standing frozen over the stolen nest.
The city was consumed. It had bartered its soul and life for embers and shells, left upon the smoldering ruins until the break of dawn.
Crowning the charred framework of the tower lay the body of the volkhv, who had failed to outrun the wrath of the deceived mother.
The colossal bird shed tears of wrath, weaving a new nest.