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

Chapter 42 The Snake King (2)
At this moment, the enemy declared war on the young king. He estimated that the battle would take three years. After three years, he could return to his motherland and reunite with his wife. He ordered all the servants who stayed in the palace to take good care of the queen.They were to correspond in secrecy, and he had two signet rings, one for himself and the other for his young queen, and he ordered that no one should open the letters sealed with these two seals without permission. or put to death.Then he bid farewell to the queen, and went to war.

The queen's bad stepmother was very distressed when she heard that her beautiful stepdaughter lived happily, and not only did not die, but became queen.So she conspired to frame her stepdaughter again to destroy her happiness.When the Snake King was away at war, the wicked woman came up to the queen to flatter her, saying that she had seen long ago that her stepdaughter would become a great person one day, and that was why she let her stepdaughter marry the enchanted prince. be a wife.The queen never imagined such a cunning person in the world, and she welcomed her stepmother very much, and kept her by her side.

Soon after, the queen gave birth to a pair of children, the two most beautiful boys in the world.She wrote a letter to the king, telling him the good news, and her stepmother said she would comb her hair, just as her own mother had combed her hair.The queen agreed, and the stepmother combed and combed her until she fell asleep.Then the stepmother took the seal from her neck, and replaced it with a letter from her, in which she said that the Queen had had two puppies.

The king was very sad when he received this letter, but he remembered that he had lived in the body of a snake for 20 years, and now the young queen helped him break the spell.Therefore, he wrote back to his most trusted courtier, saying that in his absence, he must take good care of the queen and her two puppies.

However, the stepmother also got the letter.She wrote another letter, saying that the king ordered the queen and the two little princes to be burned to death.She sealed the letter with the queen's seal, which is the same as the king's.

The courtier was astounded when he saw the king's order, and was very distressed, because he felt that the king's order was unreasonable.He couldn't bear to burn these three innocent people to death, so he lit a big fire and burned a sheep and two lambs to death, so that everyone thought he was carrying out the king's order.The stepmother told everyone the news, and said that the queen was a wicked witch.

However, this loyal courtier told the queen that the king ordered her to live in seclusion in the palace during the years he was away fighting, and no one could see her and the little prince except this courtier.

The queen had no choice but to obey, and everyone except the courtier thought she and her child had been burned to death.But the day when the Snake King returned to the palace was getting closer, and the old courtier became frightened because he did not obey the king's will.So he went to the queen and told her everything, and at the same time showed her the letter from the king ordering her and the little prince to be burned.Then he begged the queen to leave the palace as soon as possible before the king returned.

The queen hurriedly left the palace with her two young sons and went into the forest.They walked all day, very tired, and saw no one.Suddenly, the queen saw a man carrying venison.He looked very poor, but the queen was very glad to see some one here, and asked him if he knew where she and her children could rest for the night.

The man said he had a cabin in the woods where they could rest.He also said that he was isolated from the world and lived alone, so he only had a cabin, a horse, a dog, and lived by hunting.

The queen followed him to his house, where she rested at night with the children.In the morning, when she woke up, the man had gone hunting.The Queen set to work tidying up the room and preparing the food, so that the man seemed a little happier when he came home and found everything in order.He didn't talk much, though, and all he said about himself was that his name was Peter.

In the afternoon he rode again into the forest, and the Queen thought he looked very unhappy.After he left, she looked around in the cabin and found a basin of blood-stained clothes soaked in the water.She was surprised, but thought it must have been done when he was carrying venison.She washed the clothes and hung them up to dry without mentioning the matter to Peter.

After a while, she discovered that every day when he came back from riding in the woods, he would change his blood-stained clothes and put on clean ones.She felt that this must not be the blood of venison.So, one day, she summoned up the courage to ask him what was going on.

At first, he was reluctant to talk, so she told him about herself and how she had succeeded in freeing the snake.So he told her that he had led a very loose life before and had made a pact with the devil in the forest.Before the contract expired, he regretted the bad things he did before, so he began to live a life isolated from the world.The devil could no longer control him, but as long as the contract was not expired, he had to go to the woods every day to see the devil, and the devil kept whipping him until his blood was dripping.

The next day it was time for the man to ride into the woods again, and the queen told him to stay at home and look after the children, and she would go to the devil for him.The man was taken aback, saying that her going would not only kill her, but would bring him even greater misfortune.She told him to take courage, saying that she would be able to do something when she found three nuts on her mother's grave.She mounted her horse and walked into the forest.She had just ridden a little when the devil came and said, "Peter's horse and dogs have come, but Peter himself has not come."

Suddenly, she heard a terrible voice from a distance asking her what she wanted to do.

"I've come to get Peter's contract back," she said.

As soon as the words were finished, the devil roared and said, "Go back and tell Peter that he will taste twice as much whip as usual when he comes tomorrow."

The queen now took out a nut, opened it, and turned the horse's head.As soon as she turned around, the woods behind her suddenly burst into flames, and the demon roared, and they were driven back to their lair.

The next day, at the same time, the queen rode into the forest again, and this time the demons dared not come near her.But they also refused to hand over the contract, only threatening her and Peter.Then the queen cracked the second nut, and it seemed as if the whole forest was on fire behind her, and the demons howled more terribly than on the previous day, but they still refused to hand over the contract.

Now, the queen has only the last nut left, but even so, she is ready to make a last effort to save the man.This time, as soon as she walked into the place where the demons haunted, she quickly cracked the nuts. She didn't know what happened, but heard a series of mournful wailing. Finally, the demons hung the contract on a long branch on, and handed it over to her.The queen rode joyfully back to the cabin, and the man, who had been restless at home, was more than happy now, and he was henceforth free from the power of the demon.

At this time, King Snake came back from the battlefield, and as soon as he got back to the palace, he asked the queen where she was and her little dog.The servants are very strange, they do not know what a puppy is.They said that the queen bore two handsome princes, but the king ordered them to be burned.

When the king heard this, he was sad and angry, and his face was pale. He immediately ordered his servants to find his most trusted courtier. The king ordered him to take good care of the queen and the puppy.But the courtier showed the king the letter that said he would burn the queen and the child to death. Now, everyone understood that someone was instigating it.

The king's most trusted courtier saw the king's grief, so he confessed to the king that he saved the queen and the prince, but burned a sheep and two lambs, and hid the queen and the prince in the palace for three years. The king was going back to the palace, he let them go, and they went into the forest.When the King heard this, he was no longer distressed, and said that he would go all over the forest to find his wife and children.If he can find them, he will come back, if he can't find them, he will not come back, let this loyal minister who saved the queen and the prince be king.

So, the king walked into the vast forest alone and searched everywhere. He walked for a whole day, but he didn't see a single person.It was the same on the second day, but on the third day, he walked around and came to the cabin.He went in and begged his master to let him rest on the bench.The queen and the princes were there, but she was so poorly dressed that the king did not recognize her.He also didn't think that the two children in rough animal skin clothes were his sons.

He was so tired that he lay down on the bench and soon fell asleep.The bench was narrow, and after he fell asleep, his arms hung down and rested on the side of the bench.

"Son, go and put up your father's arm," said the queen to one of the princes, who knew him at once, but was afraid that he would recognize her.The little boy walked over, but he was only a child, and he didn't know how to be gentle. He slapped the king's arm heavily on the bench.

The king was startled awake, and at first he thought he might be in a den of thieves, but he resolved not to make a sound, and pretended to be asleep, to see what was the matter with the house.He lay still for a while longer, with no one moving in the room, and dropped his arms again.Then he heard a woman's voice say, "Son, go and get your father's arms up on the bench, but don't be rude like your brother." Lifting his arms, he opened his eyes and saw his queen and child.

He sat up all of a sudden, hugged the mother and child, and then took them, together with the man, his horse and dog, happily back to the palace.The entire palace and even the whole country were filled with joy.The wicked stepmother was burned to death.

The Snake King and his Queen lived happily for a long time, and some say they would still be living happily there if they had not died.

(End of this chapter)