There once lived a king. This king was called King Veres, and he had a handsome son. But he was so handsome and handsome that everyone admired him. And his father was glad of it. When the boy turned 18, he saw that his father was always sad.
He wanted to please his father. He went out to fight with the soldiers and defeated them all. He always hunted the most dangerous game. But still his father remained sad.
The prince decided to ask his father what was the reason for his great sadness. So he did.
- I see, my son, that you are a valiant man, for you can beat the best swordsmen, you can kill the most dangerous beasts. But all this I cannot be glad of, for I have a good friend, and have had a message from him for half a year. He dwells in the middle of the golden forest, in the silken reef, but he has made that fair country so dear to him by a witch that he sends his army by the thousands. She asks me to help her, but you see, I'm old now, I can't go there.
- All right, Father, I'll go.
- Yes, my son, you just don't know the way, you can't get there.
- Anyway, Father, I'm off. I'll keep going, I'll keep going, until I find your friend.
- Very well, my son, if you have decided, God help you on your way!
The boy immediately packed his bags, and when he was ready with his belongings, his father asked him:
- Have you chosen a horse?
- Yes, father, the groom is already saddling him.
- All right, my son, you've thought well, but listen to me! There's a pit at the back of the stable. We used to collect manure in it. Since I got old, I'm not fit to ride. You know what I've got hidden in that pit? My bachelor's horse. You'd better go out with it. It's true, you have to feed it first, but look, once it's full, it'll look like a foal.
The boy immediately shouts to the horseman:
- John, make some oats ! Then his father speaks:
- It doesn't need oats, son!
- What is it, Father?
- And what is that? He eats burning embers! There's about three wagons of wood in the back garden. Light it. When it turns to embers, lift the horse out of the pit and take him there, because he's so weak he can't even go that far!
They set fire to the big pile of wood. It became so hot that the whole town was warmed. When it became glowing embers, the prince took the horse out of the pit. He carried it to the big fire. Well, let's hear a miracle, the horse started to eat. When he had eaten it all, even his hair was shining. The cavaliers were amazed, and even the prince himself.
He looked up when he saw that the horse had six legs. As he stared, his father spoke:
- Now my sweet boy, go up to the attic! There are my old weapons, choose one for yourself! I'll tell you, there are shinier and shinier swords and guns, but there are some that are so rusty they look like they've been rubbed with a nice red hot pepper. I suggest you take that sword with you!
The prince brought it down, tried to pull the blade out of the scabbard, but could not.
- Well, father, I look good with this sword. They can cut off my head not only seven times, but seventy-seven times, while I can cut with this.
- Oh boy, that's not the way to pull it out! Tell him: Sword, out of the scabbard!
No sooner had the prince said it than the sword flew out. But the air was so rushing with the sword's swish that you would have thought there was some great storm.
- What should I do now, Father?
- Now say, "Sword, back!"At that moment, he hid in the sheath.
- Well, my son, so goes the sword. But then, when you hammer it out, tell him: Cut my sword!
He thanked his father for the sword and the horse. The old king had tears in his eyes.
- Why is that, my father? - asks the prince.
The old king replies:
- I will never see you again, my son.
- Of course my father can see!
They hugged, kissed, kissed each other goodbye with tears. The prince sat on the six-legged steed, and the steed flew up into the air. As if it had wings, it carried the prince towards the tower..
All of a sudden, the horse stops, descends. When his feet touch the ground, the prince is amazed. He was in a forest so beautiful that the trees were all gold. "Well," he thinks to himself, "the silk must be here somewhere." He set off on foot, leading his horse by the bridle.
He saw a nice tent in the middle of it. He tied up his horse and walked towards the tent. When he got there, he looked inside, and saw that in the middle of the tent there was an old man, dressed in grey, sleeping.
He pulls back the curtain, what does he see? A beautiful golden bed, and in the bed a girl with golden hair. He could not speak for the beauty of it. When she looked at him, she saw how handsome he was, and she loved him.
- I am yours and you are mine! The spade, the hoe, and the great bell shall separate you. - "But listen, you must be tired from your long journey, come out of here and rest in the tent.
He rested and fell asleep immediately. As he slept, the old man woke up to see a stranger in the tent. He immediately drew his sword, raised it to cut its neck.
Just when he's about to swing, he remembers, "He's got a sword, I was asleep when he came into the tent, he could have killed me. I won't hurt him, when he wakes up I'll ask him who he is." So he did, sat down and waited until the young man woke up. When he woke up, he would speak to him:
- Listen brother, answer my question! Who are you and what are you doing here?
The prince sits up from his reclining position:
- If I'm not mistaken, I'm looking for you. My father sent me to tell you that there is a silk cave in the middle of the golden forest, and that his friend lives there.
- My son, would you be the son of my friend, the King of Blood?
- Yes, I am. I'm here because my father got a message that you were in trouble, but he's old and sent me.
- It's good that you came, my son, because I've been besieged by the witch's soldiers for over a year. Have you brought your father's sword, my sword's mate? For you know, my son, no matter how many soldiers my sword cuts down, five or ten times as many will always come in its place. See that great mountain? There's the old witch, she's shedding soldiers on me. Till that be destroyed, I'll never have peace. But now it's just you and me.
Having said that, they had dinner and rested. They were up early in the morning, but they were lucky, for as the sun rose, the witch's soldiers came. They came out of the mountain as inexhaustible as water when it comes from the earth with a great spring. Out flew the two swords from their scabbards. They had their work cut the soldiers to pieces.
Towards the south they started to thin out. Then Prince Veres started towards the mountain. Ahead of him the sword cut the soldiers. When he came to the hole where the soldiers came out, he thought he would go in and see what was there. So he did. What did he see?
A loom in the middle of a large open space. There sits an old woman with a nose as big as the ground and more wrinkles in her cheeks than a hundred women's skirts. And every time this old witch threw over the cast, a whole company of soldiers would come up and give them their orders:
- Forward to the silk chalk! Kill the old bastard!
But when the squadron fell out, the sword of the prince swept, and cut off the heads of all the hundred. And the prince leaped to the old witch , and gave the command to his sword:
- Cut my sword, cut that loom, cut it!
- Oh, not that! - cried the old woman, but it was too late, the sword had cut her loom in two.
The witch immediately went up in smoke, all her strength was in that loom. Even the cave began to crackle and crackle. Just as the prince was coming out, the whole mountain gaped as if it had never been there. And what was left in its place? A silken cretin as beautiful as the other. When it was done, the grey old man called his daughter and stood her before the prince.
- Look, my son, if you love her, I will give you my daughter, and with her my whole kingdom.
And so it happened. A priest was summoned, they swore an oath, and King Veres was invited. They are still living on the silk reed, if they are not dead.
