The Little Sugar Beet Vendor & Talkhun

said, "Quch-Ali, what good timing you have. I am dying.
Don't leave your sister alone. Loneliness is a fatal sorrow."
The father died. The son buried him right there on the mountaintop.
In the evening, when the sister returned, instead of
her father, she found her brother in the cave. They wept together
for their father and planted flowers and trees on his
grave.
Days and weeks and months and years passed. Quch-Ali and
his sister grew to be seventeen or eighteen. The two of them
together would wander the meadows and mountains and find
the best pastures. They spent the nights in the cave with their
dogs. Only infrequently would they come to the city in the
winters, when the sheep were in the winter cave and the shepherds
were idle.
Quch-Ali's sister was tender like spring air, luminous like summer
sun, fragrant and fetching like autumn fruit and was
pure and appealing like the moon on winter nights, and like
meadow tulips, she was wild and rosy-cheeked. For this reason,
Quch-Ali called her Laleh, which meant tulip.
One day, when they were taking the herd back, Quch-Ali noticed
that a goat was missing. He took one of the dogs and
went in search of the goat. He climbed a few mountains. Finally
they came to a brook where the goat had sat down and
was weeping by the water and shaking like a willow. As soon
as the dog saw the goat, he barked, "Ruf, ruf, we are coming!"
The goat was overjoyed and said, "I was afraid you wouldn't
come find me and I would fall prey to the wolves. I thank
you."
The air was getting dark. Quch-Ali looked and saw seven
white horses were racing up from the other side of the mountain.
He left the goat in the dog's care and sent them back on
their way. He sat behind a boulder waiting. The horses got to
the brook. Each had a waterskin on his back. They filled the
skins and as they were about to return, one of the horses
said, "I can't live all alone in that castle anymore. I am going
to kill myself right here and now or I will go back to our own
city. But you should return to our cousins."
The other horses consoled him and finally they all returned
together. Quch-Ali got up and followed the horses. They galloped
and galloped passing a few mountains. Until they arrived
at a desolate forest where there were no birds, no reptiles
nor insects, no animals at all. Seven beautiful castles
could be seen. Each of the horses went into their own castle.
Quch-Ali saw six white doves flying down from the sky and
each went into one of the castles. Quch-Ali kept waiting.
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