orange fairy book

Chapter 28 Frog Fairy and Lion Spirit (1)

Once upon a time there was a king who was a benevolent and kind man who was content with his own country and never wanted to plunder the territories of other countries.But strangely enough, he was always forced to go to war with his neighbors, perhaps because he took so much pains to please everyone that he often ended up with no one.

After a hard fight, he was defeated, forced back within the walls of his capital, and began to prepare for a protracted siege, and the first thing he did was to think of the best way to put the The queen was sent to a safe place.On the edge of the great forest, about two hundred miles away, the king had built a spare castle, where he intended for the queen to escape the siege of the enemy.

The queen loves her husband deeply and is willing to stay with the king to face the danger, but the king refuses, so they can only bid farewell with tears.Protected by a powerful escort, the Queen set off.On the way she hardly stopped weeping, and when she got to the castle she wept even more, for everything in the castle was dusty and old, and there was nothing but gravel in the courtyard outside.Moreover, for her safety, the king has an order that she must be accompanied by at least two soldiers before leaving the castle.

The queen married the king just a few months ago. She used to walk and ride horses alone in the mountains in her own house, and she didn't want anyone to follow her. So she felt very boring being locked up like this, but it was the king's order after all. , So she endured it for a long time.After a while, the war did not come to the castle, so the queen became more courageous, and sometimes she would go out of the castle and walk towards the forest.

After a while, the situation became a little dire, because there was no news from the king at all.

After all, the poor queen was only 16 years old, and it was difficult for her to face the situation calmly. She thought: "It seems that he is either sick or dead. I can't take it anymore. If I don't get any more letters from him, I won't be able to bear it anymore." I'm going to leave this nasty place and go back to see how he's doing. Oh! I shouldn't have left him in the first place!"

She told no one of her plan, but ordered her servants to make a carriage, which was so small and low that it could only hold one person.

She said to the attendants beside her: "I'm tired of staying in the castle all the time, I want to go hunting, of course, it's nearby." Seeing the anxious expressions of the attendants, she added: "Of course, Come with me."

That put a look of joy on everyone's faces, because, to tell the truth, the Pages were as bored as the Queen.So the queen finally got her wish, and she chose two beautiful horses from the stables to pull the little carriage.At first, the queen was very cautious and did not stay away from the attendants who accompanied her to hunt, but after a few days, she gradually began to stay away from the attendants, and the time of staying away became longer and longer.At last, one morning, while all her attendants were running after a wild boar, she took a road in the opposite direction herself.

The queen wished to return to the king's palace, but unfortunately the road did not lead there, but she feared that her servants would soon find her gone, so she galloped away as far as she could go.

When the poor young queen found herself strayed deep into the woods, she was terrified, and in a panic dropped the reins, and clung to the sides of the chariot.And the two runaway horses lost control and rushed towards a big tree as if they were blind. The queen was thrown out of the carriage and fell to the ground, unconscious.

After an unknown amount of time, the queen heard a "rustling" sound, and opened her eyes. In front of her eyes was an unusually tall woman, almost a giantess, with only a lion's skin on her body and a dried snake for her hair. The skin is tied up, leaning on a stick with one hand, leaning against the stick, and holding a quiver full of arrows in the other hand.

When the queen saw this strange man, she thought she was dead, and she took this woman as someone from another world.So she murmured softly:

"It turns out that you will see such terrible things after you die. No wonder people are so afraid of death." Although she spoke in a low voice, the giantess still heard it, and she laughed "haha".

"Oh, don't be afraid, you are still alive. I am a lion spirit, and you will stay with me in my palace from now on. My palace is very close to here, come with me."

But the Queen drew back in fright, and begged, "Oh, Lady Lion, please take me back to my castle, and I will pay you whatever you want, and my husband will give it to you." The Lion shook his head. .

"I don't need anything," replied the Lion Spirit disdainfully, "but I often feel bored, and I thought maybe you could cheer me up." Then she turned into a lion, put the Queen on her back, and walked away. Go down ten thousand steps to the center of the earth, and stop in front of her palace.The palace was built beside a lake of mercury, and it was brightly lit by many lamps. There were all kinds of big monsters in the lake, and the queen couldn't tell whether they were playing or fighting, and there were crows flying around. Make a bleak cry.There is a mountain in the distance, and water flows slowly under the hillside-the tears of unfortunate lovers.A little nearer the gate were some trees, but they neither blossomed nor bored, and the ground was covered with nettles and brambles.

The queen thought the castle where she was imprisoned was boring, how would she feel about this place now?

For several days, the queen was often dumbfounded by what she saw and heard.

After she got used to it, the lion spirit said to her: "If you like, you can build yourself a hut, because you will live here for the rest of your life."

When the queen heard this, she wept, and begged the lion spirit to kill her, and not make her live here.But the lion spirit just smiled and said: "I advise you to think about it, there will be many worse things waiting for you in the future."

"Is there nothing you can do to change your mind?" asked the poor Queen.

The lion spirit replied, "Well, if you really want to please me, make me a pie out of bee stingers, and it must be delicious."

The Queen looked around, and said, "But I don't see a bee."

"Ah, yes, there are no bees," replied the Lion-Spirit, "seek it out for yourself," and she went away.

"Actually, what does it matter?" the queen thought to herself, "I only have one life, and the most I can lose is this life." She walked out of the palace in a daze, sat under a yew tree, and wept bitterly. .

"Oh, dear," she cried, "what will you think when you come to the Castle to fetch me and find me absent? I really would rather you think I'm dead than that I've forgotten you! Ah, it's a good thing the wrecked wagon is still in the woods, so you won't think I've been eaten by wild beasts, and you won't think I've abandoned you. If someone else takes my place in your heart... well, At least I'll never know."

At this moment, a crow's crowing above her head attracted her attention. She raised her head to see what was going on. Through the dim light, she saw a crow grabbing a frog with its claws. eat her.The Queen stood up at once, and slapped the Crow's paw so hard with the fan which hung at her waist, that the Crow had to let go of the Frog, and, disappointed and angry, flew away angrily, while the Frog fell to the ground half dead.

After regaining consciousness, the frog jumped in front of the queen, bowed deeply to the queen, and said gently:
"Beautiful lady, why did you come here? Is there any unfortunate reason? I came here out of curiosity, and you are the only kind person I have ever met here."

"You are a frog, how can you speak human language?" the queen couldn't help asking when she heard the frog speak, "but since you can speak, I beg you to tell me if I am the only prisoner here, because so far, there is no prisoner except the lake. I see no one but the monsters in it."

The frog replied: "Those monsters used to be human beings, but because they had power in their hands and used it to satisfy their selfish desires, fate sent them here for a while, so that they would be punished for their bad deeds."

"But you, dear Frog, I'm sure you're not such a villain, are you?" asked the Queen.

"I'm kind of half a fairy," answered the Frog, "though I have some powers, but I can't do what I like, and if the Lion Spirit knew I was here, she would come and kill me."

"But if you are a god, why were you almost eaten by that crow just now?"

"For the secret of my powers is kept in a little hat made of rose-leaves, but I put it away for a while, and that nasty crow caught me just at that moment. If I wore the hat I'm not afraid of anything. But I still want to thank you again, if it weren't for you, I would have escaped death just now, so if I can help you with anything, just say it."

"Ah," sighed the Queen, "the Lion Fairy ordered me to make her pies out of bee stingers, but I found there were no bees here at all. How could there be bees where there were no flowers? And, if there were, I How do you catch them?"

"Leave it to me," said the frog, "and I will take care of it for you." Then the frog blew a whistle, and stamped one foot on the ground three times, and six thousand frogs appeared in front of her at once, One of them still had a small hat in its mouth.

"Spread honey all over you, and hop near the hive," ordered the Frog, taking the little hat and putting it on her own head, and then, turning to the Queen, she said:

"The lion spirit hides the bees in a secret place, at the bottom of the ten thousand steps. She doesn't need the bees herself, but sometimes she uses them to punish sinners. Anyway, we will defeat her this time .”

As soon as she had finished speaking, the six thousand frogs came back, all covered with bees, and looked very funny, so that although the queen was very sad, she couldn't help laughing when she saw them.The bees were paralyzed by the honey from the frogs, so that they could remove their stingers with no difficulty at all.With the help of the frog, the queen quickly made a pie and took it to the lion spirit.

"There's not enough pepper," Lion King said after taking a sip. To conceal her surprise, she swallowed a few more gulps, "Well, I'll let you pass this time. Among the people I tested, you are relatively Smart, I'm glad to have you. Now, you'd better build yourself a house."

(End of this chapter)