Andrew Lan's Twelve-Color Fairy Tale Series: Pink Fairy Tale Books

Chapter 4 Kamashima Taro and the Sea Turtle

A long time ago, in a village by the sea, there lived an amiable old couple who lived by fishing.The couple have only one son, who is their pride and brings them endless joy.For their son, they worked hard from morning to night, never tire, and never complained about the hardships of life.The son's name is Kamashima Taro, which means "son of the island" in Japanese.Kamashima Taro is tall and handsome, and he is also an excellent fisherman. Even in bad weather with strong winds and waves, he doesn't care, and goes fishing as usual.The bravest sailor in the village did not dare to venture into the open sea like he did. The neighbors often shook their heads and said to his parents: "If your son always ignores danger like this, something will happen one day, and sooner or later he will be punished." The waves swallowed it." Kamashima Taro didn't care about these words, but he was really good at sailing a boat, skilled and handy, and the two old people were not so worried about their son.

On a fine morning, Kamashima Taro caught another net full of fish. When he pulled the net into the boat with all his strength, he found a small turtle inside.He was very pleasantly surprised by this harvest, so he put the little turtle in a wooden barrel and prepared to take it home.Suddenly, the little turtle actually started talking, begging tremblingly for it to save a way out. "After all," it said, "I'm of no use to you, am I? I'm still so young, and I could live happily for a long time. Please let me go, and I'll thank you very much."

Pu Island is very kind, he will not say no, so he picked up the little turtle and put it back into the sea.

Since then, Kamashima Taro has been rowing to the deep sea every morning for fishing, and many years have passed.One day, as he was paddling toward a small bay, a violent whirlwind blew up and tore his boat to pieces, and he was swept up in the waves.Had he not been able to swim, Pu Dao would have died. He struggled in the choppy sea and swam desperately to the shore.At this time, he saw a big turtle swimming towards him, and the huge waves roared, but he still heard what the turtle said: "I am the turtle that you let a life out of. I'm here to thank you for saving your life." En! The coast is still far away, without my help, you will never reach it. Climb on my back, and I will take you ashore." Kamashima Taro quickly thanked the turtle and climbed on its back.But when the turtle offered to take him to the bottom of the sea to see the wonderful world there instead of going back to the shore, he was so startled that he couldn't sit still and almost fell off the turtle shell.

Pu Island accepted the turtle's invitation, and soon, they went to a place where the sea was very, very deep.Wow, how fast they swam in the calm warm water!The young man clung to the turtles, full of curiosity about where they were going and how far they were going.In this way they swam and swam fast to the bottom of the sea for three days and three nights, until at last the turtle stopped in front of a shining palace.Wow, the palace is adorned with gold, silver, crystal stones, and all kinds of beautiful and precious stones!Many pink corals are elegantly arranged around the palace, all studded with dazzling pearls!Oh, it's so beautiful, Taro Kamashima was amazed!But when he walked into the palace, he was even more stunned by the beautiful and majestic scene inside. There were many fish scales burning there, illuminating the palace brightly.The whole palace is so magnificent!
"Where is this?" He quietly asked the turtle guide.

"This is the Dragon Palace, where the Dragon King lives. We are all the subjects of the Dragon King," the turtle replied, "I am the personal maid of his daughter, Princess Otohime, and you will be able to meet our beautiful princess soon."

All this is amazing, it seems to be in a dream to Kamashima Taro, what will happen next?The turtle had told the princess many things about Taro before, and the princess wanted to see him very much, so the turtle immediately reported the news of Pu Island's arrival to the princess.I don't want the princess to fall in love with Pu Dao as soon as she sees him!She begged Kamashima to stay and promised that as long as he would stay, he would never grow old, be so young forever, and be so handsome forever. "Isn't this enough?" The princess smiled softly, her smile was so warm, so beautiful and charming! "Enough, enough, I am willing to stay!" So Kamashima Taro stayed in Dragon Palace.But how long he will stay there, he himself does not know.

Day after day passed, Kamashima Taro lived happily in Dragon Palace.But suddenly one day he began to miss home, and especially wanted to see his parents.He tried his best not to think it, because he knew it would make the princess very sad.But his homesickness grew stronger and stronger, and finally he became unhappy.Seeing that Pu Island was unhappy, the princess asked him what was wrong, and he told the princess that he missed his hometown very much and had to go home to see his parents again.The princess was stunned. She was afraid of losing Pu Island and begged him not to leave her, otherwise something terrible would happen. "You will definitely not come back again, I will never see you again!" The princess was very sad.But Kashima Taro still insisted on going home: "I will only leave you this time, and then I will come back and be by your side forever." The princess shook her head sadly, and said word by word: "There is only one way for you to come back again." Come to me, but I'm afraid you won't agree to my terms."

"I will definitely come back, I am willing to do anything." Kamashima Taro said loudly, looking at the princess affectionately.But the princess was so sad that she didn't say a word. She knew very well that once he left the Dragon Palace, she would never see him again.Then the princess brought out a little golden box, which she gave to Kamashima Taro, and told him to keep it safe and never open it.When parting, the princess said: "If you will do as I tell you, your friend the turtle will go to the beach to fetch you back to the Dragon Palace."

Kamashima Taro swore that he would do as the princess ordered. He carefully put away the box, sat on the turtle's back, and waved goodbye to the princess.They swam for three days and three nights before they reached the coast. After the turtle said goodbye to him, he disappeared into the sea in a blink of an eye.

Kamashima Taro was very excited, and he walked briskly towards the village.He saw the smoke curling up from the house, and a thick layer of green plants growing on the thatched roof.The children were playing and playing, and when he passed by the window of a house, he heard the melodious sound of the zither, and it seemed that everything was cheering to welcome him back.However, the more he walked forward, the more he felt that something was wrong. Everything was not what it used to be. Both the people and the house had changed, and he didn't recognize him anymore.Soon he arrived at his old house, yes, it was here, but the house looked weird.He couldn't wait to knock on the door, but it wasn't his parents who opened the door, but a woman.The woman didn't know his parents at all, and she didn't even know anything about them.

Pu Dao suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart, and he ran to the cemetery, which might tell him everything.A premonition of misfortune came true, and he soon found his parents' graves.The date on the tombstone is almost the day the old man lost his son, but as a son he abandoned them for Princess Dragon Palace.Only then did he realize that it had been 300 years since he left home.

All this made him unbearable, and he returned to the village trembling, hoping that someone could tell him what happened to his elderly parents and the village after he left.But when he talked about it, no one knew what he was talking about.It was terrible, he felt as if he had a nightmare, his mind went blank, his whole body had no strength, and he didn't know what to do.

In desperation, Kashima Taro remembered the box given to him by Princess Ryugu.Maybe all these horrible things are not real, maybe it's just some kind of spell that the magician put on himself.And the box in his hand, it will definitely be able to unravel the curse.Unknowingly, he opened the box, and with a creak, a burst of purple smoke came out of the box.Pushima was holding the empty box in his hand, when he saw his hands shrunk suddenly, turning into a pair of very, very old old hands!He ran to a small stream, the water flowed down from the high mountain, it was very clear, like a mirror.God, his handsome face in the stream was so old and shriveled like a mummy!Such a big change made him unbearable, he was very sad, sad to death.When he returned to the village, who would know that this old man, too old and shapeless, was the strong, handsome young man an hour ago?He dragged his tired and old body back to the beach with great difficulty, sat down on a rock sadly, and called out for the turtles to come.But the turtle never came back, and soon he died in despair.

Before that, someone saw him sitting by the sea and knew his story.Later, people often tell their children the story of a filial and good son. The son in the story loves his parents very much. For his parents, he is willing to give up the life like heaven in the beautiful and magical Dragon Palace, and he is willing to give up the most beautiful princess in the world.

(End of this chapter)