orange fairy book

Chapter 24 White Deer (2)

In a few days the princess's carriage was ready, it was made of green velvet, and was decorated with golden flowers on the outside, and inside was a silver damask, and was decorated with pink roses.Of course, the carriage had no windows and was airtight, but the Tulip Fairy managed to let a soft light inside the carriage, but no one knew where the light came from.

The carriage was sent directly to the hall of the Marble Palace. There were four seats in the carriage. The princess entered first, followed by her faithful bridesmaid Eglandy, and her maid Sheriste entered third. After seeing the portrait of the prince, he also fell in love with him, so he was very jealous of the princess.The fourth place in the carriage was reserved for Cherister's mother, whom the queen had sent to look after the three young girls.

At this time, we should talk about the fiancée who was betrayed by the prince——Princess Nila, whose adoptive mother is the spring fairy.Because the prince betrayed Princess Nila, the spring fairy was very angry, so she was always looking for opportunities to take revenge on Princess Mengmeng.Now, when Princess Mengmeng was out on the road, the Spring Water Fairy sat incognito next to Sherlist, instilling some bad thoughts into the minds of Sherrist and her mother.

They had to pass through many dense forests along the way. Whenever there was no moon and stars at night, the attendants would open the carriage to let them breathe.After a few days like this, until twelve hours away from the destination, Sherlist cut a hole in the carriage with a sharp knife. Because the forest was dark, no one saw her doing it. , but when they came out of the forest into a field, the sun came up—and Princess Mengmeng saw the sun for the first time since she was born.

She raised her head in surprise and looked at the dazzling sunlight coming in from the hole, and let out a sigh that seemed to come from the bottom of her heart.At this moment, the door of the carriage opened automatically as if possessed, and the princess jumped out of the carriage in the form of a white stag, and disappeared into the forest in the blink of an eye.Her bridesmaid jumped out of the carriage and chased her in the direction where she disappeared.

Sheliste and her mother looked at each other in mixed surprise and joy, hardly believing their good fortune that things had turned out just as they had hoped.What they wanted to do at this time was to mend the hole they had cut just now to destroy their criminal evidence, and to their surprise again, the original hole could no longer be found, because the spring fairy cast a spell to restore the carriage to its original state. As it is.Sherist hurriedly took off her clothes, then put on the princess's dress, and put the princess's diamond tiara on her head.Her mother lied to her attendants and said, "Just now there was an evil white stag that possessed Eglandi. Don't waste time waiting for her to come back. We must continue on our way and send the princess to the prince as soon as possible."

The attendants didn't know that the white deer was the princess, and they all thought that the princess was still in the carriage, so they let the carriage continue to the destination as instructed.At the gate of the city, the carriage stopped, because the king sent a guard of honor to meet and guard the bride.Although Sherist and her mother couldn't see anything outside, they could clearly hear the cheers of the roadside crowd.

Finally, the carriage stopped in an underground hall, which was specially prepared by Picasig to receive the princess, where the chief attendants of the royal family and the Minister of Rituals were waiting.The fake princess came out of the carriage and walked into this magnificent hall. The ministers bowed deeply to her and said that they were ordered to inform His Highness when the princess arrived, because the etiquette in the palace was strict and the prince was not allowed to visit the underground hall in person. So the prince waited anxiously in his room.

When the minister came to the prince's room, he pretended to be repairing a bow. As soon as he heard the minister report that the princess was coming, he immediately put down the bow and shouted: "She has come at last! How, am I right?" ? Is she a miracle of beauty and elegance? Is there no one in the world who can match her?" The two ministers looked at each other but did not answer.Finally, the chief aide, who was the bolder of the two, said:

"Your Highness, as for her beauty, you can judge for yourself. There is no doubt that she is as you said. However, as far as it is now, the fatigue of the journey seems to have damaged her beauty, which is natural."

Of course, this was not the answer the prince was expecting.Is the picture exaggerated?He had heard of such things before, and at the thought, he shivered.He finally calmed down, and without asking any other questions, he just said:

"Does the king know that the princess has arrived?"

"Yes, Your Highness, and he may well have been there."

"Then I will go too," said the prince.

The prince was weak after his long illness, so two ministers helped him down the stairs to the underground hall.He had just entered the hall door when he heard a cry from the king, who was surprised and disgusted the moment he saw Sherist.

"We have been deceived!" cried the king, and the prince was too frightened to speak.But Celeste's mother was already mentally prepared, and she stepped forward calmly and took out the letter that the king and queen had given her.

She pretended not to see or hear anything, and said, "This is Princess Mengmeng. It is my honor to read the letter from the king and queen here, and to give you the princess' jewelry box."

The king didn't move or answer, and the prince, with the help of Picasig, approached the fake princess little by little. He hoped that he was deceived by his own eyes.However, the more he looked at it, the more he agreed with his father's opinion—they were deceived, and the woman in front of him was not at all similar to the portrait.Sherist was too tall, the princess's skirt didn't reach her ankles, and she was so thin that she could be seen through the clothes, besides, her nose was aquiline and her teeth were black and ugly.

Now the prince also froze there motionless.After a while, he finally spoke, but he spoke to his father, not to the woman who came from afar to marry him.

"We've been lied to," he said, "and it's going to kill me." Then he fell on Picasig.Picasig was afraid that he would faint on the ground, so he quickly helped him to lie down.All eyes were on the prince, and it took him several minutes to wake up.

At this time, Sherist's mother started talking again: "Oh, dear princess, why did we leave the house?" She cried and said, "Wait until we tell your father how they treated you, your father I will definitely avenge your insult."

"I will tell him myself," replied the king angrily. "He promised me a miraculously beautiful princess, but instead he sent me a skeleton! No wonder he hid her for fifteen years and dared not Let the world see." He turned to the guards and said, "Take them both away and put them in prison, and I will investigate this matter carefully." The guards immediately carried out the king's order.

The prince wept aloud over his sad fate, and was sent back to his bed where he remained in a high fever for the next few days.Later, he slowly regained his strength, but he was still very sad. He couldn't bear to see strange faces, and he didn't even want to go to the court ceremony that he was supposed to attend.

Unbeknownst to the king, or to anyone but Picasig, the prince had a plan to flee the palace as soon as he recovered and spend the rest of his life alone in a deserted place.Weeks passed, and his frail body hadn't fully recovered, but he couldn't wait to implement his plan.On a beautiful night full of stars, he sneaked out of the palace accompanied by Picasig.When the king woke up the next day, he found a letter next to his bed. It was the prince saying goodbye to him, but the letter did not say where the prince was going.The king cried sadly after seeing it. He loved the prince very much, but he also knew that maybe the prince was right to do so. He believed that time and Picasig's consolation would make the prince give up wandering and return to his homeland sooner or later.

What happened to the white stag during this time?The moment she jumped out of the carriage, she knew that cruel fate had transformed her into some kind of animal, but she didn't know what it was until she ran to the stream and saw her reflection in the water.

"Is that really me, Princess Mengmeng?" She cried and said to herself, "Which vicious fairy did this to me? Will I never be able to return to my original form? In this world full of lions and poisonous snakes In the big forest, I must not live long."

The Tulip Fairy felt very sorry for the tragic fate of the princess, as if something happened to her own child.She loves Princess Mengmeng so much that she can't bear to let her suffer too much alone and helplessly, so she secretly guides the bridesmaid Egland to find the white deer.When Eglandy saw the white deer, it was grazing.

The lovely white deer raised his head at the sound of footsteps, and as soon as he saw her faithful bridesmaid, he ran towards her, rubbing his head on her shoulder.At first, Eglandy didn't know that it was the princess, so she felt very strange, but because she liked animals, she patted the white deer lightly and talked to her gently all the time.Suddenly, the beautiful white deer looked up at Eglandy's face, and tears streamed from her eyes.At this moment, Eglandy suddenly understood, so she knelt down at the feet of the white deer, cupped each foot of the white deer to kiss, and she shouted: "Oh, my princess! My dear princess!" The deer rubbed its head against her again. Although the evil fairy deprived her of the ability to speak, she could not deprive her of her reason.

The two of them cuddled together all day, and Egland was hungry, and the white deer took her to the forest to pick pears and peaches to eat.But when the night was about to fall, Eglanda began to worry. This was the first time the princess had spent the night in the forest, and she was afraid that wild beasts would come and hurt the princess.

Eglandy asked the white deer, "Are there no houses or caves here?" But the white deer just shook his head, and they both sat down, crying out of fear.

The Tulip Fairy sympathized with their situation, so she quickly flew to them to help them.

She said to the white deer: "I can't completely break the spell, because the spring fairy has more magic power than me, but I can reduce your pain. Although you are a white deer during the day, you will return to your original appearance after dark. "

When Princess Mengmeng thought that she would return to her original form soon, to be exact, she would be able to return to her original form as soon as it got dark, she was so happy that she jumped up and down on the grass excitedly.

"Go along this road ahead of you," continued the Tulip Fairy, looking at her with a smile, "and you will come to a hut where you can spend the night." Then she disappeared.Bailu and Eglandi were extremely happy, they never expected to be happy again in such a situation.

The white deer walked briskly beside Eglandi. When they approached the hut, an old woman was standing at the door of the hut.

"Good evening!" said Eglandy to the old woman, "will you let me and my white stag stay here for the night?"

The old woman replied, "Of course." So the old woman led them into a room with two white beds, which were clean and comfortable. The white deer looked at Egland and nodded, and Egland thanked her happily. Granny.

The old woman closed the door and went out.Soon the sun went down below the horizon, and at this moment, the princess changed back into the form of a girl.

She cried and said, "Oh, Agrante! If you hadn't followed me then, I don't know what would happen now." As she spoke, she threw herself into Agrante's arms excitedly.

(End of this chapter)