yellow-green fairy tale book

Chapter 2 Blue Parrot (1)
In a piece of land in Arabia, there are dense palm trees and fragrant flowers. People who have traveled long distances under the scorching sun will forget the fatigue of the journey.It is ruled by a handsome young king named Lino.He grew up under the wise rule of his father.His father had died not so long ago, and Lino, though only nineteen, did not think, like other young men, that changing all the old laws was the only way to show off his intelligence.On the contrary, he is quite satisfied with all the old laws, because these laws make people's lives happy and happy, and make the country prosperous and strong.The only thing that makes the subjects feel sorry is that although they always hope that he can get married as soon as possible, he himself does not seem to be in any hurry about this matter.

The ruler of the neighboring country is the Swan Fairy.She had an only daughter, Princess Hermosa, whose beauty was comparable to that of King Lino.The swan fairy has a permanent messenger in the court of the Kingdom of Lino. When he heard the subjects of King Lino complain that King Lino did not want to marry a wife at all, this kind-hearted person was determined to facilitate the marriage.He said: "If there is anyone in this world who is worthy of Princess Hermosa, it is undoubtedly Lino, so I will try to match them no matter what."

Of course, it is obviously inappropriate to directly mention the marriage of the princess.The main problem is that King Lino has no intention of getting married so far. How can the king have this idea and propose to the princess of his kingdom?But this messenger is very capable in this regard.He knew that Lino liked the art of painting, so he and Lino had a few conversations about the art of painting, and then the conversation led to portraiture.He pretended to be casual and mentioned that someone recently painted a portrait of the princess of their kingdom, which was very good. "But it depends on whether the painting looks like it or not," he thought, "that painting is not as good as this small portrait painted a year ago."

King Lino took the portrait and looked at it carefully.

"Ah," he sighed, "this painting is too exaggerated! It is impossible to have such a beautiful woman in the world."

"You will not believe it if you see it with your own eyes," replied the messenger.

King Lino said nothing, but everything was as expected by the envoy, and the next morning, King Lino sent someone to summon him to the palace.

Before the door of the palace was closed, King Lino couldn't wait to say: "Ever since you showed me that portrait, the beauty of the princess has never been erased from my mind. I tell you, I will send an envoy to the palace of the Swan Fairy to propose to her daughter."

"You also know that I can't make decisions on behalf of my master on such an important matter." The messenger stroked his beard to hide his inner joy, "But I think she will be very happy with your proposal."

"If that's the case," said the king with a smile on his face, "then there will be no messengers. I will go by myself, and you will go with me. I will be ready in three days, and we can set off .”

Unfortunately, Lino's kingdom has another neighbor - Lion Island, whose king is a powerful magician named Ismano.He has an extremely ugly daughter, but in his opinion she is a peerless beauty, and her name is Rickette.Ricket also fell in love with a man because of a portrait of that man, the man was none other than King Lino.She asked her father to let King Lino be her husband.Ismano has always believed that no man in the world is worthy of his precious daughter. Just when he was about to send his prime minister to meet King Lino, he heard that Lino had already got up and went to the palace of the swan fairy up.Ricket was very sad when she heard the news, and she asked her father to stop the marriage, and her father Ismano agreed to her request.He recruited a very ugly hunchbacked dwarf, the name of this hunchbacked dwarf was Rabo.Ismano uttered a few incantations, and the two of them soon came to a rocky valley that King Lino and his entourage must pass through.Ismano took out a magic handkerchief when he heard the sound of hoofbeats approaching from afar.This magic handkerchief instantly makes anyone who touches it invisible.Eastmano gave one end of the handkerchief to Rabo, and pulled the other end himself. The two men searched in the cavalry, and no one could see them, but they couldn't find King Lino at all.This is actually not surprising at all. King Lino was very tired after a few days of excitement, coupled with the fatigue of the journey, so he ordered the carriage full of gifts for the princess to go first, while he himself and a few friends Rest under a palm tree.They were sound asleep when Eastmano found them.He cast a spell to keep them asleep, and none of them would wake unless he told them to.He also stripped King Lino of all his clothes and put Rabo's on him.Then he touched Labo with his ring, and said:

"Become Lino until you wed the swan nymph's daughter."

The magical power of the magician is so powerful that even Rabo is convinced that he has become a real king!
When Labo, who was eager to be a groom, disappeared from sight on Lino's horse, Eastmano woke Lino up.Lino looked at his dirty clothes in amazement. Before he had time to look at himself, the magician wrapped him in a cloud and took him to see his daughter.

At this moment, Rabo also caught up with King Lino's team, but they never expected that the king in front of them was not their real master.

"I'm hungry," said Rabo. "Give me something to eat."

"At the command of Your Majesty," said the steward, "even the tent has not been set up, and it will take at least an hour before dinner is ready. We think..."

"Who taught you to think?" interrupted the False King Rabo roughly. "You're nothing but a fool! Bring me some horse meat at once, it's the best meat in the world."

The butler couldn't believe his ears.King Lino, the most polite man in the world, should talk like that to his loyal squire, and eat horseflesh!He has always been so particular about his food, usually mainly eating fruit and cakes.

Alas, alas, people sometimes become really unpredictable.Well, it's better to obey the order immediately, otherwise there is a danger of losing your head.Maybe he was dazzled by love, and if so, he might return to normal slowly.

The old servants thought up all kinds of reasons to explain the king's behavior, and when they reached the capital city of the Swan Fairy, he had eaten all their horses, and they could only walk to the palace.Those who greeted King Lino outside the city gate tried their best to conceal their surprise, and led him into the palace on foot, thinking that the king liked to walk.Soon they saw the Swan Fairy and her daughter waiting on the low balcony, and King Lino stopped at the bottom of the balcony.

"Madame," said he, "you may be surprised that I have come to propose to your daughter with such informality, but it was a long journey, and I was very hungry, so I ate the horse. It was the best food in the world." Meat!

I also ordered my men to eat their horses.But anyway, I am a great king, and I want to be your son-in-law.That's it. Where's Hermosa? "

"Your Majesty," although the swan fairy was very surprised and puzzled by King Lino's words and deeds, which were completely beyond her expectations, she still did not show any displeasure, "You have my daughter's Portrait, if you don't recognize her at once, then she must not have made any impression on you."

"I don't remember any portraits," Rabo replied, "maybe it's in my pocket." As he spoke, he rummaged through his pockets, and the maids standing by looked at him in surprise, but of course he didn't have anything turn up.At last he turned to the princess who was standing there flushed with shame and anger, and said:

"If it were you I came here to marry, I think you are very handsome. I'm sure if I had seen your picture, I should remember it. Let's get married as soon as possible; but I think first Go get some sleep, your country is very different from mine, and let me tell you the truth, after walking for so many days in a place with so many stones and sand, anyone needs a rest."

After speaking, without waiting for the other party to answer, he ordered a boy servant to take him to his room.Soon, there was a very loud snoring sound from that room, so loud that it could be heard from the other side of the city.As soon as he was gone, the poor princess threw herself into her mother's arms and burst into tears.For fifteen days she had kept before her the portrait of King Lino, and the letter from the messenger.She kept the letter in her pocket all the time, and the young man whom the messenger spoke of was so handsome and charming.Indeed, the portrait was drawn very realistically, exactly like himself, but how could such a handsome appearance contain such a rough soul?Even so, she might be able to forgive him if he showed some admiration for her like the others she had grown accustomed to.As for her mother, the poor swan fairy, was so bewildered by the odd behavior of the future son-in-law that she could scarcely speak a word.

It was in this situation that King Lino's steward asked to see Her Majesty alone.When the others had withdrawn and they were alone, the steward told her that he feared that his master might have suddenly gone mad, or else was under the spell of some magician.

"I was very surprised before, and I didn't know what to do," he said, "but now he can't recognize the princess, and the portrait of the princess. He always carried it with him and never left it, but now he lost it." Yes, I am really surprised. Ma'am, his humility is well-known in our kingdom, how could he become like this now, perhaps your immortal skills can discover the reason for this." After finishing speaking, he He bowed deeply and left.

The queen stood there and fell into deep thought.Suddenly, the gloom on her face disappeared, she walked into a secret room, came to an old cabinet, and took out a small mirror.From this mirror, she could see the truth of what she wanted to see, and what she wanted to see most at this moment was what happened to King Lino.

what!The butler was right.It was not her son-in-law who was lying in bed snoring so loudly that the whole palace shook.Her real son-in-law was the man in dirty clothes, imprisoned in Ismano's strongest cell, kissing Hermosa's portrait.The portrait escaped the magician's eyes because the young king tied it in the middle of his hair to hide it.The swan fairy hurriedly called her daughter to watch with her. Hermosa looked at Lino with joy, and his behavior was just as she hoped.At this moment, the cell door opened, and Ricket, who was very ugly, walked in. From her raised eyes, it could be seen that she seemed to be begging Lino for something, but Lino refused.Of course Hermosa and her mother couldn't hear them, but from Ricket's furious expression as he left, it wasn't hard to guess what was going on.But at this moment, another scene appeared in the mirror. Ricket was furious because she was rejected by the king, and she ordered four strong men to beat Lino severely until Lino was beaten unconscious.Looking at all this, Hermosa was so frightened that the mirror dropped. If her mother hadn't supported her, she would have fallen to the ground.

"Don't be afraid, my child," said the Swan Fairy. "If we are to save the King from those wicked men, we must use all our wits. First, we must know that the man who took his name and Who is the person on the outside?"

She picked up the mirror, thinking of looking at the false groom, and there appeared in the mirror the image of a dirty groom in groom's clothes, lying on the bed used to receive distinguished guests.

(End of this chapter)