The Vazuza and The Volga

This is my entry to #Traditional-Artists and #painters contests, specially done to fit (I hope!) both ^^ Let me explain.

First of all, this is my illustration to a Russian tale, The Vazuza and the Volga. It is strikingly short, and nonetheless it says very much. Then, it is a very local tale, one of those that I think every region has. You know the Volga river, I hope. It's a large-large-large river in European part of Russia. The Vazuza is a far smaller river that runs across Smolensk region and falls into the Volga. In the place where these two rivers meet, the Vazuza runs from South to North, while the Volga's general direction is from North to South (and from West to East). As a result, when spring comes, the Vazuza awakes first, and this fact gave grounds for the tale.

The Tale
_{Once two sisters, The Volga and the Vazuza argued about which one of them is better, stronger and cleverer. We shall go to sleep, they agreed, and in the morning will wake up and run to the Sea. The one who is quicker, will win.
The Vazuza woke early at night and ran as fast as it could, choosing the straightest path. When the Volga woke, it went neither fast nor slow on her way and ran over the Vazuza at the town of Zubtsov. The Vazuza was weak and tired, while the Volga was strong from many spring waters she gathered on her way. Seeing this, the Vazuza gave up and asked the Volga to carry her to the Sea.
Since then the Vazuza wakes up early in spring, but the Volga always catches up with her and brings her waters to the Caspian sea.}

I thought a lot about how one would illustrate this and finally decided on the above version. Here, the barking dogs are the Vazuza, while the steady run of Russian Troyka horses is the Volga.

watercolor & white gouache, A3 size