Part I
Three dogs surrounded a mighty lone elk in a semicircle, pressed him to two fused trees. They didn’t come close - they were afraid of sharp horns and hooves. Odinets understood that the main danger came from the hunter, for whom the dogs had trapped him. As soon as the hunter flashed between the trees, the elk rushed forward, killed two dogs and quickly disappeared into the thicket of the forest.
The hunter was overcome by despair - for ten days now he has been tracking Odinets, but he is constantly leaving him from under his nose. The hunter came from the city where he studied at the institute at the natural history faculty. From his father he got two guns and an old hound dog. Until now, the student has hunted only pigeons, hares and foxes.
The student learned about Odinets from a familiar peasant Larivon, who lived in a village near the Gulf of Finland. In the story of Larivon, the elk appeared to be an almost fabulous creature, powerful and elusive. A small forest with a swamp, where Odinets lived, was surrounded by the sea and peasant fields, but no one knew where he lay. Countrymen of the peasant believed that the elk simply goes into the ground, which parted on his orders.
This is not a simple beast. Visibility in it is bestial, and the mind is human.
Then Larivon began to talk about the werewolf bird, the "witch creature", which is also found in their places, but the student did not listen - he was interested in the old moose.
Once at a friend’s party, a student met a beautiful girl. She grew up in the province and was very fond of nature. A student told her about Odinets. The girl asked if he would go kill the moose. In order not to seem like a coward, the student replied that he would go. Then the rest of the guys started taunting him - they knew that the student had never hunted large animals. The girl smiled contemptuously too. And then the student decided at all costs to get the horns of Odinets.
Drive the moose was almost impossible. The hunter had only one thing - to find his lying. After the death of the dogs, the hunter followed the tracks of Odinets, which led him to the swamp. On the way, he was frightened by a burnt stump with eyes, which turned out to be a huge black grouse. The hunter realized that this was a werewolf bird.
The hunter tried to follow the elk tracks further into the swamp, but the bumps could not bear his weight. It was not clear how a heavy beast passed through them. The hunter sent in front of himself the old hound of Rogdai. He walked a little and stopped, but the hunter forced him to move on, and Rogdai fell into a dead swamp. The hunter had to shoot the dog so that he would not suffer.
Meanwhile, Odinets, in his secret refuge, was waiting for his only friend - a huge, coal-black grouse.
These two bearded old men ‹...› were perfectly suited to each other - both fragments of the ancient, ancient genera of animals that existed even at that remote time, when mammoths roamed our land.
Friends dozed off. Odin dreamed of a distant childhood, a moose cow and a brother who was almost a day older. In a dream, he recalled how the mother protected them with her brother from the wolves, and then brought them to the herd. There, the young moose was patronized by a one-year-old moose - boulder. The herd was commanded by an old and strict bull moose. A year later, Odinets himself became a currency and the leader of small moose calves.
The hunter lost all the dogs, but was not going to give up. Levontius suggested that Odinets can be watched in the landowner forest. Guys lived there all summer, they didn’t shoot animals, “they respected every insect,” and they treated the moose with salt. Odinets still visited this hut in the hope of a treat.
Having carefully prepared, the hunter went to guard the moose. At night, he saw someone black on a pine tree with a long arm and huge yellow-green eyes and was very frightened.Only in the morning did he realize that he took the black grouse’s neck by the hand, and the owl looked at him with huge eyes.
Odinets, meanwhile, went for a living. He knew well this small forest, from which there was no way out. Once a herd of moose was driven by hunters. Several animals, including Odinets and his brother, managed to break through the environment and escape, but they remained in this “bag” forever. Over time, Odinets got used to people and now "went to feast on a rare treat" - salt.
Deciding that the moose will not come today, the hunters were about to leave, and at that moment Odinets appeared. The hunter hurriedly shot, but only slightly wounded the beast. The odinets became furious, threw the hunter on a tree branch with horns, injured his leg and broke his gun.
In the fall, a moose run began. Odinets slept little, lost a lot of weight and constantly wandered through the forest, announcing him with a trumpet roar. Now he was afraid not only of the village dogs, but also of the forest owner, the bear.
But when from the dark thicket did not come the response of the enemy, but the gentle voice of a friend, the voice of the gloomy Odin instantly changed. And the same short roar sounded plaintively inviting.
The hunter was bedridden with a sore leg. Larivon's wife treated him with herbs and poultices. With nothing to do, he wrote to his comrades a boastful letter promising to certainly kill Odints.
In the forest there were no moose equal in strength to Odintsu. The last worthy opponent - his brother - he killed three years ago. Then the elder brother was the leader of the herd, but Odinets lived separately - he did not want him to command them. After his death, Odinets became the eldest in the herd, but soon unexpectedly left and became a morose hermit.
Having obtained a horn, the sound of which is similar to the moose roar of a moose, the hunter went to the forest. He managed to lure the beast and mortally wound him. But when the animal was tracked along the bloody trail, it turned out that this was not Odinets, but a very young moose.
Part II
Having brought the elk carcass to the village, the hunter realized that the peasants were laughing at him. He, the urban "barchuk", was a stranger to them, and they loved the forest giant Odinets and were proud of him. Offended and disappointed, the hunter decided to return to school.
At this time, he received a letter from a provincial girl. He read it at the place where Odinets disappeared into the swamp. The girl who grew up in the forest and loved him wrote that she would hate the hunter if he killed Odints. She hoped that once in the woods, the hunter would also fall in love with him, but the boastful letter disappointed her.
The hunter got angry and decided to go all the way. Then he saw Odinets. The beast lay on its belly and crawled along the bogs. Now the hunter understood how an elk gets to its shelter - an island in a swamp.
Having obtained wide skis, the hunter reached the island and set up an ambush on a tall pine tree next to Odintsa’s bench. The hunter sat on his perch for more than a day, but the elk did not come - he smelled the smell of man and iron. The hunter was angry, his body was numb, and his food ran out. Then a huge capercaillie sat on a nearby pine branch, and the hunter shot him. An oversized bullet tore the bird to shreds.
At that moment he was disgusted with himself. My conscience tormented: it was a completely senseless murder for the sake of murder.
Odinets returned to the island, saw a torn body of a friend, smelled blood and went mad with rage. Coming out of the forest, he stumbled upon a herd of cows and killed a pedigree bull, who stupidly attacked him.
At the gathering, the peasants forgot about their love for Odinets and decided to kill him. Having gathered the whole village, they began to drive Odinets to the Gulf of Finland. By evening, the moose was in a small fishing line near the shore. Surrounding the forest with a chain, the peasants settled for the night. The hunter decided that he alone should kill Odintsa, and at night made his way to the seashore to watch for the beast there.
At dawn the hunter saw Odints and fired, but the gun stood on the guard and did not work. Elk meanwhile entered the sea and swam. It was not too late to shoot, but the hunter lowered his gun - Odinets was very handsome.
- Well, glory to you, the last forest giant! - the hunter said loudly and laughed a happy laugh.
When the beaters arrived, Odinets was already far away.
Week later. Hunter again became a student, but now often remembered his forest life. Once he met a provincial girl and told her how he had let Odinets go to sea. The girl joyfully informed him that the moose was alive. Familiar fishermen told her how a huge beast came out of the sea and rushed into the forest.
The guy was glad that Odinets managed to survive, and admitted: he didn’t shoot then because he remembered the girl and thought better of it. She blushed and held out her hand.
