Crimson Fairy Book

Chapter 40 Prince Vivian and Princess Placida

Chapter 40 Prince Vivian and Princess Placida (2)
The prince felt that these new black slaves looked almost exactly the same as the six who had just left. Echoes before the gloomy temple.The black slaves took the prince's arm, not so much as supporting him respectfully, but rather because they were afraid that he would lose his temper and rush to the front of the line in two or three steps.Step by step they walked slowly up the steps in front of the temple, and the prince felt that his long wait was finally over.Quite the opposite.The black slaves slowly put on a black robe for the prince, similar in style to their own, and then they led the prince into the temple hall.Here, the prince was forced to watch them perform various tedious and lengthy ceremonies.How could he stand such a hot-tempered personality, and he got tired of it after a while.He was yawning incessantly and looking very unseemly, but fortunately no one noticed him.He stared listlessly at the black veil hanging before him, and when it was suddenly drawn the prince could hardly believe his eyes—he saw a very large black bird perched on a long tree that ran through the temple. On the hardcore, this must be the legendary Black Bird Immortal.Seeing the appearance of the black bird fairy, all the black slaves knelt on the ground, not daring to raise their heads.The Great Blackbird flapped its huge wings three times, and then said clearly in a language that Prince Vivian could understand:
"Prince, your only chance of happiness rests with that which is most contrary to your nature."

After speaking, the curtain fell down.The black slaves performed many more rituals, and then solemnly presented the prince with a crow, which perched on the prince's wrist.They guided the prince slowly out of the iron gate and handed him over to the first group of black slaves.At this time the crow flew away, and a huge bat flapped its wings and landed on the prince's head naturally.Then the prince was led again to the marble tub.And so the whole process started again.The difference is that this time the black slaves let him stand in the deep water area, and the water level will drop inch by inch every day.Seven days later the black slaves escorted the prince to the outer gate, and bid him farewell with great respect and kindness.He also absent-mindedly returned the salute, and as soon as the door opened, he immediately ran away.He ran forward with all his strength, all he wanted was to get as far away from this dreary ghostly place as possible, and he was afraid that the black slaves would not let him go, and then he invited him in to listen to the oracle of the black bird fairy.He regretted why he broke into here so rashly in the first place.After all his troubles, he only heard a boring oracle that didn't tell him anything.He thought about it for about five seconds, reflecting on the stupid thing he had done, and concluded that sometimes you have to think before you do something.

After several days of walking, he was tired and hungry, but at last he managed to get out of the forest and came to the bank of a wide and swift river.He walked down the river bank, hoping to find a way across.As the sun rose the next morning, he saw something gleaming in the middle of the channel.Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a large white boat.It was definitely the most beautiful ship the Prince had ever seen.At this time, beside the big ship, a small boat sailed straight to the river bank and stopped not far from him.Suddenly a strong impulse rose in the prince's heart, and he really wanted to go on the big ship to have a look, so he shouted loudly, trying to attract the attention of the crew, but no one responded.

He jumped into the skiff, and without much difficulty rowed it towards the ship.The boat is made of white paper and is as light as a leaf.After he climbed into the big boat, he found that the big boat was also made of white paper.There was no one on board, but there was a comfortable little bed in the cabin, and there were many good things to eat and drink.So the prince decided to stay here and enjoy himself for a while, until something new happened.The prince received a good education in the country of King Gridelin since he was a child, and of course he also knew how to sail.But just after he pulled the anchor, the big ship was like a kite with a broken string, going down the current at a fast speed. Before the prince could figure out his position, he found that his ship had drifted into the sea.Although the prince was alert and tried his best to drive the boat back into the river, he couldn't fight against the wind and current. After a while, the land behind him completely disappeared on the sea level, and the prince had no choice but to give up in despair.He remembered that when he was a child, the adults had warned him countless times not to play in the water, but it was too late to regret it now.All he could do was complain in vain about why he didn't stay on shore, hating the ship, the sea, and everything sailing.What made him even more desperate was that he found that he had come to the center of the calm ocean. This was the time to test one's patience the most.You can imagine how Prince Vivian is feeling right now!He even wished that he was still in the castle of the Blackbird Daxian, at least he could see some living creatures there, instead of being trapped alone on a white paper boat like this, and he couldn't think of any way to leave this haunting place. A cage of extreme boredom.

After many days, he finally saw land.He couldn't wait to get out of the boat, so he quickly rushed to the side of the boat, intending to jump into the sea right here and swim to the shore at a faster speed.But his attempt was in vain, for no matter how far he jumped, he would end up on the deck.He had no choice but to accept his fate.With all his patience, he waited until the sea wind and tide slowly sent the boat into a natural harbor surrounded by land.

There is a dense forest on the shore, and some tall trees even grow on the waterline.This beautiful scene made Prince Vivian, who had been imprisoned at sea for many days, very excited. He jumped off the boat lightly, ran happily, and lost his way in the dense forest after a while.After walking for a long way, he stopped by a clean spring, and was going to lie down on the mossy ground beside the spring to rest for a while.At this moment, there was a sudden rustling sound from the bushes not far away, and then a beautiful little antelope jumped out of it. It fell down beside the prince exhaustedly, and said out of breath:
"Oh! Vivian, save me!"

Greatly shocked, the Prince jumped up at once, and drew his sword just in time when a gigantic lion rushed up before them.He fought the lion bravely, and finally hit the lion hard with a beautiful blow.The lion fell to the ground with a bang, and barely supported itself on its front paws. It let out three long howls, which made the whole forest buzz, and its howls could be heard ten miles away.Then the lion fell on the ground and died.The Prince paid no more attention to the Lion and his howling.He went back to the duiker and said:

"It's done! Are you satisfied now? Now that you can talk, please tell me what's going on and how did you know my name?"

"Oh! I must rest a long time before I tell you these things," replied the Gazelle, "though I doubt you will have time to listen, for the matter is far from over. As a matter of fact..."

She went on in the same slow, listless tone: "You'd better look behind you now."

Immediately the prince turned round, and to his horror he saw a tall giant striding towards him, growling as he went:

"I want to know, who made my lion howl?"

"It is I," replied the Prince boldly, "but I assure you, it will never bark like that again."

The giant howled loudly: "Alas! my poor little thing, my dear little pet!" he growled, "but at least I can avenge your death!"

As he spoke, the giant rushed towards Prince Vivian wielding a giant python wrapped around his arm.The prince did not lose his composure, he aimed at the boa constrictor and slashed at it, but just as he touched the snake, the snake turned into a giant, and the giant turned into a snake, such a rapid change dazzled the prince .This happened at least six or seven times, but in the end he was lucky enough to cut the snake in two, then grabbed the half of the giant python, and hit the giant on the nose with all his strength.The giant fell unconscious on the lion's back.At this time, a drum of black smoke suddenly rolled up in the flat ground, covering the prince's sight.When the black smoke cleared, the giants, pythons and lions were all gone.

The Prince, before he had time to sheath his sword, ran back to the Gazelle, and cried:
"Now you've spent so much time recuperating, and you don't have to be afraid of anything anymore.

Tell me who you are, and what have you to do with that hideous giant and his lion and boa constrictor, for God's sake, tell me! "

"I would like to tell you," replied the Gazelle, "but what's the hurry? I want you to go back to Castle Green with me, but I don't want to walk, it's too far away, and it's too tiring to walk."

"Let us set off at once," said the Prince sharply, "or I shall indeed leave you here alone. Aren't you ashamed if a young and lively antelope like you cannot walk a few steps? The farther the castle is from here, the faster we should go. But since you don't like to hurry like that, I promise you that we can walk slowly and chat while walking."

"Nevertheless, I still want you to carry me," she said sweetly, "but I don't like to be in a dilemma, so it's better like this: you hug me, and then let that snail carry you." Said Then, she lazily raised a small hoof, pointing at what Prince Vivien thought was a rock.The prince took a closer look and found that it was a huge snail.

"What! Let me ride a snail!" screamed the prince. "Don't be joking, we won't get there in a year on this thing."

"Oh! don't ride then," said the duiker. "I'd love to stay here. The grass is so green and the water so clear. But if I were you, I'd take that advice and ride that A snail."

So the Prince, despite his reluctance, climbed onto the snail's back with the duiker in his arms, and they set off.The snail crawled forward slowly, crawled... The prince kept tapping its back with his heels, urging it to crawl faster.The duiker protested to him, saying that she just liked the slow walk, and that the snail was by far the most comfortable mode of transportation for her.Prince Vivian was so angry that he was going crazy. He felt that if they walked at this speed, they would never reach the Green Castle in their lifetime.They got there at last, though, and everyone in the castle ran out to watch the Prince jump off his unique mount.

At the little antelope's request, the prince put her down gently.The instant her feet touched the steps, she suddenly turned into a beautiful princess.What shocked the prince even more was that he found that the beautiful princess was actually his cousin——Princess Placida!The princess saluted him with all her usual dignity.Prince Vivien was overjoyed, and he followed the princess into the castle, impatient to know what happened to her and why she came here.But now he must wait—for the inhabitants of Green Land, when they heard that the Giant was dead, volunteered to give their king's seat to the hero who slew the Giant.Prince Vivienne had to be patient and listen to their spouts of praise for his feat.It took him a lot of time, although he often interrupted their speeches to keep them as short as politely allowed.At last he was free to return to Princess Placida, who immediately told the story of her journey.

"After you were gone," she said, "they made me learn how to run the country, and I was so weary that I asked the Fairy Lolotti to take me away from there, and though she was very reluctant, she did so. At her request, I was transferred to her cave with my favorite sofa. There I spent a few days in comfort, listening to the buzzing of bees and the rustling of waterfalls, bathed in a soft green light. —that light, like the zelkova in spring, calms my mind. But alas! One day the Fairy Lolotti was compelled to go to a fair of fairies, and when she came back she told me very despondently, that she had treated me Her doting cost her dearly, and she was reprimanded severely at the Fairy Convention, and they ordered her to hand me over immediately to Fairy Murifitch - who has taken care of you and she was commended at the fairies for her good supervision of you."

"Properly supervised, yes," interrupted the Prince, "if I owe her all the adventures I've had along the way! Go on with your story, cousin. I'll tell you my story when you're done. , and then you judge for yourself."

"I was very sorry to see Lolotti cry," continued the princess, "but I saw at once that being sad is a troublesome thing, so I thought I should calm down. Soon the Fairy Merifitch came. She rode Holding a huge unicorn, she stood at the cave entrance and ordered Lolotti to hand me over to her. Lolotti cried even more bitterly and kept kissing me, but she dared not refuse Merifitch's order. They put me on the back of the unicorn, and sat me behind Murifitch. Then the fairy Merifitch said to me, 'Hold on tight, little girl, if you don't want to break your neck.'" I clung to it with all my might, but her hideous mount was going so fast and so furiously that I almost suffocated.Finally we stopped at a large farm.The farmer and his wife ran over as soon as they saw the fairy and helped us off the unicorn.In fact, the real identity of the farmer couple is a king and queen. They are being punished by the fairies because of their ignorance and laziness.You know I was dying of weariness, but Fairy Merifitch told me to feed her unicorns at once.To accomplish this task, I had to climb a long ladder and unload 24 bales of hay one by one from a hayloft.I've never had such a tiring job!Thinking about it now, I can't help but shiver.But that's not all, I still have to carry the twenty-four bales to the stable.After all this was done, I thought I could go to sleep in my crib without incident, but, oh my god, not yet!First I had to make the bed, for it was a mess; then I had to make her bed for the Fairy, and tuck her and draw the curtains, and do many things for her that I would never do.I was not allowed to go to bed until I was exhausted.I had never undressed myself and didn't know how, so I just lay down with my clothes on.Unfortunately the Fairy found this out, and I had hardly fallen asleep when she woke me up.Even so, I evaded her vigilance and only took off the outer robe.Let me tell you so!I've found that many times, 'obey' is the best answer.People will always be scolded often, 'obedience' will save some trouble.

"The Fairy Murifitch woke me up early next morning. She made me walk a long way to the stables, so that I could report back to her how her unicorn was sleeping and eating. How much grass, and to tell her what time it is, and what the weather is like outside... I was too slow, and the task was done badly. Before the fairy left, she called the king and queen, and said to them: 'I am very satisfied with your performance this year. If you want to go back to your country, continue to work hard on the farm, and remember to help me take care of this little princess and teach her to be a useful person. I hope I will come back Her bad habits were corrected by then. Or else—' She gave us a meaningful look, then mounted the nasty unicorn, and quickly disappeared. Then the king and queen turned , Ask me what I will do.

(End of this chapter)

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