yellow-green fairy tale book

Chapter 11 Combs and Collars (1)
Once upon a time, there was a king in the Kingdom of Lombardy. He was uglier than all his subjects, but he liked the beauty of others, so he married a woman who was recognized as the most beautiful, but privately people thought she was the most beautiful. Vicious people.Apparently, she has no tolerance for anyone more beautiful than herself, so all the girls she picks are plain looking.

To make matters worse, she was jealous of the king's ex-wife's son and daughter.

Unfortunately, despite her bad character--very bad for the prince left by the king's ex-wife, and even more tortured for the princess, the king treats her like a slave.Not only did she appoint a governess for the princess who was as bad-tempered as herself, but she also tried every means to ruin the princess's beauty and make her look very ugly.But in spite of all her efforts, her beauty was as radiant as long as the princess washed off the dreadful brown paint from her face, and changed her ugly dress.

The king of Lombardy and the Grand Duke of Placenza are cousins. The Grand Duke of Placenza suddenly lost his mind recently, which made his sons and daughters Pera Ritz and Ferrantina very sad. He recovered.So the prince and princess sent a messenger to ask a very famous witch.This witch is called "Scabbard Mother" because the cave where she lives is full of scabbards. When everyone visits her, she must bring a knife to her, and she puts the knife in the scabbard. .They got no comfort from her, however, and the witch only told them to go to the place where their father had lost his mind and get it back.After hearing what the witch said, Pera Ricci and Ferrantina rode to a mysterious castle despite the objections of the chief ministers.It was here that their father met his bad luck while sleeping.However, since they walked through the gates of the castle, they have not been heard from again.

Three weeks passed and there was still no news from them, so the Prime Minister called a meeting to discuss the matter.Finally, they decided to send a noble delegation to visit "Mother Sheath", and each person must carry a knife made of pure gold and set with various precious stones.The witch was very happy to see such a beautiful gift. She not only listened carefully to their narration, but also took out a small box and an iron collar from her cave. golden key.

"Take this hair comb and collar, and go to the palaces of various countries to find a beautiful woman who can open the collar and a kind man who can take out the comb from the cover. The two people you are looking for can come back."

"But I still don't understand," said the king's chamberlain, "what does this have to do with the prince and princess who saved us?"

"That's all I can help you with." Sheath's mother walked into the hole after she finished speaking, and no one dared to follow in.

Over the next few months, the ministers of the deranged Grand Duke of Placenza visited court after court, and finally they came to Lombardy.They found that word of their affairs had reached the country long before their arrival.As soon as they entered the drawing room, the king welcomed them with open arms.He thought from the bottom of his heart that his wife's outstanding beauty would be able to open the collar.Of course, if makeup, hair paint, and fancy dress counted as her beauty, then she could open that collar, and the King was right.But his blind love for this evil woman blinded him, and he had no idea whether she was really attractive or not.

When the appointed time came, the queen came in, accompanied by the young princess.The princess's miserable appearance is unimaginable. Her clothes are so ill-fitting that she looks like a hunchback. The originally rosy skin is covered with a thick layer of yellow. , a head of jet-black hair was also tightly hidden by a tightly hooped brown cloth hat.There was a murmur of astonishment and indignation in the hall, and the messengers, who had often heard that the princess was as beautiful as the lovely Ferrantina, were speechless in astonishment.Of course, the king was too ashamed to raise his head.He gestured to the prince to sit on the throne in his place, and hurried away.

As soon as the prince sat on the throne, he gave the order to start immediately.The collar was first handed to the Princess' governess, who was the ugliest of all women, and of course could not turn the key.The prince decided to take advantage of his brief chance at power to punish her for her mistreatment of his sister, especially as she always encouraged the queen to torture the little princess in every possible way.The prince ordered her to be dragged out to be killed, and the orders were carried out with great joy.Then he ordered the maids to take the princess back to her own chamber to have a bath, and to bring the queen's best clothes for the princess, because the princess had no decent dress herself.Although the queen was gnashing her teeth in hatred, she didn't dare to say anything.The princess will be back soon, she is so beautiful!If anyone had ever doubted that no one would be able to open the collar, they were sure to be reassured now.The prince glanced at her, said nothing, but motioned the messenger to bring the comb for everyone to try.One by one, all the men tried their best to get the comb out of the box, but all had to admit defeat.In the end, only the prince was left without trying. As the arbiter, he had to wait until the end to try.

After the men had tried it, the ladies of the palace began to try one by one according to their status, to see who could open the collar, but no one could turn the key.At last the collar was handed to the queen, and the queen managed to open a small slit, and her heart was filled with the joy of success, but then the collar closed again with a click.She sat down dejectedly, fainting with disappointment.

Now only the prince and his sister were left, and as soon as he touched the box, the comb in it popped out; and as soon as the princess took the key, the locked collar opened.The ministers and attendants cheered, but the cheers stopped immediately.At this moment, a whirlwind suddenly came, and the sky became dark all of a sudden, and then the sky shook and the earth shook.

When everything returned to calm, the sun was still shining, but the prince and princess disappeared.

Although the whirlwind only took away the king's son and daughter, unfortunately they were blown in different directions.The princess was so frightened that she fainted from the speed with which she was carried through the air as she was blown away by the wind.When she found herself falling in the forest, she was so frightened that she fainted again.She ran frantically, calling for her brother, wanting him to save her.But her yelling only attracted a pack of hungry wolves, who opened their mouths wide and stuck out their blood-red tongues, rushing towards her.She knelt on the ground, covered her face with one hand, and subconsciously clenched the collar with the other, waiting to be eaten.She could already feel the hot breath of the wolf's breath on her cheek, and she curled up in a ball of terror.However, when the wolf running in the front saw the collar in her hand, it howled and turned around and ran away, and the other wolves also ran away after it.

The princess recovered from the fright, and quickly stood up and ran, not knowing where to run, until she found herself standing on a road.Two shepherds were coming towards her with a herd of sheep, and she ran to them to ask for their help, but the sheep scattered and ran about as soon as they saw her collar.

"There must be something about me that all animals are afraid of," she thought, and it was a great comfort to her.She was full of energy along the way, and she came to the gate of an ancient city, and she wanted to go in for a night.Just then, a snow-white fox crossed the road and stopped in front of her.

This fox is so beautiful, with a pleading look in a pair of bright eyes.The princess hurriedly hid the collar in her clothes, for fear that it would run away if it saw the collar.She walked softly towards it, hoping it would go into the castle with her, but it turned and went the other way.Although the princess was very tired, she couldn't help following the fox.It turned a corner at the intersection, and squatted down in front of a small palace by the river.When she got close, it bit the corner of her clothes with its teeth, and pulled her into a room.The table in the room was full of milk and fruit. After she was full, she lay down on the mat and fell asleep, thinking about her missing brother.The fox was sleeping next to her lap.

If the princess was thinking of her brother, the prince was also thinking of his sister.He was swept by the whirlwind to the deserted seaside, and the surroundings were desolate.For several days he had spent all day on that high rock, looking out at a green island in the distance, with its swaying palms and splashing waterfalls.

"Will she be there?" said the Prince to himself.Although there was no reason why the princess should be in that place and not elsewhere, the prince was reluctant to let go of the idea.

There was a beautiful singing voice that he had never heard before in the distance, which interrupted his thoughts, and he immediately looked in the direction of the voice.However, although the singer seemed to be nearby, he could not find her no matter what.In fact, he just rushed to a place, and the singing seemed to come from another place. He followed the singing back and forth, but he couldn't find the singer, until finally he suddenly saw a big fish skin. stopped.The fish skin lay on the sand between the sea and the reef. It was so ugly that the prince turned away in disgust.At this moment, it seemed that something jumped into the sea.He looked round and saw that the skin was gone, but he found in a hole in the rock behind him an ebony tub, inlaid with gold, that glittered in the sunlight.

Days went by without any progress.Just when the prince decided to leave the coast and go inland to look for his sister, he heard the singing that fascinated him again, and saw the bloody fish skin lying on the beach, and the tub in the cave was also full. water.Before dawn he hid behind the rock, determined to wait for the fish to come out again.

Soon, when the first rays of sunlight in the morning shone on the sea, a white object appeared on the sea at the same time, drifting towards the shore under the breeze.The thing drifted closer and closer, and he finally saw it clearly. It was a very beautiful and lovely girl, sitting in a shell with three colors of blue, red, and green, holding a rope in her hand, and manipulating the shell. go ahead.

Fascinated by the maiden's beauty, the prince forgot that he was hiding, and rushed out at once.He dropped to his knees and stretched out his hands towards the magical thing.But as soon as he stretched out his hand, the comb and box fell out of his pocket.Seeing this scene, the girl screamed in fright, turned the shell and drove towards the island, and soon disappeared without a trace.The prince took off his clothes quickly, and prepared to swim in the sea to catch up with her.At this time, he saw a snow-white fox beside him, looking in the same direction, waving its front paws desperately, until a small boat floated by, the fox was very happy.

(End of this chapter)