Lilac Fairy Book

Chapter 11 The Brave King (2)
"Be careful," replied the Queen, "he will not greet you with a smile as he has done on previous occasions. He will be very rough, and will ask you in a huff if you have got the sword. You will answer that you have Arrive, he wants to know how you got it, at which point you have to answer that if it weren't for the knob, you wouldn't have got it at all. Then he'll look up at the knob, and you've got to use the sword Go and stab the mole on the right side of his neck, but be careful, if you don't hit the mole with the point of your sword, you and I will die. He is the brother of the king of the oak window, and he is absolutely sure that the king has been killed by you. Kill it, or the sword will not fall into your hands." After she finished speaking, she kissed him and wished him a good journey.

"Have you got that sword yet?" Kruel Gage asked when they met in that old place.

"Got it."

"How did you get it?"

"If it hadn't been for the knob on the sword, I should not have been able to get it," replied the King.

"Show me the sword." Krul Gage stepped forward curiously and said.In a flash the king drew his sword back from under his nose and struck at the mole, and Krulgezi rolled to the ground.

"Now at last I have peace," thought the King.However, he was wrong. When he got home, he found that the servants were all tied together back to back, and their mouths were tied with cloth, so that they could not speak.He hastily untied them, and asked them who had treated them so viciously.

"Not long after you left, a giant came. You saw it, made us like that, and took your wife and the two horses away," said the servant.

"I must get my wife and the two horses back, or I will sleep and eat," he answered.Having said that, he stopped talking, noticed the horseshoe prints on the grass, and walked along the hoof prints. When night fell, he came to a forest.

"I'll spend the night here," he said to himself, "but I'll make a fire." So he picked up the dead branches that were scattered about, and rubbed two against each other, until at last a fire was kindled, Then sat down by the fire.

The dead branches crackled in the fire, and the flames rose, and a thin yellow dog emerged from the bushes, and laid his head on the king's knee, while the king stroked the dog's head gently.

"Woo, woo," said the dog, "it was a miserable time last night when the giant drove your wife and your two horses through the forest!"

"That is why I have come," replied the King.Suddenly, he seemed to lose heart and felt that he could no longer go on.

"I can't beat that giant," he cried, looking pale at the dog. "I'm so frightened. Let me go home."

"No, don't do that," replied the dog, "eat and sleep, and I will take care of you." So the King ate something, lay down, and slept until the sun came up. Come.

"You must be on your way," said the dog. "If you are in danger, call me, and I will help you."

"Good-bye, then," replied the king, "I will not forget your promise." Then he walked on and on, until at last he came to the foot of a high cliff full of dead branches.

"It's getting dark," he thought, "and I'm going to light a fire and rest." So he built a fire.When the bonfire was kindled, the gray eagle that lived on the gray cliff flew to a big branch over his head.

"It was a miserable time for your wife and your two horses to follow the Giant through here!" said the Eagle.

"I am afraid I shall never find them," replied the King, "and I may go through all kinds of dangers and find nothing."

"Oh, cheer up," replied the eagle, "things are never as bad as you think. Eat and sleep, and I will watch over you." The king did as the eagle bid, and the second In the morning he regained his courage.

"Good-bye," said the bird, "call me if you are in danger, and I will help you."

He kept walking, walking, and at dusk, he came to the bank of a big river with dead branches scattered on the bank.

"I'm going to make a fire," he thought.So he lit a fire.Soon, a sleek brown head poked out from the river, looking at him, behind the head was a long body.

"It was a miserable time when your wife and your two horses crossed the river last night!" said the otter.

"I have looked for them everywhere, but have not found them," replied the king. "I have suffered, and I may well find nothing."

"Don't be so depressed," replied the Otter, "you will see your wife before noon to-morrow. Eat and sleep, and I will watch over you." So the King did as the Otter commanded.When the sun came up the next day, he woke up and saw the otter lying on the bank.

"Good-bye," said the otter loudly, as he jumped into the water, "if you are in danger, call me, and I will help you."

The king walked for several hours and came to the top of a high cliff.The cliff was cracked in a massive earthquake.He lay on the ground and looked down the cliff.Just below the cliff, he saw his wife and the two horses.His heart was pounding, and all his worries were gone, but he had to bear it, because the rock was so smooth all around that not even the goat could find a foothold.So he got up again, and made his way through the woods.He climbed through the bushes, climbed over the rocks, forded the stream, and finally came to the flat ground again, not far from the mouth of the cave.

When he entered the cave, the wife let out a cry of joy, and then suddenly burst into tears, because she was tired and afraid.The husband didn't understand why she was crying, he was tired and hurt all over when he went down the mountain, and he was also a little angry.

"Is this the regrettable way you welcome me?" he grumbled. "I'm dying to come to you."

"Leave him alone," said the two horses to the tearful woman, "bring him to us, he'll be safe here, and give him something to eat, he's worn out." She did so. up.He ate something and rested.Presently a long shadow fell over them, and their hearts beat with terror, for they knew that the Giant was back.

"I smell a stranger," cried the Giant, as he entered, but it was dark in the cave, and he did not see the King crouching between the horse's legs.

"Strangers? My God! Not to mention strangers, even the sun has never visited here!" The king's wife walked towards the giant, stroking his big hand hanging beside him and smiling happily.

"Ah, I didn't find anything, really," he replied, "but it's kind of weird. Well, it's time to feed the horses." He took down a large load of hay from a stone trellis, and handed each horse a Go for a handful.The two horses went forward, leaving the king behind.As soon as the giant's two hands approached the horse's mouth, they were snapped by the horse and began to chew. The giant's groans and screams could be heard a mile away.Then the two horses kicked him in circles around him until they could no longer kick.At last the giant crawled away, and lay trembling in a corner.The queen came up to him.

"Poor fellow! Poor fellow!" she said. "The horse seems to have gone mad. It looks terrible."

"If my soul was in me, they would have kicked me to death," the troll groaned.

"You are very lucky," replied the queen, "tell me, where is your soul? I will take care of it."

"Up there, in that balaiqi stone." The troll replied, pointing to the rock that was hanging precariously on the edge of a cliff. "Now leave me and let me sleep for a while. Way to go."

The snoring soon came from the corner where the troll lay.Then the queen and the two horses also lay down, and the king hid among them, so that no one could see him.

Before daybreak the troll got up and went out, and the queen ran to the balaiqi stone at once, and pulled and pushed as hard as she could, until it was firmly seated on the ledge, and would never fall over again. until it falls.At night, when the troll came back, the stone was still there.When they saw his shadow, the King crouched down before the two horses.

"Ah, what have you done with that balaik stone?" asked the troll.

"I was afraid it would fall and break with your soul that you put in it," said the Queen, "so I put it in the ledge a little."

"My soul isn't there," he answered, "it's on the threshold. Well, it's time to feed the horse." He fetched hay and fed it to the horse, which bit and kicked him as before until it kicked him. until he lay half dead on the ground.

The next morning, when he got up and went out, the queen ran to the threshold of the cave, washed the stones that made the threshold clean, and pulled out the moss and small flowers that hid in the cracks.Soon, as evening fell, the Giant returned home.

"You cleaned the threshold," he said.

"Since your soul is on the threshold, what can I do wrong?" asked the Queen.

"My soul is not in the threshold," replied the giant. "There is a stone under the threshold, and under the stone is a sheep, and in the belly of the sheep is a duck, and in the belly of the duck is an egg, and my soul is in that." It's getting late and I've got to feed the horse." He got the horse hay, and the horse bit and kicked him as before, and kicked him on the spot if his soul had taken possession of him. died.

When the Giant got up and went out, the sky was still very dark.Then the King and Queen ran to raise the threshold, while the two horses looked on.indeed!There was a stone slab under the threshold, as the trolls had said, and they pushed and pulled until the stone was removed.Then something jumped out of nowhere, almost knocking them to the ground.When it fled in front of them, they saw that it was a sheep.

"If only the thin yellow dog in that green wood was here, and he would have caught the sheep in no time," cried the King.Before the words were finished, the thin yellow dog ran out of the forest with the sheep in its mouth.With one blow from the king, the sheep fell to the ground and died.When they opened the body, they didn't expect a duck to fly out, and the duck's wings made them dizzy.

"If only the gray eagle that lived on the cliff was here, and he would catch the duck in no time," cried the King.Before they finished speaking, they saw the gray-white eagle hovering above their heads with a duck in its beak.With one swing of the king's sword, the duck's head was severed, and the egg was taken from its carcass.The king was so proud that he accidentally missed the egg, and the egg slipped from his hand, rolled down the hillside, and fell into the river.

"If only the brown otter in the river was here, and he would get the egg up soon," cried the king.Immediately afterwards, the brown otter appeared in front of them, dripping with water, with the egg in its mouth.Beside the brown otter, a huge shadow moved stealthily--the shadow of a giant.

The king stared at the giant as if he had been turned into stone.The queen snatched the egg from the otter's mouth, and smashed it to pieces with her hands.Then suddenly the shadow crouched still, and they knew the giant was dead, because they had found his soul.

The next day they rode the two horses home.Along the way, they called on their friends, the brown otter, the gray eagle, and the skinny yellow dog.

(End of this chapter)