Mountains of Immortality

Long, long ago, there was a wide, bright, and clear river flowing through the plains of Inner Mongolia. On its western bank, a girl of extraordinary beauty lived quietly and peacefully with her mother. Her name was Sola.

On the eastern bank of the river lived a wealthy noyon (a prince, owner of livestock and pastures) with his servants and close associates.

Among the noyon's servants was a young man. He had lost his parents in early childhood and didn’t even have a name. From a young age, he herded the noyon's livestock, and everyone simply called him the shepherd.

Life was hard for him: from early morning until late at night, he worked without rest, never ate his fill, and had no warm clothes. On top of all that, he was often beaten by his master.

One spring, when the warm days arrived, the shepherd noticed that every time he rode along the river toward the pastures, a beautiful girl on the western bank would watch him with a gentle smile. And in the evening, when he returned home, she would already be waiting for him in the same spot.

At first, the shepherd paid no attention to her, but seeing her every day, he began to think of her more and more often, and love blossomed in his heart.

One evening, the shepherd saw the girl on the other bank suddenly wave her hand. Something glinted in the air, and an object fell at his feet. He jumped off his horse and picked it up. It was a piece of cheese wrapped in cloth, with a small embroidered pouch tied to it.

The young man glanced at the opposite bank—the girl was standing right across from him, laughing merrily.

From then on, the young man often crossed to the western bank to sit and joke with Sola. They grew closer and closer, and soon it became difficult for them to part.

The young man always carried the pouch his beloved had given him. After driving the livestock to pasture, he would sit somewhere aside, take the pouch from his chest, and admire it for a long time. At night, he always placed it under his pillow.

One day, the noyon was riding along the river. Glancing at the western bank, he saw a beautiful girl washing clothes. The noyon stopped his horse and gazed at the beauty in admiration for a long time, then shouted to his servants:

"Catch that little bird for me, and be quick about it! I like her!" He laughed loudly.

That same evening, the girl was seized and forcibly brought to the noyon's house. The noyon offered to make her his junior wife. Sola became furious and began to scold the noyon so fiercely that his fat, round face turned as red as a beet. Enraged, the noyon drew a sharp, short knife from his belt and shouted angrily:

"Shut your mouth, or I'll stab you right now! Hey, lock her up!"

The servants obeyed his command.

Night fell, and everything in the noyon's house grew quiet. Only poor Sola sat alone in a tiny, dark room, weeping bitterly and lamenting her fate. She remembered the young man, and a fire seemed to ignite in her soul—she desperately wanted to escape from this prison!

When the shepherd learned what had happened, he was deeply saddened and resolved to save his beloved at any cost.

At midnight, taking advantage of the fact that the gloomy guard was fast asleep, the young man quietly crept into the room, grabbed the girl's hand, and whispered:

"Let's go, quickly!"

They jumped on a horse and were about to set off when they accidentally woke the noyon's fearsome dogs. The dogs, like a furious whirlwind, lunged at them with loud barks. But the young man whipped the horse, and they galloped away.

Meanwhile, the barking woke the guard. Seeing that Sola was gone, he was terrified and rushed to report the escape to the noyon. The noyon flew into a rage and sent riders to chase the fugitives.

At dawn, the noyon's servants surrounded the shepherd and Sola. They were captured and dragged back to the noyon's house. Seeing the shepherd with the girl, the noyon stared at him in astonishment and shouted:

"You devil's spawn! How dare you free her and ride off with her?"

But the young man was not afraid of his shouting. He could no longer contain the hatred and anger that had been simmering in his heart for years. Fearlessly, he approached the noyon:

"Is it honorable to steal other people's girls? And is saving a person a crime?"

The noyon seemed stunned by these words and nearly lost his voice. But he quickly regained his composure and shouted to his servants:

"Hey, tie that boy to a post and let the dogs tear him apart!"

Sola lunged toward the young man, grabbed his robe, and, weeping, begged the noyon:

"No, don't do this, please don't!"

But the girl's tears did not move the noyon's heart. He turned and followed the servants, who dragged the shepherd into the courtyard to subject him to a cruel execution.

Soon, Sola heard the loud barking of the enraged dogs and a piercing, heart-wrenching scream. She trembled all over and rushed into the courtyard. She saw a terrible sight! The girl let out a wild scream and immediately fainted.

After dealing with the shepherd, the noyon again tried to force Sola to become his wife. But she stubbornly refused and bitterly mourned her beloved. For many days, she drank and ate nothing and soon died.

To ensure that even in death the shepherd and Sola could not be together, the noyon ordered the girl to be buried on the eastern bank and the young man's remains to be scattered on the western bank.

But one day, people noticed that a small mound had appeared on the western bank, right across from Sola's grave. It turned out that a kind old man had buried the scattered remains of the young man in the field.

A few days later, one night, the noyon dreamed that the shepherd and Sola descended from the sky and sternly said to him:

"Villain, we will haunt you forever until you turn into a black turtle."

Morning came, and people saw that two mountains had grown on the site of the lovers' graves. The peaks of these mountains had merged, as if a large stone bridge had been thrown across the river.

Word of this reached the noyon, and he, accompanied by his servants, went to the riverbank. What did he see? Two mountains with a single peak had risen on the flat ground.

The noyon understood what was happening but pretended to find it amusing and ordered stonemasons to destroy the peak.

However, this was not so easy: no matter how much effort and time they spent, the work did not progress.

In a rage, the noyon ordered the stonemasons to chisel the mountain day and night. But this also led to nothing. Then the noyon himself climbed to the top of the mountain and angrily shouted at the sky:

"Hey, you scoundrels! Today you must part! Or I'll deal with you myself!"

As soon as he said this, the mountains suddenly swayed, and a deafening thunderclap rang out. The peak of the mountain split, a chasm opened beneath the noyon, and he plummeted straight into the river.

People looked at the water but saw no noyon—only a large black turtle floundering there.

A little time passed, the turtle turned to stone, and everything around grew quiet.

From that time on, the peaks of the two mountains never merged again. To this day, they majestically rise on opposite banks of the river. People named them the Mountains of Immortality.

And the black turtle lay across the river for many years until the waves finally washed it away and carried it off to an unknown place. Fairy girl