Lilac Fairy Book

Chapter 34 The Magical Deer (1)
One day, a young man in Ireland walked out of his house with a fat cart horse.He thought of his mother and how poor they had been since his father, a fisherman, had drowned in the sea.He wondered what he could do to keep the two of them afloat.Suddenly a hand was on his shoulder, and a voice said to him, "Will you sell me the horse, Fisherman's son?" He looked up and saw a man standing in the road.The man had a gun in his hand, a falcon perched on his shoulder, and a dog by his side.

"What are you going to give for my horse?" asked the boy. "Would you like to have a shotgun, a hound, and a falcon?"

"I'd trade them for it," the man replied.He took the horse, and the young man took the gun, the dog, and the falcon, and took them home.When his mother heard that he had done such a thing, she was very angry and beat him with a stick in her hand.

"This is the lesson I taught you to sell my property!" she said.Her arms were tired from the beatings, but her son, Ian, didn't say a word, and went to bed after the beating, in unbearable pain.

At night, he got up quietly, and left home with a gun. "I don't want to stay here and be beaten," he thought to himself, and he walked and walked until next morning.Hungry now, he looked around to see if he could find something to eat.There was a farmhouse not far away, so he walked over and knocked on the door.The farmer and his wife invited him in to have breakfast with them.

"Oh, you have a gun," said the farmer, seeing the young man put the gun in the corner of the house, "that's very nice. A deer comes every night to steal my wheat, and I can't catch it .It must be the god of fate who sent you to me."

"I'd be happy to stay and help you shoot that deer," replied the young man.That night, he hid and waited, and finally the deer came to the wheat field.So he raised the gun to his shoulder, and was about to pull the trigger, when, lo and behold!What stood there was not a deer, but a woman with long black hair.

Seeing this scene, he was so shocked that he almost dropped the gun from his hand, and then looked again, but it was a deer eating wheat again.This happened three times, and at last the deer ran off into the wilderness, and the young man ran after her.

They ran and ran, and at last they came to a hut made of heather.With a light leap, the deer jumped onto the roof and lay down where no one could see her.When it was over, she called, "Go into the house, Fisherman's son, and eat and drink to your heart's content." So he went into the house, and found food and wine on the table, but there was no one there, for it was several The house of the robbers, who are out there doing their wicked things.

Ian, the fisherman's son, hid behind a large barrel after eating what he wanted.Presently he heard many people passing through the heather, and the sound of the heather's slender branches snapping under their feet.From the dark corner where he hid, Ian could see what was going on in the room.He counted them, and there were 24 of them in total, and all of them were tall, powerful men with fierce appearance.

"Someone has eaten our supper," they cried, "and there is not enough left for us."

"It was stolen by the man lying under that barrel," replied their leader. "Go and kill him, and then eat and sleep. We must leave here early tomorrow morning."

So four of them went and killed the fisherman's son, and then left him and went to sleep.

At sunrise they all went out, for they had a long way to go.When their figures were gone, the deer jumped down from the roof to where the dead man lay, and shook his head over him.Earwax fell out of her ears, and Ian was alive and kicking like ever.

"Trust me, eat as much as before, and you won't get hurt," she said.So Ian ate and drank again, and then lay down under the bucket and fell asleep.In the evening the thieves came back, very weary, and more irritable than on the first day, for their luck had run out, and they returned almost empty-handed.

"Someone has eaten our dinner again," they shouted.

"The man lying under the barrel did it," the leader replied. "The four of you killed him in the past. Before you killed him, you killed the four of you last night. They pretended to kill him. But there is none at all, because he is still alive and well."

So Ian was killed again.After the rest of the robbers had had their supper, they all lay down and slept till dawn.

As soon as the sun shone on their faces, they got up and left.Then, the deer came in and shook the dead man's earwax off, and he was alive and well as before.No matter what happens now, he doesn't worry anymore, he is convinced that the deer will take care of him.That night, what had happened before happened again—the four robbers were put to death, and the fisherman's son was also killed. Since all the food was eaten, the robbers were almost mad with anger, and began to quarrel.Gradually, the quarrel turned into a melee.The fighting was fierce, and before long all the robbers were lying dead straight on the floor.

Then the deer came in, revived the fisherman's son again, and bade him follow her.She ran non-stop to a white hut.In the house lived an old woman and her thin, dark son.

"I have to leave you here," said Kako. "You meet me in that church over there at noon tomorrow." Then she jumped over a stream and disappeared into a wood.

The next day he set out for the church, but the old woman who lived in the cottage went ahead of him and stuck a magic wand called the "Nail of Harming" in the door in a crack above.Thus, as he stepped over the threshold, he brushed past it.He suddenly felt very sleepy, he couldn't even stand upright, fell to the ground and fell asleep, not knowing that the dark-skinned boy was watching him.Nothing could wake him, not even the sweetest music, nor the other girl who bent over him and gave him a nudge.Seeing that it was useless to push him, she had a sad expression on her face.At last she gave up, took his arm, and wrote her name on it—"The King's Daughter of the City Under the Sea."

"I'll come back tomorrow." Although he couldn't hear her, she whispered, and left sadly.

Later, when he woke up, the skinny, dark boy told him what had happened to him, and he was very sad.But the black boy didn't tell him the name written under his arm.

The next morning, the fisherman's son came to church again and made up his mind that no matter what happened, he would never fall asleep again.When he entered the door, in his haste, he touched the "Nail of Harm" again.He passed out where he stood, and fell asleep again.Again the beautiful music rang through the air, and the girl came in quietly, laid his head on her knees, and combed his hair with a golden comb, but still he did not open his eyes.Weeping, she put a beautifully crafted box into his pocket, and left.

The next day, the same thing happened to the fisherman's son.This time, the young lady cried more than before, because she said that this was her last chance, that she could not come any more, and that she must go home.

As soon as the girl left, the fisherman's son woke up.The black boy told him that the girl had come to see him, and that he would never see her again in his life.Hearing this, the fisherman's son felt a chill in his heart, but he knew it was not his fault, it was his sleepiness that bothered him.

"I'll search all over the world until I find her," he cried.Hearing his words, the black boy laughed mockingly.The fisherman's son ignored it and set off, chasing the sun day after day.In the end, the long journey had worn holes in his shoes and made his feet ache.But he saw nothing but birds nesting in the trees, not even a goat or a hare.He walked and walked, and finally came to a small house, and a woman was standing outside the house.

(End of this chapter)