At the time when this story happened, there were still kings in every country, who sired many sons to ensure succession.
But in the kingdom next to the village of Bells, the old ruler had only one daughter, and she was a very strange creature.
From an early age, he was only happy in his wildlife garden, surrounded by his favourite animals. He even chose his friends according to who liked animals and who didn't, and only really liked those who could surprise him with something special, something he didn't know yet.
At the age of eighteen, she was put up for sale, but she did not take any of her suitors seriously, she was still only interested in her wild garden, and none of her suitors could win her favour.
His father soon became fed up with the fact that one of his offspring refused to marry, and he waited in vain for a grandchild. So he made it known throughout the country that he would give his daughter's hand in marriage, and with it the throne, to the man who would give the eccentric child an extraordinary gift that would make him a "lamb" himself, and make him willing to marry.
The royal court was filled with young men of all ranks and positions, bringing with them a wide variety of creatures. Apart from the dragon, which was already in danger of extinction and therefore protected, all sorts of crying, bellowing, noisy, screeching, running, crawling and crawling animals flooded the courtyard, but none of their owners was fit for the princess.
The most cunning bachelor in a distant village heard about the competition and, to achieve his goal, devised a special joke.
In the woods, he caught a bear cub, then lured a giraffe away from its mother deer with tender grass, and finally went out to the lake and caught a big, fat pike.
He glued goose feather wings to the teddy bear, made a roller under the little giraffe's hooves, and attached a tiny ladder to the bottom of the potyka's belly.
He put the animals on a cart, hid them under a tarpaulin and brought them to the king. He asked, despite his humble origins, to be given the opportunity to try to please the princess. The king just nodded and said, "Go ahead," but he was not very confident of success.
The ingenious lad was brought before the princess, who immediately asked him where he was from. The lad told her that he was from the Land of the Furies.
Word followed word, and the lad respectfully invited the princess for a walk in the nearby shady forest, saying he wanted to give her his gifts, but as he did not want to take the animals he had brought with him out of their natural environment, he would show them to her during the walk.
As they pushed deeper into the thicket, the silence of the foliage was suddenly broken by a plaintive growl. "Excuse me, princess, but my first gift is still a baby, learning to fly, and I see it stuck on a branch, and I think it needs my help. She climbed up the tree and gently lowered the bear cub from the low branch, which, after a few ducks with its glued wings, fell to the ground unharmed, just in front of them.
The princess covered her mouth in amazement, and said only: wow, I've never seen anything like it!
They went on. Then the boy suddenly pulled the princess away, saying, "Look, here comes your second present, a little gida," but he was afraid it would gallop so fast in front of them that it might knock them over.
The princess, seeing the deer speeding on its rollers, could not help but stare, and expressed her surprise: such a creature does not even grow in my wild garden!
As they continued their walk, at one point they heard a desperate cackling sound. Soon they reached the source of the noise, a small lake of mirror water. At the edge of the round pond, on the bank of the water, the third gift, a fat potyka, was gawping and flapping, with a small ladder attached to its belly. 'Oh poor thing, he must be struggling,' said the lad, 'because he can't climb back into the water on his own. Let me help him. He quickly slid the fish back into the water with the little ladder.
The princess, seeing the ruse, and understanding the intentions of the well-behaved lad, who was otherwise very well disposed towards her, began to laugh aloud. Wow, what special animals you have there in Fartland! - he said with a smile. 'I'll accept your gifts, leave me these wonders.
And - he added, as an aside - you can stay if you want, we'll look after them together from now on.
At his nod of assent, she threw her arms around his neck, kissed him, and they marched hand in hand to the king to ask his blessing on their marriage.
Of course, the bear cub has since "flown away", the giraffe has grown up and "rolled away", and the potyka is "crawling" in other waters, but the cunning lad and the capricious princess have lived together ever since, spending their peaceful weekdays in unearthly happiness and harmony.
