THE FOREST OF MIRRORS

In a small village surrounded by a dense forest, lived a girl named Alyona. She had long chestnut hair and such sparkling eyes that the stars seemed to reflect in them. Alyona was kind and dreamy, but she had one particular trait: she was very easily offended.

If her friend forgot to invite her to play, Alyona would immediately turn away and remain silent the entire day. If her mother made a remark about the room being messy again, the girl would sit in the corner and chew her lip, thinking about how unfair the world was to her.

"Why does everyone treat me this way?" she would think.

Alyona didn't like her resentments, but she couldn't do anything about them. They were like a heavy backpack that she carried with her every day.

One day after school, where her friend Olya laughed at her drawing, Alyona got very offended and ran off into the forest. She walked, looking at the ground, not noticing how the trees grew taller and the path grew narrower. When she looked up, she realized she had ended up in an unfamiliar place.

In front of her stood tall, dark trees, and between them, like raindrops, hung hundreds of sparkling mirrors. Alyona walked closer and saw her own reflection. But the mirror didn't show her—it showed a little girl with furrowed brows and tears in her eyes.

"Who are you?" Alyona asked in surprise.

"I am your resentment," the reflection quietly replied.

Alyona looked around. In every mirror, she saw herself: angry, sad, sometimes even mad. The girl touched one of the mirrors, and suddenly it lit up, as if letting her inside.

Before her eyes appeared a scene: she was standing in the school cafeteria, and Olya was laughing at her drawing. Alyona clenched her fists.

"Do you see how she is?" Alyona exclaimed.

But then the mirror spoke:

"Do you see how you yelled at her yesterday when she accidentally tore your draft?"

Alyona paused. She remembered how she had pushed Olya away and told her she was always ruining everything.

"I... didn't think it would hurt her," Alyona whispered.

"And she didn't think her laughter would hurt you," the mirror replied.

The mirror dimmed, and a new path opened up before Alyona.

She walked from one mirror to the next, and each one showed her something new. In one, she saw how her mother made a remark to her.

"That's so unfair! She always scolds me!" Alyona thought.

But the mirror showed how her mother tucked her in at night, read her a fairy tale, and gently fixed the blanket.

"Your mom loves you, but sometimes she has to tell you what you can do better," the mirror gently said.

In another mirror, Alyona saw how her younger brother had accidentally broken her toy, and she had gotten offended and not spoken to him all day.

"It wasn't fair, he didn't do it on purpose..." Alyona admitted to herself.

With every step through the Mirror Forest, Alyona felt her backpack getting lighter.

In the very center of the forest stood a huge mirror. Alyona approached it and saw herself—ordinary, without tears or anger. But around her, floating were images of all the moments when she had felt offended.

"I don't want to get offended so much anymore," said Alyona. "It only makes things worse."

The mirror softly began to glow.

"Every time you feel offended, try to understand why it happened. Sometimes others don't want to hurt you. Sometimes it's just a misunderstanding. And if you want, you can let it go."

Alyona nodded. She remembered how easy it felt when she made up with her friends or apologized to her mother.

"Resentment is just a shadow. And I want to see the light," she said aloud.

When Alyona returned home, she noticed that her mother looked tired. The girl quietly approached and said:

"Mom, I'll clean my room. I'm sorry for being upset for so long."

Her mother smiled and hugged her tightly.

The next day at school, Alyona was the first to approach Olya.

"Your drawing is great," the friend said. "Sorry for laughing."

Alyona smiled. She felt light and free. Now she knew what to do with her resentments: look at them honestly, understand their cause, let them go, and move on.