green fairy tale book

Chapter 45 Riddles
Once upon a time there was a king's son who wanted to travel around the world, so he set out on the journey with a loyal servant.One day they came to a large forest, and it was already dark at this time, but they had not found a place to stay, and they did not know where to spend the night.Suddenly the prince saw a girl walking towards a small house. When he got closer, he found that the girl was young and beautiful.He said to her, "My dear girl, may my servant and I spend the night in this house?"

"Oh, yes," said the girl in a sad tone, "if you want to, then go ahead. But I don't advise you to go in."

"Why?" asked the prince.

The girl sighed, and replied, "My stepmother knows black magic, and she is very unfriendly to strangers."

The prince guessed at once that he had entered a witch's domain, but as it was already dark, he couldn't walk, and he was fearless, so he went into the little house.

An old woman was sitting in an arm-chair by the fire, watching them with red eyes.

"Good evening," she said hoarsely, trying to be friendly, "won't you sit down and rest?" she said, fanning the fire gently, on which a small pot was bubbling and bubbling Soak, I don't know what is cooking.The old witch's daughter quietly warned the prince and his servants to be careful not to eat or drink anything, because the soup made by the old witch was very dangerous.

So the prince and his servant went straight to bed, and slept till dawn.When the prince got on his horse and was about to go on his way, the old witch said, "Wait a minute, I'm going to treat you to a glass of farewell wine!" Then she turned and went into the house to get the wine.The prince beat his horse and went away, but the servant was busy making his saddle, and when the old witch came back, he still did not leave.

"Bring this glass to your master," she said.As soon as the words were finished, the cup shattered suddenly, and the poison in the cup was sprayed on the horse. The poor horse fell to the ground and died immediately after being poisoned by the blood-sealed throat.The servant ran, and soon overtook his master, and told him what had just happened.The servant was reluctant to part with his saddle, and ran back the same way.When he returned there, he saw a big crow standing on the horse's carcass and pecking at the horse's meat.

"Who knows if we can get better food than that?" he said to himself, and he shot the crow and took it with him.

They walked all day without leaving the forest.At dusk they came to an inn, and decided to rest here tonight.The servant handed the raven to the landlady, to have it cooked and to add to their supper.But what they didn't know was that this inn was actually a black shop, where many robbers gathered to kill and rob. The old witch in the hut also often did this kind of business.

As soon as it was dark, the twelve robbers gathered together, and they were joined by the landlady and the old witch.They intended to kill the two travelers and take their belongings.While concentrating on planning what to do, they drank the broth-the meat in the broth was the meat of the crow sent by the prince's servant.They only took one or two mouthfuls before they felt unbearable pain in their stomachs, and one by one fell to the ground in pain and died.It turned out that the old witch's poison was passed to the crow by the servant's horse, so the broth was also poisonous.So besides the prince and the servants, there was only one living person in the inn, the landlady's daughter.The landlady's daughter was a kind and good girl who had never participated in their crimes.

She opened the doors of all the warehouses, and showed the prince all the property that the robbers had looted.But the Prince wanted no money, and he left her the treasure to herself, and rode away with his servant.

After walking for a while, they came to a city where lived a very lovely but very arrogant princess.She posted a notice saying that if someone could solve a riddle and she couldn't solve it, that person would be her husband; but if the princess could solve the riddle, the person who solved the riddle would lose his head.She asked for three days to think about the answers, but she was so clever that she could always solve all the riddles in a very short time.In this way, by the time the prince arrived in the city, nine suitors had lost their heads.But the prince was deeply fascinated by her beauty, and decided to risk his life to win the princess' heart.

So he went to the princess and uttered his riddle: "There is one thing that does not kill people, but kills twelve people. What is it?"

The princess racked her brains, and she thought and thought, and she searched all the riddle books, but she could not guess what it was.At last the princess was at her wit's end, and felt that she could not come up with the answer anyway, so she ordered her maid to sneak into the prince's bedroom and eavesdrop at night, because she thought the prince might tell the answer in his dream.But the wise servant also expected this, and that night he slept in his master's bed, and when the maid slipped in, he took off her cloak, and cast her out with a whip.

The princess sent another maid the next night, but this time the servant grabbed her cloak again and drove her away.

On the third night, the prince thought he must be safe, so he slept in his own bed.At midnight, the princess herself slipped into the prince's room, wearing a gray cloak that was like smoke, and sat down beside him.She thought the prince must be asleep, so she began to trick him, hoping that he, like so many people, would tell his secrets in his sleep.But in fact, the prince has been awake all the time and knows all about the princess' tricks.

The princess asked, "What is that thing that doesn't kill people?"

"It was a crow that died after eating poisoned horse meat."

She continued, "But it killed twelve more people, so what happened?"

"Those were twelve robbers who ate the crow's flesh and died."

After hearing the answer, the princess tried to sneak away, but the prince held her cloak so tightly that she had to leave it behind and escape by herself.

The next morning the princess announced to the people that she had solved the prince's riddle.She found twelve judges and told the answer to the riddle in front of them.But the prince begged them to listen to him too.He said: "She sneaked into my room at night and asked the answer out of my mouth, otherwise she would never have guessed the answer."

"What about the evidence?" said the judges.

The servant produced three cloaks.The judges recognized the gray cloak as the one the princess used to wear.So they said, "Embroider this cloak with gold and silver thread, and it will be your wedding dress."

(End of this chapter)